midterm

Real Name:Jodie Wims
user name: jodie_1219
email:jodie_1219@yahoo.com

11. Richard Dawkins considers religion to be a virus of the mind because it is something "implanted" in us by our parents or family around us. This is usually done at a young age when our minds are easily subjected to absorb whatever is fed into it. I wouldnt say I disagree completely. Most of us do grow up believing whatever religion we happen to be is the right one. There is no choice or alternate view until your'e old enough to make that discovery on your own. For most people it's hard to give up something we've held on to so long, so in that sense, it is like a virus because it's just in us and many times it's hard to make it go away. At the same time, I think it's nice to have something to believe in. In many cases, it can make you a better person. So I wouldn't go as far as to call it a "virus" because that would make it sound like it was a bad thing.

12. One example of a Cargo Cult Science could be superstitous beliefs. For example, my grandmother strongly believes that if her purse ends up on the floor, then she will have money problems. So under no circumstances is her purse ever to be on the floor. One of the only times she ever yelled at me was when i put her purse on the floor just temporarily so I could move something. Of course she's had money problems here and there just like anyone else but they cant be linked to her purse being on the floor. It isn't something that happens instantly so how can it be proven? And when she is in good financial standing, I dont hear her owing it to her purse NOT being on the floor. Also to refer back to the "virus" analogy, I now have a fear of putting my purse on the floor as well, even though I know how ridiculous the claim is!

13. Richard Feynman talks about going beyond the surface and really trying to find things out. To find out the reasons why things happen and how makes everything much more interesting and beautiful as well. One really appreciates what is happening in nature when they fully understand what is going on and how complex nature can be. For example, the growth of a baby during pregnancy. So many changes are occuring at every moment to transform a tiny cell into full human life. When you understand the process and steps that happens before a baby is born, it makes the experience so much more worth the wait.

14. The movie Karma gives a quick look at life and consequences. Bad things done in life come back eventually in some way or another and good things come to those who do no harm. Whether or not this is true cannot be proven but many people believe in it regardless. It's seems to be easily falsifiable because there are numerous occasions when bad things happen to good people. There are probably even more incidents where incredibly good things happen to people full of evil. Karma is a nice thing to believe in because it can make you become a better person but it doesnt seem to be totally accurate.

15. John Maynard Smith was not afraid to turn away from his faith and in that sense he was able to take a more scientific approach to the evolutinary theory and come up with his own theories. He believed that only after one turns away from religion is he free to ask questions and figure out different answers without holding back because religous fears.

16. Freeman Dyson believes that you cant understand life and the universe without having some sort of faith. He thinks that science and religion can be compatable and one does not have to choose one or the other. God is beyond our understanding but with faith and facts we can begin to learn

17. Faqir learned that faith and belief comes from within yourself. No outside force can truly make you believe. It is something that develops in your own mind and in that sense you are your own helper.

18. Eleven talks about our thoughts about others and what happens when we think our way is the only right way. When it comes to something we dont understand fully, we tend to react in an undesirable way. For those who dont know much about muslim culture, and who also have hostility towards muslims because of certain events, understanding and patience can be difficult. The members of the group eleven must have had it in their heads that they were doing a good deed by ridding the world of muslims. This irrational way of thinking is the same reason why terrorists decided it would be a good idea to crash some planes into the twin towers. Those who lash out against innocent muslims are no better than the terrorists who started all the hostility in the first place.

19. People can sometimes get caught up in the medium when really, the message should be their only concern. Sometimes there is confusion when taking in a message from someone. The message can be so powerful that the person relaying the information can be seen as great and powerful as the message. This is usually not true. People who try to live their life like someone who "talk a good talk" will be sadly dissapointed in most cases. Many of these people who speak positive things still do alot of negative in life as well. If we look at these people as role models and think that everything they do in life reflects living life by their message, then the point of the message is lost. People are merely following other people instead of taking in the words and living thier own life.

20. Bertrand Russell had plenty reasons for not being a christian. The most imortant one probably is that he didnt believe that jesus was one wisest and virtuous men. He was among others according to Russell, who probably deserved more regocnition. There were also things about hell and bad things happening to good people that Russell didnt feel added up to the type of world God would create. I agree with some of his points. There are plenty of things inthe bible that i question as well and it makes me wonder if all of it is true. But I wouldnt go as far to say that I'm not a Christian. I believe in God but i think man has played his part in some of things we have come to believe, such as things written in the bible. Therefore, i would say i am a christian but not a firm believer of everything that the church puts out there.

21. This six step guide is to help decipher whether or not a claim is realor not. FiLCHeRS stands for Falsifiability, Logic, Comprehensiveness,Honesty, Replicabilty and Sufficiency. Falsifiabilty is interestingbecause in order to prove something is true, there must be a way todisprove it as well. For example, i cant make a scientific claim abouta dream i had because there is no way to prove that i did or didn'thave that dream. Logic talks about evidence being sound. Drawingconclusions from incomplete information can result in unsound or invalid answers. That leads to comprehensiveness which says that allevidence must be presented, which ties into honesty. One must presental information and accept the conclusion honestly. Replicability has to do with any previous claims or experiments having to dowith the current claim. Tests should be repeated to obtain the same conclusions before being able to move on.

22. Kurtz believes that skepticism should be applied to religion in a historical sense. That is , for religous claims that are made, there should be record of investigation for validity purposes. I agree. I think science can play an important role in religion for certain aspects. Such as dating artifacts that date back to when jesus was alive. There is scientific evidence that jesus existed. That does alot for our faith. Whether or not people want to acknowledge him as the son of God is up to them. Science can only go so far in the religous aspect but nevertheless it can play an important role

23. Simply knowing letters or knowing how to read does not mean that you can truly understand what a book is about. Most of us can read out loud but there are also some that do not actully comprehend what the words are coming together to form. So knowing all three parts of the book ( text, pretext, and context) is imperative for full comprehension.

24. A transformative UFO encounter is one that happens during consciousness and can seem more real than actual life. However, Scientists compare it to hallucinations. The author does seem to think that there may be some chance that UFo's actually exist but according to current evidence it doesnt seem likely.

25. When using online sources, it is hard to differentiate real from fabrication. One must really know how to critically decide what the actual facts are. Also, when looking for information online, there is a big difference from looking in a library. Libraries have everything categorized and somewhat easy to find. The internet has information scattered all over the place which can make it difficult to decide which way to go in search of the right anwers.

26. Steven Weinberg's view on religion is non existent. He feels that science has the answers to everything. since there is no scientific evidence of there being a god, then according to Weinberg, there must not be one. He seems to be a fact based person and strongly believes in evolution rather than intelligent design.

28. In contrast to Weinberg, I felt the best speaker came on after he did. I couldnt really catch his name but he is the speaker from session 2. He talked about earlier contributors to science such a gallileo and newton. He stresses that there can be science and religion and one doesnt have to choose between the two. He talks about galileo who actually was a religious man but he recieved bad looks from the church because of what he was trying to prove. The point that is trying to be made in this lecture was that religion was different from science and didnt have to be compared. One can read and believe in the bible which states how the universe was created but it doesnt explain how the universe works. Science is a different field that religion and doesnt have to be integrated.

29. In Ken miller's discussion, he talks about how the evolution theory has a bad reputation simply because people believe that it goes against religious views. Miller argues that the idea of evolution must be critically considered as should all aspects of science. After all, many of the things we learn in science are simply theories and should not be thought of any differently than the evolution one. I do agree with his views on intelligent design which would be that intelligent design has no real data proving its accuracy. The big controversy between science and religion doesnt have to be such a complicated one. People can have religous beliefs but it doesnt change scientific fact. Science is great for understanding how things work and not necessarily how they were created in the first place.

week 2 post 7

himalayan connection '

I honestly dont think i understood this article. I know it was talkingabout UFO's and how to categorize alleged findings, but I think therewas something more to it than that but i just didnt catch it. The termpiano cover kept showing up and at first i thought it was a type errorbut then i realized it prob meant something but i didnt know what. It'shard to do a reading when your'e not sure what's really going on. Sorry

week 2 post 6

eleven

This film brought back alot of memories of 9/11 for me. It showed theridiculous ways of thinking people started doing after the terroristsattack. Mostly out of fear, some people started having a bad lookouton the muslim community. This was also because people didnt understandanything about the culture. I understand that people were angry andhurt over the loss of loved ones for no apparent reason. However, thisdoes not permit careless and reckless behavior against an entirecommunity of innocent people.Having a negative racist view on muslim people is just as bad asterrorists making innocent americans pay for whatever governementissues had occured. We didnt deserve it and neither do they. I wouldhope that by now people have a better view of whats really going on andnot just going by what they see or what other people are telling them.It time to start thinking smarter and for ourselves and getting moreinvolved with the issues.

week 2 post 5

field guide to critical thinking

This six step guide is to help decipher whether or not a claim is realor not. FiLCHeRS stands for Falsifiability, Logic, Comprehensiveness,Honesty, Replicabilty and Sufficiency. Falsifiabilty is interestingbecause in order to prove something is true, there must be a way todisprove it as well. For example, i cant make a scientific claim abouta dream i had because there is no way to prove that i did or didn'thave that dream. Logic talks about evidence being sound. Drawingconclusions from incomplete information can result in unsound orinvalid answers. That leads to comprehensiveness which says that allevidence must be presented, which ties into honesty. One must presental information and accept the conclusion honestly. Replicability hasto do with any previous claims or experiments having to dowith thecurrent claim. Tests should be repeated to obtain the same conclusionsbefore being able to move on.

week 2 post 4

skeptical inquiry and religion

The question is posed: Should skeptical inquiry be applied toreligion? I really think it can't and probably shouldnt. I like thepoint the author made about comparing science and religion. He said itwas like comparing science and sports or science and music. They justarent' the same. Religion is more of an expressive uplifting field.It's not something that can be defined as true or false.

The article does, however, talk about science being applied to religionin a historical sense. Religous and historical events that have takenplace can be proved with scientific evidence. It doesnt make everyaspect of a religion true. For instance, there is evidence ofartifacts that can be scientifically dated back to the days of jesus.So it can be proven that jesus did exist but how can science prove thathe was the son of God? The point is science and religion can worktogether at times but for the most part are two completely seperatethings.

week 2 post 3

Four amazing physics demonstrations are revealed in this article. Thisone reminds me of the cold reading article. You have this idea of howcool or great something is then after you find out how its done, itjust diminishes the excitment for you. Having never taking a physicsclass, some of the concepts were still not clear to me after reading.However, for the most part it seems to make sense. The bed of nailstrick was the most intriguing for me. Of course, this trick is donecarefully with certain types of nails and making sure weight is evenlydistributed. I did find it interesting though, that the person couldstill get hurt if the person hitting the hammer swings a little toohard. That is still a risky chance to take, depending on someone elseto hit it just right.

I assume the point of the article was to get you to realize that thereis a logical answer to everything. There aren't any "magic" tricksand things can just seem mystical when you dont know what's going on.This article encourges you to not be fooled and to find out as much asyou can then critically consider the information. This keeps us frombeing fooled into something easily avoided.

week 2 post 2

intelligent design

I am really starting to get interested in this whole debate onevolution and the battle between science and religion. It's quitethe heated debate. Ken miller argues in this lecture aboutintelligent design and how it stands up against evolution. He makessome very good points in his lecture but i think his main goal is forpeople to stop criticizing the evolution theory. Yes, there areplenty of facts to support it but of course it will always be seen asa theory. As is plenty of other aspects of science but none with suchcontroversy as evolution. He points this out by showing stickersplaced on biology books that warn readers that these books containinformation on evolution but should be read with an open mind andcritically considered. Miller argues that the warning should beplaced for the entire science field. Anything contained in thosebooks is science theories based on facts and should always beapproached with an open mind. Singling out evolution makes it seemlike everything else stated in a science textbook is true. This ofcourse is not nescessarilly the case.

The other part of the film that really interested me was the skitabout The theory of evolution and inteligent design both explainingthier points of view and finding out at the end that they pretty muchsound the same except the intelligent design theory sounds likethere's no real support behind it; just magic. Even though I foundthe skit humorous, i still felt bad because I felt that they weremaking fun of a religious standpoint. I feel like the morescientific the world get, the less room there is to be a person offaith.

week 2 post1

john maynard smith

Growing up in a private school setting, I was always told that theevolution theory was something scientists came up with to prove thatthere was no god or higher being. If i considered myself a Christianthen evolution must just be a theory to me and I shouldnt haveanything to do with it. However, in my college years i(and plentyother students most likely) have found that many things I havelearned up through high school are not exactly true.

John Maynard Smith had this same sort of religous upbringing until heread Darwin's evolutionary theory. He then realized that there werealternative ways of thinking and for him, that was a great relief.He often questioned things about his original way of thinking butfrom a religous standpoint, the answers only go so far. Also, mostpeople of faith are told that it is wrong to question and that yourfaith should just lead you blindly. Now Smith had something in frontof him that made more sense and something he could investigatefurther.

While I do think its great that Smith learned what else was outthere, I still feel a bit sorry for him for turning away from faithcompletley. I consider myself a person of God and although I amlearning about new theories and facts, it doesnt take away my heart.I still believe in God but maybe there are some things that need tobe considered or changed. Otherwise we might still be debating onthe earth being flat or round.

week 1 post 6

critical thinking in an online world

This article was hard to follow but it focused on the proffesion ofthe librarian and how the internet has affected it. Many of us willprobably never step foot in a library again. The internet is themain source for information, not to mention the fastest. before theinternet, people depended on libraries to get the information theyneeded for research, book reports, or just reading for personalenjoyment. Now all the information you need is right at yourfingertips.

Inside the library, there are also librarians there to help you findthat book you're looking for or to point you in the right directionfor your research paper. This seems almost unessescary now that allwe have to do is google a few words and find more than enoughinformation to get through what needs to be done. But this doesn'thave to be the case. Librarians can still be of great use to us.Sometimes the answers aren't right there in front of us. We oftenneed to go beyond the minimum expectations and see what else we canfind. Thats where the librarian comes in. They can help usdistinguish between the right and wrong information.

The internet is an open market for anyone to put whatever they wantup for the world to see. THis doesnt make it accurate. So we cantjust believe everything we read. A librarian can help us criticallyanalyze what is being read and filter out things that are false ornot helpful to the goal one is trying to reach. So even thoughinformation is easier to get nowadays, it doesnt make your work mucheasier. There is still the task of better judgement, which many ofus do not have, but the librarians are always there to help.

week 1 post 5

cargo cult science

This article was a bit humorous. There were several different topicsthat Feynman touched on but all with one central theme or idea: thingsare not always what they seem and that we need to take a scientificapproach to things in order to not fool ourselves. The people of theSouth Seas who tried to replicate something in order to get planescarrying goods to land again, obviously did not take a scientificapproach to things. One person probably suggested that if they re-created the scene of when the planes landed the first time then surelythey would return again. This must of sounded like a great idea toeveryone else so they all went along with it and trully believed thatthis theory had to be right without even testing it or putting it upagainst other ideas.

Our society has a tendency to do that as well. We hear something from,lets say, a psychic and without much question, we believe that there isprobably some truth in it. We allow ourselves to be fooled bysomething we dont understand. Or we allow people who seem to be quiteknowledgable stop us from questioning certain things. After readingthis article i feel like maybe its time to stop taking people's wordfor it and start finding things out on my own.

week 1 post 4

karma

The short film was a little fast at first, but when i watched it again,the message was clear: what goes around comes around. Though therewasn't much time for character development, it was easy to tell whatwas happening. Those who did good in life had good things happen tothem such as winning money. Those that did wrong, suffered theconsequences. A guy steals a purse; he gets hit by a car. While thistheory seems simple and easy, it's not one that alot of people believein.

This theory cannot be proven no matter how hard you try. Too often,good things happen to bad people and no one knows why. It a niceprinciple to live by though. It's nice to believe that if we do noharm, no harm will be done to us in return. This simply is not thecase. While I do still personally believe in Karma, I do not letmyself become naive or blinded by it. It's good to have something tobelieve in. I think it makes you want to be a better person. But thefact is that there are just plain bad people out there and no matterhow much good you do in life, it wont give you some magical shieldagainst all bad things out there. Life is life and it just happens.

week 1 post 3

viruses of the mind
I have to admit that these readings are a bit hard to follow attimes. It's hard to stay interested when the articles are full ofcomplex words and thoughts. I'm not even sure if i'm grasping thefull concept or not. I dont know much about the technical side ofcomputers but i think i can see the point that the author is tryingto make.

He is comparing viruses such as the ones that travel throughcomputers to the mind of perhaps a young child. Viruses on a computercan make the computer do certain things that seem to have no reasonbehind them. For example, one day your entire hardrive may be deletedwithout any warning. The same way these viruses are implanted are,in a sense, the same way that young minds come to believe certainthings without actually knowing why. As adults, we implant certaininformation into children because we know they will just accept itand maybe it's easier for us to have them this way. But what we aredoing is programing our children to just take in any information ororders and accept them. We are not teaching our children to thinkabout the "hows" and "why's". Children are then growing up doing andthinking certain things because of the "viruses" that we havesubjected them to.

I thought is was clever the way the author went into full detailabout how viruses work and what they are capable of doing and thentaking a turn to the human mind. The way we think sometimes, seemslike something may be wrong with us. Maybe we've all been infectedwith viruses but they are hard to detect.

week 1 post 2

The mystery behind fortune telling and psychic readings is revealedin this article about cold readings. It seems every mystical detailone would experience at a psychic reading is easily explained assomething far less exciting. For instance many psychic readers willwear a costume and have a foreign accent. This is all justto "mystify" the customer. The infamous crystal ball is mostly usedto create a distraction while the reader thinks of something tosay. Furthermore, the facts which are stated are usually prettyvague and only seem accurate beacause the customer is sort of takenin by the whole experience.

Most people who go to visit a psychic are having some sort ofproblem. The majority of issues which bother people enough to seekhelp fall under love, money, career or family. So all a readerreally has to do is mention one of these topics and be somewhatclose to accuracy. A reader can also tell by making stereotypicaljudgements what to say to people. A young female, for example,would most likely be there for romance problems. Or a middle agedmale dressed in a business suit may need help in a career choice.

These readings seem far less amazing after reading this article. Italmost makes me think I could probably give cold readings a try. Mycuriosity about having a reading done for myself has now vanished.It's amazing what we allow ourselves to believe. I feel a bitchildish now for ever thinking there could be some truth to psychicreadings.

week 1 post 1

Richard Feynman's lecture talked about his early experiences withlearning and critical thinking. His father was probably one thereasons Feynman became so successful. He taught his son from an earlyage to really ask the right questions and not just accept things forthe way they are. His dad also didnt take any shortcuts in explainingthings to his curious young son. When explaining the concept ofenertia, he really put it in terms his son could understand instead ofjust saying thats just the way it is. Some parents easily avoidexplaining difficult concepts to children by lying or making up somecute story because they know the child will believe whatever they tellhim.

It seems to pay off to be more like Richard Feynman's father becuaseFeynman became very successful in life. He won a nobel prize inphysics and here we are listening to his lecture in a philosophyclass. More parents should strive to be so involved with theirchildrens learning path. I am a mother myself and although my childis only a year old, I am already trying to model the parent role thatRichard Feynman had.

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this blog site is for my critical thinking class at Mt. Sac