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If you want to study the effects of the absence of X, you want all other factors to stay mostly the same. Going into a completely different culture is not a good first step. |
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Had that khat before...wiiiiide awake |
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Teetolaters, Nonsmokers, Nonsmoking Teetolaters, NonPork... gawd this could take forever to satisfy all the control group/freak requirements. |
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Thanks for staightening out my crooked thinking. |
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Jutta- what do you mean "what about mormons?" |
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Supposedly Mormons don't partake of drugs or alcohol. That means they don't drink booze and they don't drink Coke (caffine) and they don't take asprin and they don't smoke and the women don't wear pants, only dresses and skirts; and they believe in poligamy. |
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The only problem you have now is to find a sect of either group that is strict on these beliefs. I know several Mormons that smoke, drink, wear pants, do drugs, had premarital sex, had babies out of wedlock, etc etc etc. They were the proverbial "wild child," you think of it and one of these people have probably done it. Then again, I know a few Mormons that are strict on it, so maybe the control group and the test group could be in the same sect. |
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Yeah, I know about those crazy Mormons. How do I know? *BIG SHOCKER*
I am one (gasp!). I was just wondering what she was implying.
And as for polygamy: *BIG SHOCKER PT. 2: THE QUICKENING*
They don't believe in polygamy. That's past shit. People get booted for polygamy, so next time you hear about "mormon polygamy," remember that it isn't church practice these days. |
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Wow...that is shocking. This is like the cliff-hanger season
finale episode of Halfbakery or something. Can't wait for
the season premiere. |
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I knew that poligamy wasn't in practice in my area, but I thought they still condoned it in Salt Lake City. I am sorry if I offended you [Afro], I just showed my ignorance of yet another thing. |
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It is certainly true that populations which drink no alcohol, do not smoke, do not drink caffeine, etc., etc. have statistically lower rates of diseases causatively associated with these behaviors. That's kind of the definition of "causatively associated with", and as such it's a tautology. And as such, it's uninteresting. |
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A more interesting question might be, "Can we estimate the degree to which members of a restrictive religion adhere to their religion's restrictive rules, by measuring the statistical incidence of misbehavior-related diseases in that population, and comparing it to control groups of non-users and heavy users?" Which is, IMHO, a fascinating question indeed. |
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For example, let us take the restrictive rule "Do not have premarital sex." In a control group where no members have premarital sex, there will be precisely no premarital pregnancies. In a control group where all members have premarital sex, there will be at least some premarital pregnancies. Note that use of contraceptives is a serious confound to this. If you look at any particular Christian subgroup which forbids premarital sex, you will almost certainly find a non-zero rate of premarital pregnancy. Unfortuantely, the confound of contraceptive use prevents us from determining whether the Christians in question had a small amount of unprotected sex, or a large amount of protected sex. |
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Another, and possibly better, example would be cirrhosis of the liver. It is found almost exclusively in people who are long-term drinkers of alcohol, or who have hepatitis. Since hepatitis can be tested for, and thus removed as a confound, it is possible to test for cases of cirrhosis of the liver which result almost exclusively from alcohol abuse. Comparing cirrhosis rates in Mormons and non-Mormon Utahans (word check?) would be a reasonable rate of measuring, if not strict compliance with the Mormon alcohol rules, then at least the rate of alcoholism among Mormons. |
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So that's what I'd use this idea for: to spy statistically on the moral fiber of my better-than-thou neighbors. :-) |
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word check - "Utahns." Very close. |
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I will NEVER have one wife. Either zero, or two or more. |
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The standard way of taking an accurate measurement between two or more groups is to eliminate all differences between the control group and the test group that are likely to be statistically significant. |
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I think it is a bit unfair to say "many Moslem populations use other drugs , such as opium and khat, which have their effects on the users' health" because it implies that the consumption of drugs in muslim countries is as culturally acceptable as the consumption of alcohol is in Western society, which is not the case. |
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My 'cultural misapprehension radar' is very sensitive I admit, I think maybe it was just the smell of generalisation coupled with the word moslem that set it off. |
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I agree wholeheartedly about the problem of encouraging people to admit their vices. One of my friends is a retired baker in Alexandria, he is a pillar of the community and has been to Mecca. He will never admit in public that he enjoys the odd apple soaked in whiskey. |
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Sadly the military regimes that govern most of the muslim world do not provide the ideal environment for objective (anonymous) research. |
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