19 Apr '05 12:36>
Given how the Catholic Church and the Pope seem to get blamed for condemning millions to death by AIDS in Africa because of its/his opposition to condom use, I decided to do a simple piece of analysis.
I took the Adult Rate of AIDS by country from this website
http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm
and looked at the statistical correlation with % Catholics from this site
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/sc1.html
The correlation came out at a statistically insignificant -3% (easily done using Excel - you're free to check for yourself). Prima facie, I would have to conclude that the whole blaming of the Church thing is really unfounded.
I would love to know your views on this. If there's any way you think I can improve my analysis, I would love to know that as well. If anyone has statistics that indicate otherwise, this would be a good thread to post it in.
I remember reading somewhere (I'll look up the link once I get home - if someone knows where, could you post it here?) that the correlation was more significantly negative once one added the Anglican/Episcopelian communities as well.
I took the Adult Rate of AIDS by country from this website
http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm
and looked at the statistical correlation with % Catholics from this site
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/sc1.html
The correlation came out at a statistically insignificant -3% (easily done using Excel - you're free to check for yourself). Prima facie, I would have to conclude that the whole blaming of the Church thing is really unfounded.
I would love to know your views on this. If there's any way you think I can improve my analysis, I would love to know that as well. If anyone has statistics that indicate otherwise, this would be a good thread to post it in.
I remember reading somewhere (I'll look up the link once I get home - if someone knows where, could you post it here?) that the correlation was more significantly negative once one added the Anglican/Episcopelian communities as well.