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I am not as think as you dumb I am

May 14th, 2010

The Dunning-Kruger effect…

The dumb get confident, while the intelligent get doubtful. That’s the conclusion that David Dunning and Justin Kruger came to when studying people’s perceptions of their own talents. What has now become known as the Dunning-Kruger effect

Full discussion on The Science Show.  Abbreviated version posted by Boing Boing.

Incidentally, this was observed centuries before the release of the research paper:

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
– Confucius

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.
– Charles Darwin

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt.
– Bertrand Russell

Related argument by Brian Dunning on Skeptoid (no relation to David Dunning) saying that people are not dumb or “stupid”, just misinformed:

The same goes for Sarah Palin, Ben Stein, Ken Ham, Bill Maher, Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey, and Prince Charles, all people who actively promote bad science or misinformation, and who believe they’re doing the right thing.

I like his list of misinformed personalities.  Check out the full piece on Skeptoid.

Politics, Polling, Science , , , , ,

Coping and Adjustment

August 1st, 2009

Taisha Jones, M.S., a 5th year clinical psychology graduate student at Saint Louis University, is inviting you to participate in this research study that is being conducted online, under the direction of Dr. Honore Hughes, Research Chairperson/Advisor at Saint Louis University.

The title of this study is Coping Strategies and Adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine various ways in which people use individual coping strategies, including non-religious and religious ways, to facilitate overall life satisfaction and adjustment.

Your participation in this study is confidential and will involve completing a series of brief questionnaires to assess coping and problem-solving strategies. Participation will entail completing brief surveys and a demographic questionnaire that are available online at http:www.surveymonkey.com. There are no right or wrong answers in the surveys, so please be as honest as possible in responding to the individual items. Please be sure to respond to all survey items. Your participation will require at least 10 minutes of your time, but likely no longer than 30 minutes. In appreciation of your time, a monetary donation of $5 will be donated to a charity that you will specify at the end of the study as your preference to receive the donation.

The results of this study may be published in scientific research journals or presented at professional conferences. However, your name and identity will not be revealed and your record will remain anonymous. To protect your anonymity, no identifying information will be collected.

Participation in this study does not have a direct benefit to participants. While it is hopeful that you may gain insight from participation, it is not a guarantee. Participants may increase their knowledge of individual coping skills and problem-solving strategies. This might allow participants to become aware of various coping strategies and gain a better understanding of what strategies might be available. However, participation may benefit others as a small monetary donation will be made to a charitable/service organization that group members may select (e.g., Habitat for Humanity).

The risks to you as a participant are minimal. These risks may include mild boredom and/or discomfort with responding to sensitive items that probe for religiousness and/or lack of religiousness, as well as psychological adjustment.

They requested that I post this:

Hello to all,

I am writing to request your participation in my dissertation study “Coping and Adjustment.” In exchange for your participation, I will be donating $5 to a charitable organization of your choice. The choices are included at the end of the study. The study examines various ways in which people cope with stressors (including religious and non-religious ways) and how these relate to one’s happiness and life satisfaction. Additional information including final results can be obtained after the study. Thus far, participation has included individuals with religious/faith-based beliefs and those without such beliefs. My goal is to obtain representation from several individuals and groups that include varying ages, gender, religious affliations, social abilities, intellectual abilities, and so forth. Please consider participating in the study and please forward this to everyone that you think may wish to contribute by participating. Please remember, your participation is voluntary and that the study completion time is not expected to exceed 30min. Study completion time has been around 10-30 minutes.

You can access the study at the following link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wp5LFvjXAooMReVkqxwaaw_3d_3d.

For any additional questions or information, please see webpage or contact the researcher at copingandadjustment@gmail.com or copingandadjustment@yahoo.com.

Polling, Religion, Science, Statistics , , ,

Why do we believe in GOD?

March 15th, 2009

Rafael… Dude, you rock. Welcome to the blog world.

whygod.weebly.com

Thanks for coming out for non-belief. You are on my list of favorites already.

I’m just an average Joe. I do not believe in any dogma or any powerful being. I don’t like labels but I guess I’m an atheist, although I think of my self as just plain rational. I don’t claim to disprove God’s existence, I make no such claim because I cannot prove that God doesn’t exist. No religion can prove that he does either. It’s all faith. I know that I cannot compete against faith. I am just talking about having reasonable doubt.

I think that’s fantastic… if we took God to court, he would surely lose on that basis alone.

Update: Weebly sucks and Rafael’s site may be down.

2nd Update: Weebly still sucks but whygod is back up with minor damage.  Why would they have taken every weebly site down for several hours during peak US surfing hours?  Idiots.


Agnostic, Atheism, Polling, Religion, Science , , , , ,

The Afterlife Test

October 25th, 2008

I accidentally found this when writing my Bryant Wright post!  Too funny.  You should try it.  Amazingly, I could not score less than 51 after three tries! What the hell? That only gets me to purgatory.  I guess with lame questions about income and questioning my beliefs, it skews the result.  For instance, I never question my beliefs, but neither would a devout suicide bomber I imagine. See what you can score and post your results here.

Enjoy:

Heading to Hell

Headed to Hell, I Guess...

Sampling of the questions for your reference (non-functional):

DO NOT ANSWER — USE LINK ABOVE!!


Our life on earth is:
a test for the Afterlife
to be enjoyed
to work hard
to help the world
insignificant
How often do you attend religious services?
never
only on major holidays
every month or two
almost every week
more than once a week
Which rules your life?
my job
my faith
my body
my mind
I am balanced
How holy do you feel?
holier than thou
holy
about average
more unholy than holy
very unholy
How often do you question your beliefs?
constantly
frequently
sometimes
rarely
never
How often do you indulge in guilty pleasures?
daily
often
sometimes
rarely
never
How would you describe yourself politically?
conservative
liberal
moderate
anarchist
fascist
How much money do you make per year?
less than $10,000
$10,000 – $25,000
$25,000 – $50,000
$50,000 – $100,000
over $100,000
Which is more important, hard work or creativity?
definitely hard work
hard work
about equal
creativity
definitely creativity
Which is more important, knowledge or faith?
definitely knowledge
knowledge
about equal
faith
definitely faith
Which is more important, the individual or the social order?
definitely the individual
the individual
about equal
the social order
definitely the social order
The most important discovery or invention was:
fire
electricity
the wheel
the printing press
religion
Which is more powerful, fate or free will?
definitely fate
fate
about equal
free will
definitely free will
Which is most important for civilization?
technology
biotechnology
the economy
art
literature
How would you like the Internet to evolve?
anything goes
more freedom
same as now
more laws
much tighter controls
“The answer is more important than the question”
strongly agree
agree
indifferent
disagree
strongly disagree
“All great truths begin as blasphemies”
strongly agree
agree
indifferent
disagree
strongly disagree
“People have too much freedom these days”
strongly agree
agree
indifferent
disagree
strongly disagree
“Government and the church should be separate”
strongly agree
agree
indifferent
disagree
strongly disagree
“The end justifies the means”
strongly agree
agree
indifferent
disagree
strongly disagree

Shamelessly copied from The Afterlife Test, by Heaven Hell Purgatory.

Agnostic, Atheism, Graphics, Polling, Religion, Science, Statistics , , , , , ,

Belief-O-Matic(tm)

March 29th, 2008

I just completed the Belief-O-Matic(tm) on beliefnet and it is absolutely fascinating.  I answered very carefully and conscienciously based on my current beliefs with the following results.  It looks like I am 100% aligned with Secular Humanists:

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa. Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.  
1.  Secular Humanism (100%)
2.  Unitarian Universalism (90%)
3.  Nontheist (81%)
4.  Liberal Quakers (75%)
5.  Neo-Pagan (75%)
6.  Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (64%)
7.  Theravada Buddhism (64%)
8.  Taoism (57%)
9.  Reform Judaism (56%)
10.  New Age (52%)
11.  Mahayana Buddhism (45%)
12.  New Thought (42%)
13.  Scientology (42%)
14.  Bahá’í Faith (37%)
15.  Orthodox Quaker (37%)
16.  Sikhism (37%)
17.  Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (32%)
18.  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (28%)
19.  Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (24%)
20.  Eastern Orthodox (18%)
21.  Islam (18%)
22.  Jainism (18%)
23.  Orthodox Judaism (18%)
24.  Roman Catholic (18%)
25.  Hinduism (9%)
26.  Seventh Day Adventist (9%)
27.  Jehovah’s Witness (0%)

The most amazing one to me was Quakers.  Who knew that Quakers were so free-thinking?  Actually, I had an idea because I recall that the early Quaker movement in the US was largely due to dissatisfaction with contemporary sects of Christianity and has become even less rigid as of late.

I have considered attending a UU church for the social and intellectual stimulation, but many of the UU blogs and web sites are frequently lamenting that UU denominations are not more “spiritual”.  That’s certainly not for me, so UUism is probably not in my future.

You should check out beliefnet.  It was even more fun to try it again with my ‘Baptist’ upbringing.  Enjoy…

Atheism, Polling, Religion, Statistics , , , ,