Magic Statistics

Decima Research recently polled Canadians for their beliefs regarding creation and evolution.  Predictably, the news story garbles important distinctions.

Canadians may not be as religious as Americans, but a new poll suggests they are not prepared to rule out God's essential role in creation.

The Canadian Press-Decima Research survey suggests that 60 per cent of Canadians believe God had either a direct or indirect role in creating mankind, shattering the myth that Canadians had long ago put their faith strictly behind the scientific explanation for creation.

As I understand it, there is no “scientific explanation for creation”.  Science has an explanation for the development of Earth’s life forms, namely, evolution.  But there is no generally accepted scientific theory as to how life came to exist on our planet in the first place.

The poll suggests Canadians divide in essentially three groups on the issue of creation: 34 per cent of those polled said humans developed over millions of years under a process guided by God; 26 per cent said God created humans alone within the last 10,000 years or so; and 29 per cent said they believe evolution occurred with no help from God.
. . .
The belief that God had a direct or indirect role in creation was widespread among the 1,000 respondents questioned between June 21 and 24. A majority of those polled held this view in every region of the country, in rural and urban areas, and regardless of education.

And there were a few surprises: Conservatives were more likely than Liberals to say that God had no part in the process, and Alberta, regarded as the birthplace of social conservatism, had one of the lowest levels of beliefs for strict creationism at 22 per cent.

The reporter does not define “strict creationism”, but it seems to refer to the view that God created humans within the past 10,000 years.  I think that most Christians, myself included, know that view as “young-earth creationism”.  Using the term “strict creationism” to refer to “young-earth creationism” is misleading and prejudges a range of issues in this debate.

The poll is not mentioned at Decima’s website, and a search using Google news turned up only the same Canadian Press story in several newspapers.  So, we don’t know exactly what questions respondents were asked.  That would be important because the ambiguities and presumptions in the news story do not inspire much confidence in the reporting of the results.

Previous related posts:

• Decima Research ruins its own poll
• Creation is a question of reason, not faith
• The Vatican and evolution, again
• Evolution and creation are both right

It’s tourist season again in Yukon, and campers and RVs from across North America are driving our highways.  Every year brings traffic accidents.  Fortunately, no one was hurt in the mishap shown below.  (Image scanned from print edition of local newspaper.)

An RV was cruising the road towing the SUV behind when the SUV swerved a bit, caught a soft shoulder on the edge of the road surface, and flipped over.  The driver didn’t notice and dragged the SUV on its roof down the road for a spell.

That must have been a top-quality hitch to hold the two vehicles together after a 180-degree flip.

The story in the Whitehorse Star doesn’t say which road the accident occurred on; it only says it happened “six kilometres out of Stewart Crossing”.  That means it was either the Klondike Highway or Silver Trail.  Based on the photo, it looks like the latter.

Maclean's magazine reports that Canada is about to abandon the charade of constructive engagement with China over human rights issues.

For more than a decade, China has deceived and bamboozled Western governments into closed-door bilateral dialogues that have proved fruitless.  If this report is accurate, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has had enough of China's stonewalling.  The gloves are about to come off.

Shortly before Parliament rose for the summer, an all-party Commons subcommittee heard numerous witnesses variously condemn the talks as an unproductive, naive and convenient cover for further Chinese abuses. Liberal MPs have blocked release of the subcommittee's report, arguing it will poison relations between the two countries. But a copy obtained by Maclean's shows that the panel affirms in plain language what NGOs and Chinese dissidents have been saying all along. "The subcommittee concludes that the existing bilateral human rights dialogue with China has not met its objectives," it says. "Perhaps, then, it is time for a more fundamental rethinking of the purpose of government-to-government meetings and of their role in a broader Canadian policy of engaging China on human rights."

China will not like Canada’s change of policy, nor will the Liberal Party that championed constructive engagement with China, nor will Canadian capitalists and their political allies.  Expect a major dust-up over Canada's new China policy.

Kudos to Stephen Harper for putting principle above narrow economic self-interest.

h/t: Persecuted Church Weblog

Previous related posts:

• Please don’t contaminate that food you’re selling me
• North Korean escapees maltreated in China
• China initiates, then cancels, top-level meeting with Canada
• The Great Firewall of China

Chaos reigns in Zimbabwe as armed militia and price inspectors compel compliance with the price rollback ordered last week.  Enforcement efforts are arbitrary, ruthless, and often Kafkaesque.

According to state media, at least 20 businessmen have been arrested in the ongoing crackdown.

Among them was the manager of a TM supermarket branch in Harare, detained on Sunday morning when he asked price-control officials, who had arrived at the shop, to give him an hour to re-programme the tills.

He was immediately handcuffed and taken into police custody.

An accountant in the capital told the BBC News website that sometimes inspectors force shopkeepers to cut the price of just one product.

"You'll be standing in the shop, when suddenly the price for something will go down - there'll be a mad dash, a free-for-all, and it'll all be gone within seconds," she said.

Bargain-hunting shoppers have overrun shops, grabbing goods from each other’s shopping baskets as well as shelves.  Police in riot gear have been forced to control crowds at some large chain stores.  Huge crowds follow the price monitoring teams through the streets because they know that stores are forced to reduce prices in their wake.

Hoarding is also illegal, apparently.

A senator with the ruling Zanu-PF party, Siriro Majuru, was arrested for "over-pricing" and "hoarding". At his home, police discovered sugar, cooking oil, washing and soap, "and some 2kg packets of sugar hidden in a toilet", police said.

Temporary bargains notwithstanding, price controls are doomed to fail sooner rather than later.  Shortages of staple goods are becoming widespread as buyers clear the shelves and owners are unwilling or unable to restock.  Some stores are closing rather than lose money by selling at the controlled price, throwing employees out of work.  Other businesses are hiding inventory for the same reason. The black market is thriving.

Hyperinflation imposes extra expenses and other inefficiencies on everyone.

[T]hese days inflation in Zimbabwe runs at 4,500 per cent, in the government estimate, or twice that, if you believe independent economists. That means that people insist on getting paid their wages daily, that an estimate from a business for work to be done is good for only 30 minutes, and that prices on restaurant menus change from the start of the lunch hour to the end.

Banking is becoming increasingly difficult, not to say absurd.

Because of the chronic shortage of cash, employers have been told to pay staff who earn over Z$1m a month (a subsistence wage) by cheque, which means people have to open up bank accounts.
. . .
When the ATM machines work, only Z$3m ($21) can be withdrawn.

The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe estimates that the minimum subsistence income for an average family of six has risen to Z$5.5 million per month.  Millions of dollars just to keep food on the table.  That says it all.

Previous related posts:

• Price controls twisting Zimbabwe’s economy into knots
• Price rollback ordered in Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe’s latest dubious achievement: Hyperinflation