Statistics Concerning Male Altar Servers
There's been a lot of discussion on whether it is better to have male altar servers or to allow both girls and boys to serve at the altar.
Stats seen to the left: I asked for parishes that made the switch to all male altar servers what their server numbers were like before the switch and what the number of servers was about a year after the switch.
That's hard to argue with. The average parish surveyed, when switching from co-ed servers to male-only saw their server numbers grow 450%
UPDATE:
As this has spread a bit across the internet, the statisticians have come out of the woodwork. I was a math major, and so let me say, first of all, that I understand that correlation does not imply causality. I had it beat into my brain in high school and college. Correlation does not imply causality, but it certainly can SUGGEST causality, and 450% change is certainly GIGANTIC change.
Look through the comments on this thread and all you see from the "other side" is people throwing out their own theories and beliefs. It is amazing how quickly we dismiss statistics when they upset our beliefs on a subject.
Stats seen to the left: I asked for parishes that made the switch to all male altar servers what their server numbers were like before the switch and what the number of servers was about a year after the switch.
That's hard to argue with. The average parish surveyed, when switching from co-ed servers to male-only saw their server numbers grow 450%
UPDATE:
As this has spread a bit across the internet, the statisticians have come out of the woodwork. I was a math major, and so let me say, first of all, that I understand that correlation does not imply causality. I had it beat into my brain in high school and college. Correlation does not imply causality, but it certainly can SUGGEST causality, and 450% change is certainly GIGANTIC change.
Look through the comments on this thread and all you see from the "other side" is people throwing out their own theories and beliefs. It is amazing how quickly we dismiss statistics when they upset our beliefs on a subject.