Scholar: Recently, some religions have updated the language of their

Question

Scholar: Recently, some religions have updated the language of their traditional texts and replaced traditional rituals with more contemporary ones. These changes have been followed by increases in attendance at places of worship affiliated with these religions. This shows that any such modernization will result in increased numbers of worshipers.

The scholar's reasoning is flawed because the scholar presumes without giving sufficient justification that

(A) not every religion can update its texts and replace its traditional rituals
(B) modernization of religious texts and rituals will not involve an alteration of their messages
(C) the modernization of the texts and rituals of some religions was the cause of their increases in attendance
(D) making texts and rituals more modern is the only way in which a religion could bring about an increase in attendance at places of worship
(E) the growth in attendance at places of worship affiliated with religions that made their texts and rituals more modern is irreversible

napolean92728 · Answer

The  correct answer is (C) .

The scholar's reasoning is flawed because they presume without sufficient justification that the modernization of texts and rituals was the cause of increased attendance. This represents a causal fallacy - just because the modernization was followed by increased attendance doesn't prove the modernization caused the increase. There could be other factors at work.

Let me explain why the other options are incorrect:

(A)  The scholar doesn't make any claim about whether every religion can update its texts and rituals. Their conclusion is about what will happen if modernization occurs, not about which religions can modernize.

(B)  The scholar doesn't make any assumption about whether modernization alters the religious messages. Their argument focuses only on the relationship between modernization and attendance numbers.

(D)  The scholar doesn't claim that modernization is the only way to increase attendance. They simply argue that modernization will result in increased attendance, not that it's the exclusive method.

(E)  The scholar makes no claim about whether the growth in attendance is reversible or irreversible. Their conclusion is simply that modernization will lead to increased attendance, with no statement about its permanence.

Option (C) correctly identifies the central flaw: the scholar assumes correlation equals causation without sufficient justification.

Nitish1103 · Answer

Can someone guide in explaining why C was chosen? Isn't C just restating the conclusion in the last line of the passage?
 GMATNinja

GMATNinja · Answer

This is known as a correlation-causation fallacy. For example, let's say that your GMAT tutor starts doing the Cupid Shuffle every night at bedtime, and, coincidentally, your GMAT scores start to improve. The fact that these two things happened at the same time does NOT mean that one caused the other.

The same is true in this passage. Modernization and an increase in attendance occurred simultaneously, but that does NOT mean that the modernization CAUSED the increase in attendance. So there's no good reason to conclude that "ANY such modernization will result in increased numbers of worshipers."

Choice (C) fills the gap in the logic. If the modernization WAS in fact the cause of the increase in attendance, then the conclusion in the passage makes logical sense.

I hope that helps a bit! I'm off to do a Cupid Shuffle now. 🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻

Scholar: Recently, some religions have updated the language of their

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Scholar: Recently, some religions have updated the language of their

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