"That box on the left shows a higher GPA for the Abiders (3.21) relative to the Adapters, Assenters, and Avoiders. The latter groups have GPAs that are, on average, 0.12 to 0.27 lower than the most religious kids.

Horwitz suggests that this is the case because Abiders form habits (like greater conscientiousness and cooperation) that also work well in school. She argues that her study “pushes sociologists to consider religiosity as a missing paradigm in educational inequality.”

But wait.

Where are the Atheists in that chart?

Nowhere. And we don’t learn why until we see the footnote near the end of her paper: “I do not graph the GPA for Atheists because they do not perform differently than abiders.”

Huh.

Notice that she didn’t say there weren’t enough atheists to do her study. Only that she ignored them.

Indeed, her raw data confirms that Atheists and Abiders come out roughly the same when it comes to GPA."

Read more at [patheos.com]