QUESTION TEXT: Scholar: Recently, some religions have updated…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: Any similar modernization will lead to an increase in worship.
REASONING: There was a correlation between modernizations and attendance.
ANALYSIS: This question has a classic LSAT flaw: correlation/causation. Correlation is when two things happen at the same time. One thing could be the cause of the other, but there are alternatives. With any correlation, there are four possibilities:
- Reform causes attendance.
- Anticipated attendance causes reform
- A third cause (A charismatic new Pope?) leads to both reform and attendance
- It’s a coincidence
Since this is a flaw question, you just have to pick the answer that abstractly says “it mistakes correlation for causation.”
___________
- Who cares? The scholar was only predicting what would happen if a religion updated its texts.
- The scholar didn’t say whether messages have to be kept the same. Their prediction was only about a link between reform and attendance.
- CORRECT. See the analysis above. It’s possible that the increases in attendance had another cause.
- The scholar didn’t say modernization was the only way. They only argued that it was a possible way to increase attendance.
- The author didn’t assume this. Something can’t be the flaw if it wasn’t in the stimulus.
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