File talk:Growth of Denominations in America 1780 to 1860.jpg

Misleading graph

The graph here is possibly misleading, as it shows church membership in absolute numbers, and without reference to the general population, which I presume was also growing for the period in question. This could be remedied by changing the data to show membership as a percentage of the population, or else adding the total general population as another data series. —Psychonaut (talk) 08:18, 31 August 2012 (UTC) ːːthe graph shows number of churches not number of members. Rjensen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rjensen (talk • contribs) 09:41, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

It has been shown to not support its most common use which is the demonstration of a large growth of religion in the United States. When applied to that purpose, the graph is a textbook example of "How To Lie With Statistics". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Second_Great_Awakening#Misleading_graph for a full discussion. The graph is not compensated for by simple population growth. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SecondGreatAwakening_Stat-Table.jpg and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SecondGreatAwakening_Stat-Chart.jpg. The graph is vague and unclear as to what it's representing. Because it doesn't account for population and land growth, it is immaterial to the support of the idea of a large growth in religion. Other data may support that idea, but this graph does not. As vague as this graph is, it might be useful to support other points, but it doesn't support the idea of very large religion growth in the United States. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Billinghurst (talk • contribs) 04:19, 29 December 2016 (UTC) ˑthe graph shows the number of churches and the Henretta textbook first published its version in 1987. The original data source is Gaustad, Edwin Scott. Historical atlas of religion in America (2nd ed HarperCollins Publishers, 1976) pp 4, 43. new graphs are at https://www.amazon.com/New-Historical-Atlas-Religion-America/dp/019509168X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482997226&sr=1-1 p C-15 Rjensen 12-29-16 ̴̴̴̃ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rjensen (talk • contribs) 07:43, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

Who is saying that?

Who is saying that? (The "Caution...United States" paragraph.) It was deleted from the main page and copied here as if it was someone's comment. Billinghurst, are you saying it? Are you suggesting I said it? If so, you shouldn't put words into people's mouths on talk pages. But anyway, such a caution is suited to be unsigned on a main page, but it's out of place being unsigned on a talk page. Billinghurst, if you are saying it, you should sign it yourself. It not, you should just remove it. I tried to remove it, but I couldn't because the system (erroneously) called it a "page blanking". 50.189.36.90 05:16, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

It's not a big deal. There's not many changes on the page. Tropicalkitty (talk) 05:24, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

Maybe. Still, we have that oddball paragraph squatting here on the page. You can remove it it you want. Then my words here about it would be out of context. If you delete the oddball paragraph, you may delete my words too if you like. (I grant you permission! :-) ) 50.189.36.90 05:47, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

Working on a better version of this graph!

Over at Talk:Second_Great_Awakening [1], we're working to improve this graph. Soon we might be able to include a 1987 source for it. Hopefully that source can address (clarify) the all the unclear things about this graph too. We may be able to give some answers in the description, or just link potential users to a better version! 50.189.36.90 06:18, 29 December 2016 (UTC)