assurance vs skepticism

assurance

noun
  • Subjective certainty of one's salvation. 

  • The act of assuring; a declaration tending to inspire full confidence; something designed to give confidence. 

  • Firmness of mind; undoubting steadiness; intrepidity; courage; confidence; self-reliance. 

  • Insurance; a contract for the payment of a sum on occasion of a certain event, as loss or death. Assurance is used in relation to life contingencies, and insurance in relation to other contingencies. It is called temporary assurance, in the time within which the contingent event must happen is limited. 

  • The state of being assured; total confidence or trust; a lack of doubt; certainty. 

  • Excessive boldness; impudence; audacity 

  • Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property; a conveyance; a deed. 

skepticism

noun
  • Doubt or disbelief of religious doctrines 

  • The practice or philosophy of being a skeptic. 

  • The doctrine that absolute knowledge is not possible 

  • A studied attitude of questioning and doubt 

  • A methodology that starts from a neutral standpoint and aims to acquire certainty though scientific or logical observation. 

How often have the words assurance and skepticism occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )