The role of statistics in Biology

by | May 14, 2020 | Statistics

11 point Arial font; 1.5 spaces; no minimum number of references, BUT they must conform to the attached
format (Referencing style guide). The rest doesn’t matter so much to me. I am attaching the rubrics that will be
used to evaluate your essay. Now, regarding the essay topic, you should cover 2 topics:
The role of statistics in Biology. Consider the following questions to develop your essay: Is statistics necessary
to understand biological processes? Why? Which historical character (can they be more) has contributed
statistical tests and why? What motivates biologists to use statistical tests? Should there be integrity in the use
of statistics by scientists? Why? Should I know the assumptions of statistical tests before using them? What
constitutes a “good practice” in the use of statistics? – THESE QUESTIONS ARE JUST EXAMPLES and
should not try to answer them one by one until they form an argument. With these questions they should try to
guide their arguments to point 2.
The previous point should be reinforced with a discussion on the use of statistical tests (it may be only one, but
of the ones we have seen in class) by authors, in scientific articles. For example, I am attaching the article
“López-García NAU 2017.pdf”. In this article, the use of Student t and ANOVAs is mentioned. Here they have
to identify a scientific article (or more, if they like it, it is entirely free) and review how the authors describe the
tests, how they present them, and what they conclude from them. I am not looking for them to summarize the
article, but to be critical and say, in their own words, if the authors have used the appropriate evidence, if the
way of presenting the evidence is understandable, if the conclusion is based on the results obtained . For
example: was the sample size adequate? Did they present the degrees of freedom? Did they make a correct
interpretation of the P values? Do they have adequate figures? Are the figures understandable? Similarly,
these questions are guides only. You will be surprised to learn that not many published articles make proper
use of statistics.

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.


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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 Studies, 4(8), 487.

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

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