WASHINGTON (CNN) — The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis.
Interesting, but more interesting is where the rest of the "torture supporters" are coming from. Recent polls (by mainstream news agencies and private groups) put the numbers approximately as follows:
42%-50% of Americans generally support "torture of terrorism suspects." 40%-43% of Americans "attend church services at least once every 7 days."
So if only ~54% (the torture supporting church goers) of 43% (all American church goers) support torture of terrorist suspects, that is ~24% (rounded up) of all America supports it. Wait a minute, that doesn't jive with many polls that say 42%-50% of Americans generally support "torture of terrorism suspects."
Where are all the "torture supporters" that are missing? Sounds like one or more of these poll collectives is WAY off OR not accounting for a large group.
Even if you give each aggregate a relatively large margin of error, something is amiss.
One last note- possibly a huge variable here is the definition of "torture" used in all these polls. No one points it out. I wonder what each "pollee" views as torture. Is it the slow painful removal of finger nails and chunks of flesh, lacerations of the eyeball, or genital electric shock? Is it mean looks and threats of repeated paper cuts? Who knows what is going on in the mind of the "informed" general public being polled. Where do they get there baseline knowledge base? To the mathematical mind, there seems to be a few variables to say the least.
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Interesting, but more interesting is where the rest of the "torture supporters" are coming from. Recent polls (by mainstream news agencies and private groups) put the numbers approximately as follows:
42%-50% of Americans generally support "torture of terrorism suspects."
40%-43% of Americans "attend church services at least once every 7 days."
So if only ~54% (the torture supporting church goers) of 43% (all American church goers) support torture of terrorist suspects, that is ~24% (rounded up) of all America supports it. Wait a minute, that doesn't jive with many polls that say 42%-50% of Americans generally support "torture of terrorism suspects."
Where are all the "torture supporters" that are missing? Sounds like one or more of these poll collectives is WAY off OR not accounting for a large group.
Even if you give each aggregate a relatively large margin of error, something is amiss.
One last note- possibly a huge variable here is the definition of "torture" used in all these polls. No one points it out. I wonder what each "pollee" views as torture. Is it the slow painful removal of finger nails and chunks of flesh, lacerations of the eyeball, or genital electric shock? Is it mean looks and threats of repeated paper cuts? Who knows what is going on in the mind of the "informed" general public being polled. Where do they get there baseline knowledge base? To the mathematical mind, there seems to be a few variables to say the least.
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