Data, Data, and more Data!!

So this week in class we've spent a lot more time talking about statistics and data about all different kinds of things. This past week I got to watch a video talking about a demographic winter. One thing that caught my attention is when they were talking about the rates of fertility and how it has gone up and down over time and how that has affected the population.

One thing that kind of shocked me was my teacher, Brother Wilson, asked the class how much land would be taken up if everyone in the world had one acre of land? A majority of the class said probably the land size of Brazil. Well, we were wrong. The answer...only the size of Texas would be taken up! I know Texas is big (I've driven it!) but I didn't realize that the world's population could fit in the size of Texas if everyone owned an acre of land.

It just got me to think how important families are and how the decisions to have children are big. The decision to have a family not only just affects you but also pretty much the whole world if you really think about it! Its been interesting to study the rates of fertility through out the world and how that has changed the population over time. I know that the decision to have children is a private matter and I believe it is between the husband, wife, and God but  come on....who couldn't resist having moments like this with their children!?

"Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday."

For those of you who are fans of the Princess Bride you will get the quote above. If your not a fan or haven't seen the movie yet, I'm sorry.

Anyways, this week in class we have been talking a lot about research, studies, and marriage. In class we talked a little bit about proposition 8 and the D.O.M.A. act that President Clinton signed protecting marriage between a man and a woman. In response to these laws the American Psychological Association presented several studies stating (I'm paraphrasing now) that there are no differences from homosexual couples raising children verses married heterosexual couples raising children.

For class I had an opportunity to read a paper written by Loren Marks. Marks took the studies that the APA used and basically analyzed them. I was honestly really surprised to read what he had found. A lot of the studies that the APA used weren't even comparing homosexual couples against heterosexual families. Reading through this article helped me realize that sometimes you can't really trust statistics as much as you would like! So moral of the story is resarch is good, do it your self and get all your facts before making a statement!