CH 2: Survey

Survey                                         

1)        Question:   Do religion and laws affect or control our actions/decisions from our everyday life?

2)        Hypothesis: Religious people and those who trust in the law will have their actions more controlled than those who are not religious or trust in the law.

3)        Target population: Religious People (however also atheists should be included to analyze and compare with religious people) and people who trust in the law (however people of the opposite should be included to analyze and compare).

4)        Sample: Random Sample- Everybody has their own point of view towards religion no matter age or sex. This may include atheism or other religious branches.

5)        Testing- This is an example of the actual survey. This is how testing the hypothesis would be possible. The way I would be able to test the hypothesis is through this survey. I would be focusing specifically on the scenarios (Questions 7-10) and if they would vary depending on their religious status (Question 3 mainly) or their position regarding the law (Question 6). The rest of the questions are to enforce the main questions.

1.        Are you male or female?

2.        How old are you?

3.        Are you religious?    Yes     No

4.        (Answer only if you are religious) How strict is your religion?  Very strict     Somewhat strict  Not so strict

5.        (Answer only if you are religious) How faithful (do you pray often, do you follow rules established by your religion, etc…) are you towards your religion? Very faithful     Somewhat faithful            Not so faithful

6.        Do you think that the laws are effective?    Yes     No

7.        If there was a red light but no cars, would you pass it?   Yes   No

8.        If there is a wallet with money in a chair without an owner, would you take it? Yes        No   Other(lost and found)

9.        If there is no one around, would you harm anyone?  Yes      No

10.     Would you consume drugs if there is no one around? Yes    No

11.     If there were no laws or no religion, would you pass a red light if there are no cars around?  Yes      No

12.     If there were no laws or no religion, would you take the wallet with money from the chair without an owner? Yes   No   Other

13.     If there were neither laws nor religion, would you harm anyone with no other person around?

Yes       No

14.     If there were no laws or religion, would you consume drugs?  Yes    No

6) Analyzing results:

7)        Draw Conclusions: According to the data extracted, the actions from most individuals did change if there was no religion or laws implanted. In other words, religion and laws can control the actions of certain individuals. Especially laws. The hypothesis therefore is verified.

8)        Replication- Certain circumstances changed for future reference would be including different types of religion. Every person who answered that was religious was Christian or derived by Christianity. If this survey were to be conducted again, more religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism or others would be added. Another circumstance that should be changed is region. More regions should be included due to the laws from each individual region.

9)        New Question- How would a different religion control our actions? Do people follow the laws of a religion due to fear?

Do laws or religions simply make us into time bombs ready to rebel at any time and break all of the rules?

10)     Reflection: After finding out that certain laws and religions control our actions, it can be thought these two work together to control society and prevent anarchy from occurring. It may be asked if religion and laws are followed due to the personal morality of one serving as guidance or if they are followed by fear of the punishment. In laws the punishment would be the jail, and in religion it would be hell. It may be thought that the people whose actions changed when there were no laws and religion in the survey are because there is nothing to fear anymore. Instead those in the survey whose actions did not change at all were because they follow their personal morality over the religion and laws implanted. This percentage was less. This leads to an alternate conclusion which is that laws of any type are followed due to fear.  We are controlled by fear.