The Existence Of God Essay -- essays research papers

The Existence of God   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The existence of a God has for generations been the topic of fierce debate. This most usually occurring between members of the religious society and, everybody else. As a matter of fact the religious world itself has not always been able to agree on God. This has resulted in many a holy man to take up the fight for his deity through the realm of words. Many theories have been proposed, and all think that theirs proves beyond a doubt on whether or not God exists. To write this paper I read four of those theories by assorted men of the cloth, who all attempt to make the argument for a God in the Christian sense.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first of the theories I looked at was that of St.Anslem of Canterbury. He supplies the ontological argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument states that by understanding the nature of God himself, we come to realize he exists. He explains this argument by first defining what God is. Anslem says that God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived to exist, that it can not even be considered not to exist. In short, the fact that said being can not be considered not to exist, would thereby make it greater than any that could be considered not to exist. This would in all reality be the secret to God's omnipotence in Anlsem's eyes. Another point that he stresses is that just be understanding the concept of what a God is, you are proving his existence. This is because if you understand who God is, you can also accept his existence, and therefore cannot conceive that he does not exist. Therefore making him that which nothing greater can be conceived of, and which cannot be conceived not to exist which we have already defined as God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second argument for a God comes from St. Tomas Aquinas, who argues for the cosmological point of view. The cosmological argument states that all things in this universe have a cause, and since these causes cannot go on for ever there must be a first cause, i.e. God. He argues that there are five ways to argue for the existence of God, the first is the argument from motion. This states that everything in this world has certain potentials for motion. It also states that for these potentials to be met another object n motion must set off said potential. That object in turn would have ... ...ad and the point would be moot.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So by looking at these paths Pascal decided to look at the risks of each wager. In the first you get infinite rewards from only one life of believing. Plus he felt that you also probably had a fulfilling and enjoyable life too. So the first, can be looked at as a win win situation in which you risked very little, and won much. The second and fourth possibilities did not really concern Pascal much because by thinking of it in terms of odds, neither seemed probable, and again wouldn't matter anyhow because you would no longer exist. The third possibility however, in which you could end up in hell, seemed to help persuade Pascal into believing in a God. He felt that for the amount you had to lose in this situation, no intelligent human would take the risk. So in conclusion, Pascal came to believe that believing in a God was a safe bet, in that it had the least risk with the highest returns.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As for myself, after reading these papers I find myself tending to side with Pascal the most. I don't think that a little insurance could hurt, because until there is proof otherwise none of us really know.

Anne Lamott’s Overture: Lily Pads

Anne Lamott’s â€Å"Overture: Lily Pads†, presents a chain of stumbled steps throughout her life by showing that each stagger has made her stronger and demonstrated that every misfortune and tribulation of her existence has allowed her to become one step closer to God. My objective is to obtain an enhanced understanding of the nature and function of Anne Lamott’s journey into her selected religion, which ends with her choosing Christianity by accepting Jesus’ everlasting love into her life. I will explain her journey as well as how I think she understands the concept of being â€Å"born again†. I wish to present how her definition, perspective and understanding resembles or possibly even differs from that of my own, enabling me to examine and understand from another’s point of view. Anne Lamott’s mother and father were far from that of faith and had the mindset that believing meant that you were dim-witted. I think Lamott’s father had a huge impact on her prolonged journey into Christianity as she clearly explains his hatred of the faith. Growing up yearning for his contentment and approval she pretends to dismiss God to make him happy. Her journey starts with a love for Catholic Church. Her ideas and perception of God stemmed from her friends beliefs and her own youthful personal viewpoints. She grew up in a house overflowing with alcohol, pot, and atheism, altogether unmistakably interfering with her walk with Christ. As a child she prayed alone: â€Å"I just know I always believed and that I did not tell a soul† (Lamott 624). The quote shows the loneliness and confusion she must have experience at such a young age. Later Lamott begins to surround herself with her friend’s family who all read the bible, quote scripture and pray for their children each day, finally influencing her in a way that she seems comfortable and eager about. But as Lamott entered her mid teens she gradually drifted from faith and replaced it with alcohol, drugs and sex. I believe college made an enormous impact on why she chose Christianity as her religion of choice. She becomes drawn to Judaism as an effect of having many Jewish college friends, but doesn't actually convert. However after reading a Christian bible story in one of her classes she states, â€Å"I left class believing – accepting – that there was a God† (Lamott 635). Throughout the next few pages her views on Christianity continue to change, as she goes back and forth from having faith in Christ to revisiting her drug and sex crazed life. The meeting of a new preacher and visiting the Church from time to time guides her the way back to God. Towards the last few pages of the writing Lamott is visited by Jesus after illness following a recent abortion, evaporating all of her disbeliefs, fears and enabling her to gradually dispose of the things she felt was immoral in her life, ending with a solid and blessed foundation of trust and faith. Anne Lamott clearly expresses the highs and lows of her Christian walk, enabling the audience to grasp the variety of influences and furthermore illustrating that her spirituality is actually the tie that binds them all together. My understanding of the concept being â€Å"born again† refers to being born from above. From my viewpoint being â€Å"born again† means knowing that God and Jesus are real. Being overflowed with the Holy Spirit that brings the sensation of peace and understanding. To be born again is being forgiven for all past sin, no matter what obscurities or crimes you have committed in the past, as the glorious mercy of God is given freely. To be born again is to wipe your slate clean, to eliminate all bad habits and sins as well as sticking to the rules of the bible. Anne Lamott’s teenage understanding of â€Å"born again† was that of a negative one as a result of her newly saved English teacher. Lamott writes; â€Å"I wept in Sue’s class at the betrayal, and the gentle patronizing efforts to console me† (631). This was a consequence of her teacher’s decision to now portray and educate her student’s through Christ’s eyes. This had a negative effect on Lamott, leading her in the opposite direction of Jesus, forcing her to obtain aggravated and argumentative behavior towards other Christians. Anne Lamott’s passage describes the moment of her conversion into Christianity, she writes; â€Å"I hung my head and said â€Å"Fuck it: I quite. I took a long deep breath and said out loud, â€Å"All right. You can come in† (643). My personal idea of being born again perhaps wouldn’t include coarse language and just ‘allowing† Jesus in, but would include graveling at his feet, praying and yearning for his forgiveness of all my thoughtless sins. Which is why Anne Lamott’s understanding of being saved differs so very much from my own. Nearing the end of the text we learn of Anne Lamott’s baptism, following pregnancy through a man she was dating. This additionally shows the difference between my own and Lamott’s beliefs. It demonstrates that she isn’t completely following Gods will, untraditionally creating a human life outside of the family structure God intended for every child. In ‘Corinthians 7:2’ of the ‘Holy Bible’ it explains that countless sinful people have immoral sex outside of wedlock and should first be married, so the saved can fulfill their passions in a moral way. Although I consider myself to be a fresh believer, I feel that I should practice Gods requests, in return teaching me right from wrong. Although Anne Lamott’s Christian beliefs may not be considered perfect to some, in her defense she does not pretend to have her life entirely in order. It is a remarkable story of how Jesus has had such a prominent impact on her life. ‘Overture: Lily Pads’ is a clear and genuine example for any reader to relate to, as it is similar to our own journeys in life. It immediately goes to show that what we believe in the beginning is not always the conclusion we come to in the end. However the journey is all about the ride, helping us to grasp the process and exercise what we discover along the way.

Comment on the Three Conditions on Market Efficiency

An efficient capital market is one in which stock prices fully reflect available information. Professor Andrei Shleifer has suggested three conditions lead to market efficiency. (1)rationality, (2)independent deviations from rationality, and (3)arbitrage. This essay will examine investors’ behavioral biases and then discuss the behavioral and empirical challenges to market efficiency. In the attached article, James Montier suggested three behavioral biases that investors had. (1) illusion of control, (2)self-attribution, and (3)over-confident. Illusion of control means people fell they are in control of a situation far more than they are.Self-attribution means good outcomes are contributed to their skill while bad outcomes are contributed to external, such as back luck. These two biases lead people to be over-optimistic and exaggerate their own abilities. People are always over-confident as well. They always think they are smarter and have better information than they actually do. These three behavioral biases form a potential combination and lead investors to overestimate their ability and knowledge and understate the risks. In reality, there are some other behavioral biases. Investors usually prefer to put their money into a company that they know or familiar with.This is known as familiarity bias. They will invest heavily in the company they work for. They will also allocate a larger fraction of their investments to domestic stock even though it is easier to diversify investments across geographies. In addition, people tend to perceive probabilities and resonate with their own pre-existing ideas even though the conclusions drawn are statistically invalid. And this is called representativeness. The next bias exists in reality is conservatism, it means that people are too slow in adjusting their beliefs to new information.They clings to prior views or forecasts at the expense of acknowledging new information. The last bias I want to mention is herd beha vior. This is a tendency for individuals to mimic the actions(rational or irrational) of a larger group. It may comes from social pressure of conformity and/or believing the larger group knows something that they don’t. Most of the above-mentioned behavioral biases contradict Professor Andrei Shleifer’s three conditions for market efficiency. One of the conditions he suggested was rational.People will adjust their estimates of stock prices in a rational way after new information is released in the marketplace. Are people really rational? Not always. People will exert familiarity bias. They will be too favor the investments in companies they are familiar with. Tendency by investors to invest in domestic stock or the companies they work for. They do not achieve the degree of diversification that they can easily achieve. Others are over-confident and over-optimistic to believe they can pick winners and losers when, in fact, they cannot; this leads them to trade too much, generating both commissions and taxes.The behavioral view is that not all investors are irrational. Rather, it is some, perhaps many, investors are. Independent deviation from rationality was the second condition for market efficiency suggested by Andrei Shleifer. However, psychologists have long argued that people deviate from rationality in accordance with a number of basic principles. Some of them can apply to finance and market efficiency. One of the most examples in recent memory would be the bursting of the internet bubble. The behavior bias, representativeness can be used to explain this phenomenal.People perceive their pre-existing idea and draw conclusions from insufficient data. They saw a short history of high revenue growth and extrapolate that it will continue forever. Another behavior bias to explain internet bubble is herd behavior. Investors face pressure of conformity and trust large group irrationally. Result into a tendency for individuals to mimic the actions of a larger group that contributed to Internet bubble as well. Another behavior bias contradict independent deviations from rationality is conservatism. People are too slow in adjusting their beliefs to new information.In 2005, Kolasinski and Li have done a research by ranking companies by the extent of their earnings surprise. They found that prices adjust slowly to the earning announcements with the portfolio with the positive surprises outperforming the portfolio with the negative surprises. Behavioral finance suggests that investors exhibit conservatism. Professor Andrei Shleifer suggests that domination of rational professional will carry the stock meet its efficient prices by simultaneous purchasing and selling of misprice stock. However, in a world of many irrational amateurs and a few professionals, prices would not adjust to correct level.The risk of further mispricing may reduce the size of arbitrage strategies. In 1907, Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport merge interes t and split the cash flow in a 60/40 basis. However, empirical finding shows that two parties have rarely traded at parity (60/40) over the 1962 to 2004 period. Deviation from parity could increase in the short run, implying losses for the arbitrageur. There are also a numbers of empirical challenges to market efficiency. The common features among those empirical studies were all in an international basis.A number of studies of relationship between the return and its market capitalizations have been replicated over different periods and in different countries. They found that return on small stocks was quite a bit higher than the average return on large stocks. It may be not all but merely a compensation for the extra risk. In 1998, Fama and French found the average return on value stocks was above the average return on growth stocks in 12 to 13 major international stock markets. The return difference is so large and these ratios can be obtained so easily.The results constitute stro ng evidence against market efficiency. Security prices sometimes move wildly above their true values and eventually fall back to original level. The crashes and bubbles of Internet stock in late 1990 consistent with this bubble theory and constitute evidence against market efficiency. Size, value versus growth, crashes and bubbles were all found in international stock market. And those behavioral biases studies were carried around the world. Therefore, we may expect those behavioral and empirical challenges discussed above may hold in all counties or market setting.