1pg: But math also does not give a s$&t. I had this debate with someone on another board just two weeks ago. He kept asking me whether or not I could form an opinion about projections from the Bayesian analyses that were being bandied about. I kept telling him that my opinion did not matter. Math doesn't care about my opinion. Math simply is. It doesn't give s$&t. He couldn't seem to grasp that (or didn't want to).

Mmmm. Beware, there is quite a lot of irony contained within that short paragraph.

"Bayesian" analysis represents the only part of mathematics which really does produce conclusions that are relative to the individual points of view of the readers. Five different people can read a Bayesian study, and reach five different equally-valid conclusions. Each reader has his or her own "prior" knowledge; factor in the new data, and each arrives at a different "posterior" position. Yes, the five have moved closer to each other, but they still differ. In short, Bayesian math does care about your opinion -- and it is just about the only kind of math that does.

LC