“In God we trust. All others must bring data.” This quote is widely attributed to the great statistician W. Edwards Deming, but like so many other great quotes, it is attributed to without proper documentation; nevertheless it is an incredibly important quote.

Data is indispensable to the scientific method; and, only statistics can inform you if your data support your hypothesis. Science is 100% data-driven and one’s religion, color, ethnicity, sexual orientation does not matter. There is an objective reality and only the data counts to know it.

Of course what I just described is now considered white toxic male oppressor science. But new “science” (which is really just anti-science), weights “persons of color,” “indigenous people,” and “Marxists” and every other “woke” variable as fact. Data no longer “speaks to” feminists, progressives, or the woke” because the method of science is racist; colonialist; eugenic.

Alas, cancel culture is now canceling statistics, which ranks with calculus as the

greatest of mathematical inventions. Its strength, to objectively determine what your data found, is now a cardinal sin of the woke religion. For “objectivity” was invented by the white patriarchy used to oppress all others. As a “progressive statistician” puts it, “classical statistical methods have a politically conservative bias” and “models based upon Big Data tend to reinforce the status quo, exacerbating social injustices.”

In 1662 no one had any concept of “collecting data,” for between them, religion and reason told you all you needed to know. Europe was still taking baby steps out of the Dark Ages. That year, John Graunt, haberdasher and practical man of business, pioneered collecting data. He tabulated London birth and death records and published the first life tables… and found that life expectancy was just under 20 years! White male objective science would raise that, but with Western society now on the verge of collapse, perhaps in a generation we will be back to 20.

W. Edwards Deming

Let us examine the work of W. Edwards Deming, and his contribution to the prosperity of the West. General Douglas MacArthur, the famed commander tapped to rebuild Japan in the years following World War II, aimed to destroy Japan’s militaristic tradition and feudal social and economic systems—and he set Japan on the road to becoming a democratic economic superpower. Japan had been devastated, being the only nation to ever suffer a nuclear attack; but I expect this will change in the near future, as the West’s commitment to suicide seems resolute, and the barbarians are receiving an invitation to rule.

MacArthur brought to Japan a then-obscure statistician named Deming, who would play a key role in the Japanese economic miracle.

Although his academic training was in mathematics and physics, Deming became an expert on statistics, studying under Sir Ronald Fisher, the father of statistics, at the University College of London—the same Ronald Fisher whose monuments of tribute are now being dismantled at the hands of the “new science” believers.

In Japan, Deming would lecture on applying statistics to quality control and improvement. Japan’s industry leaders eagerly attended his lectures. One talk delivered by Deming in 1950 was attended by top industry leaders representing 75% of Japan’s industrial production. As he stated in that lecture, “Statistical product quality administration is a splendid new tool.” A desperate Japanese industry turned to white toxic male objective statistics. They had no choice with a Japanese industry in shambles. In America however, his methods were ignored. Why bother? The U.S. was then the world’s only economic power.

Companies such as Toyota Motor corp. and Sony utilized Deming’s ideas, and became dominant players. “Made in Japan” went from meaning junk, to meaning highest quality.

It was not until 1980, when Deming was 79, that he finally found fame in the U.S.; that year, a documentary called “If Japan Can… Why Can’t We?” came out, which highlighted Deming’s role in rebuilding a thriving economic system; while Japan was implementing Deming’s methods for quality control, the attitude in the U.S. was that quality did not matter to consumers. Just make it bigger and shinier, with more chrome. Like Japan, having been forced to listen to Deming because of the devastation of WWII, the U.S. now found itself in the same position because of the devastation that shoddy products wreaked on the American auto industry. Deming’s statistical methods made Japanese cars better and a huge success, because one by one, American buyers voted (with their dollar); it’s called capitalism.

W. Edwards Deming died at age 93 on December 21, 1993, lecturing until almost the end. At this point Deming could charge astronomical fees for his lectures in the USA. A modest man, he was giving credit to a many decades dead mentor right to the end. Japan will ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. We will see how that global-warmest nonsense works out.

Back to Our Quote

Let us get back to the quote with which we started: “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” We discussed the importance of data, but I believe the quote is telling us something more. It seems it takes a level of trust in God, and some adherence to traditional religion, to create an environment in which data collection,  i.e. science, can be done. This may seem paradoxical, as religion traditionally has hindered, if not downright forbidden, science, but reality is always complicated. To me, this quote simultaneously illustrates two important things. One is the supremacy of the scientific method as the only way for getting knowledge, objective knowledge, and the other is that science does not mean the rejection, or obliteration of religion.

Only religion can provide an environment in which science can be done, in which civilization can exist, in which humans can behave; if not as angels, at least not as animals. The structures of religion, the right religion, have to be in place and functioning in society for science… and civilization… to proceed. Because, after all, a society’s moral foundation comes from the “religion” of the people there.

For aspects of traditional religion that are not largely accepted as scientifically true are in the words of Bret Weinstein, a “metaphorical truth.” Metaphorical truths offer society essential benefits. As author Orson Scott Card wrote, “Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.”

The lesson of “Chesterton’s Fence” tells us to not tear down a fence until we know the reason it was erected. It may have been built for a good reason of which we are unaware, and tearing it down would reap horrible consequences. Traditional marriage? Not important, get rid of it. Traditional roles between the sexes?  Oppressive! Traditional values? Racist and colonialist!

The cultural suicide the West is committing can be explained by viewing the Judeo-Christian institution as a very old, paint-peeling, building column. The impulse of modern man was to beautify things by chopping them down… without realizing that this was supporting the entire building of Western civilization. A building that is now collapsing. Collapsing as the woke… and the Islamists, cheer.

Image: Public domain.