Re: Judaism, evolution, and science in general

ey.markov@xxxxxxxxx (Yisroel Markov) writes:

> On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 20:42:05 +0000 (UTC), "Rafael"
> <jmalfatto@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
>

> >> That's not quite what I'm hearing. Certainly you can't tell the above
> >> to a black man. However, you can tell him that, absent a direct test,
> >> you are *likely* to be more intelligent than he is. That is a matter
> >> of simple statistics. Likewise, an Ashkenazi Jew can tell a white
> >> gentile the same thing - that, absent a direct test, he is *likely* to
> >> be more intelligent. (As measured by the standard IQ test, Ashkenazi
> >> Jewish scores average a full standard deviation over the rest of
> >> test-takers, and white test-takers scores average a full standard
> >> deviation over the black average.)
> >
> >See Don for comments on the relationship between IQ tests and intelligence.
>
> Don has a valid point, but it's not very relevant to this particular
> discussion. So substitute "more likely to score higher on an IQ test"
> or "less likely to suffer from sickle-cell anemia" for "likely to be
> more intelligent."
>
I'd argue that the distinction is fundemental to the discussion.
Your substitution shifts the comment from one about one's capability
to one about a person's *performance*. It's like saying women are
less likely to be *capable of* earning a living wage based upon their
innate characteristics, rather than saying a woman is less likely to
earn a living wage. The former is sexism, the latter is the fact of the
statistics

> >(Also, as cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker noted: the variation of
> >scores within these racial categories are much greater than the variation
> >between them.)
>
> Of course. How is this relevant?
>
As I understand the argument, while there may be a *statistically*
significant difference between two groups, the overall variation
within each group renders that practically insignificant. Herman
probably has a better explanation (or refutation) than do I.

--
Don Levey If knowledge is power,
Framingham, MA and power corrupts, then...
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