Since Hauster is a fan of statistics....

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…to show how wonderful Mormonism is and to show that more LDS follow their faith…

Pornography:
  1. Utah
Controlling for broadband access, states show remarkable similarity in their
subscription quantities, as shown in Table 2. Dividing state subscription counts by
the FCC’s Broadband Deployment quantities,** the most-subscribing state is Utah**
(where 5.47 of every 1,000 broadband households subscribed to the service at
issue)

people.hbs.edu/bedelman/papers/redlightstates.pdf

Depression:
  1. Utah
usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-28-depression-suicide-numbers_N.htm

Suicide:
  1. Utah
usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-28-depression-suicide-numbers_N.htm
 
SirThomasMore said:
…to show how wonderful Mormonism is and to show that more LDS follow their faith…

Pornography:
  1. Utah
Controlling for broadband access, states show remarkable similarity in their
subscription quantities, as shown in Table 2. Dividing state subscription counts by
the FCC’s Broadband Deployment quantities,** the most-subscribing state is Utah**
(where 5.47 of every 1,000 broadband households subscribed to the service at
issue)

people.hbs.edu/bedelman/papers/redlightstates.pdf

Depression:
  1. Utah
usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-28-depression-suicide-numbers_N.htm

Suicide:
  1. Utah
usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-28-depression-suicide-numbers_N.htm
Click to expand...
The Mormons have two kinds of responses to this. I have encountered some who say that these disappointing statistics represent the high rate of dissoluteness among non-Mormons in Utah, who, having rejected the gospel, are exceedingly hard of heart. More defensibly, some point out that internet subscriptions do not necessarily measure pornography usage or sexual immorality simply, but could be reflect a different cause, namely, that because Utah culture pressures people to conform to moral norms for social acceptance, reprobate behavior goes further underground, so that more sinners resort to porn subscriptions, which they enjoy in private, without fear of social stain.

The latter argument is more respectable than the first, but the thing that refutes it is the high rate of domestic violence in Utah. There is a strong, well-documented correlation between domestic violence and pornography in general, which points to interpreting the high rate of porn subscriptions as indicative of more porn use per se.

Of course, I can accept that the LDS Church has its sinners, as do we. They in fact have a lower rate of abortion than we do, but statistics like this do show the vacuousness of the argument from personal righteousness that Shuster and many other Mormons take for granted and treat as oh-so-definitive. This replaces meaningful, theological apologetics with mere vaunting.

I haven’t read Shuster’s book yet, because I only found out about it when he started posting here. I have it on order right now. Does anyone know if he cites disappointment with the morals of Catholics as crucial to his abandonment of Catholicism?
 
soren1 said:
The Mormons have two kinds of responses to this. I have encountered some who say that these disappointing statistics represent the high rate of dissoluteness among non-Mormons in Utah, who, having rejected the gospel, are exceedingly hard of heart. More defensibly, some point out that internet subscriptions do not necessarily measure pornography usage or sexual immorality simply, but could be reflect a different cause, namely, that because Utah culture pressures people to conform to moral norms for social acceptance, reprobate behavior goes further underground, so that more sinners resort to porn subscriptions, which they enjoy in private, without fear of social stain.

The latter argument is more respectable than the first, but the thing that refutes it is the high rate of domestic violence in Utah. There is a strong, well-documented correlation between domestic violence and pornography in general, which points to interpreting the high rate of porn subscriptions as indicative of more porn use per se.

Of course, I can accept that the LDS Church has its sinners, as do we. They in fact have a lower rate of abortion than we do, but statistics like this do show the vacuousness of the argument from personal righteousness that Shuster and many other Mormons take for granted and treat as oh-so-definitive. This replaces meaningful, theological apologetics with mere vaunting.

I haven’t read Shuster’s book yet, because I only found out about it when he started posting here. I have it on order right now. Does anyone know if he cites disappointment with the morals of Catholics as crucial to his abandonment of Catholicism?
Click to expand...
The problem with the first argument is that there must be a LOT of folks so disillusioned to have such high statisitcs.

As to statistics in general, I hate them. They tend to show whatever the pollster wants them to show. But, if Heuster is gonna use them to show how true thye LDS Church must be, then fine, let’s use them
 
soren1 said:
More defensibly, some point out that internet subscriptions do not necessarily measure pornography usage or sexual immorality simply, but could be reflect a different cause, namely, that because Utah culture pressures people to conform to moral norms for social acceptance, reprobate behavior goes further underground, so that more sinners resort to porn subscriptions, which they enjoy in private, without fear of social stain.
Click to expand...
What I find interesting is the fact that it is the usage of pay sites.
 
RebeccaJ said:
What I find interesting is the fact that it is the usage of pay sites.
Click to expand...
Pay sites are probably the most measurable indicator. Perhaps no statistics are available for free sites? I would imagine however, that the pay sites are a good indicator of what the total usage is, on the assumption that there is a constant rate, so that for every person who pays a subscription there is a roughly constant number of users who do not. Of course, this is not a certain premise, as the second argument I mentioned above points out. I imagine, though, because internet transactions leave definite records, that the statistic itself is reliable, even if it might be rationally interpreted in different ways…
 
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