Use the data set in DATA_ASSIGNMENT, which includes information on number of medals won by each country in 2012 and 2016 in the Olympic Games held in London and Rio de Janeiro, respectively, and the characteristics of each country. Country ID is the country identifier. Year denotes the year when the Olympics games were held. Real GDP is the Real Gross Domestic Product of country in billions of dollars. Population is the number of people living in country in millions of people. Total Medals in the sum of gold, silver and bronze medals won by country. Host Country is a dummy variable that takes the value 1 if the country is hosting the Olympic Games and takes the value 0 if the country is not hosting the games. Planned Economy is a dummy variable that takes the value 1 if the country is a planned economy (or was a planned economy in the past), and 0 otherwise.

Present the descriptive statistics of the variables RealGDP, Population, Total Medals. Comment on the means and measures of dispersion (standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) of the variables.
Estimate the following simple regression model of total medals and real GDP.
Now estimate the following simple regression model with a level-log specification.
Now estimate a model that relates the total number of medals to the real GDP and population:
Now re-estimate the equation in (iv) but using the log of independent variables. That is, estimate the model,
Using the estimated model in (v), test whether the coefficient of log(realGDP) is greater than 3 at 5% level of significance.
Add the variable planned economy to the level-log equation in (v) and estimate the following model.
Test the overall significance of the model you estimated in part (vii) at 5% level of significance.
Suppose you want to test whether Host countries win more medals than other countries. Specify a regression model that will enable you to test such a hypothesis using the model in (vii) as a base. Test whether Host countries win more medals than non-host countries at the 5% level of significance.

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.

God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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