Chapter 2: A Study Of Overconfidence In Religion

Bias of specific cultures and their religions is a critical issue to the study of religion. Islam is an example that resounds within the United States and throughout the world. Islam is a religion that

According to (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013), overconfidence bias, relates to our tendency to be over-confident about estimates or forecasts. This bias is particularly strong when you are asked moderate to extremely difficult questions rather

Michael Malloy identifies several of these critical issues in his book Experiencing the World’s Religions (2013). The first of these questions is whether the religion can truly be observed or is the act of study changing the events observe, thus invalidating the research. If the religion cannot be seen without altering the ceremony and culture, then study will only provide information on what the observer can change, rather than what the religion is. Secondly, can the major religions be classified into such groups, can all the Buddhist sects be labeled as Buddhist, or must the religions be taken individually, and who makes the decision of what to label the religion. Lastly, the issue of experiences of the religion by different interior groups. A researcher must ask what the various experiences of the religions are between men and women, or the experiences of a child, adolescent, adult, and elder. Also, a researcher must ask how the ceremonies are different for the converted if the religion allows for converts.

In the documentary “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero,” a number of people were interviewed about how their religious beliefs or non beliefs, were challenged since the events of September 11th. The interviews with priests, rabbis, family members of victims, survivors, lay people, atheists and agnostics, this documentary explores how Americans’ spiritual lives may have changed since the event. When a tragic event happens, people would either grow closer to god or outgrow god. To those people who do not believe in a god, these actions will just prove their beliefs. In the beginning of the film, people immediately started to question God. Some of them started to question why would a god so mighty approve this kind of actions. Dr. Michael Brescia, who is a physician who saw pictures of people jumping off the building, "I wonder how many of them thought if there was a God. And if there was a God, why me? Why this? And where am I going to go?” This kind of questions always come up when something catastrophic happens. Others, however, did not ask any questions and just accepted what has happened. Kim Coleman, who lost her daughter said, “God knows something I don’t, God knows best and knows better than we do.” There were also a couple of people who were not so sure what to think of god anymore. Rev. Joseph Griesedieck, a priest who volunteered at Ground Zero said, “the face of God was a blank slate for me. God couldn't be counted on in the way that I thought God could be

McMinn unveils the realism of what essentially happens in the counseling office. He dives into the fitting together “Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling”. McMinn explains how “those who enter therapy in the midst of their pain experience a restorative counseling relationship that brings acceptance hope, and meaning into their broken lives” (McMinn, 2011, p. 20). There are various questions surrounding Christian counseling that McMinn faces head on in this book when it comes to the challenges counselors face as it relates to integrating religion and spirituality in their sessions. Life on the frontier as McMinn puts it, is where counselors face six basic challenges. Challenges such as moving from two areas of competence to three, blurred personal-professional distinctions, expanded definitions of training, confronting dominant views of mental health, establishing a scientific base or even defining relevant ethical standards (McMinn, 2011). Personal journey’s that McMinn has taken throughout his career provide him with the knowledge, skills and abilities to depict how we should face these challenges. McMinn talks about how many counselors have a need to interpret studies, have good psychodynamics and figure out which cognitive therapy is right for their counseling. As he states, “Christian counseling is more complex than other forms of counseling because our goal are multifaceted (McMinn, 2011, p.

The margin of error is 2%, “that is the amount of error that the CEO finds acceptable for him” (The Importance and Effect of Sample Size) (2016). If 90% of the people that were surveyed said yes, and 10% answer no, the CEO tolerance level for error might be able to be increased the it being 50/50. The confidence level that is trying to be reached by the CEO is 95.44. The confidence level is the doubt the CEO will tolerate. Let’s say the CEO has 30 yes or no questions on his survey. Having a confidence level of 95%,

Faith, defined as a strong belief in something which cannot be proven, has been argued over countless generations. Still, even without proof, individuals worldwide hold true to their faith each day. After studying faith and religion in texts written by scholars with varying backgrounds, it is easy to see faith is something which is widely disputed. Comparison of Sigmund Freud’s The Future of an Illusion and Paul Tillich’s Dynamics of Faith, fully displays the discrepancies in points of view on the function of faith, as well as the necessity of faith, in society; while the comparison of Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and Karl Marx’s “on the Future of Religion,” demonstrate both similarities and differences

In Barbara Oakley’s A Mind for Numbers, she uses many rhetorical tools in order to make her points more fitting and relatable. Throughout the book Oakley utilizes everything from strong structure to funny analogies. Because of how she set up her book and used her word choice, she is able to relate to the intended audience more and get them to listen closely to what she is trying to teach them. In chapter sixteen, Oakley explains that it’s easy to make simple errors if someone is overly confident about what they’re doing. She also explains various ways in which working with others is beneficial and how it is essential to be critical in your studies. In chapter sixteen, “Avoiding Overconfidence”, Oakley is effective because of her use of anecdotes,

Two phenomena- hindsight bias and judgmental overconfidence- illustrate why we can’t rely solely on intuition and common sense.

The question as to what it means to be human is often thought of as being the foundational question for almost all religions. Indeed, it can be argued that the religious impulse itself is first and foremost an impulse to understand the nature the meaning of life, and therefore of what it means to be human. Despite the importance of this question, the Bible provides relatively few answers, other than the idea that to be human is to be in some way close to God and to have been created by Him. This closeness and the nature of having been created has a variety of consequences which this paper will explore. These consequences that can be seen to be intensely positive but which also come with a heavy price and with a strict legality. Finally, they may also be shown to be entirely arbitrary and to position their unfathomable nature on the fact of having the 'created ' nature of a person.

For instance, many scholars disagree on what constitutes a religion. If languages do have a word for religion, their meanings can vary and be specific to their religion. As mentioned above, the book rectifies several of the expectations Western traditions might have about how religion is defined because of their understanding of it. This does an excellent job of proving how unclear religion as a concept can be. What one person considers religion might not ever have be considered religion by someone from another religion, despite any commonalities the religions might have. One thing this argument is lacking is the acknowledgment that Religious Studies started from a strictly Christian perspective, but otherwise it is effective.

Religion impacts every society and is impacted by many factors. Over time, religion has both gained and lost power over the choices of people. One person may act one way because of their religious upbringing and a different person another way. This is due to the fact that everyone has a different relationship with their faith. Differences in one’s faith are attributed to a variety circumstances, for example, culture, time period, and access to technology. Nevertheless, faith has the ability to strengthen one’s relationship with God.

The modern society is a highly pluralistic society. Rapid transmission of information in the modern era and the ability of people to travel around the world on a larger scale has created awareness that the world and the modern society has a multitude of diverse and contrasting viewpoints on a variety of issues. This pluralism is evident in the realm of religion than in any other realm. Human awareness of the existence of the many religions in the world, today, is unprecedented. Christians are aware of the existence of many other smaller religions apart from the mainstream Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.

“A Suspension of (Dis) Belief: The Secular – Religious Binary and the Study of International Relations” by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is an intriguing chapter that questions the relations between the secular and religion. Shakman Hurd argues that most individuals have unchanging meanings of what the secular is and what religion is. Shakman Hurd states that the analysis of the secular and religion in world politics needs to be re-examined in terms of the beliefs (political and religious) that support the secular – religious binary. To clarify her argument, Shakman Hurd uses instances that have took place in world politics to address her argument. By looking at the relationships between the United States and other countries, Shakman Hurd claims that the secular-religious binary should be considered as being a concept that is

David Dunning addresses a delicate topic in his article “We Are All Confident Idiots” Dunning portrays the truth that people have a difficult time expressing their unsure thoughts about particular subjects. Frequently, our natural fear to admit uncertainty helps us to regularly claim false opinions along with facts, carelessly ignoring the genuine knowledge of the issue. Dunning further clarifies this common mentality, he states “the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.” Correspondingly, incompetence facilitates confidence, incompetence also instils us with inaccurate information. Generally, we ignore actual knowledge in order to be invited into any subject. I