Hypotheses in physical sciences like Physics & Chemistry are LAWS because they are always true (100% probability). The law of gravitation, for example, works the same at all times of day and night and at any place on the globe. There are however hypotheses in the fields of medicine or social sciences like psychology or sociology where laws may not be true 100% of the times but could still be recognised as "laws" ( remember, anything that happens with more than 50% certainty has the potential of being called a "law").
My hypothesis is that most of us are full of superstitions mainly because we haven't understood statistics.
I rate "superstitions" as one of our top problems. Just imagine - without superstitions we would not have had [1] our caste system; [2] the practice of सती; [4] खाप पंचायत and honour killings ; [4] Dowry deaths; [5] Female foeticide; [6] Belief in numerology, astrology, palmistry; [7] Gender bias against women; [8] Child marriages; [9] Religious obstinacy.
A dictionary defines "Superstitions" as beliefs without any evidence (or shall I add, statistical evidence). It is obvious that when we operate under the influence of superstitions, we suspend our power of analysis. Then fearing being branded "illogical", we stretch ourselves to justify our actions, fully ignoring what "statistics" is telling us.
[a] Statistics tells us that the possibility of a couple getting a son or a daughter is really 50% and depends on the chromosomes from the husband but mothers - in - law (even in TV soap operas) continue blaming the wife for not giving them a son. [b] Psephology is a decent statistical tool to predict election results but our politicians would continue to seek blessings from diverse dieties and assign their success or failure to them. [c] People continue to match horoscopes before marrying their children, ignoring the statistical fact that workability (or non workability) of marriages depends on a host of factors, other than planetary influences. They conveniently ignore all those cases where marriages failed in spite of this horoscope matching [d] People continue to have faith in homoeopathy though statistically, its rate of success is no better than that of a placebo. [e] People continue to believe that "regular prayers" to GOD bring them success, turning a blind eye to the fact that in almost all cases, the prayers did not work - hard work did. [f] So many of us strongly believe and insist on others believing that a moment or a day or a particular month is auspicious to start or perform a particular activity. [g] Belief in the existence of an ALMIGHTY power controlling all of us and this world is deeply entrenched in the mind of so many, without any statistical verification of the thought (at least someone over the last tens of thousands of years should have been able to prove the existence of such a power instead of just saying that" it has to be experienced" or "you need to be devout" in order to experience it).
I think statistics should be made compulsory right from middle school so that all of us understand that there is always a possibility of something happening in a given set of circumstances and we should not jump to the conclusion that that is what will always happen. We should not create a relation between an input and an event ( A implies B) unless this happens often enough to have statistical significance.
3 comments:
People continue to believe that "regular prayers" to GOD bring them success, turning a blind eye to the fact that in almost all cases, the prayers did not work - hard work did.
This, and other points made for another hugely interesting post, sir. But I especially wrote this point because lately from my talks with the believers I have found out that they are so stupid and blind-to-reason that on this point they would say that the strength for hard work was given by God upon praying. They say when you ask for someting God gives you power to get it for yourself.
Such arguments make me bang my head on wall! What would you say?! :P
People continue to believe that "regular prayers" to GOD bring them success, turning a blind eye to the fact that in almost all cases, the prayers did not work - hard work did.
This, and other points made for another hugely interesting post, sir. But I especially wrote this point because lately from my talks with the believers I have found out that they are so stupid and blind-to-reason that on this point they would say that the strength for hard work was given by God upon praying. They say when you ask for someting God gives you power to get it for yourself.
Such arguments make me bang my head on wall! What would you say?
An interesting addition would be the "faith in statistics". Almost everybody who believes in and practises according to statistics has missing or incomplete data. For example, we believe in doctors because it has been reasonably established that medical science works through a lot of statistical and theoretical studies. However most patients, or even most doctors, "believe" the above fact! How many have actually read the research findings that in fact prove their statistical conclusions? So we choose to "believe" those who we consider competent authorities.
As for prayers, for those whose prayers indeed seemed to "work" when in fact it was hard work, they seem to be the saner lot who pray, but also put in hard work. In fact for those who work hard but do not pray, don't they have "faith" that hard work will objectively and absolutely pay off? So isn't it a question not of whether there is faith or not, but who the faith is in?
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