Mid-Term
Mid-Term
4. Lanae Hernandez
5. Occamsrazor: Tinkerbell4424
Blogger: Lanae44
6. Tinkerbell4424@yahoo.com
7. http://tinkerbell4424-mid-term.bloggerspot.com
8. Yes, I have completed all the reading for the first 5 weeks of class.
9. Yes, I have viewed all the films that were required.
10. Week 1 & 2
#1--After viewing the film Critical Thinking in Physics starringRichard Feynman, I am overwhelmed with the idea that we should allmirror his actions. Feynman is such a simplistic man with morals thatour society now lacks. The backbone of his ideas come from theupbringing that he experienced with his father. That many of us lacktoday. He mentioned that as a young child he spent a lot of time withhis father, and his father ultimately taught him to think `outsidethe box.' Feynman shared a story with us about a bird that he oncesaw when walking in the forest with his father, his father told himthe name of the bird in several different languages, but his fatherinsisted that this wasn't important. The central idea was not thename of the bird, but rather to see what the bird was actually doing.Feynman talks about dinosaurs and how his father used to talk to himabout them, but rather than just giving him facts he translated thesefacts into reality that a young child was able to understand. Withthis knowledge that Feynman's father taught him as a young child, hewas able to become drastically successful in life.
Feynman didn't become knowledgeable to become better thananybody, but rather to find solutions to unanswerable questions (orwhat we thought were unanswerable). When awarded with the NobelPrize, he was grateful but not boasting about his award because hethought awards and uniforms were unnecessary, that you should performtasks because they are fun to you. He also stressed that just becauseyou have a uniform or award doesn't make you any better than anybodyelse, because we all have a limited intelligence, including himself!Feynman looked at ordinary things in nature, such as a flower, andsaw so much more that just a flower, but rather was able to visualizecells and the evolution of that particular flower. Today society isalways in a rush and always accomplishing tasks to show that they aremore efficient or better than the other person, forgetting the truemeaning of life, and that it is the little things that make us happy,unique and intelligent in our own way.
#2-- It is evident that America, as a society, has becomecompletely lazy. After reading the four articles from the requiredreading it is evident that many others agree with me. Cargo CultScience by Richard Feyman explains that even our most elitescientists and other knowledge people are `lazy' and many timesdisregard other findings because these findings are too difficult toexplain. We have now made our mind evolve to fool ourselves, becauseit is easier to deal with. Feyman also points out another lazyphenomenon, when performing an experiment, rather than retesting tosee if the older results are correct, we just assume that they areand take there results to correspond with the experiment. Iunderstand that it costs a lot of money to re-perform the experimentfrom the beginning, but if we want the results to come our factual,then we need to perform the experiments in the right way; rather thanbecoming lazy and taking the easy way out! Critical Thinking in anOnline World by Debra Jones also depicts how our society needs tomove away from our lazy state of mind and think a little more. Beforesociety was spoiled. We went to a library, shared with the librarianour assignment and then we were effortlessly directed to the correctsection, with creditable writers. Now times have changed drastically.We are now in a world, were library is not being used as frequentlyas the Internet. The Internet's vastness, and the ease to its accesshave taken over. With those same positive features that the Internethas also have negative aspects. Anyone at anytime can postinformation on the Internet, truthful or not. Now it is up to thelibrarian, as well as teachers to teach their students how to findeffective information. We are not longer in an age were we are handedinformation, and then regurgitate it back to complete our assignment,but rather in an age in which we need to evaluate the informationgiven to us and see if it solves our task at hand. The Internet is avital resource today, and in the future, but it is now up to us tomove away from being lazy, and become independent, as we assess theinformation given and see if it is useful or even truthful.
What is Cold Reading also relates to the articles that I havetalked about above. Society needs to stop taking what is in front ofthem as totally factual and question everything. I am totallyconvinced with everything that was said in this article. God did notgrant this one person the ability to tell other people about thefuture, but rather this astrologers/psychics have an uncanny abilitybe able to figure people out by certain questions, or reactions.Society is always looking for answers to unanswerable questions, andthis astrologers/psychics have seen that opportunity and made somemoney out of it. Rather than taking what a magical person with astrange accent has told us, or what a certain website with a nicedesign, or an outdated scientist, we need to open our minds and comeup with our own conclusions.
#3-- The Critical Thinking film, Karma, was a very well put togethershort movie. It depicts perfectly the true meaning of Karma. Variouspeople throughout the movie were doing negative or positive activitiesand then later rewarded with either negative or positive effects,depending on what they did before. In the end when the young gentlemanlooks into his rear view mirror, it seems like a metaphor. He isreflecting on his pass actions, and or behaviors trying to figure outhis future Karma and how he will be rewarded or punished.Karma has always been explained to me as `what goes around comesaround.' As easy as it would be to me to accept Karma I cannot. I am aCatholic, and I am not able to make the correlation that some otherrealm is keeping track of my wrong doings and will later punish me. Howcan we believe that what we do today will affect us in a week, month oryears from now? God is not a scorekeeper, and we are not playing agame. We are simply living our lives day to day, with some days betterthan others.
Week # 3 & 4
#1-- The video staring John Maynard Smith was a bit confusing. AsI was trying to read along, as well as hear the narrative (the wordsdid not correlate with the narrative). Other than that little problemthe film was quite interesting, although it was a little too long.Smith admits that he was raised in a religious family and wasbelieved in religion until he learned about evolution. Smith explainsthat he grew excited after being taught about evolution. Smith feltthat all the answers that plagued him with religion were finallyanswered through Darwinism. Smith strongly believed that oursurroundings shaped humans and well as animals into the creaturesthat they are today.Smith grew up in England decades ago were religion played amajor role in daily life. Everyone attended church, and very few wereatheists. Whatever questions Smith had growing up that wereunanswerable were left up to Faith. This just wasn't good enough forSmith. He states that Darwinism was an "escape from religion."Although Smith mentions that it was difficult giving up his religion,he feels that in the end it was what convinced him more, even morethan his faith. Smith has some very valid, persuasive and strongpoints, if anyone should of turned atheists it should have been, andis John Maynard Smith.
#2-- David G. Willey has examined four demonstrations and made ascientific evaluation of how all four demonstrations do notrequire `magic' or a `special ability.' In The Physics behind fourAmazing Demonstrations, Willey has taken out the mystery in thesefour demonstrations, and left us with nothing but the truthful answeron how these unexplainable acts have a very clear answer behind everysingle one of them. Paul Kurtz argues in Should Skeptical Inquiry beApplied to Religion? that we should be able to venture into religionwith science to see if what most of society believes is truthful.Kurtz argues that we have applied and found answers to variousquestions that we thought were unanswerable before: Willey'sdemonstrations, astronomy, atoms, and even the consciousness of thehuman brain. Still no real progress had been made inapplying "skeptical movement inquiry to religious questions."I disagree with Kurtz, science should not venture intoreligion to try to find answers to centuries old beliefs. In A FieldGuide to Critical Thinking James Lett, explains that the only reasonthat science has not made more progress into religion is that oursociety is not critically thinking. Lett blames mass media, Americanworldviews, and ineffectiveness of public education. Without societycritically thinking there is not enough support to aid the questionsthat religion place on society. In my personal opinion science andreligion should be kept separate, society doesn't not want to findout the truth. Without religion our world would much more chaotic andmiserable. Society needs something to turn to when everything elsehas gone wrong, and when people act like lunatics. Finding answers toeverything doesn't improve the world any more than it already is;Faith above all is what keeps this world turning.
#3-- After viewing the critical thinking film, Eleven, I was overwhelmedwith anger. September 11, 2001 was day that changed life, as we knewit. Five years ago many of us had mixed reactions, anger, hate,sorrow, empathy, and a fear of entering the unknown. Ever since thatvile day many of us have a hard time determining who is the enemy, asbefore we were fighting countries, now we are fighting a small groupof people that has had a misconception of the true word of the Koran;Key word being a small group of people.The United States is known around the globe for have asociety that is lazy and not willing to think critically. This shortfilm shows that precisely. Somia, and the group that he has created,Eleven, has created their own `army' and is now revolting against allMuslims, or people that wear turbans around their head regardless ofany other information. Eleven carries a true characteristic ofAmerican Society, Stupidity. How can anybody believe that Muslims areresponsible for September 11? Because of the overwhelming stupiditythat plagues our country the Muslim people (or even people thatappear Muslim) have suffered, as did the Japanese during World WarII. We know that history repeats itself, you would think that thesecond time around we would be more knowledgably, but rather it seemsthat the second time around we are just continuing to make the same,or even more terrible mistakes.
Week #5
#1-- The video staring Freeman J. Dyson was the best interview video I have watched this semester. I feel so strongly about my views because I can relate more to this video than I can to any other that I have seen for this class. Dyson is a very intelligent man, but it is comforting to know that even he can admit that he doesn’t even have all the answers he “doesn’t know for certainty anything.” I really can relate to many of his views about religion and science. I like the way that he thinks that religion doesn’t always hold all truths and cannot always be correct (according to science) because of the constraints that science places on it, but rather that religion is a way of life. Dyson makes everything quite less simple, just as he made by making similarities between religion and any other organization. His idea of keeping religion and science separate is an idea that I strongly support as well.
Freeman also makes some comments on his discovering of Gaya. He explains that Gaya is similar to a self-regulation system which has discovered life origins. This was a little harder for me to understand, as I am not very familiar with Gaya. Dyson also as an interesting view on the universe, he explains that the universe has its own mind and makes its own choices. He explains the universe as being more intelligent than even the smartest scientist, because no scientist can predict what tomorrow will bring, but the universe can.
#2-- The required reading for this week was rather hard to relate to one another. In the past I was able to make correlations between each article but this time was quite difficult. With the “Pretext, Text, and Context” article I understand why accepting this idea would be vital not only to students but to society as well. How can we expect to become more intellectual as a whole if we cannot even take a reading in front of us and really grasp its true meaning? By really understanding the Pretext which leads to the Text, which consequently leads to the Context we can take any argument that is presented to us and really analyze it and make a knowledgeable evaluation. In the article “Why I am not a Christian” I understood the Context but because I am a true Catholic I was unable to really give his ideas a chance. Without religion our world would be doom, religion gives us a hope that not even the most knowledgeable person in the world is able to give us.
In the article “Faqir Chand Meets the Tibetan Book of the Dead” I was able to relate to some of his ideas more than “Why I am not a Christian.” Chand also explains that there is no religion, and that man is the only real thing that one can count on. Although I do not agree with him on this view; I do agree that many times miracle or enlightenment comes not from a higher being, but from our own minds. That we have infected our minds so deeply with the idea that there are miracles and enlightenments which makes things happen or people come to us merely because of the tricks that our minds plays on us. In the end we cannot support or oppose any idea if we cannot grasp the true context.
#3-- Both critical thinking films were short and straightforward, but hadvast meaning behind them. "The Secret of Faqir" was based on FaqirChand, a very wise gentleman that preached in a dramaticallydifferent way. He challenged all religions and believed in nothing.This film basically focused on the idea that there is no higher beingand that you are responsible for your own life, and your actions. Ourbeliefs are merely `ingrained' upon us, and if we really believe thatthere is a higher being to save us we are very mistaken, becauseafter all life is a `game.'
The short film above depicts much of the same attitude thatwas presented in the second critical thinking film. "Philosophy inForty-Six Seconds" was much more thinking than any other film I haveviewed before. The short film simply consisted of two quotes and aship flying in the sky with the sun in its background. Thisrepresented thought, we all know that this would never happen, butthat's what the whole idea of critical thinking, to think ofsituations or ideas that we never thought about before, or eventhought would ever plague our mind. Both quotes portrayed what Iwrote about above, that the only way to achieve `man's last andhighest parting' is to move away from believing in a higher being,and understand that we are solely responsible for all that happens tous and all that we do. Although I have had a lot of questions aboutreligion, and even some that science or the smartest person cannotanswer, I will always have my faith.
11. Richard Dawkins considers religion to be a “virus of the mind” because similar to a virus duplicating in computers causing thousands of different computers to react identical when exposed to a particular floppy disk or e-mail address; so are children’s brains when exposed to a view that thousands of others share, but their parents or guardians instill in them. Children have no choice when between a mosque and a church, but their parents/guardians do, and they have to power in dictating where, when and who their child prays to who. Just like a computer has no choice in choosing its owner, what websites to view, or what information to store; the owner has all the power in choosing how it will allow its computer to act. Once the “virus” has entered whether it being a human brain or computer, there is no way in stopping what their owner has created, an idea that was forced upon us. An idea that “like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will ten to be hard for their victims to detect.”
I agree with Richard Dawkins, that religion is a “virus,” that many young people only believe what they are told to believe by their parents/guardians, some never knowing or questioning other religions. Many are scared to stand up to the questions that plague their mind, not sharing with their family their true sentiments for fear of rejection or punishment. As long as we have suffering and hatred in this world, we will have religion, and consequently continue to have as Dawkins explains it a “virus of the mind.”
12. Cargo Cult Science is “science that isn’t science.” It is a belief that many people share, but there is overwhelming evidence that makes what they believe untrue. As Feynman states: “they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential.” Such as astrology, astrology promises the un-promise able that just because we were born into a certain category that particular things are going to happen to us based on this category. How can anyone be so naïve to think that this special sign is suppose to tell us our future, and our day-to-day activities? Many times what is promised in horoscopes everyday fails to come true, but we still have an overwhelming amount of people signing on to their computers every morning looking for their horoscope for that day, or calling TV commercials so that an astrologist can tell them about their lives. Many times anxious or excited about what they hear, they just wait and hope that it will come true, never really considering that it will by no means ever come true. Still millions around the world believe that astrology is true and that continue to believe; a perfect example of “cargo cult science.”
13. According to Richard Feynman, one does science by “bending over backwards to show how you’re maybe wrong.” By doing this, Feynman explains that we are going to have bigger and better science, because we are not only showing the results that we would like to share with the world, but the results that were truly conclusive of our findings. “It is our responsibility as scientist, certainly to other scientist, and I think to layman.” This form of science is so important to human beings because is broadens our horizons. Having this form of “integrity” in science is important because it can give us more of an opportunity of finding other results that before we thought were correct. If we want to live in a scientific age, we need to start by publishing “both kinds of results.” This can enrich ones appreciation for beauty because they are able to be free, free to examine what they want, not in the constraints of time, finical support for certain organizations, or the fear of losing your “integrity” by publishing certain findings. Scientists need to be able to venture out and not use out-dated older findings to help them support their findings, but the ability to be able to perform their experiment from the beginning to really find the true result. Scientist also need to be able to take those few numbers that came out different, and see why, rather than disregarding them and pushing them aside, because we all know that this is the easiest way to deal with a problem. We all need to stop fooling ourselves, this consequently leads to fooling others, to be able to give our body of knowledge the useful and truthful knowledge that it needs. This truly is beauty, science that can enrich one’s life without being untruthful.
14. “Karma” was a short film based on the beliefs of the religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. Karma is essentially the idea that your actions determine your destiny. This short film depicted several different stories, each story with something negative being done, and as a result something happens to the person that inflicted negativity first. The idea was portrayed accurately, but Karma is still not convincing. How can anybody believe that just because you do something to somebody else, something is going to happen to you? If a car hits you, it doesn’t mean that some higher being was keeping track of your wrong doings and that particular car hit you because a month earlier you stole some money from a stranger, it simply means that the car didn’t see you and accidentally hit you, bad luck. At the end of the movie, the young man looks in his rear view mirror, symbolizing reflection, he was reflecting on his life, and his wrongdoings to see what his life will bring in the future. As much as I would like to believe that all my positive contributions will be recognized and I will later be rewarded, I do not. Karma is just a simple way of letting go. When in the end we have lost, it is a lot easier to deal with if we know that what they have done wrong will in the end come back to them, because after all “karma: what goes around comes around…bitch.”
15. Darwinian evolution and John Maynard Smith’s contributions are so important because Smith wrote many books in support of Darwinism. Smith follows one simple rule: “that life can be explained by natural selection.” John contributed many great supports to Darwinism, but one of his greatest contributions had to be that of the “game theory in evolution.” He explains that there are many signs in our natural world and with evolution that has led him to believe that an “evolutionary stable strategy” has been developed. He is a strong believer that a species will survive because of his actions, and that the more the species cooperates the greater the payoff, which will eventually led to the species surviving for a longer amount of time. It is evident that most of our biological makeup is made up because our very own species before made great contributions to our species which made our biological makeup that much better.
16. Freeman J. Dyson has views that intrigue many of us; One of them being the “design” of the universe. He explains the universe as being one self. He explains that the universe ultimately makes its own choices and therefore has its own mind. Similar to that of a human, one makes his or her own choices everyday and has a mind of its own which leads us to make those choices. Dyson also explains that the universe is wiser than even the most intelligent scientist, for a scientist is not able to predict the future, but the universe knows what tomorrow will bring. Dyson is not a firm believer of natural selection; he doesn’t believe that life is completely based on being naturally selected. He feels that natural selection does have something to do with it, because we are here, but life isn’t completely based on the idea of natural selection.
17. The secret that Faqir Chand discovered about religion and it’s founders is that all religions are untrue. Religion is only what a disciple has already made up his mind about is now ingraining the disciples ideas into his followers mind. Chand firmly believes that there is no higher being and that “your real helper is your own self.” All that we see as miracles or enlightenment is that of what we project from our own mind, that which we want to see and happen will infect our mind for so long that many times we are enlightened or a miracle happens. The questions that he gives are that of: is it really an enlightened time or is it just simply projects from our mind? Chand was convinced that he was to bring change, that this world is just a game, and that we are merely fools if we believe that “somebody comes from without to help you.”
18. The movie “Eleven” was a very well constructed short film. American has long been know for being “stupid” for taking what is right in front of them as truth and never questioning it. “Eleven” portrays this very well. Somia (in the short film) was the leader of his own army with the goal of trying to rid the world of terrorist; after his father was killed in the September 11 attacks on America. Both of Somia’s victims were not even of Muslim decent, one was a student, who enjoyed wearing turbans, that was returning a book to a library, and the other was the narrator of the film, Josh Williams, he was a reporter that was investigating the mistaken murder at a temple. During his investigation, Somia also murdered him for also mistakenly being a terrorist. The underlying message was that we should not cast judgments on those that look a particular way, and blame them for what has gone wrong. In the past we have made the same mistakes, with the Japanese and so on, but how can we be so naïve and do it again? Many people throughout America have the same views as this Somia group does, our society has grown to be so stupid that many do not understand that it is only a small group of people that caused September 11, and not the Muslim community as a whole. Our society needs to be able to look at information that is being given and not believe everything that they are told, they need to be able to think outside the box and understand that just because a few people have the word of the Koran obscured, doesn’t mean that everyone else that believes the Koran is immoral.
19. Being able to distinguish the message from the median is so important, because without this ability anyone that can construct a knowledgeable argument will be able to convince you. “Simply because one communicates the ultimate truths well does not mean by extension that he is an embodiment of the highest realization.” We need to be able to see what the true message is, and from there be able to identify if what the guru is saying to be true. Many students tend to be “attracted to a particular element” and therefore buy into an organization that he may not even think is truthful. Without being able to separate the medium from the message we will never be able to think for ourselves and much less think critically.
20. Bertrand Russell has many reasons for not being a Christian, but his main reason is that he doesn’t not believe everything that Christians are suppose to, to its fullest. Christianity is many times viewed as “a person who attempts to live a good life.” But if this were the only requirement than everybody would be a Christian. Rather Christianity has a lot of ideas that Russell just can’t accept therefore not making him a Christian. He questions who made him, which leads to who made god? Without the world maybe we wouldn’t of needed a god, but maybe the world didn’t need a god either, but rather was an idea that people made up, and an idea to explain the beginning. Christianity states that “Christ was the best and wisest of men,” then why then did he take teachings that were taught 500 to 600 hundred years ago by Buddha and use it as his own? Without these and many other answers not being answered Russell is compelled to turn away from Christianity. I would have to disagree with Bertrand Russell, he had made some good points in support to why he is no longer a Christian, but just because he has made a couple good points I am unable to turn away from a god that has done so much for me at times of need. Who does Russell turn to when all else has failed and feels as if he is alone in this world? Intelligence can only take you so far, but religion can give you hope and faith for a better tomorrow.
21. Dear Vanessa,
I am taking a Critical Thinking class, and as one of our required readings I had to read an article about Critical Thinking. To my surprise it was very interesting as well as informative. James Lett, the author of the article explains that as a college professor he is very disappointed with his freshman and sophomore students. Rather than critically thinking, they are taught to regurgitate the information given to them. I can totally relate to what Lett is saying, I can remember back when we were in high school, times were easy, we were given information, and rather than being taught to see if it was correct or what we thought about it, we were taught to be able to memorize the information and spit it back on a test. Lett also blames mass media for giving the public garbage information, I not only blame the media for feeding us this garbage, but our society for making it ok to be able to fed us this garbage, and actually like it and increase the networks ratings. Americas views on the world, which also support claims that you, and I know are untrue. This is the greatest country in the world, and yet we struggle to give our young students effective education, memorization and SAT 9 testing is not education. I agree with all of Lett’s ideas, because our society has been plagued by these several stupid beliefs, we are left with a society that cannot critically think. I know that you and I are not like that, and that because of the classes offered, we are able to critical think and analyze situations, and information for ourselves.
22. Yes, Krutz believes that skepticism should be applied to religion. He feels this way because we have applied science to several different aspects, were we thought that science shouldn’t venture, and we thought that we had set our limits, but we had been proven wrong. So, why if we do apply science to everything else we don’t apply it to religion? He even states, that applying science to religion would also make some progress. I would have to disagree with Krutz beliefs that we should apply skepticism to religion. If we apply science to religion society would dismiss the whole idea anyways. We cannot take away the only thing that keeps most of our society going, religion. Without faith and hope that god will save us all from this dreadful world, society would be even crazier than we are today. I hope that for mankinds sake we leave science out of religion, even if we have overwhelming evidence that we can prove the real truth behind century old beliefs.
23. Pretext, Text and Context are important in analyzing a book or argument because it gives you the essentials to be able to determine your side of the argument or if you agree with the book or not. Pretext is what we have been taught from the time that we started to read, how to sound words out to be able to read them to give the word meaning. Text is taken from Pretext, when all this words come together; they form text, which are the contents of the book or argument. Text is then created into Context, which forms the whole meaning for the book or argument. “A pretext can evolve itself into a text which in turn evolves itself into a context.” If I was not able to read the letters that turned into words in the article “Should Skeptical Inquiry be applied to Religion” I would be unable to get the meaning of the text. Without understand the text I would be unable to understand the true meaning of the context. If I wasn’t able to understand the context, I would not only be able to not answer the question before this one, but I would not be able to add this information to my body of knowledge, my brain, and therefore I would not be able to construct a reasonable argument. This is why Pretext, Text and Context are so vital.
24. A “transformative” UFO encounter is that of one that we have assumed we have seen. Many of our visions come from our own impressions of our unconscious mind that has been plagued with ideas that we believe in. As it has been explained “this entire game is that of your impressions and suggestions which are ingrained upon your mind through your eyes and ears of your faith and belief.” It is evident that the author of this article is not completely convinced of the belief of UFOs but rather he believes that whatever sightings we have experienced is because of what we has been ingrained in our minds over time.
25. When using online sources we need to be able to think much more critically than ever before. Previous to the Internet making its way to almost every home in America, we were left with the only source for our information: libraries. Librarians made it their job to locate the information that you had asked from them, and we left the library satisfied, knowing that the information given to us was truthful. Now a days we have the internet, a great source of information. This vast place has turned into some sort of a mess. Anyone, with any idea can also add his or her ideas onto this overwhelming place of information. As students, we need to be able to evaluate the information given to us, to see if it is factual or even useful. With the librarians job at stake we can now have them teach us how to locate accurate information. Before we knew the information was honest, now we can only better educate ourselves to be able to assess the vastness of the information that is readily available for us to use.
4. Lanae Hernandez
5. Occamsrazor: Tinkerbell4424
Blogger: Lanae44
6. Tinkerbell4424@yahoo.com
7. http://tinkerbell4424-mid-term.bloggerspot.com
8. Yes, I have completed all the reading for the first 5 weeks of class.
9. Yes, I have viewed all the films that were required.
10. Week 1 & 2
#1--After viewing the film Critical Thinking in Physics starringRichard Feynman, I am overwhelmed with the idea that we should allmirror his actions. Feynman is such a simplistic man with morals thatour society now lacks. The backbone of his ideas come from theupbringing that he experienced with his father. That many of us lacktoday. He mentioned that as a young child he spent a lot of time withhis father, and his father ultimately taught him to think `outsidethe box.' Feynman shared a story with us about a bird that he oncesaw when walking in the forest with his father, his father told himthe name of the bird in several different languages, but his fatherinsisted that this wasn't important. The central idea was not thename of the bird, but rather to see what the bird was actually doing.Feynman talks about dinosaurs and how his father used to talk to himabout them, but rather than just giving him facts he translated thesefacts into reality that a young child was able to understand. Withthis knowledge that Feynman's father taught him as a young child, hewas able to become drastically successful in life.
Feynman didn't become knowledgeable to become better thananybody, but rather to find solutions to unanswerable questions (orwhat we thought were unanswerable). When awarded with the NobelPrize, he was grateful but not boasting about his award because hethought awards and uniforms were unnecessary, that you should performtasks because they are fun to you. He also stressed that just becauseyou have a uniform or award doesn't make you any better than anybodyelse, because we all have a limited intelligence, including himself!Feynman looked at ordinary things in nature, such as a flower, andsaw so much more that just a flower, but rather was able to visualizecells and the evolution of that particular flower. Today society isalways in a rush and always accomplishing tasks to show that they aremore efficient or better than the other person, forgetting the truemeaning of life, and that it is the little things that make us happy,unique and intelligent in our own way.
#2-- It is evident that America, as a society, has becomecompletely lazy. After reading the four articles from the requiredreading it is evident that many others agree with me. Cargo CultScience by Richard Feyman explains that even our most elitescientists and other knowledge people are `lazy' and many timesdisregard other findings because these findings are too difficult toexplain. We have now made our mind evolve to fool ourselves, becauseit is easier to deal with. Feyman also points out another lazyphenomenon, when performing an experiment, rather than retesting tosee if the older results are correct, we just assume that they areand take there results to correspond with the experiment. Iunderstand that it costs a lot of money to re-perform the experimentfrom the beginning, but if we want the results to come our factual,then we need to perform the experiments in the right way; rather thanbecoming lazy and taking the easy way out! Critical Thinking in anOnline World by Debra Jones also depicts how our society needs tomove away from our lazy state of mind and think a little more. Beforesociety was spoiled. We went to a library, shared with the librarianour assignment and then we were effortlessly directed to the correctsection, with creditable writers. Now times have changed drastically.We are now in a world, were library is not being used as frequentlyas the Internet. The Internet's vastness, and the ease to its accesshave taken over. With those same positive features that the Internethas also have negative aspects. Anyone at anytime can postinformation on the Internet, truthful or not. Now it is up to thelibrarian, as well as teachers to teach their students how to findeffective information. We are not longer in an age were we are handedinformation, and then regurgitate it back to complete our assignment,but rather in an age in which we need to evaluate the informationgiven to us and see if it solves our task at hand. The Internet is avital resource today, and in the future, but it is now up to us tomove away from being lazy, and become independent, as we assess theinformation given and see if it is useful or even truthful.
What is Cold Reading also relates to the articles that I havetalked about above. Society needs to stop taking what is in front ofthem as totally factual and question everything. I am totallyconvinced with everything that was said in this article. God did notgrant this one person the ability to tell other people about thefuture, but rather this astrologers/psychics have an uncanny abilitybe able to figure people out by certain questions, or reactions.Society is always looking for answers to unanswerable questions, andthis astrologers/psychics have seen that opportunity and made somemoney out of it. Rather than taking what a magical person with astrange accent has told us, or what a certain website with a nicedesign, or an outdated scientist, we need to open our minds and comeup with our own conclusions.
#3-- The Critical Thinking film, Karma, was a very well put togethershort movie. It depicts perfectly the true meaning of Karma. Variouspeople throughout the movie were doing negative or positive activitiesand then later rewarded with either negative or positive effects,depending on what they did before. In the end when the young gentlemanlooks into his rear view mirror, it seems like a metaphor. He isreflecting on his pass actions, and or behaviors trying to figure outhis future Karma and how he will be rewarded or punished.Karma has always been explained to me as `what goes around comesaround.' As easy as it would be to me to accept Karma I cannot. I am aCatholic, and I am not able to make the correlation that some otherrealm is keeping track of my wrong doings and will later punish me. Howcan we believe that what we do today will affect us in a week, month oryears from now? God is not a scorekeeper, and we are not playing agame. We are simply living our lives day to day, with some days betterthan others.
Week # 3 & 4
#1-- The video staring John Maynard Smith was a bit confusing. AsI was trying to read along, as well as hear the narrative (the wordsdid not correlate with the narrative). Other than that little problemthe film was quite interesting, although it was a little too long.Smith admits that he was raised in a religious family and wasbelieved in religion until he learned about evolution. Smith explainsthat he grew excited after being taught about evolution. Smith feltthat all the answers that plagued him with religion were finallyanswered through Darwinism. Smith strongly believed that oursurroundings shaped humans and well as animals into the creaturesthat they are today.Smith grew up in England decades ago were religion played amajor role in daily life. Everyone attended church, and very few wereatheists. Whatever questions Smith had growing up that wereunanswerable were left up to Faith. This just wasn't good enough forSmith. He states that Darwinism was an "escape from religion."Although Smith mentions that it was difficult giving up his religion,he feels that in the end it was what convinced him more, even morethan his faith. Smith has some very valid, persuasive and strongpoints, if anyone should of turned atheists it should have been, andis John Maynard Smith.
#2-- David G. Willey has examined four demonstrations and made ascientific evaluation of how all four demonstrations do notrequire `magic' or a `special ability.' In The Physics behind fourAmazing Demonstrations, Willey has taken out the mystery in thesefour demonstrations, and left us with nothing but the truthful answeron how these unexplainable acts have a very clear answer behind everysingle one of them. Paul Kurtz argues in Should Skeptical Inquiry beApplied to Religion? that we should be able to venture into religionwith science to see if what most of society believes is truthful.Kurtz argues that we have applied and found answers to variousquestions that we thought were unanswerable before: Willey'sdemonstrations, astronomy, atoms, and even the consciousness of thehuman brain. Still no real progress had been made inapplying "skeptical movement inquiry to religious questions."I disagree with Kurtz, science should not venture intoreligion to try to find answers to centuries old beliefs. In A FieldGuide to Critical Thinking James Lett, explains that the only reasonthat science has not made more progress into religion is that oursociety is not critically thinking. Lett blames mass media, Americanworldviews, and ineffectiveness of public education. Without societycritically thinking there is not enough support to aid the questionsthat religion place on society. In my personal opinion science andreligion should be kept separate, society doesn't not want to findout the truth. Without religion our world would much more chaotic andmiserable. Society needs something to turn to when everything elsehas gone wrong, and when people act like lunatics. Finding answers toeverything doesn't improve the world any more than it already is;Faith above all is what keeps this world turning.
#3-- After viewing the critical thinking film, Eleven, I was overwhelmedwith anger. September 11, 2001 was day that changed life, as we knewit. Five years ago many of us had mixed reactions, anger, hate,sorrow, empathy, and a fear of entering the unknown. Ever since thatvile day many of us have a hard time determining who is the enemy, asbefore we were fighting countries, now we are fighting a small groupof people that has had a misconception of the true word of the Koran;Key word being a small group of people.The United States is known around the globe for have asociety that is lazy and not willing to think critically. This shortfilm shows that precisely. Somia, and the group that he has created,Eleven, has created their own `army' and is now revolting against allMuslims, or people that wear turbans around their head regardless ofany other information. Eleven carries a true characteristic ofAmerican Society, Stupidity. How can anybody believe that Muslims areresponsible for September 11? Because of the overwhelming stupiditythat plagues our country the Muslim people (or even people thatappear Muslim) have suffered, as did the Japanese during World WarII. We know that history repeats itself, you would think that thesecond time around we would be more knowledgably, but rather it seemsthat the second time around we are just continuing to make the same,or even more terrible mistakes.
Week #5
#1-- The video staring Freeman J. Dyson was the best interview video I have watched this semester. I feel so strongly about my views because I can relate more to this video than I can to any other that I have seen for this class. Dyson is a very intelligent man, but it is comforting to know that even he can admit that he doesn’t even have all the answers he “doesn’t know for certainty anything.” I really can relate to many of his views about religion and science. I like the way that he thinks that religion doesn’t always hold all truths and cannot always be correct (according to science) because of the constraints that science places on it, but rather that religion is a way of life. Dyson makes everything quite less simple, just as he made by making similarities between religion and any other organization. His idea of keeping religion and science separate is an idea that I strongly support as well.
Freeman also makes some comments on his discovering of Gaya. He explains that Gaya is similar to a self-regulation system which has discovered life origins. This was a little harder for me to understand, as I am not very familiar with Gaya. Dyson also as an interesting view on the universe, he explains that the universe has its own mind and makes its own choices. He explains the universe as being more intelligent than even the smartest scientist, because no scientist can predict what tomorrow will bring, but the universe can.
#2-- The required reading for this week was rather hard to relate to one another. In the past I was able to make correlations between each article but this time was quite difficult. With the “Pretext, Text, and Context” article I understand why accepting this idea would be vital not only to students but to society as well. How can we expect to become more intellectual as a whole if we cannot even take a reading in front of us and really grasp its true meaning? By really understanding the Pretext which leads to the Text, which consequently leads to the Context we can take any argument that is presented to us and really analyze it and make a knowledgeable evaluation. In the article “Why I am not a Christian” I understood the Context but because I am a true Catholic I was unable to really give his ideas a chance. Without religion our world would be doom, religion gives us a hope that not even the most knowledgeable person in the world is able to give us.
In the article “Faqir Chand Meets the Tibetan Book of the Dead” I was able to relate to some of his ideas more than “Why I am not a Christian.” Chand also explains that there is no religion, and that man is the only real thing that one can count on. Although I do not agree with him on this view; I do agree that many times miracle or enlightenment comes not from a higher being, but from our own minds. That we have infected our minds so deeply with the idea that there are miracles and enlightenments which makes things happen or people come to us merely because of the tricks that our minds plays on us. In the end we cannot support or oppose any idea if we cannot grasp the true context.
#3-- Both critical thinking films were short and straightforward, but hadvast meaning behind them. "The Secret of Faqir" was based on FaqirChand, a very wise gentleman that preached in a dramaticallydifferent way. He challenged all religions and believed in nothing.This film basically focused on the idea that there is no higher beingand that you are responsible for your own life, and your actions. Ourbeliefs are merely `ingrained' upon us, and if we really believe thatthere is a higher being to save us we are very mistaken, becauseafter all life is a `game.'
The short film above depicts much of the same attitude thatwas presented in the second critical thinking film. "Philosophy inForty-Six Seconds" was much more thinking than any other film I haveviewed before. The short film simply consisted of two quotes and aship flying in the sky with the sun in its background. Thisrepresented thought, we all know that this would never happen, butthat's what the whole idea of critical thinking, to think ofsituations or ideas that we never thought about before, or eventhought would ever plague our mind. Both quotes portrayed what Iwrote about above, that the only way to achieve `man's last andhighest parting' is to move away from believing in a higher being,and understand that we are solely responsible for all that happens tous and all that we do. Although I have had a lot of questions aboutreligion, and even some that science or the smartest person cannotanswer, I will always have my faith.
11. Richard Dawkins considers religion to be a “virus of the mind” because similar to a virus duplicating in computers causing thousands of different computers to react identical when exposed to a particular floppy disk or e-mail address; so are children’s brains when exposed to a view that thousands of others share, but their parents or guardians instill in them. Children have no choice when between a mosque and a church, but their parents/guardians do, and they have to power in dictating where, when and who their child prays to who. Just like a computer has no choice in choosing its owner, what websites to view, or what information to store; the owner has all the power in choosing how it will allow its computer to act. Once the “virus” has entered whether it being a human brain or computer, there is no way in stopping what their owner has created, an idea that was forced upon us. An idea that “like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will ten to be hard for their victims to detect.”
I agree with Richard Dawkins, that religion is a “virus,” that many young people only believe what they are told to believe by their parents/guardians, some never knowing or questioning other religions. Many are scared to stand up to the questions that plague their mind, not sharing with their family their true sentiments for fear of rejection or punishment. As long as we have suffering and hatred in this world, we will have religion, and consequently continue to have as Dawkins explains it a “virus of the mind.”
12. Cargo Cult Science is “science that isn’t science.” It is a belief that many people share, but there is overwhelming evidence that makes what they believe untrue. As Feynman states: “they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential.” Such as astrology, astrology promises the un-promise able that just because we were born into a certain category that particular things are going to happen to us based on this category. How can anyone be so naïve to think that this special sign is suppose to tell us our future, and our day-to-day activities? Many times what is promised in horoscopes everyday fails to come true, but we still have an overwhelming amount of people signing on to their computers every morning looking for their horoscope for that day, or calling TV commercials so that an astrologist can tell them about their lives. Many times anxious or excited about what they hear, they just wait and hope that it will come true, never really considering that it will by no means ever come true. Still millions around the world believe that astrology is true and that continue to believe; a perfect example of “cargo cult science.”
13. According to Richard Feynman, one does science by “bending over backwards to show how you’re maybe wrong.” By doing this, Feynman explains that we are going to have bigger and better science, because we are not only showing the results that we would like to share with the world, but the results that were truly conclusive of our findings. “It is our responsibility as scientist, certainly to other scientist, and I think to layman.” This form of science is so important to human beings because is broadens our horizons. Having this form of “integrity” in science is important because it can give us more of an opportunity of finding other results that before we thought were correct. If we want to live in a scientific age, we need to start by publishing “both kinds of results.” This can enrich ones appreciation for beauty because they are able to be free, free to examine what they want, not in the constraints of time, finical support for certain organizations, or the fear of losing your “integrity” by publishing certain findings. Scientists need to be able to venture out and not use out-dated older findings to help them support their findings, but the ability to be able to perform their experiment from the beginning to really find the true result. Scientist also need to be able to take those few numbers that came out different, and see why, rather than disregarding them and pushing them aside, because we all know that this is the easiest way to deal with a problem. We all need to stop fooling ourselves, this consequently leads to fooling others, to be able to give our body of knowledge the useful and truthful knowledge that it needs. This truly is beauty, science that can enrich one’s life without being untruthful.
14. “Karma” was a short film based on the beliefs of the religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. Karma is essentially the idea that your actions determine your destiny. This short film depicted several different stories, each story with something negative being done, and as a result something happens to the person that inflicted negativity first. The idea was portrayed accurately, but Karma is still not convincing. How can anybody believe that just because you do something to somebody else, something is going to happen to you? If a car hits you, it doesn’t mean that some higher being was keeping track of your wrong doings and that particular car hit you because a month earlier you stole some money from a stranger, it simply means that the car didn’t see you and accidentally hit you, bad luck. At the end of the movie, the young man looks in his rear view mirror, symbolizing reflection, he was reflecting on his life, and his wrongdoings to see what his life will bring in the future. As much as I would like to believe that all my positive contributions will be recognized and I will later be rewarded, I do not. Karma is just a simple way of letting go. When in the end we have lost, it is a lot easier to deal with if we know that what they have done wrong will in the end come back to them, because after all “karma: what goes around comes around…bitch.”
15. Darwinian evolution and John Maynard Smith’s contributions are so important because Smith wrote many books in support of Darwinism. Smith follows one simple rule: “that life can be explained by natural selection.” John contributed many great supports to Darwinism, but one of his greatest contributions had to be that of the “game theory in evolution.” He explains that there are many signs in our natural world and with evolution that has led him to believe that an “evolutionary stable strategy” has been developed. He is a strong believer that a species will survive because of his actions, and that the more the species cooperates the greater the payoff, which will eventually led to the species surviving for a longer amount of time. It is evident that most of our biological makeup is made up because our very own species before made great contributions to our species which made our biological makeup that much better.
16. Freeman J. Dyson has views that intrigue many of us; One of them being the “design” of the universe. He explains the universe as being one self. He explains that the universe ultimately makes its own choices and therefore has its own mind. Similar to that of a human, one makes his or her own choices everyday and has a mind of its own which leads us to make those choices. Dyson also explains that the universe is wiser than even the most intelligent scientist, for a scientist is not able to predict the future, but the universe knows what tomorrow will bring. Dyson is not a firm believer of natural selection; he doesn’t believe that life is completely based on being naturally selected. He feels that natural selection does have something to do with it, because we are here, but life isn’t completely based on the idea of natural selection.
17. The secret that Faqir Chand discovered about religion and it’s founders is that all religions are untrue. Religion is only what a disciple has already made up his mind about is now ingraining the disciples ideas into his followers mind. Chand firmly believes that there is no higher being and that “your real helper is your own self.” All that we see as miracles or enlightenment is that of what we project from our own mind, that which we want to see and happen will infect our mind for so long that many times we are enlightened or a miracle happens. The questions that he gives are that of: is it really an enlightened time or is it just simply projects from our mind? Chand was convinced that he was to bring change, that this world is just a game, and that we are merely fools if we believe that “somebody comes from without to help you.”
18. The movie “Eleven” was a very well constructed short film. American has long been know for being “stupid” for taking what is right in front of them as truth and never questioning it. “Eleven” portrays this very well. Somia (in the short film) was the leader of his own army with the goal of trying to rid the world of terrorist; after his father was killed in the September 11 attacks on America. Both of Somia’s victims were not even of Muslim decent, one was a student, who enjoyed wearing turbans, that was returning a book to a library, and the other was the narrator of the film, Josh Williams, he was a reporter that was investigating the mistaken murder at a temple. During his investigation, Somia also murdered him for also mistakenly being a terrorist. The underlying message was that we should not cast judgments on those that look a particular way, and blame them for what has gone wrong. In the past we have made the same mistakes, with the Japanese and so on, but how can we be so naïve and do it again? Many people throughout America have the same views as this Somia group does, our society has grown to be so stupid that many do not understand that it is only a small group of people that caused September 11, and not the Muslim community as a whole. Our society needs to be able to look at information that is being given and not believe everything that they are told, they need to be able to think outside the box and understand that just because a few people have the word of the Koran obscured, doesn’t mean that everyone else that believes the Koran is immoral.
19. Being able to distinguish the message from the median is so important, because without this ability anyone that can construct a knowledgeable argument will be able to convince you. “Simply because one communicates the ultimate truths well does not mean by extension that he is an embodiment of the highest realization.” We need to be able to see what the true message is, and from there be able to identify if what the guru is saying to be true. Many students tend to be “attracted to a particular element” and therefore buy into an organization that he may not even think is truthful. Without being able to separate the medium from the message we will never be able to think for ourselves and much less think critically.
20. Bertrand Russell has many reasons for not being a Christian, but his main reason is that he doesn’t not believe everything that Christians are suppose to, to its fullest. Christianity is many times viewed as “a person who attempts to live a good life.” But if this were the only requirement than everybody would be a Christian. Rather Christianity has a lot of ideas that Russell just can’t accept therefore not making him a Christian. He questions who made him, which leads to who made god? Without the world maybe we wouldn’t of needed a god, but maybe the world didn’t need a god either, but rather was an idea that people made up, and an idea to explain the beginning. Christianity states that “Christ was the best and wisest of men,” then why then did he take teachings that were taught 500 to 600 hundred years ago by Buddha and use it as his own? Without these and many other answers not being answered Russell is compelled to turn away from Christianity. I would have to disagree with Bertrand Russell, he had made some good points in support to why he is no longer a Christian, but just because he has made a couple good points I am unable to turn away from a god that has done so much for me at times of need. Who does Russell turn to when all else has failed and feels as if he is alone in this world? Intelligence can only take you so far, but religion can give you hope and faith for a better tomorrow.
21. Dear Vanessa,
I am taking a Critical Thinking class, and as one of our required readings I had to read an article about Critical Thinking. To my surprise it was very interesting as well as informative. James Lett, the author of the article explains that as a college professor he is very disappointed with his freshman and sophomore students. Rather than critically thinking, they are taught to regurgitate the information given to them. I can totally relate to what Lett is saying, I can remember back when we were in high school, times were easy, we were given information, and rather than being taught to see if it was correct or what we thought about it, we were taught to be able to memorize the information and spit it back on a test. Lett also blames mass media for giving the public garbage information, I not only blame the media for feeding us this garbage, but our society for making it ok to be able to fed us this garbage, and actually like it and increase the networks ratings. Americas views on the world, which also support claims that you, and I know are untrue. This is the greatest country in the world, and yet we struggle to give our young students effective education, memorization and SAT 9 testing is not education. I agree with all of Lett’s ideas, because our society has been plagued by these several stupid beliefs, we are left with a society that cannot critically think. I know that you and I are not like that, and that because of the classes offered, we are able to critical think and analyze situations, and information for ourselves.
22. Yes, Krutz believes that skepticism should be applied to religion. He feels this way because we have applied science to several different aspects, were we thought that science shouldn’t venture, and we thought that we had set our limits, but we had been proven wrong. So, why if we do apply science to everything else we don’t apply it to religion? He even states, that applying science to religion would also make some progress. I would have to disagree with Krutz beliefs that we should apply skepticism to religion. If we apply science to religion society would dismiss the whole idea anyways. We cannot take away the only thing that keeps most of our society going, religion. Without faith and hope that god will save us all from this dreadful world, society would be even crazier than we are today. I hope that for mankinds sake we leave science out of religion, even if we have overwhelming evidence that we can prove the real truth behind century old beliefs.
23. Pretext, Text and Context are important in analyzing a book or argument because it gives you the essentials to be able to determine your side of the argument or if you agree with the book or not. Pretext is what we have been taught from the time that we started to read, how to sound words out to be able to read them to give the word meaning. Text is taken from Pretext, when all this words come together; they form text, which are the contents of the book or argument. Text is then created into Context, which forms the whole meaning for the book or argument. “A pretext can evolve itself into a text which in turn evolves itself into a context.” If I was not able to read the letters that turned into words in the article “Should Skeptical Inquiry be applied to Religion” I would be unable to get the meaning of the text. Without understand the text I would be unable to understand the true meaning of the context. If I wasn’t able to understand the context, I would not only be able to not answer the question before this one, but I would not be able to add this information to my body of knowledge, my brain, and therefore I would not be able to construct a reasonable argument. This is why Pretext, Text and Context are so vital.
24. A “transformative” UFO encounter is that of one that we have assumed we have seen. Many of our visions come from our own impressions of our unconscious mind that has been plagued with ideas that we believe in. As it has been explained “this entire game is that of your impressions and suggestions which are ingrained upon your mind through your eyes and ears of your faith and belief.” It is evident that the author of this article is not completely convinced of the belief of UFOs but rather he believes that whatever sightings we have experienced is because of what we has been ingrained in our minds over time.
25. When using online sources we need to be able to think much more critically than ever before. Previous to the Internet making its way to almost every home in America, we were left with the only source for our information: libraries. Librarians made it their job to locate the information that you had asked from them, and we left the library satisfied, knowing that the information given to us was truthful. Now a days we have the internet, a great source of information. This vast place has turned into some sort of a mess. Anyone, with any idea can also add his or her ideas onto this overwhelming place of information. As students, we need to be able to evaluate the information given to us, to see if it is factual or even useful. With the librarians job at stake we can now have them teach us how to locate accurate information. Before we knew the information was honest, now we can only better educate ourselves to be able to assess the vastness of the information that is readily available for us to use.
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