Political Science 3 (Research methods in poli sci) was the hardest class I've ever taken.  It's a mixture of logics, political theory and statistics.  I'm glad that the final examen for it is over, but the class has basically inspired me to evaluate the development of my own beliefs and their validity.  Aside from heavy reading and statistics, I've learned the two basic concepts that I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Causality---how A causes B.  Relationships between variables can be causal and correlational but we often make the mistakes of assuming A causes B when we fail to take into account of so many confounding mechanisms that my be at work.  In the real world where most researchers do observational studies through surveys that open the door wide open for the influences of lurking variables, seeking a causal relationship can be difficult.  No one can confidently say A causes B because there's an infinity of possible lurking variables in this complex world.  But causual inferences are possible to arrive to through experiments, where we assigned control and treatment groups and where we manipulate the mechanims involved.  This, therefore, reduces the chances of confounding variables screwing our data and finally, our inferences and beliefs about the world.

Validity--how reliable a theory is through the evaluation of evidences.  Often, we evaluate the evidences and then their corresponding theories through how the reserachers collect data and how they measure certain concepts.  For example, some political scientists measure democracy in a country through the existence of election, which is problematic, since there are many examples that prove that elections simply don't lead to a democracy.

Our experiences shape our beliefs, but our backgrounds, such as religion and parents, give us the raw ideological materials throughout socialization that we either start with or discard later in life.  I'm guitly of not questioning and evaluating my most fundamental beliefs that still influence to this very day. And at the same time, I'm also guilty of not taking the possible confounding factors int account in certain events and evaluating how valid my beliefs are.

As my journalism instructor in high school once said that you must get the bottom of the story through research, I'm going on a research (book-reading and evaluating the evidences on xanga!) this summer to evaluate, confirm or reconstruct my first fundamental beliefe: God and the ressurection of Jesus Christ.  I've read a lot of scholarly and scientific books on the existence of God, but I haven't looked into the other side of the story.  In other words, I'd have to see what both the theistic and atheistic sides have to say and then, evaluate their evidences.  The hardest thing for anyone with values to do is to keep an open-mind, since I sometimes catch myself leaning towards the theistic side.  Who knows where this research can lead me to?  I might remain a Christian.  I might become an atheist.  Or I might be just drop-dead confused as I am now.  But whatever happens, this journey is certainly going lead me to a higher state of reasoning and intellectual development.