Question

we are interested in whether there is a relationship between belief in an afterlife and religiosity, so the variables are
•life_after_death (yes,no,unsure)
•religiosity (0, 1, 2, 3)

1.[Writing] If there is an association, would we be able to say religiosity causes a difference in belief in afterlife? Explain.

2.State the null and alternative hypotheses

Answer 1

1. The afterlife or life after death is the belief that the essential part of an individual's identity or the stream of consciousness continues after the death of the physical body. Consciousness after death is a common theme in society and culture in the context of life after death. Scientific research has established that the mind and consciousness are closely connected with the physiological functioning of the brain, the cessation of which defines brain death.

According to various ideas about life after death, the essential aspect of the individual that lives on after death may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, of an individual, which carries with it and may confer personal identity. Belief in an afterlife is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death. In some views, this continued existence often takes place in a spiritual realm, and in other popular views, the individual may be reborn into this world and begin the life cycle over again, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past. In this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or otherworld.

For many people, the personal desire to survive death and the personal desire for social justice both conspire to make belief in the afterlife feel right. Some historians say that belief in an afterlife is one of the universal traits of primitive Human culture that led to the founding of our religions, and it continues to fuel the appeal of faith even today, in the 21st century. Actual beliefs have differed from culture to culture, based mostly on geographic location. Historically, many cultures believed that all dead folk (good and bad) go to a single underworld but Christianity and Islam developed their ideas of heaven and hell into a very black-and-white moralistic affair. Now, many people say their fear of hell is one of the reasons they follow their religion. The concept of an ultimate scheme that redresses the moral imbalances of the world is common to religion both in the West and in the East. God, or Karma, works to make sure that good people are rewarded, and bad people taught a lesson. It teaches us that we have a powerful social instinct towards justice, and when we don't find it in this life. There is no actual evidence for any kind of afterlife and in many countries where scientific knowledge is high, belief in the afterlife has heavily declined.

2. A hypothesis is an idea that can be tested. Null and alternate hypotheses are two mutually exclusive statements about a population. A hypothesis test uses sample data to determine whether to reject the null hypothesis.

Null hypothesis (H0): The null hypothesis states that a population parameter (such as the mean, the standard deviation, and so on) is equal to a hypothesized value. The null hypothesis is often an initial claim that is based on previous analyses or specialized knowledge.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1): The alternative hypothesis states that a population parameter is smaller, greater, or different than the hypothesized value in the null hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis is what you might believe to be true or hope to prove true.