Today we link to a recent essay by Professor John Brignell. It is well worth reading in full. Here are the first two paragraphs:
In the dark ages literacy was a secret jealously guarded by the senior clerics. It gave them power in the monopoly of handing down the written and immutable law; and, incidentally, enabled them to conceal their errors (and perversions) of interpretation. The lower clergy were only able to copy documents as arrays of symbols without intrinsic meaning, but God-given, and their errors propagated (such as confusing the Gothic long “s” with “f”).
In these days of almost universal literacy (of sorts) there is an analogy in the case of statistical literacy, though not one to be taken too far. The senior clergy understand statistics (to a patchy extent) and use or abuse them at will. The junior clergy put in numbers and extract them from computer packages, without understanding, and pass them on. The laity know their place, but are impressed.
Full Essay here: http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/statistical_bludgeon.htm
We also heartily recommend his website, books and other essays for further reading:
Website: http://www.numberwatch.co.uk
Books: ‘Sorry, Wrong Number!’ and ‘The epidemiologists’ http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/book.htm
Essays: ‘March of the zealots’ http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/zealots.htm
And finally: ‘The complete list of things that give you cancer (according to epidemiologists)’.http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/cancer%20list.htm