Over a period of years, a certain town observed that the correlation between x, the number of people attending churches, and y, the number of people in the city jail, was r = 0.90. Does going to church cause people to go to jail? Explain why or why not.

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sillybilly123 · Answer

That's a high correlation coefficient but, no, it doesn't.  It's a causation/ causality dilemma.  Sorta like "Post hoc ergo propter hoc".

The real cause of most social evil is poverty and lack of education.  You can't blame religion, or lack of religion, for criminality.  And you can't really solve/ conclude anything serious really with an R^2 test either :(

Allison · Answer

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