Re: Pamphlet Part V (fwd)

vandewat@seas.ucla.edu
Mon, 8 Jan 1996 12:05:40 -0800 (PST)

Greetings and Salutations,

Something happened to my last post. Here it is again.

> Derek writes:
> > I think that you may have made an error in assuming that Dawkins was talking
> > about the same "bridge" event on page 162 as he was on page 161.
> >
> > There is a vast difference in probability between a perfect DEAL of bridge
> > (all four players receiving 13 cards of one suite) that Dawkins refers to on
> > page 161, and a perfect HAND of bridge (one player being dealt 13 cards of
> > one suite. It is this second occurrence that Dawkins refers to on page 162.
> >
> I debated Dawkin's book with a friend of mine. When I pointed out
> > approximately 251,963,120,000 to 1, some 9 x 10**15 times MORE probable than
> > a perfect DEAL!
>
> I debated Dawkins book with an atheist friend of mine. When I pointed out
> this error, I gave him two options. I said this could be
>
> 1) A deliberate deception.
>
2) A gigantic mistake.
> He could not come up with a third alternative and we was uncomfortable
with the idea that Dawkins had attempted to deliberately misleade his
audience, so he opted for
> for choice 2). I personally believe that Dawkins carefully crafted a
> deception to mislead his audience, but I am not going to accuse him of
> lying in my pamphlet.
>
> By the way, the 251,963,120,000 to 1 number does not appear in Dawkin's
> book, nor does any distinction between hand and deal.
>
> In Christ
>
> robert van de water
> associate researcher
> UCLA
>