On the other hand it could be said that the above affirmation is far too vague and that the example above is incorrect, as many would say that these people believe more in their culture than in the reality due to the lack of scientific knowledge. Most of the Brazilian Indians are illiterate and have never gone to any school, therefore it is expected for them not to know anything about something being scientifically correct or not.
Another factor that influences a great deal in many peoples lives is religion, as many will mostly believe what their religion tells them rather than the truth. As an example, we have the Catholic religion which tells all of its believers that Jesus revived from the dead and went to Heaven. However, this is completely anti-scientific as everyone in the world dies one day and deteriorates after dieing and that’s the end. Another great example of how religion affects logical thinking also involves the Catholic Church when Charles Darwin came up with the Theory of Evolution. At that time people were very “knowledgeable” regarding Christianity. This made Darwin’s work very difficult as his ideas and theories of evolution were very unpopular at the time. Moreover, his theory was completely against the religious thoughts of the Christian Churches and yet he was correct. This shows how much religion is capable of misleading logical thinking in order to spread its word to the people. There are many other examples with different religions however I won’t state them all as one or two are enough to put forward my point.
Another great example of where culture and individual beliefs affected the logical thinking is the case of the disease malaria. In this case what happened was that the Italians in Venice were catching malaria but no one knew from where it came from. They all believed that this disease would come with the bad smell of the swamps surrounding Venice when it actually it was transmitted by mosquitoes. Not only until the last century (20th Century) had people discovered that malaria was transmitted by the mosquitoes. The name malaria comes from the two words “mal aria” which means bad air, in this case the smell of the swamps. People at that time would never expect that it was transmitted by the mosquitoes. A similar case occurred with the black plague where the people thought that it was brought up as a punishment from God to the people. No one ever expected that it was transmitted by the fleas which were carried by the rats. People made logical explanations of why they were getting sick and dying one by one everyday. Both of the examples above show how the culture and the individual beliefs do indeed affect logical thinking.
The two examples above are also quite vague as we must consider that at the time, there wasn’t any sophisticated technology so it would very unlikely that they discovered from where these two diseases came from and how they were transported around the cities. Furthermore, at the period of the black plague people thought that most of the things that occurred would have been brought up from God. They were all narrow minded and linked religion to any particular disaster.
Additionally, there is another great example where people due to culture took more time to make a big discovery. Centuries ago, it was believed that the world was flat and that at the end of the oceans there would be giant waterfalls with huge monsters awaiting the misguided men. To most people this was very logical and so ships never got very far from the coast. However Galileo affirmed that that was not the case as the world was round as a sphere and not flat. His ideas (including the one that the Earth rotated around the sun) were very unpopular with the Church at the time, and nearly got him killed. However, he was correct and due to his discovery people went out to explore the World which led to the discovery of the Americas. If he had been heard earlier, all of these new discoveries would have taken place earlier too. Once again this is a good example of where culture beliefs affected the logical thinking of many people. It could be said that due to these culture thoughts and beliefs, the development of humanity was delayed.
The example given above clearly shows how culture and individual beliefs do indeed affect not only logical thinking but also the development of humanity. From all the examples given, I believe that the above is the more suitable as it clearly expresses my point.
Another great example that I could use to prove my point is that around the 17th century in France, people feared that if they took a bath they would drown as the water would enter their body through the holes in their skin. This was a common thought amongst the people to such an extent that Louis 14th first bath was taken when he reached the age of 7 years. Even though this was a common thought amongst the French, they were completely wrong and this made diseases more frequent. Now we all know that taking a bath is essential as it helps to keep our bodies clean and therefore helps to prevent against a lot of diseases.
The above example is also a concrete proof that the thoughts of a culture might affect logical thinking. Even though this is a vague example, it helps me to prove my point regarding the issue.
As a conclusion, it could be said that indeed culture and individual beliefs affect logical thinking even though at many times no one is capable of noticing that. Additionally I could say that due to many culture and individual beliefs in the past, the development of humanity was greatly delayed due to several separate issues. We could also conclude that keeping an open mind to new thoughts and ideas its very important for one’s development as well as that of a society as a whole.
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