final

real name: Jodie Wims
user name: jodie_1219
email: jodie_1219@yahoo.com
Midterm grade: C

12. Mark Juergensmeyer explains what he learned during his visit to Iraq. He talks about terrorism and religion and how or why they are connected. He certainly does not have a biased opinion like one would see on the news here in the US. He has actually sat and talked with people on the other side of this war. What they told him was that this was God's war and they simply cannot lose.

He goes on to describe what is going on in the mind of terrorist and it comes down to pride. Pride and honor is something these men are willing to give their lives for. Many of them are angry about the US occupation in Iraq and feel that our government is trying to get rid of Islam. They of course, will not stand for this and are ready to go to extreme lengths to show their passion and faith is not something to take lightly.

The terrorists attacks were definitly a message to the government and whether or not the government will respond the way we hope is almost out of our reach. The only thing we can do is get involved and vote for the right people to represent us the way we want. Having people in office who dont have our best interest in mind is only hurting us.

13. There is evidence to support that Edgar Cayce was actually psychic. However there is also some evidence to support that he wasnt. Not all of his readings were accurate, so some could say that by chance, he was able to guess right on some but not all. If one were to take in all the evidence with an open mind, I think they would be swayed to believe. Although, I still think there would be some room for skeptism.

14. Proffesor Lane has done plenty of research and investigations on cults. He has found that most of the basis of these "religions" is lies and plagerism. He has found direct word for word plagerism (including incorrect grammar and typos) from one cult to another. His background checks have proved that these leaders are not who they say they are and are in fact living double lives.

Its hard to be open minded about something when time after time you have proven that its a hoax. To find out someone's dirty laundry and their real self can be somewhat dissapointing. Afterall these leaders are portraying themselves to be these great, enlightened beings that claim they want to help others. If one after another keeps proving to be the opposite, it would be hard for anyone to believe in any of these "religions".

15. The films reveal that Sai Baba was just good at putting on a show. there is no magical powers that allow him to perform miracles. He is simply good at gaining the trust of others by distracting them to see something other than what is actually there.

16.Thakar Singh believed that blindfolding kids would allow them to easily find their inner light. He believed this would help them with thier meditation which would eventually make them better, spirtiually enlightened people. THis of course cannot be proven, so his tactics seem odd if not abusive. These religious followers lack critical thinking skills because they are most likely missing something in their life. So something comes along and seems positive and true and they blindly latch on, hoping for a better life. They do not take the time to ask questions because they feel they must have good faith in order to be a good person.

17. John Polkinghorne has a unique way of thinking compared to other lectures from this class. He is involved in both science and religion and feels that they should both be acknowledged. He talks about how the life of animals comes together to work as a complex system and states that it couldnt have all occured just by chance. There had to be some plan or idea as to how would all come together. This, of course, leads to there being a God with such a complex design in mind that we cannot even begin to understand it fully but science can prove just how great of a design it actually is.

18. Nietzsche talks about religion and christianity as if it all just a bunch of nonsense. He criticizes Ernest Renan's writing: "Man is closest to the truth when he is most religious." Nietzsche calls this religious nonsense. He feels that for Christianity to be based on a Jew being the son of God makes the whole concept absurd. His disbelief in a God stems from what goes on here on earth. He feels if there was really a God, he wouldnt let certain things happen.

Bad things that happen to good people and sinners who get all the riches doesnt help Nietzsche to believe there is a god. He doesnt feel that God would be such a vengeful and jealous god if he were in fact the ultimate being. Nietzsche points are considerable. However, I dont agree with him and I think he is trying to put down people who believe in God.

19. James Watson has done extensive work with DNA and genetics. If certain physical traits can be passed on from parent to child through DNA then why not mental traits as well. A gene for mental disorders can be passed along. It doesnt mean that the person will have the disorder but the coding is there. Some people refuse to believe that are just made up of DNA because its too scientific. They want to believe in a soul and a more purposefullness rather than just scientific code.

This doesnt have to be a bad thing. Watson's research is leading to information on autism and could possibly find a cure or prevention. These findings are reached thanks to genetic coding. without that or other scientific methods we wouldnt have such medically advanced society. We now live longer and healthier lives thanks to a little thing called scientific research.

20. Intelligent design is regarded as junk science because there is no real evidence to support it. It basically calls for an intelligent creator (i.e. God) but there is no experiement or documentation supporting that there actually is one so it cannot be considered along with other realms of science which have extensive detailed data to support every claim made.

21. Fundamentalism is considered a mental disease because there is no rational thinking behind it. Those who support and teach creationism are not thinking for themselves or perhaps not thinking at all. Religion is something that people just believe in with no solid reasoning behind it. Faith is blindly believing in something with no questions asked. This is all according to the movie and not personal opinion.

22. The US government has brought on this war on terrorism. I feel that our government has its own alterior motives for occupying Iraq all this time and I dont think they are providing us with all the information we should have. The government acts on our behalf all the time. We really have no idea what kind of relationships they maintain with other countries or what promises they are or arent keeping to them.

I think other countries such as Iraq see all americans as evil or a threat to them because maybe thats the way our government is acting. They obviously wanted to send a strong message to us by the attacks of 9/11. Something is definietly going on with our government. I dont feel they are taking the correct actions and if people are trying to attack us so violently then we must be doing something wrong. I am not in favor of our troops being overseas and I think alot of reconciling needs to happen from our end if we ever want to see the end of this unecessary war.

23. The Beyond Belief session were definitely heated topics. Religion and science and where to draw the lines was an ongoing issue for this conference. I felt that everyone had strong points and voiced their opinions adequately but after such a long conference and so many speakers, only some remain memorable. I really liked Susan Neiman. she talks about having respect for something that is not fully understandable instead of disregarding it or being afraid of it. I feel if people took this sort of attitude then maybe there would be less conflict with americans and muslim culture.

Someone like Sam Harris would not take this approach. His thoughts on people who are religious is taken way too far. he thinks that religion should be something to fear because it usually makes people do crazy things because they feel so strongly about something. He is confusing passion with the kind of emotion that leads to terrorism. and to make a broad statement about all religious people is done with out clear thinking.

Ialso liked the speaker from session 2. He had a great mixture of science and religion together which is where i personally stand on the subject. He talked about how the bible can be a great reference as to how to live life but it doesnt state how it all works. So that's where science can come in and play a great part to add to but not take anything away from religion or God.
There was also another speaker who sort of made fun of the design of the universe and humans and calls it stupid. This is a bold statement to make but if you really think about it, it's halfway true. The way ou bodies are designed so that we constantly have to eat and get sleep doesnt seem that great. as we get older our bodies deteriorate and we become weaker. According to Tyson, this doesnt seem very intelligent. The universe is also questionable because our planet seems to be the only one to provide life. everything else has unstable atmosphere's and unlivable conditions. So one begins to wonder what is the planning in all that? What's the point in all the unending billions ofmiles of space if not to provide life? And what purpose does life have if we just start to shut down and requireso much maintenance.

Many valid points are brought up at this conference, however, I dont think any sort of conclusion was made or any minds swayed. People have thier opinions for what ever reason and only they can change inside themselves for the better or worse. Science and Religion will continue to compete against each other for as long as man has a mind to think and a voice to speak.

25. My favorite thing I learned this semester was about the different cults and how they are exposed as frauds. I found it so interesting to actually hear from people who actually fell into believing in them and then later realizing that they were tricked. It is sad that this still goes on but thats why critical thinking is so important to teach and to learn.

truth lies

I'm not sure if I actually agree with this film but it sits better with me than fundamentalism as a mental disease one. I suppose the point being made here is that its easier to believe in something like God and heaven because it makes us feel better. It helps us to deal with harsh reality to think that there is eternal happiness after you die or that there is always someone looking over you that can hear your prayers.

I didnt like that this was refered to as "silly nonsense" but I do find some comfort in knowing that at least people can understand why having faith is important to people. It doesnt necessarily have to be agreed with but seeing some good in it can help. Afterall a "life with meaning is better than a life with no meaning."

mental disease?

"Fundamentalism is a mental disease and creationism is taught by those who cannot think." This is a pretty harsh statement to make. I agree that the intelligent design theory is not a well thought out one but I dont think that calls for putting down Christianity. I dont feel that ID was suggested by Christians just to throw God back into biology. I just feel that there was probably some sense of urgency to come up with something that people on the fence could feel comfortable believing in. There's nothing wrong with knowing science and believing in God. It doesnt have to be one or the other.

This film said that once you knew and trully understood evolution then all other theories and "isms" fell to the floor. Calling evolution and natural selection the greatest idea ever is a bit much. I really feel there has to be some way to have an in between but, someone will have to come up with something a bit stronger than intelligent design.

java philosophy

The point of this film was to point out how many of us are trying to figure out who we are. We all want to be cool and accepted by society but sometimes its hard to figure out exactly what that is. Maybe in the 60's it was as simple as going to coffee shops and dancing to groovy music. But i think we live in a much more complicated world now. Our youth is faced with many different and more serious problems now than the kids of the 60's had to deal with.

I liked the quotes that went along with the film. My favorite was the one that said you only have two choices. You can either do it or not do it, but whichever you do, you will regret it. I thought that was funny but also true. we are hardly ever satisfied and i think we are always searching for the better life but dont even know what that exactly is.

intelligent design

I wish we would have read this article before watching the Ken miller lecture a few weeks ago. This article went in to much more detail about what intelligent design actually was and where the theory was coming from. When I watched the lecture video a few weeks ago I had actually never heard of the ID theory so it was all new to me.

When everything is layed out on the table, the whole idea of intelligent design seems pointless to me. I dont understand why they insist on calling it a scientific theory when there is no scientific evidence to support that there is a higher being (God). I'm not saying I dont believe in God because I do. I just feel there was no point in trying to throw out a theory in the Scientific world that has no scientific data.

James Watson

James Watson is known for his work with DNA and the famous double helix model. He explains in his lecture how genetics and DNA plays a part in neurological disorders. His current work is in research on autism and trying to study the DNA to try to prevent it. I think his work is fascinating and should be payed attention to. This is why science is so important. Finding cures and reasons to unstable conditions in life can only make life more enjoyable for us, so how is it that religious people are always trying to put down science when it has done so much good for our lives.
I think God instilled that quest for knowledge in us so that we could live fufilled lives. Without science we would all still be dying 30 and from such diseases as the plague. God wants us to enjoy life because thats what he created it for. Thanks to people like James Watson with a strong desire to research, we can now live life to the fullest.

flame on

I like how this film took an approach to homosexuality and morality. The point I got from this was that its difficult to know what is morally acceptable or not because times change from century to century and decade to decade. What was not approved then may not even be given a second look now. So it is hard to know what your best or worst quality is because views change too often. So to feel ashamed about being homosexuality is pointless because it obviously stems from what society thinks and society will change either with time or location.

I think anybody who feels ashamed of something as personal as thier own sexuality should see this film. It does seem pointless to worry about what society thinks when they are not the ones living your life. What you do with your mind and heart is nobody's concern but your own. It has no effect on the lives of others, or at least it shouldnt.

brain burn

The ending of this film sums it all up for me. "Philosphy is like heartburn: the result of something that didnt digest well." The film talks about how all our questions about life and the universe stem from confusion in our neural system. As if there are just sporatic sparks going off in our head that triggers us to question something so complex. I find it funny that man always has to find some scientific reason behind every single thing. I believe that we all have a inner soul which is curious and thats why we want to know more about things that dont seem clear.
I also find it humorous that the "four F's" came up in this film. I remember learning about that in psychology class. There has to be more to our brain than just fuck, food, flee, and fight. That gives so much simplicity to our much complex brain.

crop circles

This short film was hillarious. I found it very entertaining that these two men were agrguing about the mystery behind crop circles. They kept talking over one another and you could tell they were both very passionate about the subject. One man was trying to prove that there had to be some paranormal activity behind the crop circles while the other was sure it just people trying to get a rise out of everyone.

I really had no thoughts either way. However I started to realize how silly it was to think that some extra terrestial being was behind some circles that could easily be done by hand on paper. So why couldnt they be done on a much larger scale as well. There was a good point made here and i dont feel the man trying to prove they were not man made had a very strong argument.

electric surfing

Im not sure if there was supposed to be some underlying message in this video. It just seemed to be describing electrons and protons and how they work and interact. THis information was also given over a cartoon so I'm not really sure if that was supposed to mean something. However, I thought it was pretty cool. I also liked the music.

Nietzsche

I found Nietzsche's writing to be more like poetry or something else artistic and emotional. I'm not sure if I understood most of it but from what I could tell, he seemed to have a sort of harsh outlook on life. His view of religion actually offended me. He uses terms like "religious nonsense" and claims God has created a vicious circle of himself, since he makes himself necessary.

I personally think Nietzsche has it out for christianity and God. He seems to be real critical of the whole religous belief and I feel he is putting down people of faith. I know everyone is entitled to write what they feel but maybe I just took this too personally. I think Nietzshe has had some personal problem with his faith in God and now he's bitter and trying criticize the whole thing.

John Polkinghorne

From everything that we've read so far in this class, I found it odd that a theoretical physicist was also a priest. However I rather like John Polkinghorne. I think its great that he can recognize both sides of the argument on the creation of the universe. He feels that humans and animal life are far to complex to have just occured by chance or accident. Science can show us how life works but it cannot fully explain how it was created. Thats where faith and religion comes in.

I feel a lot like the way Polkinghorne feels. I'm not extremely religious but I believe in God and our life here on earth as his creation. I am not disregarding science because experiments and documentation prove most of it to be true. I just think they should leave science to figuring out benefical information for life now and in the future. Trying to figure out how it all began just seems like a never ending argument. I dont think it would benefit us any to know how it happened. All we need to do is know how to keep on going strong.

Juergensmeyer

Mark Juergensmeyer shares with us his trip to Iraq and what he haslearned about terrorism and its relation to religion. I find it sointeresting that he goes and has actual conversations with people onthe otherside of this war. Its one thing to hear whats going on iniraq from the news but the media will hardly ever portray thethoughts and feelings of the iraqi people. It seems they just wantto show them as the enemy and emphasize the good that the US is doingover there. I know most of the american people support the troopsand what they are doing. This feeling was probably even more soimmediatley following the 9/11 attacks, however, these same peopleare probably not asking themselves why would someone actually want todo us harm.

The idea of a government is supposed to be there for us and have ourbest interest at heart. Our government does not seem to do so.There are alot of things that our government takes part in that we donot know about. The way they maintain relationships with othercountries is decided by them and we pretty much have no idea how theyare interacting with other governments. This is scary because the USgovernment may very well be doing things that we would not approveand they basically represent us as a whole. The people that we haveput in charge and our trust in could be completely evil. The worstpart of this is that other countries view us as a whole and possiblethink all americans are evil. This war is about the government.They made enemies and they should be the one fighting it not us.

Eckankar

Although this has been the longest reading so far, I actually enjoyedreading it. It's easier to read when its written as a story instead ofjust alot of complicated facts and complex words I dont fullyunderstand. The whole Eckankar movement is new to me. I had neverheard of the group before this class. This story helped me understandwhat it was about and how people become believers or followers. Atfirst, I didnt understand how people could get suckered into cults. Itjust seemed obvious that these "religions" were just tricking naivepeople into doing whatever the "leaders" wanted. It didnt seempossible that normal people could get involved in something like that.

After reading the article, I realized it was certain types of peoplethat became involved. They are searching for something they feel ismissing in their life which can be said for alot of people. So many ofthese people probably are normal as far as society expects. No one canreally define what normal is, however, I feel that these people arewell in their right to search for a new religion and have some sense ofbelonging. I'm not saying I believe in these religions now but I nolonger have the same judgement for the people who decide to follow.

Sai Baba

The video was hard to see much detail, but from what i could see, itwas trying to point out what is happening when Sai Baba isperforming "miracles". It seems the video's main purpose is to isolatewhat is actually happening in his hands as if to try to prove that itisn't any magic. The people who are there probably are seeing a biggerpicture and perhaps distracted by other things going on. So, they arenot being skeptical or trying to catch every detail of the trick. Theyare in awe of the whole production and missing tiny little leaks ofproof that there is no magic, only quick, skillful hands that arefaster than the eye.

This is how these leaders are able to attract such a following. Theypull in weak impressionable people and put on a show for them. Peopleare led to believe that these leaders can do something that they cantand that they must desperatley seek to be like them or be around themfor their own spiritual enlightment.

thakar Singh

I actually had never heard of Thakar Singh and after learning abouthim, I'm glad I hadn't. I found the accusations against him to be verydisturbing. I understand that it's just people speaking out andthere's no real evidence, however, the possiblility alone is cause forconcern. The most disturbing image was the children being blindfoldedonly because for us, that seems like some form of abuse. I would haveliked to hear from one of those kids to see what they thought about thewhole method of teaching.

The accusations of sexual and physical abuse were serious ones.However, I did find it rather difficult to determine whether theaccusers were completely on the level. Even those followers who weredefending Singh seemed "off" a little bit. I really feel that thepeople who follow these "leaders" are in search of something missing intheir lives and they are easily sucked in because they are not in theright state of mind. So I dont take what they are saying to the heartbecause there is obviously something wrong with their judgement.

edgar cayce

Open mindedness goes hand in hand with critical thinking. The wayKenneth Johnson approaches Edgar Cayce's psychic abilities leaves thereader free to make thier own mind up. There is no biased opinion thatmakes the reader feel that there is a right or wrong answer. The factsare simply stated and explained. However it is always easier toexplain something to an open minded person rather than a skeptic orsomeone who already whole heartedly believes in whatever the topic is.

Johnson's approach untangles fact from fiction. He acknowledgesmistakes and also possiblities for paranormal happenings. He seems torecognize both sides. He puts everything out on the table and nothingleft out or exagerated. This makes it alot easier for someone to thinkcritically about Cayce's readings and not to simply go along with whatJohnson thinks.

critical thinking

I think this Manual on Critical Thinking might have been useful tohave read during week one. I feel I've been having a hard time withthis class and now, after reading this article, I know why. Ourschools really dont prepare us to critically think and that's why I,personally, am experiencing difficulty in the course. We have beentaught all the right answers and memorized all the facts but no wherealong the road has anyone showed us how to think for ourselves toreach these conclusions. We mostly memorize definitions and matchanswers or complete repetitive steps to come up with solutions.However, in this class we are asked to read and come up with our ownquestions or thoughts. My first reaction to this course was "Whereare the correct answers? What am I really supposed to do?" This isproof that critical thinking has not been exposed to me until now.

I almost feel angry about what our school system has been lacking andwhat they have deprived me of. Critical Thinking seems like such acommon sense tool that we should have but without excersising it wecan never achieve the goals that should be attained from it. Its sadto me that all I have to do is think about the readings and writeabout it from my own critical thoughts, but somehow, I find thatsimple task to difficult because no one is telling me what to think.We really need to make a change in our school because raising peopleto not be able to think for themselves is a serious problem.