There once was a friend of mine, a religion major, who also touted the requirement, “To believe in anything, I must be able to produce it with quantitative and qualitative effects.” – this thing, he called it by the word, “Efficacy”.
Looking back, I can say this perplexed me. Thus far, religion didn’t quite feel like it fit in the same sentence as efficacy. Don’t get me wrong – I finally found the efficacy in religion, but at the time, religion felt an awful lot like wishing and not much “reality checking” to find out how useful that bit of time was when compared with calming my breathing and expanding my airways. As a kid, sometimes while a sermon took place, I was over there making my lungs stronger. I had asthma. It’s a thing.
But I digress…
This friend of mine who was hyper-religious, seemed to be able to immediately answer any question I might have about practically every religion I could think of and was not shy to talk about it, while still having absolute faith in just… one…
…and he held true to the laws of science. If it cannot be repeated with practice and repetition – is it real?
Is there a way to find hard evidence?
Efficacy is something that I learned from this dear friend of mine. His views of religion paint mine and the world around me. It makes it possible for me to empathize with so many people.
Also, his conviction stuck with me in almost every little thing that I do and have done. How I apply it is this: Patterns emerge when I look at habits as, “Scheduling to ensure or disprove efficacy.” which is how I think about self-applied efficacy.
Why does this matter?
Well… we are looking at information about which COVID shot to choose; which stock-market quote to go after, how often to exercise, or at which university to apply to (and so many other things).
Making informed decisions is important.
Including your personal views is important too.
When you are looking at these data read-outs, look for the data that informs you of the efficacy. Sometimes data is spouted out as real, informed data, and sometimes it is hyperbolas… an exaggerated view and somebody blowing off steam.
Be careful out there.
As to the definition?
Efficacy (n) \ \ ˈe-fi-kə-sē \\ :
The power to produce an effect.
From:
Merriam-Webster (since 1828)
About the Author
I like to look at research, to understand it, and to switch words around, so that, “all people” can make sense of it in their world, culture, and the way they use language. I want to help. Being able to understand research is important.
A. R. Spaulding