FINAL EXAMINATION: summer 2007, Introduction to Philosophy professorDavid C. Lane, Ph.D.Instructions
1. Be sure to place your entire FINAL on your website and when youare finished send a link of yourtest to your teacher directly at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msacphilosophygroup/post?postID=DG4kSIot8BOnckCvMhQGT9Zk_RjLzhQqvEjj2FuZrgqrKanlg2Ml47eXorRiQ-vq2VyyDnv4NhHhEMuPLd2fc8g (don't sendit to any other email address, except that)
2. Make sure that it is YOUR OWN work and that if you use otherauthors please be sure toquote and/or cite the material appropriately. Plagiarism will not betolerated and you will receivean "F" automatically for the examination.
3. The test is due NO LATER than August 3 at midnite.
3a. Each answer should be at least two paragraphs long, if not muchlonger.
3b. What grade do you deserve and why?Answer: A, I got a B on the midterm; I’ll do the extra credit as listed on the website, that will surely bring up the grade. I worked very hard for this class, sometimes I viewed the lectures twice in order to answer the questions properly. ----------------------------------4. What is your
Friday, August 3, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Week 6: Post 3 - Short Film
The film Inner Visions and Running Trains was about Faqir Chand, who was fighting in Iraq. The theme was about believing in something that you didn’t actually experience it. The movie was about consciousness, and how we dream about things we expect, not realizing the reality. Chand had a vision in Iraq to put down his ammunition, which caused their lives saved. Right after that, he started worshipping his guru. He had a strong point, what people believe, is what they would most likely to follow. The third video was really hard to understand, their were more of pictures than quotes or narrative. The theme was that people in India believe in baba’s who cant really satisfy their needs. They pose as part of god who can satisfy human needs. I have seen couple of baba’s video where they are caught doing what they say is a miracle.
Week 6: Post 2 - Reading
A Free Man's Worship by Bertrand Russell. A Free Man's Worship essay was written in 1929. In the essay, Russell talks about how human created this god concept. He states that human found powerful nature, and thus they started worshipping god. He said that we have created this sense that there is life after death, in order to make us feel better. I completely disagree with Russell point of view. I found his views hilarious in a way that makes me feel bad that there are these types of people in the world. But again, this a free will, he can do whatever he likes. But, his aguments make me believe that he is a anti-religion type of peron.
Week 6: Post 1 - Lecture
Daniel Dennett is a philosophy teacher, talked about Daniel Dennett. He has written many books, including Consciousness Explained, Darwin’s Dangerous Ideas and Freedom Evolves. Dannett started off with talking about his latest talks and groups. He also talks in details regarding, natural selection, free-will, life, and consciousness. I did agree with his point of view at some extent. I personally think that the natural selection has some design and purpose. The future is inevitable, it does come, and people predict, but not always predictions come true. He mentions that the free will lacks some of the traditional properties. I found his arguments kind of weird on design and free will.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Week 5: Post 3 - Short Videos
Flame On, the video was about homosexuality and long list of famous people being homosexual such as Plato and Socrates. Those are the best philosophers, but not sure how they can live up with that. The term has become common in the 21st century, but in the previous centuries, people were afraid to go out and admit themselves as one. Not because it was wrong, but because people wont let them live or something. The one quote I really liked from the movie was “We simply don't know what is our best and worst quality”. That is 100% true, we human don’t realize how qualities in order to make use of them. If we just know, what we suppose to do, or even think positive, we can probably become better human being.
The short video was about re-living every moment, every single day of live, again and again. The argument was raised, will you live every moment of life again? For me, I would love, I would love to live my life again, and surely make a difference. Actually, I have thought of this question many times before, but never heard from someone else, like the one in the video. I’m not sure what will be the answer by most of the people, but for me, I can live every moment of life again without getting bored. But, the big question is that, if we live our life again, will we know the future, at this time we did this, and events like graduations, and all the major events that has happened? If, we don’t know this, than it might be a new life, such as the one we are living in now.
The short video was about re-living every moment, every single day of live, again and again. The argument was raised, will you live every moment of life again? For me, I would love, I would love to live my life again, and surely make a difference. Actually, I have thought of this question many times before, but never heard from someone else, like the one in the video. I’m not sure what will be the answer by most of the people, but for me, I can live every moment of life again without getting bored. But, the big question is that, if we live our life again, will we know the future, at this time we did this, and events like graduations, and all the major events that has happened? If, we don’t know this, than it might be a new life, such as the one we are living in now.
Week 5: Post 2 - Reading
On the Genealogy of Morals A Polemical Tract by Nietzsche. Nietzsche starts off by saying that we are very much ignorant in every way. He discussed morality of life, and how small things are bad. He mentioned two type of behaviors we are living with, either good or bad. He also talks about things are being forgotten slowly, that are not suppose to be forgotten, such as reading, people don’t usually practice anymore like they used, maybe because of the time. We have made ourselves so much busy that we don’t have time to do good deeds. Nietzsche state that we have made ourselves to forget things, we do not understand ourselves, and we are just enjoying things to be shown as experienced person.
Peace, Non-violence and Conflict Resolution by Gandhi. Gandhi is a well known idealist, who is known for peace by force of non-violence. People like Martin Luther King Jr, were also inspired by his actions of non-violence. Gandhi states that the nonviolence is a practice for everyone, not only for people in war, but for every regular person on the street. Gandhi proposed a very simple but effective formula that leads toward nonviolence. He shows very common way to fight violence: active force, matchless bravery, and the exercise is faith. Gandhi state that in order to fight violence, is by doing nonviolence, put all the guns down with literally no weapons against the enemies. Everyone can fight each other, they can be stronger than each other, but in his view, if everyone put downs the violence, then its truly democracy.
Peace, Non-violence and Conflict Resolution by Gandhi. Gandhi is a well known idealist, who is known for peace by force of non-violence. People like Martin Luther King Jr, were also inspired by his actions of non-violence. Gandhi states that the nonviolence is a practice for everyone, not only for people in war, but for every regular person on the street. Gandhi proposed a very simple but effective formula that leads toward nonviolence. He shows very common way to fight violence: active force, matchless bravery, and the exercise is faith. Gandhi state that in order to fight violence, is by doing nonviolence, put all the guns down with literally no weapons against the enemies. Everyone can fight each other, they can be stronger than each other, but in his view, if everyone put downs the violence, then its truly democracy.
Week 5: Post 1 - Expert Lecture
The expert lecture by Sam Harris. Harris wrote a well known book The End of Faith. Harris started off apologizing on the lecture might offend people. Then he defined believe, what is believe. He defined it to be “believes are machinery and guidance to our behavior through time”. In his understanding that believes are becoming human suffering to religious people. He points out different religious moderations that are taking place, all of them relate to believes that have become compulsory to follow in society, such as the one Jesus coming to save the world. I could tell by the Harris examples regarding religion and religious believers were related to compatibility issue with science. Religious believers tend to focus on religion, and they believe in what Bible or Quran has to say, and ignoring the fact on finding ourselves in this universe can reveal so much unknowingness which leads towards moderations. One of the strongest points by Harris was that the Bible and Quran believers only believe in their books, which he said are the two books that are most powerful among other books in the world, but following blindly on a religion causes issues, from Harris point of view. It was a very good lecture. I found myself not agreeing with his point of views, but they were good points.
The lecture, Why Turn Vegetarian. First of all, the movie had very good reasons, why to become vegetarian, extremely well developed reasons. One thing I didn’t like about the movie was the killing of animals on screen, that’s horrible. I know that animals do fear, experience death, and want to be free. But, they are in the world to be eaten. There are also good sides to eating meat, such as very enormous amount of calories. It will take more time to eat same amount of calories if the person is veg. Furthermore, there are also bad sided to eating meat, such as fatness and unhealthy food. But that is true, there are more negative facts to eating meat.
The lecture, Why Turn Vegetarian. First of all, the movie had very good reasons, why to become vegetarian, extremely well developed reasons. One thing I didn’t like about the movie was the killing of animals on screen, that’s horrible. I know that animals do fear, experience death, and want to be free. But, they are in the world to be eaten. There are also good sides to eating meat, such as very enormous amount of calories. It will take more time to eat same amount of calories if the person is veg. Furthermore, there are also bad sided to eating meat, such as fatness and unhealthy food. But that is true, there are more negative facts to eating meat.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Week 4: Post 3 - Short Video
“A Glorious Piece of Meat”, well said. The short video was very interesting. One of my favorite quotes from the video was “The soul is nothing more than complex network of neurons”(Crick). Which means that our human brain is extremely to understand how it works. Furthermore, we are clueless in knowing if Neurons comes first, or consciousness. What comes first, the matter or the awareness? If you pick matter, than you already knew it, that why you said matter.
Week 4: Post 2 - Reading
The reading subject was Neural Philosophy. The Astonishing Hypothesis written by Francis Crick in 1994. The Astonishing Hypothesis describes human as nothing more than bunch of nerve cells and molecules working. Crick mentions that we have created this illusion. Another very interesting reading was An Integral Theory of Consciousness by Ken Wilber which explains that the brain and consciousness is a biological phenomenon. Another reading was The Problem of Consciousness by John R. Searle. Searle says the most important scientific discovery would be to answer the following question “How exactly do neurobiological processes in the brain cause consciousness?”. Another good example is intrinsic feature of reality, which describes “physical objects have features that are intrinsic to reality” are all natural science. Moreover, the comparison between the readings would be to say, they basically talked about brain and consciousness. While they were talking about brain consciousness, they had similar theories how brain and reality worked.
Week 4: Post 1 - Lecture
Steven Pinker is a professor at Harvard University on Evolutionary Psychology. He has written couple of books such as How the mind works and The blank slate which are related to psychology and its traditions. One really interesting point he makes is that, the mind is very complex. So, complex that we are unable to understand how we can learn so fast, even faster than robots. Furthermore, he talks about the ideas that are sin, which means that the humans are persuade easily to those ideas. People have choice to fantasize reality or come up with an idea to avoid illusion.
Dr. Gerald Edelman talks about Neural Darwinism. Edelman started off with examining the mind processing techniques. He mentions that the brain is context-sensitive, if you look at it, or listen to some music, the brain tries to detect the motion perception. Edelman does show a robot who was driving itself, and maybe detecting the patterns, or trying to find things what it was programmed for. Edelman shows very interesting points, examples and even some videos. One of my favorite one was the robot playing soccer game against the human, which is very different thing I’ve ever seen. Basically, the robots are working on sequences basic, if it detects the sequence, it does something which is very competitive.
Dr. Gerald Edelman talks about Neural Darwinism. Edelman started off with examining the mind processing techniques. He mentions that the brain is context-sensitive, if you look at it, or listen to some music, the brain tries to detect the motion perception. Edelman does show a robot who was driving itself, and maybe detecting the patterns, or trying to find things what it was programmed for. Edelman shows very interesting points, examples and even some videos. One of my favorite one was the robot playing soccer game against the human, which is very different thing I’ve ever seen. Basically, the robots are working on sequences basic, if it detects the sequence, it does something which is very competitive.
Monday, July 16, 2007
MidTerm
MIDTERM EXAMINATION
SUMMER 2007, Introduction to PhilosophyProfessor David C. Lane, Ph.D.Instructions
1. Be sure to place your entire midterm on your website and when youare finished send a link of your test to your teacher directly at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msacphilosophygroup/post?postID=2amHfsi5JKY5DmcPtGx8RRAZz8QSqhZNmfCeLYRcDgqUquya-fNzZTlTGMAIVIe6IQ2TROurVOumsrxjMQ (don't sendit to any other email address, except that)
2. Make sure that it is YOUR OWN work and that if you use otherauthors please be sure to quote and/or cite the material appropriately. Plagiarism will not betolerated and you will receive an "F" automatically for the examination.
3. The test is due NO LATER than JULY 17 at midnight.----------------------------------4. What is your real name?
SUMMER 2007, Introduction to PhilosophyProfessor David C. Lane, Ph.D.Instructions
1. Be sure to place your entire midterm on your website and when youare finished send a link of your test to your teacher directly at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msacphilosophygroup/post?postID=2amHfsi5JKY5DmcPtGx8RRAZz8QSqhZNmfCeLYRcDgqUquya-fNzZTlTGMAIVIe6IQ2TROurVOumsrxjMQ (don't sendit to any other email address, except that)
2. Make sure that it is YOUR OWN work and that if you use otherauthors please be sure to quote and/or cite the material appropriately. Plagiarism will not betolerated and you will receive an "F" automatically for the examination.
3. The test is due NO LATER than JULY 17 at midnight.----------------------------------4. What is your real name?
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Week 3: Post 3 - Film
The short film had very interesting topic like the reading and the expert lecture had which is evolution. The evolution by Darwin, I think is based on survival from generation to generation. We should know that we have been edited by our parents. The short film, The Fundamentalism is a mental disease which is a photonic narrative. The Darwin’s black box has been critizied of being wrong on the science by many biologists.
Week 3: Post 2 - Reading
The readings were basically related to the evolution which helps us to understand the history of our lives. The theory says that we form ourselves to something we are not, something like monkeys did generation and generation ago. This entire concept began with Darwin’s theory which was first published in 1859. Why do we believe in such theory? Well because, that is the most evaluated and sensible theory that we can probably come up with.
I personally think the evolution theory by Darwin is really incredible and interesting to learn. The most interesting part is that the history of life, which is derived from the pattern from different spices. The evolution has not come in few years, but it has took more than thousands of years to change and it has took tons of process in adoption and modification. Now that we have survived our lives and generations, now we should be called “survival machines”. The best from the readings was the Meme Theory. The meme theory describes human behavior of passing on the thoughts and ideas with brain. We, make others believe in what we think are right, in our case, the other person start believing in same ideas which passes particular behavior.
I personally think the evolution theory by Darwin is really incredible and interesting to learn. The most interesting part is that the history of life, which is derived from the pattern from different spices. The evolution has not come in few years, but it has took more than thousands of years to change and it has took tons of process in adoption and modification. Now that we have survived our lives and generations, now we should be called “survival machines”. The best from the readings was the Meme Theory. The meme theory describes human behavior of passing on the thoughts and ideas with brain. We, make others believe in what we think are right, in our case, the other person start believing in same ideas which passes particular behavior.
Week 3: Post 1 - Expert Lecture
Professor Edward O. Wilson at Harvard University wrote many books, one of them is Social Biology which was one of the Wilson’s best selling which was about biology and social behavior. Wilson mentioned that if we can get into the brain, such as neurons, we can probably figure out human behavior and self conscious and we would be able to track every part of the brain. He also mentions there is no conperiecy in science, the goal of scientist is to make a discovery and even if you found something, you still keep looking.
Richard Dawkins and the strangeness of science at the Oxford. Dawkins, started off with Quantum theory, and Feynman works. Dawkins, did talk about some really interesting stuff, such as what is the war made of, of course atoms. I really like couple of jokes he made throughout the video. Dawkins also mentions the theory of big bang, and why we are here in this universe. Moreover, he talks about, if we understand the quantum theory, and we know that we understood quantum physics, we still don’t have full understanding of quantum theory.
Richard Dawkins and the strangeness of science at the Oxford. Dawkins, started off with Quantum theory, and Feynman works. Dawkins, did talk about some really interesting stuff, such as what is the war made of, of course atoms. I really like couple of jokes he made throughout the video. Dawkins also mentions the theory of big bang, and why we are here in this universe. Moreover, he talks about, if we understand the quantum theory, and we know that we understood quantum physics, we still don’t have full understanding of quantum theory.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Week 2: Post 3 - Short Videos
The short movie, The Little Things That Jiggle, the one main point I can probably point out is that our lives and science relates to each other that we wont be able to produce better living standards without it. Moreover, science and our lives are attached together, waiting for a meltdown “Human beings arefrozen popsicle of light waiting for final illumination on meltdown”. There were different quoates in the video, one of them was “It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid” (Einstein) which means that everyone has the ability to learn and explore which we don’t really know much about.
Gods Do Decompose was hilarious. I was shocked with the title but I kind of liked the background music, it was relaxing. Than after watching the video, I think that it had a good point. Every religion, tells to pray to god, in other words believe in something that your not sure of. The video points out that the god might not exist, or he’s dead in other words. The video had good quotes, “God’s only excuse is that he doesn’t exist” (Stendahi).
Gods Do Decompose was hilarious. I was shocked with the title but I kind of liked the background music, it was relaxing. Than after watching the video, I think that it had a good point. Every religion, tells to pray to god, in other words believe in something that your not sure of. The video points out that the god might not exist, or he’s dead in other words. The video had good quotes, “God’s only excuse is that he doesn’t exist” (Stendahi).
Week 2: Post 2 - Reading
The readings were very interesting. The idea behind all the readings was that we are trying to prove our existence through physics, science, and experiments. First of all, the cosmic inflation which is known as part of the big bang theory which illustrates why the world seems flat. Furthermore, the cosmic inflation suggests that the growth of the early expansion of the universe was exponenetial “due to metric expansion of space” (wikipedia). Second, Was Cosmic Inflation The 'Bang' Of The Big Bang? By A. Guth mentions details of cosmic inflation. One intereting point I learned is that Alexander Friedmann marked the beginning of Big Bang calculations. Alexander evaluated that the universe is expanding.
This article explores Werner Heisenberg had very interesting examples and different ideas. First of all, I really liked the example where the cave man used to his shadow, and not underlying the reality behind it. The article used “Modern physics has been used here as an example or, we may say, as a model to check the results of some important philosophic systems of the past” which shows very strong arguments by Descrates and Kant who are the respectful philosophers.
This article explores Werner Heisenberg had very interesting examples and different ideas. First of all, I really liked the example where the cave man used to his shadow, and not underlying the reality behind it. The article used “Modern physics has been used here as an example or, we may say, as a model to check the results of some important philosophic systems of the past” which shows very strong arguments by Descrates and Kant who are the respectful philosophers.
Week 2: Post 1 - Lecture
Professor Owen Gingerich, Harvard UniversityProfessor Owen Gingerich, Harvard University talking about Astronomy, God, and Jesus. Owen has written couple of books, such as The Eye of Heaven and The Great Copermisuc Chase. Owen starts off with how great the universe is but the unknown purpose of our lives expands the questions of our purpose. Owen than talks about all different kinds of scientific common properties that relates to our daily lives such as oxygen. Owen mentions that “the Universe is easier to comprehend with purpose anddesign”. He also mentions a very interesting idea that we human only look around what we do, which is cause and effect.
Stephen Wolfram and a New Kind of Science: Cellular AutomataStephen Wolfram has written a book, A New Kind of Science. One of the thing he’s mastered at is Math. Stephen, combined math and phsyics to come up with complicated ideas. Not only that, but he also wrote the software that used his mathematics techniques. Furthermore, the software he wronte followed the patterns of the average user makes. What the technique is that, following the pattersn using the software is kind of hard, but the simple and complex level of software do solve many biological problems using math and science. The software is almost same as Lisa Randall example of multiple dimension of/outside the universe. Eventhough we see limited dimension of universe, but there are chances that there is multiple chances. Stephen’s idea expands to even time and space which gets complex possiblities.
Stephen Wolfram and a New Kind of Science: Cellular AutomataStephen Wolfram has written a book, A New Kind of Science. One of the thing he’s mastered at is Math. Stephen, combined math and phsyics to come up with complicated ideas. Not only that, but he also wrote the software that used his mathematics techniques. Furthermore, the software he wronte followed the patterns of the average user makes. What the technique is that, following the pattersn using the software is kind of hard, but the simple and complex level of software do solve many biological problems using math and science. The software is almost same as Lisa Randall example of multiple dimension of/outside the universe. Eventhough we see limited dimension of universe, but there are chances that there is multiple chances. Stephen’s idea expands to even time and space which gets complex possiblities.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Week 1: Post 3 - Films
The short movies Java Philosophy and De Docta Ignorantia both had very different ideas. First off, Java Philosophy, the author throws a question, “Who are you?”. What he/she really trying to do is get us thinking that do we really know ourselves. Moreover, another interesting point is that “I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations,-one can either do this or that. My honest opinon and a friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it—you’ll regret both”, I loved this quote. I think what he says is that we feel that we didn’t make the right decision since we always think back to a situation.
The other short movie, De Docta Ignorantia is by Nicholas of Cusa. The author showed a very interesting point, that is how things relate to each other, such as art pieces or music, and even math in this situation. The short movie dealt with ignorance and intelligence. Furthermore, one of the major points was that we must recognize our ignorance and stupidity. In other words, we must accept the fact we don’t really know whats going on in this world. Personally, my favorite one of both was Java Philosophy, I’m not sure, but I kinda liked that one much better than De Docta Ignorantia.
The other short movie, De Docta Ignorantia is by Nicholas of Cusa. The author showed a very interesting point, that is how things relate to each other, such as art pieces or music, and even math in this situation. The short movie dealt with ignorance and intelligence. Furthermore, one of the major points was that we must recognize our ignorance and stupidity. In other words, we must accept the fact we don’t really know whats going on in this world. Personally, my favorite one of both was Java Philosophy, I’m not sure, but I kinda liked that one much better than De Docta Ignorantia.
Week 1: Post 2 - Reading
The thing that got my attention was study from over 50 philosopher’s interview, who were asked some of the strong dominant questions that most people looking forward to hear and know about it. The Socratic Universe, Interviews with California Philosophers were done by Mt Sac Philosophy group. The question number one was about disagreeing with philosophical tradition. I would say there were many different answers by each philosophers, but one I would choose is that “Fischer (U.C. Riverside): I most disagree with what I would call a literary approach to the answers of the "big questions" because nothing is very clear. I like clarity and precision”. Another one of my favorite questions were asked, does god exist? And again, either people (philosophers) were on one side or another. Finally, I really liked a bright new idea that interviewing dozens of philosophers and put together thoughts which can be compared.
The History of Philosophy had really interesting information such as western philosophy and the most famous philosophers of all time. I’ve heard of few such as Socrates and Plato. Socrates is a ancinet Greek philosopher who basiclly now known as a person who made the foundation of western philosophy. Socrates was helped with information by Plato, another ancient Greek philosopher. Plato’s had thought student about philosophy which afterewards widespread with experiments such as logic.
The History of Philosophy had really interesting information such as western philosophy and the most famous philosophers of all time. I’ve heard of few such as Socrates and Plato. Socrates is a ancinet Greek philosopher who basiclly now known as a person who made the foundation of western philosophy. Socrates was helped with information by Plato, another ancient Greek philosopher. Plato’s had thought student about philosophy which afterewards widespread with experiments such as logic.
Week 1: Post 1 - Expert Lecture
The gravity of light dvd version 2003, by Aldous Huxley. Huxley is a man who had different ideas related to phsycological and technology. What i really like about the documentary is that keeping the mystery about the man what he's really about. Furthermroe, one of the most famous books by Huxley Brave New World which focuses on reproductive technology and biological enginereering; The book was published in 1930's. Huxley mentioned that the future technology will be created by man, but "men himself will be the victem of its technology" (documentary). One of the best part in the documentary was that technology is made for man, but things are now turning around which is odd.
Francis Fukuyama is a professor at George Mason Uni. Fukuyama ha written many essays and few novals related to end of the world type of writings. Furthermore, his one argument point i can point is that current bioengineering is so advancing that human later on life might be able to control their future generations. Another idea i liked about Fukuyama is that human adobt certain ideas that relates to them, such as Japan doing against their human wills would not be successful since its going against human nature. Moreover, the books The End of History And The Last Man and The Great Disruption are both written by Fukuyama which points out the ideas that how history is ending. He also mentions that realality is showing that certain continents and/or countries shows pattern in the history how they have been acting. Another good point from the interview was that "the everyday behavior shapes the ideas from culture" which is adopted from where you live, people around you and other social interactions in daily life.
Francis Fukuyama is a professor at George Mason Uni. Fukuyama ha written many essays and few novals related to end of the world type of writings. Furthermore, his one argument point i can point is that current bioengineering is so advancing that human later on life might be able to control their future generations. Another idea i liked about Fukuyama is that human adobt certain ideas that relates to them, such as Japan doing against their human wills would not be successful since its going against human nature. Moreover, the books The End of History And The Last Man and The Great Disruption are both written by Fukuyama which points out the ideas that how history is ending. He also mentions that realality is showing that certain continents and/or countries shows pattern in the history how they have been acting. Another good point from the interview was that "the everyday behavior shapes the ideas from culture" which is adopted from where you live, people around you and other social interactions in daily life.
Phil 5
I'll continue posting on this blog for a Phil 5 Class which is online class that i'm taking at Mt Sac. From this point, it will be post related to phil 5.
Syed
Syed
Friday, April 20, 2007
Mid Term
Guidelines
1. Be sure to place your entire midterm on your website and when youare finished send a link of yourtest to your teacher directly at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/occamsrazor/post?postID=au1F4_XqO06FwY5Dp_J1lhs-c1VOsRAB2bo3iprsKMqq-QSnSZHVfIKXaCmkDuj93KbSC6VGL93pdAaybQ
2. Make sure that it is YOUR OWN work and that if you use otherauthors please be sure toquote and/or cite the material appropriately. Plagiarism will not betolerated and you will receivean "F" automatically for the examination.
3. The test is due NO LATER than April 3 at midnite.
MIDTERM
4. What is your real name?Answer: Syed
5. What is your "user" name?Answer: syedhussain19876. What is your email address that you use for this class?Answer:
7. Name and address for your website.Answer: Phil 8 http://syedhussain1987.blogspot.com/
8. Have you done all the reading for the first three weeks?Answer: Yes, I did. Initially I had trouble understanding most of the readings. It was kind a hard to understand. But after reading them second time, the ideas were clearer.9. Have you watched each of the films that were required?Answer: Yes, I did.10. Please place here all of the postings you have done for thisclass (you can copy and paste them)
9. http://syedhussain1987.blogspot.com/
11. Why does Richard Dawkins consider religion a "virus" of themind? Do you agree or disagree?Substantiate your view.
Answer: Well, the question would leave you with only two options of course; Agree or disagree. But there could be different and several reasoning behind each of agreement or disagreement. I personally disagree with this theory it may be because I am a bit of a religious person. However, I think considering a brain to be a virus is silly. I think the reason why the children are unfocused is because there is no religion in the school systems or not even religion practice in their home. If someone’s lifestyle is not based on religion, then of course he/she will think of it as a virus in his/her life. Religion makes life organized
As I said earlier, different thinking could lead you to agreement or disagreement. If one thinks religion as a self actualization, then one would definitely agree with the theory that religion is a “virus”. There are several countries who are dominated by religion. There are several laws based on religion. And government enforced these laws for citizens’ protection. If a person from such country agrees with the theory that “religion is a virus”, then isn’t he basically trying to say that all laws enforced by government are viruses? Similarly, one can also think religion as a virus of mind. Even Dawkins considers religion a “virus” because it was created by humans, and the religion controls a human mind. But again, I totally disagree with the theory as my religion always given me independency, guidance, choices, and most valuable thing it gave me to respect everyone, from an infant to elders. And of course, respecting everyone is definitely not a virus
12. Give an example of a "cargo cult" belief and critically analyzeit from a scientific perspective? Hint:think of something that people believe in that lacks overwhelmingevidence to support it.Answer: Cargo Cult, which is also known as group of unorthodox religious movements, is also used in business and science to refer to a particular type of myth. In other words, cargo cults were basically created from the illogical beliefs of individuals. There are several examples of it if it comes to only religious movements. Believing on resurrection, Easter, New Year’s Celebration in different countries are some great examples from only religious perspectives. However, on the other hand, if we take a look into cargo cults related to science perspective, we can still come up with several best examples on which we can debate from days to years and yet not much evidence even after debating about them. There are few of the best examples I would like to point out. The biggest one is Big Bang. Fortunately or unfortunately, but NASA is still into this theory. “Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequentially, leaving a number of tough, unanswered questions.” (http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/universe/b_bang.html). Some other good examples of cargo cults are Aliens and UFO’s. There are varieties of people who really believe on these three examples. There have been programs on TV explaining in detail about them. But still, there is still no solid evidence of any existence. Funny thing is, people are still into these myths and are too eager to find truth and evidences.
13. How does one do "science" according to Richard Feynman? Why isthis form of science so important to human beings? How can such a view of science help enrich one's appreciation for beauty? Be sure to give YOUR own example of Feynman's point (no "flowers" allowed).Answer: Richard Feynman mentions that science is that in which science is so deeply embedded throughout our lives and daily life’s. Feynman’s expresses that like the structure of DNA which is perfect. Another example are Math, which is also most of the time very accurate if you do it right, furthermore, try solving a problem; you will get the result what you expect. I personally think that he is right that the science is used in our daily lives even though we don’t realize to some extent.
14. Give your interpretation of the movie "Karma."Answer: I think Karma was trying to give a message that relates to cause and effect. What we do today or in the current time, that will affect the future. Even though, the movie itself is very short. But one can easily interpret a definite expression because of Karma. Karma is basically the concept of action or deed of an individual. But there are few exceptions in Karma. Like, actions (good or bad) performed by someone in the state of Moksha do not really create karma. Therefore, not all actions of an individual can be said Karma.
The movie “Karma” also reminded me one of the best Bollywood’s movie “Moksha” which has several incidents of Karma. Like the movie Karma, which basically explained thoroughly in just few minutes that whatever you do bad will receive badly in return. Of course everyone will die one day. But no one would like to get hit by a car or killed by the girlfriend.
15. Explain, in brief, Darwinian evolution and why John MaynardSmith's contribution is important inthinking differently about survival of the fittest.Answer: Darwinian evolution is known for non-existing creator. That means there is no god, every man, monkey, or fish were born by their common ancestor. John Maynard Smith contributed to evaluation theory so much that he has set standards how we learn today. According to Wikipedia “as many more individuals of each species are born than can possible survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety, will tend to propagate in its new and modified form”. I think by analyzing what is the purpose, social behavior and other good stuff leads us to new theories but also leads us to many problems with questions left.
16. What are Freeman Dyson's views on the "design" of the universeor the purpose of humakind?Answer: Freeman Dyson’s best statement towards life is; "Life doesn't make sense unless you believe in some kind of purpose." If we try to elaborate more of his thinking about mankind, life and the universe, it is not very hard to say that he exclaimed the universe to be a direct connection to the mankind.
Dyson had also said, “Religion is an observance not a belief.” I personally contradict with the statement. The biggest reason of my contradiction is if religions were an observance, then humankind would not stick with one religion and they would have followed several religions at the same time.
Dyson’s statement about science and religion but not neglecting universe: “Science and religion to be two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson). One may find his statement very affirmative if one’s not too much into religion. However, I personally disagree with the statement about religion. Almost every religion explain that why we are here in this universe. And finally, “do you think we are wise enough to read God’s mind?” is his simply the best expression on the question that what is the meaning or purpose of life? Well, I think that if we just focus on and try to determine the meaning or purpose of life instead of reading God’s mind, we are wise enough to find the answer ourselves.
17. What IS the "secret" that Faqir Chand discovered about religion
and its founders?
Answer: Faqir Chand's words rebel against his culture by claiming that gurus sell themselves as the gatekeepers to enlightenment. That what makes the difference is how we as individuals feel about what we have experienced in our life, what our impressions are and what suggestions we might have. This has a lot to do with our life styles and what we have grown up to see and hear. It is what you have decided to put your faith in and what you choose to believe. Onece he said in his interview "People say that my Form manifests to them and helps them in solving their worldly as well as mental problems, but I do not go anywhere, nor do I know about such miraculous instances."(http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/chand.html). He accepts that he doesn’t do any miracles but he proceeds in a way that people get thinking that he did a miracle.
18. Explain the movie Eleven and what is YOUR interpretation of it?In other words, what is the underlying message that thedirector is trying to convey?Answer: The message was that nice people or people who are doing the job correctly don’t always get the result what they expected. People who don’t do their job or what they’re not suppose to be doing, always causes problems. This movie is the one of the greatest short movies I have ever seen, and for some reason I still remember it. In “Eleven”, we observed a journalist who is researching the death on a racial irritated killing. Furthermore, the major message in the movie was that the hate crimes and hatred is a blind and outrageous view people hold.
19. Why is distinguishing the message from the medium so important?Use the Da Free John article as your context.Answer: Da Free John, is convincing towards his message. His good styles in writing are accepted among his followers. When trying to find truths in a message, particularly from a medium, it is easy to be swayed to the wrong direction. One, who is searching for answers, is usually innocent to believe anything, just to have his/her concerns or problems solved. It is easy to mix the medium and the message, when you can’t separate the two. When you receive a “message” it’s usually because you’re looking for an answer. Many religious organizations today promote false teachings. Their members have been misused in an effort to control their lives. They have also been overly concerned with money collections, this goes back to honesty. The person who is searching for an answer must know common knowledge of what he/she searching for exactly. If the person has no clue what is the right answer, than they are easily fooled with wrong information.
20. What are Bertrand Russell's reasons for NOT being a Christian?Do you agree or disagree with him? GIVE RATIONAL ARGUMENTS FOR your position (pro or con).Answer: Bertrand Russell’ reasons for NOT being a Christian has a very long list of arguments. Russell said that man can never fully understand god, world, or even himself. That is the main reason Russell not being a Christian. He also said that if Christianity was true, it would’ve made more sense to him. He doesn’t understand that how god became so infinitely powerful. Another major argument is “If God created man then who created God?” If you find faults in Christ, then you can’t be a Christian. A true Christian is a full believer in Christ. Russell has many doubts in Christianity and all the Christ believes. I think that he’s too negative towards Christianity. If he really wants to be a Christian than he should leave his scientific thinking and think positive towards Christianity.
21. Give a summary of Jim Lett's field guide to critcal thinking (inyour own "300" words, no more). Don't use quotes but write it like aletter to a friend explain how to think critically in light of Lett's numerous points.Answer: Jim Lett states that we are responsible for our sources of information and if the information is reliable or not. We live in a world that internet is so powerful that can manipulate the true image of a story. He used the term “FLCHRS” where F stands for falsifiabililty, L for logic, C for comprehensiveness, H for honesty, R is for replicability and S stands for sufficiency. Think of this as a falsifiability of a true claim, once you try to find something wrong about truth, you already thinking differently and thinking in depth of a true claim. If one is making statements they need to have factual evidence to support their claims.
22. Why does Kurtz believe that skepticism should be applied toreligion? Do you agree or disagree?Answer: I kind of agree with Kurtz. Skeptical inquiry should be applied to all human fields. That is the only way to bring up the true without mystification or fairy tales. I personally think we should do research to some extent, so we can find some pure scientific evidence. If they start changing beliefs or doing things I don’t agree with, I will do my own research into this faith and find the truths or falsities myself. My religion is very open and teaches me to study everything.
23. Why is pretext, text, and context important in analyzing a bookor an argument. Provide your own example.Answer: Pretext always helps the reader to understand the text better. Context is like an assistant to that of the text. This has been standardized in books and serves us superbly. The pretext servers us good too organizes information for future reference. Organization is a great method of categorizing it into a simple form. Pretest helps us understand details of the text what we might don’t know.
24. What is a "transformative" UFO encounter and does the author ofthe Himalayan Connection really believe in UFOs as genuineexraterrestials?Answer: The UFO sighting are minds illusions that get us thinking that we actually seen UFO. If there is any UFO, I bet our smart scientist would’ve proved it long time ago. Where ever UFO sightings have been reported, were nothing more than falling stars or disguised military operations. A “transformative” UFO encounter is when there isn’t any physical proof for a UFO encounter, but “there are symbols emerging from a separate ontological ground of consciousness.” The author of this article doesn't seem to believe in UFO's. He states several times that there has to be an explanation for the things seen. The only explanation I can think of is military operations.
25. How does one think more critically when using online sources?(Hint: think of one of the required articles). Substantiate yourviews.Answer: I think the online sources articles provides so much information that can make us think further, or even provide so much useful information that can help us think critically in depth of a subject. With so much information on click of a button or browsing through informational sites, it’s hard to identify the truth and reliable information. You can’t always document what you find on the Internet. When going into a library and using the systems there, you have a better and more accurate source of reliable data. Besides, on the internet, anyone can post information that can be misleading and the reader most of the time might not even catch it.
26. What are Steven Weinberg's views on religion? Do you agree ordisagree?Answer: I completely disagree with Steven Weinberg’s views; I think he goes too far criticizing religion: “Religion is an insult to human dignity”. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” “A religion may assert that the universe is governed by that sort of God (designer), rather than some other sort of God, and it may offer evidence for this belief, but it cannot explain why this should be so”. (Wikipedia) To him, physics has a better explanation for the universe than religion. Besides, I was reading his family history; they had similar thoughts about religion.
27. Why is Sam Harris an atheist? Explain his reasons. Can you argueagainst his views? If so, how?Answer: He has most of the points really good; religions are getting too complex with negative publicity with their own religion. Actually it’s not people’s fault, but really are those extremist who think they can change the world with their evil things. However, Harris’s argument that religion is hypocritical is understandable because religion asks us to believe in it blindly. The one weakness in his argument is that God doesn’t exist through science and that is not possible without the support of practical evidence. Therefore, He did make his choice, and I personally believe that religion has many good things and without flaws.
28. Of the first five installments of BEYOND BELIEF which speakerdid you find most persuasive? Explain why.Answer: The event Beyond Belief was held by group of scientist, philosophers, and political commentators. Krause was persuasive as spoke and clarified the arguments that I thought were interesting. One of the strong points from Krause was that science provokes individuals to further develop and analyze their opinions through their experiments and their own resources. Beside, all the fighting between science and religion supporters, I think they should complement each other, since they can’t prove each other wrong.
29. Ken Miller argues against Michael Behe's notion of irreduciblecomplexity and the notion of intelligent design in biology. Is heright? If so, explain. If not, give your reasons why not.Answer: Ken Miller, explained in order to make complex theories, we must come up with simpler version first. If we try to jump and do complex stuff, we are surely going to have difficulties. Starting off with simpler version of the work, most of the time makes it easier. I totally agree with him. Miller’s strongest point was that of molecular structure. I personally think that Miller is honestly the one with the better argument because he has stated that through his demonstration to re-human and ape chromosome prove the evaluation factor.
Furthermore, I feel in intelligent design is an argument suitable for religious arguments. Science and religious arguments will never work together because of the foundations of their origin. Not only that, but the believers of religion and science believers won’t come together.
30. In the conference BEYOND BELIEF, which speaker did you find tobe the weakest in terms of substance? ExplainAnswer: I liked almost every one of them, the reason I might choose one because of my vocabulary, my vocabulary is not that good. But, to be honest, I didn’t like Steven Weinberg remarks on religion. For example, especially that comment against religion “Religion is an insult to human dignity, without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” (wikipedia). His, instant, aggression towards religion made his views seem weak. The truth is, I don’t know why he felt his views were right, because he focused on how “wrong” religion was instead of telling us why his views were right.
1. Be sure to place your entire midterm on your website and when youare finished send a link of yourtest to your teacher directly at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/occamsrazor/post?postID=au1F4_XqO06FwY5Dp_J1lhs-c1VOsRAB2bo3iprsKMqq-QSnSZHVfIKXaCmkDuj93KbSC6VGL93pdAaybQ
2. Make sure that it is YOUR OWN work and that if you use otherauthors please be sure toquote and/or cite the material appropriately. Plagiarism will not betolerated and you will receivean "F" automatically for the examination.
3. The test is due NO LATER than April 3 at midnite.
MIDTERM
4. What is your real name?Answer: Syed
5. What is your "user" name?Answer: syedhussain19876. What is your email address that you use for this class?Answer:
7. Name and address for your website.Answer: Phil 8 http://syedhussain1987.blogspot.com/
8. Have you done all the reading for the first three weeks?Answer: Yes, I did. Initially I had trouble understanding most of the readings. It was kind a hard to understand. But after reading them second time, the ideas were clearer.9. Have you watched each of the films that were required?Answer: Yes, I did.10. Please place here all of the postings you have done for thisclass (you can copy and paste them)
9. http://syedhussain1987.blogspot.com/
11. Why does Richard Dawkins consider religion a "virus" of themind? Do you agree or disagree?Substantiate your view.
Answer: Well, the question would leave you with only two options of course; Agree or disagree. But there could be different and several reasoning behind each of agreement or disagreement. I personally disagree with this theory it may be because I am a bit of a religious person. However, I think considering a brain to be a virus is silly. I think the reason why the children are unfocused is because there is no religion in the school systems or not even religion practice in their home. If someone’s lifestyle is not based on religion, then of course he/she will think of it as a virus in his/her life. Religion makes life organized
As I said earlier, different thinking could lead you to agreement or disagreement. If one thinks religion as a self actualization, then one would definitely agree with the theory that religion is a “virus”. There are several countries who are dominated by religion. There are several laws based on religion. And government enforced these laws for citizens’ protection. If a person from such country agrees with the theory that “religion is a virus”, then isn’t he basically trying to say that all laws enforced by government are viruses? Similarly, one can also think religion as a virus of mind. Even Dawkins considers religion a “virus” because it was created by humans, and the religion controls a human mind. But again, I totally disagree with the theory as my religion always given me independency, guidance, choices, and most valuable thing it gave me to respect everyone, from an infant to elders. And of course, respecting everyone is definitely not a virus
12. Give an example of a "cargo cult" belief and critically analyzeit from a scientific perspective? Hint:think of something that people believe in that lacks overwhelmingevidence to support it.Answer: Cargo Cult, which is also known as group of unorthodox religious movements, is also used in business and science to refer to a particular type of myth. In other words, cargo cults were basically created from the illogical beliefs of individuals. There are several examples of it if it comes to only religious movements. Believing on resurrection, Easter, New Year’s Celebration in different countries are some great examples from only religious perspectives. However, on the other hand, if we take a look into cargo cults related to science perspective, we can still come up with several best examples on which we can debate from days to years and yet not much evidence even after debating about them. There are few of the best examples I would like to point out. The biggest one is Big Bang. Fortunately or unfortunately, but NASA is still into this theory. “Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequentially, leaving a number of tough, unanswered questions.” (http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/universe/b_bang.html). Some other good examples of cargo cults are Aliens and UFO’s. There are varieties of people who really believe on these three examples. There have been programs on TV explaining in detail about them. But still, there is still no solid evidence of any existence. Funny thing is, people are still into these myths and are too eager to find truth and evidences.
13. How does one do "science" according to Richard Feynman? Why isthis form of science so important to human beings? How can such a view of science help enrich one's appreciation for beauty? Be sure to give YOUR own example of Feynman's point (no "flowers" allowed).Answer: Richard Feynman mentions that science is that in which science is so deeply embedded throughout our lives and daily life’s. Feynman’s expresses that like the structure of DNA which is perfect. Another example are Math, which is also most of the time very accurate if you do it right, furthermore, try solving a problem; you will get the result what you expect. I personally think that he is right that the science is used in our daily lives even though we don’t realize to some extent.
14. Give your interpretation of the movie "Karma."Answer: I think Karma was trying to give a message that relates to cause and effect. What we do today or in the current time, that will affect the future. Even though, the movie itself is very short. But one can easily interpret a definite expression because of Karma. Karma is basically the concept of action or deed of an individual. But there are few exceptions in Karma. Like, actions (good or bad) performed by someone in the state of Moksha do not really create karma. Therefore, not all actions of an individual can be said Karma.
The movie “Karma” also reminded me one of the best Bollywood’s movie “Moksha” which has several incidents of Karma. Like the movie Karma, which basically explained thoroughly in just few minutes that whatever you do bad will receive badly in return. Of course everyone will die one day. But no one would like to get hit by a car or killed by the girlfriend.
15. Explain, in brief, Darwinian evolution and why John MaynardSmith's contribution is important inthinking differently about survival of the fittest.Answer: Darwinian evolution is known for non-existing creator. That means there is no god, every man, monkey, or fish were born by their common ancestor. John Maynard Smith contributed to evaluation theory so much that he has set standards how we learn today. According to Wikipedia “as many more individuals of each species are born than can possible survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety, will tend to propagate in its new and modified form”. I think by analyzing what is the purpose, social behavior and other good stuff leads us to new theories but also leads us to many problems with questions left.
16. What are Freeman Dyson's views on the "design" of the universeor the purpose of humakind?Answer: Freeman Dyson’s best statement towards life is; "Life doesn't make sense unless you believe in some kind of purpose." If we try to elaborate more of his thinking about mankind, life and the universe, it is not very hard to say that he exclaimed the universe to be a direct connection to the mankind.
Dyson had also said, “Religion is an observance not a belief.” I personally contradict with the statement. The biggest reason of my contradiction is if religions were an observance, then humankind would not stick with one religion and they would have followed several religions at the same time.
Dyson’s statement about science and religion but not neglecting universe: “Science and religion to be two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson). One may find his statement very affirmative if one’s not too much into religion. However, I personally disagree with the statement about religion. Almost every religion explain that why we are here in this universe. And finally, “do you think we are wise enough to read God’s mind?” is his simply the best expression on the question that what is the meaning or purpose of life? Well, I think that if we just focus on and try to determine the meaning or purpose of life instead of reading God’s mind, we are wise enough to find the answer ourselves.
17. What IS the "secret" that Faqir Chand discovered about religion
and its founders?
Answer: Faqir Chand's words rebel against his culture by claiming that gurus sell themselves as the gatekeepers to enlightenment. That what makes the difference is how we as individuals feel about what we have experienced in our life, what our impressions are and what suggestions we might have. This has a lot to do with our life styles and what we have grown up to see and hear. It is what you have decided to put your faith in and what you choose to believe. Onece he said in his interview "People say that my Form manifests to them and helps them in solving their worldly as well as mental problems, but I do not go anywhere, nor do I know about such miraculous instances."(http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/chand.html). He accepts that he doesn’t do any miracles but he proceeds in a way that people get thinking that he did a miracle.
18. Explain the movie Eleven and what is YOUR interpretation of it?In other words, what is the underlying message that thedirector is trying to convey?Answer: The message was that nice people or people who are doing the job correctly don’t always get the result what they expected. People who don’t do their job or what they’re not suppose to be doing, always causes problems. This movie is the one of the greatest short movies I have ever seen, and for some reason I still remember it. In “Eleven”, we observed a journalist who is researching the death on a racial irritated killing. Furthermore, the major message in the movie was that the hate crimes and hatred is a blind and outrageous view people hold.
19. Why is distinguishing the message from the medium so important?Use the Da Free John article as your context.Answer: Da Free John, is convincing towards his message. His good styles in writing are accepted among his followers. When trying to find truths in a message, particularly from a medium, it is easy to be swayed to the wrong direction. One, who is searching for answers, is usually innocent to believe anything, just to have his/her concerns or problems solved. It is easy to mix the medium and the message, when you can’t separate the two. When you receive a “message” it’s usually because you’re looking for an answer. Many religious organizations today promote false teachings. Their members have been misused in an effort to control their lives. They have also been overly concerned with money collections, this goes back to honesty. The person who is searching for an answer must know common knowledge of what he/she searching for exactly. If the person has no clue what is the right answer, than they are easily fooled with wrong information.
20. What are Bertrand Russell's reasons for NOT being a Christian?Do you agree or disagree with him? GIVE RATIONAL ARGUMENTS FOR your position (pro or con).Answer: Bertrand Russell’ reasons for NOT being a Christian has a very long list of arguments. Russell said that man can never fully understand god, world, or even himself. That is the main reason Russell not being a Christian. He also said that if Christianity was true, it would’ve made more sense to him. He doesn’t understand that how god became so infinitely powerful. Another major argument is “If God created man then who created God?” If you find faults in Christ, then you can’t be a Christian. A true Christian is a full believer in Christ. Russell has many doubts in Christianity and all the Christ believes. I think that he’s too negative towards Christianity. If he really wants to be a Christian than he should leave his scientific thinking and think positive towards Christianity.
21. Give a summary of Jim Lett's field guide to critcal thinking (inyour own "300" words, no more). Don't use quotes but write it like aletter to a friend explain how to think critically in light of Lett's numerous points.Answer: Jim Lett states that we are responsible for our sources of information and if the information is reliable or not. We live in a world that internet is so powerful that can manipulate the true image of a story. He used the term “FLCHRS” where F stands for falsifiabililty, L for logic, C for comprehensiveness, H for honesty, R is for replicability and S stands for sufficiency. Think of this as a falsifiability of a true claim, once you try to find something wrong about truth, you already thinking differently and thinking in depth of a true claim. If one is making statements they need to have factual evidence to support their claims.
22. Why does Kurtz believe that skepticism should be applied toreligion? Do you agree or disagree?Answer: I kind of agree with Kurtz. Skeptical inquiry should be applied to all human fields. That is the only way to bring up the true without mystification or fairy tales. I personally think we should do research to some extent, so we can find some pure scientific evidence. If they start changing beliefs or doing things I don’t agree with, I will do my own research into this faith and find the truths or falsities myself. My religion is very open and teaches me to study everything.
23. Why is pretext, text, and context important in analyzing a bookor an argument. Provide your own example.Answer: Pretext always helps the reader to understand the text better. Context is like an assistant to that of the text. This has been standardized in books and serves us superbly. The pretext servers us good too organizes information for future reference. Organization is a great method of categorizing it into a simple form. Pretest helps us understand details of the text what we might don’t know.
24. What is a "transformative" UFO encounter and does the author ofthe Himalayan Connection really believe in UFOs as genuineexraterrestials?Answer: The UFO sighting are minds illusions that get us thinking that we actually seen UFO. If there is any UFO, I bet our smart scientist would’ve proved it long time ago. Where ever UFO sightings have been reported, were nothing more than falling stars or disguised military operations. A “transformative” UFO encounter is when there isn’t any physical proof for a UFO encounter, but “there are symbols emerging from a separate ontological ground of consciousness.” The author of this article doesn't seem to believe in UFO's. He states several times that there has to be an explanation for the things seen. The only explanation I can think of is military operations.
25. How does one think more critically when using online sources?(Hint: think of one of the required articles). Substantiate yourviews.Answer: I think the online sources articles provides so much information that can make us think further, or even provide so much useful information that can help us think critically in depth of a subject. With so much information on click of a button or browsing through informational sites, it’s hard to identify the truth and reliable information. You can’t always document what you find on the Internet. When going into a library and using the systems there, you have a better and more accurate source of reliable data. Besides, on the internet, anyone can post information that can be misleading and the reader most of the time might not even catch it.
26. What are Steven Weinberg's views on religion? Do you agree ordisagree?Answer: I completely disagree with Steven Weinberg’s views; I think he goes too far criticizing religion: “Religion is an insult to human dignity”. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” “A religion may assert that the universe is governed by that sort of God (designer), rather than some other sort of God, and it may offer evidence for this belief, but it cannot explain why this should be so”. (Wikipedia) To him, physics has a better explanation for the universe than religion. Besides, I was reading his family history; they had similar thoughts about religion.
27. Why is Sam Harris an atheist? Explain his reasons. Can you argueagainst his views? If so, how?Answer: He has most of the points really good; religions are getting too complex with negative publicity with their own religion. Actually it’s not people’s fault, but really are those extremist who think they can change the world with their evil things. However, Harris’s argument that religion is hypocritical is understandable because religion asks us to believe in it blindly. The one weakness in his argument is that God doesn’t exist through science and that is not possible without the support of practical evidence. Therefore, He did make his choice, and I personally believe that religion has many good things and without flaws.
28. Of the first five installments of BEYOND BELIEF which speakerdid you find most persuasive? Explain why.Answer: The event Beyond Belief was held by group of scientist, philosophers, and political commentators. Krause was persuasive as spoke and clarified the arguments that I thought were interesting. One of the strong points from Krause was that science provokes individuals to further develop and analyze their opinions through their experiments and their own resources. Beside, all the fighting between science and religion supporters, I think they should complement each other, since they can’t prove each other wrong.
29. Ken Miller argues against Michael Behe's notion of irreduciblecomplexity and the notion of intelligent design in biology. Is heright? If so, explain. If not, give your reasons why not.Answer: Ken Miller, explained in order to make complex theories, we must come up with simpler version first. If we try to jump and do complex stuff, we are surely going to have difficulties. Starting off with simpler version of the work, most of the time makes it easier. I totally agree with him. Miller’s strongest point was that of molecular structure. I personally think that Miller is honestly the one with the better argument because he has stated that through his demonstration to re-human and ape chromosome prove the evaluation factor.
Furthermore, I feel in intelligent design is an argument suitable for religious arguments. Science and religious arguments will never work together because of the foundations of their origin. Not only that, but the believers of religion and science believers won’t come together.
30. In the conference BEYOND BELIEF, which speaker did you find tobe the weakest in terms of substance? ExplainAnswer: I liked almost every one of them, the reason I might choose one because of my vocabulary, my vocabulary is not that good. But, to be honest, I didn’t like Steven Weinberg remarks on religion. For example, especially that comment against religion “Religion is an insult to human dignity, without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” (wikipedia). His, instant, aggression towards religion made his views seem weak. The truth is, I don’t know why he felt his views were right, because he focused on how “wrong” religion was instead of telling us why his views were right.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Week 6: Post 3 - CRITICAL THINKING FILMS
The Zahir by Jorge Borges, was kind a weird film. First i didnt get the real purpose, i did watch it twice. I think what happened was the coin (Zahir) "suppose" to bring bad luck or someting. I think what really happened was that there was some mind controlling thing going on. When that guy gets a coin from th bar, right after that he starts acting weird and seeing some sort of objects that are not true. At the end, he said that there was god behind that coin.
Week 6: Post 2 - ASSIGNED READINGS
Richard Dawkins is a professor and a scietist. He talks about frequently asked questions, basicly questions that have been asked numerous times. One of the questions is "What do you feel is the purpose of evolution?" Professor mentions that their is no purpose in being passed down the genes. The genes are passed without any meanings, that means they survive on their own.
I personally think, that is true that the genes are passed without any purpoe. They basiclly survive on their own just like we "human" do. There is another interesting question that how chimpanzees and human have same types of dna. In the question there is also percentage of sharing same dna. The professor goes ahead and explains that it doesnt matter if they are sharing same dna. Further more, I personally think that is amazing that we share same dna.
I personally think, that is true that the genes are passed without any purpoe. They basiclly survive on their own just like we "human" do. There is another interesting question that how chimpanzees and human have same types of dna. In the question there is also percentage of sharing same dna. The professor goes ahead and explains that it doesnt matter if they are sharing same dna. Further more, I personally think that is amazing that we share same dna.
Week 6: Post 1 - EXPERT LECTURE
DNA and the Brain by Dr James D. Watson, that is pretty awesome that he discovered DNA structure at the age of 23. He has wrote number of books and he works at the leading scientist research. Looks like a man who accomplished alot. His life was changed with a photograph is Maples. He mentioned that within months of working on DNA theory or project, he accomplished double helix. I actually looked up on wikipedia about this video, Watson is in the history.
I really like when he mentions that dont afraid of asking help. There are people who can do certain things way better, if you just ask them, it will faster the process of what your doing. Than he goes on explaining nature vs. nature, than cure vs. nature. I liked his jokes through out the video. Further more, he talks about roma, genes, and our life. He also tells how study of dna can cure the disease such as autism. Autism is a most extreme of its kind.
I really like when he mentions that dont afraid of asking help. There are people who can do certain things way better, if you just ask them, it will faster the process of what your doing. Than he goes on explaining nature vs. nature, than cure vs. nature. I liked his jokes through out the video. Further more, he talks about roma, genes, and our life. He also tells how study of dna can cure the disease such as autism. Autism is a most extreme of its kind.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Week 5: Post 1 - EXPERT LECTURE
John Polkinghorne is a scientist and mathematician. He's been involved with natural theology. Natural Theology is theory that tries to find proofs of god's existence. Polkinghorne tell's about what he thinks of god existence, he says that the human can understand so much of the nature and life. He also mentions that the universe is a transparent. He also talked about all god things and how its hard to think details what god really is.
John also says that no one has seen god. There might forms of god something like beauty and nature. But he also says that he doesn't know the answer to that question. He also mentions what god can do or what he cant. There is a god of love, and there is a god who cant do something in particular. He talks about all kinds of gods nature.
Syed
John also says that no one has seen god. There might forms of god something like beauty and nature. But he also says that he doesn't know the answer to that question. He also mentions what god can do or what he cant. There is a god of love, and there is a god who cant do something in particular. He talks about all kinds of gods nature.
Syed
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Week 4: Post 3 - Observe
Both video's that were shown during the video, were showing the blessings of "Sai Baba". The clip showed some clear evidence about how fake that guy is. He is jsut wanna be a guru. Like Lane mentioned, there is a patern to what he does. I noticed that pattern three times during both videos.
The pattern is that he shakes his hand more than once before handing in the blessing or whatever. Sai Baba also takes something out from the envelop he had in both videos or he takes something out from his sleeves. I couldnt catch that for sure, since the video was not clear. But anyhow, he does not make or produces mericles dude, that's way off, if someone really belived in that.
Post 3
Week 4
http://elearn.mtsac.edu/dlane/saivideo1.html
The pattern is that he shakes his hand more than once before handing in the blessing or whatever. Sai Baba also takes something out from the envelop he had in both videos or he takes something out from his sleeves. I couldnt catch that for sure, since the video was not clear. But anyhow, he does not make or produces mericles dude, that's way off, if someone really belived in that.
Post 3
Week 4
http://elearn.mtsac.edu/dlane/saivideo1.html
Week 4: Post 2 - Reading
I couldnt get the first article or the first reading assignment, it kept saying, the page cannot be displayed. In second reading assigment Edgar Cayce, he mentioned things about skeptic. We humen, look at things in much simiplifer form, we dont think about things how its being produced or who made it. For example, we dont thing of creator of vegitables while we're eating one. The best way to evaluate is to check things in details, question about or even think deep, how its being done or what is the process.
The third article was really interesting story about David Lane, ou professor. I didnt even know what Eckankar was, so i had to look up in teh dictionary. Its really interesting life or i should say story that this guy wrote about Lane, how he was obsessed with Lane's work nad how they hunged out together. I didnt konw Lane got life threaten calls, thats very different from professors i've known. But this was a really interesting story.
Syed
Phil 8
Week 4
Post 2
The third article was really interesting story about David Lane, ou professor. I didnt even know what Eckankar was, so i had to look up in teh dictionary. Its really interesting life or i should say story that this guy wrote about Lane, how he was obsessed with Lane's work nad how they hunged out together. I didnt konw Lane got life threaten calls, thats very different from professors i've known. But this was a really interesting story.
Syed
Phil 8
Week 4
Post 2
Week 4: Post 1 - Professor Mark Juergensmeyer
That's some really different point of view to look at the things or the war going on iraq. Mark had an interview with number of Sunni Clergy about what they thought of war between Iraq and America. What i got from the video was that, people who actually experiening the war or hard times can only describe the different or give actual point of view, whats really going on. Even in India, sort of civil war, there are always politician involved, they're the one of the main issues.
Mark also mentioned how all the muslims thought about whats really going on, and what they thought why "America" is doing this. They had similar answers, that islam is always targetted. I really like how Mark mentioned so many different examples and point of views that showed what could be really happening. Politician show way different mask what's truely not going on. The point was we dont really know whats going on in this world of ours, how its being taken over by politician.
Mark also mentioned how all the muslims thought about whats really going on, and what they thought why "America" is doing this. They had similar answers, that islam is always targetted. I really like how Mark mentioned so many different examples and point of views that showed what could be really happening. Politician show way different mask what's truely not going on. The point was we dont really know whats going on in this world of ours, how its being taken over by politician.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Week 3: Post 3 - CRITICAL THINKING
The issue that was raised in the video was which religion or which guru to follow. The both videos in which Fqir and Cusa didnt belive in any religion, and they came up with their own sort of religion that their is no god or guru. They didnt belive in any god, something like science tells. I personally think thats pretty dull.
When someone says that their is no god or religion has to be followed, the first thing comes up in my mind is that they dont have a real life. They dont have a purpose to live for. They are self taking care of "people". I'm not saying thats wrong, but everyone has an opinon. If they say their is no god, they can belive in it, its not like everyone is going at the same dull direction.
Week 3
Post 3
When someone says that their is no god or religion has to be followed, the first thing comes up in my mind is that they dont have a real life. They dont have a purpose to live for. They are self taking care of "people". I'm not saying thats wrong, but everyone has an opinon. If they say their is no god, they can belive in it, its not like everyone is going at the same dull direction.
Week 3
Post 3
Week 3: Post 2 - Nicholas of Cusa
I kind a liked the way author was going back and forth within an essay giving all sorts of examples, that i think some were not relevant. But, i liked those examples.Basically the reading talked about brain and its consciousness. I literally didnt underand what was really going on in the reading. But the author also talked about universe and how its multi dimensional. The autoher also talked about obvious way to understand a book, that would be by reading it carefully and undertnadings each word, sentence, paragraphs, and when was this book written?
Bertrand Russell, talked about why he's not a Christion, he explained that just having a good, and pure life, doesnt make someone a Christian. They must have some sort of believes in the existance of god and there is someone controlling the universe. They should also have knowledge of jesus and other most common factors to become a christian. I think those are some interesting facts that you must follow in order to become christian.
Syed
Week 3
Post 2 - Reading
Bertrand Russell, talked about why he's not a Christion, he explained that just having a good, and pure life, doesnt make someone a Christian. They must have some sort of believes in the existance of god and there is someone controlling the universe. They should also have knowledge of jesus and other most common factors to become a christian. I think those are some interesting facts that you must follow in order to become christian.
Syed
Week 3
Post 2 - Reading
Week 3: Post 1 - Expert Lecture
The expert started off talking about the weird world of micro's and quntum, how its how for a normal person to understand. What i kind a liked when they talked about three different mind levels, those are humen mind, micro mind, and universe level mind. The quantum physics says that no one can predict whats going to happen tomorrow, today or after a million year, thats what mind makes a decisions of.
Quantum process or quantum theory, i personally didnt get what is that, the interviewer and Dyson, didnt perticularly mentioned what exactly is quantum process. They touched different points such as mind and connecting those to universe, freewill, micros, and macros overall. They also talked about how religious believes might be able to connect to qunatrum theory.
Syed
Week 3
Post 1
Quantum process or quantum theory, i personally didnt get what is that, the interviewer and Dyson, didnt perticularly mentioned what exactly is quantum process. They touched different points such as mind and connecting those to universe, freewill, micros, and macros overall. They also talked about how religious believes might be able to connect to qunatrum theory.
Syed
Week 3
Post 1
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Week 2: Post 3 - Film
I think that is so true, people who dont do anything bad, they still get shocking result. The guy who wanted to be a reported, he was doing some honest and trying to spread out the truth, but things dont always go as planned. I think gangster or haters should stop hating on muslim religion. Not, every single muslim are terrorist. They have families, friends, and regular life just like rest of us.
I think the blame should be on mass media, they put together things that is not true at some point. People with psycho disorders do something like this. I really think not entire nation or city cant be bad, its usually group of people, like in the movie, where gangsters killed the poor guy. What will be the result? People will start saying that "Long Beach" has gangster who killed that poor guy. And the community will start thinking of long beach as a ganster community, because of those wannabe's.
Week 2
Post 3
I think the blame should be on mass media, they put together things that is not true at some point. People with psycho disorders do something like this. I really think not entire nation or city cant be bad, its usually group of people, like in the movie, where gangsters killed the poor guy. What will be the result? People will start saying that "Long Beach" has gangster who killed that poor guy. And the community will start thinking of long beach as a ganster community, because of those wannabe's.
Week 2
Post 3
Week 2: Post 2 - Reading
David G Willey, starts off with explaining how to teach effectively to students and the best way to do is to get their attention and their interest. Than he explains how to walk on broken glass, the way he explained is to make really small pieces and make sure their isnt any pieces sticking up. He explains further about Dipping Fingers in Molten Lead, Breaking a Concrete Block and picking up hot tile. I think those are some really interesting facts that not many people know the secret of.
Paul Karts talks about science and religion as together. I personally think science and religion can never come together because science needs every single experiment must be proven to become a theory. On the other hand, religion does not needs to be proven, its a firm believe that people rely on. Usually the way it is setup in this world, people who believe in science dont usually go with religion and people who are used to Bible and Quran, they dont believe in science.
Week 2
Post 2
Syed
Paul Karts talks about science and religion as together. I personally think science and religion can never come together because science needs every single experiment must be proven to become a theory. On the other hand, religion does not needs to be proven, its a firm believe that people rely on. Usually the way it is setup in this world, people who believe in science dont usually go with religion and people who are used to Bible and Quran, they dont believe in science.
Week 2
Post 2
Syed
Week 2: Post 1 - Expert Lecture
John Maynard Smith, is a person with visionary who can explain to people how evaluation and compare evaluation with different things and convince them. He didnt talk much when the int reviewer asked about Smith's childhood. Smith is a strong does not believe in creation and he's not sure if their is a purpose in life or not.
I personally think in the video, the words he was using were very complex ed. I think he should've words that can be understood without having whole lot of experience in evaluation. Both the person who interviewed and Smith, talked and referred to Darwin theories such as mystery of conscious. I really liked when he admitted what he doesnt know and refering to something else that might be possible.
Ken Miller, is an interesting person, now i know who wrote those biology books. He is correct that we take advantage of scientific experiments inseated of giving credit and complements to their work, but i personally think the science sometimes goes too far. He talked about Juges decision about creation and intelligence design and how it was approved in 1987.
Syed
Post 1
Week 2
I personally think in the video, the words he was using were very complex ed. I think he should've words that can be understood without having whole lot of experience in evaluation. Both the person who interviewed and Smith, talked and referred to Darwin theories such as mystery of conscious. I really liked when he admitted what he doesnt know and refering to something else that might be possible.
Ken Miller, is an interesting person, now i know who wrote those biology books. He is correct that we take advantage of scientific experiments inseated of giving credit and complements to their work, but i personally think the science sometimes goes too far. He talked about Juges decision about creation and intelligence design and how it was approved in 1987.
Syed
Post 1
Week 2
Friday, March 9, 2007
Week 1: Post 3 - Karma
Karma
The definition for karma is whatever the person do today will determine the person's feature. We make some awful mistakes that sometimes result in non-predictable destiny. It's not that bad, but things happen in just seconds. Like someone said "What goes around comes back around". I personally believe, if you do something bad to someone, similar thing will happen to you.
I strongly believe in doing the right thing and being honest, no matter how bad the thing is. If you lie, you keep on going and things get worst. The short film strongly makes his point that dont do awful mistakes that benift for a very short term. When people get mad or go out of their mind, they make some unpleasnt deeds.
Syed
The definition for karma is whatever the person do today will determine the person's feature. We make some awful mistakes that sometimes result in non-predictable destiny. It's not that bad, but things happen in just seconds. Like someone said "What goes around comes back around". I personally believe, if you do something bad to someone, similar thing will happen to you.
I strongly believe in doing the right thing and being honest, no matter how bad the thing is. If you lie, you keep on going and things get worst. The short film strongly makes his point that dont do awful mistakes that benift for a very short term. When people get mad or go out of their mind, they make some unpleasnt deeds.
Syed
Week 1: Post 2 - Reading
CARGO CULT SCIENCE by Richard Feynman
It's really impressive how he talks about minor details of a topic. It's hard to prove if something doesn't happen every time when it is tried. For example, the guy who could bent the keys by just rubbing, when Richard investigated, the guy who could bent the keys couldn't do it. So its hard to prove when theories don't work.
When doing a science experiment, it is always to write down everything even though something suppose to work or its not working properly. It's not what you think, its what you can prove it by doing it again and again and coming up with same results. In a scientific experiment, things dont always work right, most of the time scietist study for a long period of time before coming up with a theory.
Syed
It's really impressive how he talks about minor details of a topic. It's hard to prove if something doesn't happen every time when it is tried. For example, the guy who could bent the keys by just rubbing, when Richard investigated, the guy who could bent the keys couldn't do it. So its hard to prove when theories don't work.
When doing a science experiment, it is always to write down everything even though something suppose to work or its not working properly. It's not what you think, its what you can prove it by doing it again and again and coming up with same results. In a scientific experiment, things dont always work right, most of the time scietist study for a long period of time before coming up with a theory.
Syed
Week 1: Post 1 - Reaction piece to the expert lecture
Week 1
Post 1
Phil 8
Richard Feynman showed some really interesting points, first starting off with flower example that when a insect is attracted by a flower, its the beauty or the colors they're attracted too. Richard, was telling when we look at the flower, what we see is the outline, we don't usually look deep into it, even though that part has more beauty to it.
Richard is a really talented man. He looks at thinks in details that normal person dont usaully do. He studied whatever interested him for fun. He was also offered a job related to nuclear bomb. After years of work and experiments, he won a nobel prize. He studied neutron, protons and other sceientific theory.
Syed
Post 1
Phil 8
Richard Feynman showed some really interesting points, first starting off with flower example that when a insect is attracted by a flower, its the beauty or the colors they're attracted too. Richard, was telling when we look at the flower, what we see is the outline, we don't usually look deep into it, even though that part has more beauty to it.
Richard is a really talented man. He looks at thinks in details that normal person dont usaully do. He studied whatever interested him for fun. He was also offered a job related to nuclear bomb. After years of work and experiments, he won a nobel prize. He studied neutron, protons and other sceientific theory.
Syed
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
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