Tuesday, January 26, 2010
So, for the preliminary roundup—the atheists came in third place! We were ahead of twins, believers and contact sports athletes, but behind nerds and politicians, sadly. However, one of our team members, Kevin Kindred, ended up being the highest scoring individual on the show. Kudos to the man!
The results were judged entirely by average IQ results, it seems. I am particularly interested to see if I can find the margin of error for each average in the raw data (if I can obtain it). The average results were close enough to each other that I am skeptical as to their statistical significance. If the margins of error between each group overlap, it is unlikely that there is any actual significant difference. Hopefully, I will get my hands on the raw data for the groups and run it through some tests. The strictly scientifically significant results may not by quite as sensational as those a television show would hope for and have thus been omitted. Averages look so much more exciting, for comparative reasons.
Other than that, the evening was quite amazing. Before the show, the teams were seated at separate tables in the same large hall. During the three-hour wait time before the show, a few people from the atheist team, including myself, took the opportunity to walk around and introduce ourselves to the rest of the teams. The eclectic group of individuals was fascinating to talk to. Of note was Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, who quickly asserted her stance as a believer, but just as quickly made note of her daughter, who is an atheist. On the other end of the spectrum, one chat with a conservative politician ended up in a fiasco of sorts, which I was not a part of, but will link to later when I obtain Justin Trottier's take on it.
There are many Canada-wide results that I want to sift through and detail in a later post. If you would like to look through these results yourself, they are available here.
Again, I would like to express my gratitude to the CBC and Shannon McKinnon, the associate producer of the show, for the opportunity of being part of the team representing the atheists in Canada.
Here is the link to the full show for those of you who missed it:
Hey, look, I found your blog! (Read: Guess who has a Google Alert set for his own name?)
ReplyDeleteThe whole show was such a fun experience, it was cool to meet so many diverse people. (Though our team was perhaps not the most diverse: I'm told one other team nicknamed us the "Disgruntled White Males.")
Anyway, glad to have met you, and now I'll be a regular reader of your blog!
Was the conservative the one that got the pie in the face yesterday????
ReplyDeleteThat was sooooo funny.
Hello Kevin and congrats on being a genius!
RAmen
Thank you for updating the post.
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