By: The Baron
Imagine, if you will, you are flipping two coins in the air.
Each individual coin has a 50% chance of landing heads or tails—most people older than six know this—but what are the chances of getting an equal number of heads and tails when flipping both coins?
With two coins, you have four possibilities: HH, TT, HT, or TH—therefore the probability of getting exactly one head and one tail is also 50%.
Expand the scenario to four coins being flipped in the air, and the probabilities change. Each coin still has an equal chance of being heads or tails, but the probability of getting exactly two heads and two tails is now only 38.7% (6 out of 16 possible combinations).
In other words, it’s now much more likely you’re NOT going to get an equal amount of heads and tails when you flip, even though statistically 2H and 2T will still be the most common individual result among all specific values of X heads and Y tails.
(Yes, I’m going somewhere with this…be patient)
By: Belladonna
According to sociologist James Henslin, "Religion in the United States is stratified by social class....some religious groups are "top-heavy," and others are "bottom heavy"....Americans who change their social class also have a tendency to change their religion." (p 534-535)
A chart is given that shows the following ranking of faiths by social class with corresponding numbers for family income, educational level and occupational prestige:
By: The Baron
Welcome to the “Waters of Mormon”—one of the newest voices in the world of LDS blogging, often termed the “Bloggernacle”.
Oftentimes, the average member’s first impression upon hearing about and visiting the Bloggernacle is negative: (‘Why, it’s just a bunch of cynical, liberal members with one foot already out the door of the Church who gripe and whine about their bishops and Relief Society presidents, constantly criticize the Brethren, and present lame justifications for why they don’t follow this or that commandment anymore…‘)
In reality…well, okay, there’s some of that going on, but this vast oversimplification fails to recognize the full (and positive) picture that the Bloggernacle as a whole represents.
As part of the “Waters of Mormon” kick-off, let’s look at what purpose and benefit LDS blogging and online discussion brings to the Church and its members as a whole.
By: Belladonna
I had a discussion recently with a pal about "the purpose of life." We were talking about the concept of this mortal existence being a test of sorts, to see how we will live when having to get by on trial-and-error and hearsay, having no memory of ever having lived in the direct presence of God. We kept circling around and around with two main questions: How can we be held responsible for covenants made in the pre-existence or some particular celestial plan if we were deliberately prevented from remembering them? Also - if God is as omniscient as folks say, what's the point of a test? Doesn't He know the outcome already?