Ken Ham's Math Problems Solved!

It appears that my confusion in Part I has to do with Mr. Ham's poor wording--and/or my inability to read properly--and not his math:

5% of those who are now 20-29 and at one point in life attended church regularly, stopped doing so before elementary/middle school. (Hence Ham's stated 95%)

40% of those who are now 20-29 and at one point in life attended church regularly, stopped doing so before high school. (Hence Ham's 55%... 100% - [5% + 40%])

Since 11% of those who are now 20-29 and at one point in life attended church regularly but now longer do so, were still attending church regularly during college. This complete shift in focus totally threw me for a loop. But, 55% - 11% = 44%, so 44% of those who are 20-29 and no longer attend church regularly, stopped before college.

Thus, based on Ham's wording, we must assume that this last 11% left during or sometime after college.

So, despite being incredibly unclear in my mind, his math does check out.


In Part 2, it turns out that I was the one who made the serious error. I rightly assumed that they should have been percentages, but my mistake was to assume that these two percentages from mutually-exclusive groups necessitated that adding them together should come to 100%. This was not the case. Rather, 34.3% of Group A agreed, 69.7% of Group B also agreed, 28.9% of Group C... and so on.


Thank you all for helping me figure this out! As frustrating as it is for me to learn that my math skillz truly are completely dull, I am happy to know that the numbers--when untangled from what I perceive as poor wording--do come out correctly.


As for Ham's conclusions, assumptions and ideas... well... I'll get to that at some point.

I am happy to report that the last chapter contained no math which confused me. ...mostly, I'm sure, because the last chapter had no math whatsoever. Had I been confused then, well, more than just my math skillz would be missing...

<smile>

Thank you, again, to those who set me straight. I appreciate you taking the time to correct my thinking.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Confused by Ken Ham Math 2

Let's say I have a sample size of 1,000 individuals. These individuals can easily be sorted into various groups. So, I ask them a question, say, "Do you understand how to label your values?"

This is how many people answered yes:

Those who passed Algebra with an A - 34.3
Those who failed - 69.7

Those who plan to retake Algebra - 28.9
Those who will never touch a math text again - 78.3


...I decided to do a little simple addition:
34.3 + 69.7 = 104.0
28.9 + 78.3 = 107.2

So, I ask you--since Ken Ham and his number crunching buddy and his editor couldn't be bothered to check his numbers or give me a label of what kind of number I'm looking at--what does it mean that 107.2 of my 1,000 said yes?

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Confused by Ken Ham Math

Help me out, friends! I used to be good at math, but I've since lost all of my skillz. Let's say I give you this:

Of all the 20 to 29-year-old people who were virgins but no longer are so:

• 95% were virgins during elementary and middle school years
• 55% were virgins during high school
• 11% were still virgins during college

I would be horribly mistaken to say that "11 percent of those who lost their virginity did so during their college years." I would also be completely misreading my data to say, "Almost 90 percent of them lost their virginity in middle school and high school. By the time they got to college their virginity was already gone!" Further, I'd be remiss to state that "about 40 percent are losing their virginity during their elementary and middle school years!"

Why?

Reasoning (equations I'm using in my head):

100% of all virgins
-95% virgins during elementary and middle school
----
5% lost during that time period


95% virgin prior to high school
-55% virgin during high school
----
40% lost during that time period

55% virgin prior to college
-11% virgin during college
----
44% lost during that time period


Right?


So... can someone please explain what Ken Ham is doing on page 31 of "Already Gone"?

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father