Week #6 Philosophy in 5 min-Survival of the Sufficient

This film is basically talking about how people remain alive or existent. Darwin explanation for this is because of natural selection. He states that we are an exact copy of our parents DNA. Therefore we can take the DNA and design characteristics of our own children. This will occur depending of who has the dominant gene it may be either mom or dad. Darwin also goes on to talk about how deception plays a role in natural selection. He beliefs that deception is influenced by others which are your friends, relatives, parents, teachers, priests, rabbis, lovers, ex's, food, environment, and everything else that is around you. Darwin thinks that deception is done so in order to keep everyone alive and happy.
To me what Darwin is trying to say is that life is given to us by our parents DNA. That god does not provide actual evidence such as science to prove he is the one that gives us life. He also states that deception is like a disease it takes over people. It makes people believe in things that are not true. He thinks that in order to stop deception people need to think for themselves and not let others influence them.

Week #6 Philosophy in 5 min- Java Philosophy

This film was also very interesting to watch. It talked about the way we should live our life. A quote that Jean Paul Sartue says it all 'Everything has been figured out, except how to live. This is so true. We know about science, religion, weather, health, automobiles, fashion etc...but have no clue on how to live in this world.
I personally believe that this film is trying to convey to people that they should live their life anyway that it makes them happy. That anything that people do in this world good or bad will always be regretted at a later time. That sometimes people feel certain circumstances are not letting them move forward but never give up just keep living your life the way you want to. The reason is because time moves very quickly and by the time you know it old age will come. Then you will be like Dean Swift who claims that " in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, on his old age he was himself an inmate," ( S.K.)

Week #6 Lecture- James Watson DNA and the Brain

At the beginning this film played with my mind. I didn't know if I needed to analyze the picture as when we analyze a similar film called Nicholas De Casa. Then minutes later James Watson appeared in the conference room to talk about DNA in the brain. He began his presentation by explaining the structure of DNA. To explain this he gave a little bit of history on how Frances and himself found the double helix. Therefore because of this great discovery the double helix can answer many questions about genetics. An example mentioned would be how scientist can now prove using a gene if you are smart because you have a great teacher or because of your genes. Isn't that amazing?
This film was very interesting to watch. James Watson also caught my attention when he mentioned two other points in his lecture. The first one was when he talked about how his partner Rosary was autistic. He claims that she was the first one to see the double helix but couldn't see it clearly. Therefore we can see that even people with special needs are able to make discoveries. The second point Watson made was to always claim you don't know things and that way people will always come and help you. He even states that it's good to talk to your competition. That way you can see what they are thinking and what their theory consist of. Then you can make your conclusion and together you can solve the problem.

Week #5 Philosophy in 5 min- Faqir Chand's Revelation

This short film talks about Baba Faqir Chad a Master who talked about Gurus. He felt that these Gurus gained power by people's ignorance. This causes the Gurus to obtain attention, devotion and glory. Therefore he feels people just worship anybody or anything in life. That is why Faqir believes that we are the once who determine our destiny. We don't need a guru to show us what we need to do.
After I finished watching this film I realize how people will always try to look for a higher being or soul in all the wrong places. This also demonstrated how people need to be more skeptical and demand factual evidence regarding these Gurus. I just think people should devote their time and effort on something more important than a Guru.

Week #5 Philosophy in 5 min- Flame On!

In this film it talks about homosexuality. It gives a brief explanation on how in the past people didn't approve of people that where gay. A great example was given by Marcel Poust who was a ranging homosexual that argued that he wasn't gay. There where plenty more mentioned in the film but most of them didn't realize that it would change in the future. In today's society homosexuals or lesbians are now allowed to get married.
I truly don't have a problem with homosexuals or lesbians. I feel they are just as human as we are and they need to be happy as well. Although I still believe that some people today still have a hard time digesting these issues but I am glad that for the most part we as a society have made some progress. You never know maybe one of these days society might allowed is to say the Pledge of Allegiance in the classrooms again.

Week #5 Philosophy in 5 min- Crop Circles

This film about crop circles was the most interesting one out of all of them. The Fact that the two man where debating about who and how these crop circles where created kept me engaged. Dr. Lane argued that human beings had to of done the circles. While the other man protested by saying it was impossible for humans to perform such task because of the depth, size and time that this crops obtained. At the end both man agreed on the fact that these crop circles can be done on a piece of paper with a pencil and they can also be reproduce in a larger form. They also believe that it could be done by humans but they didn't agree on the length of time it took them.
I personally believe that Dr. Lane wants us to be skeptical about things. I think he wants us to look for the simplest method to explain things. In my opinion he did a great job of explaining how these crop circles where being done in the crop fields. I myself don't believe that they are being done by aliens or someone from outer space.

Week #5 Philosophy in 5 min- Electric Surfing

This film is basically exploring philosophy using the simplest theory. In the first film which was number thirteen it simply gives us and understanding on how the universe was created. Dr. Lane shows us how their is billions of atoms that form positive and negative electric charges. These electric charges are then balanced by matter. When they are not balanced then you have electric energy. Therefore natures quest to gain this balance causes electric pressure. In that reply for the quest to return the balance in then produces an electric current. That is basically how we explain the formation of the earth.
I feel that this film is only using science to explain the theory of how the world came to exist. It does not leave any room for religion or evolution to justify the creation of the universe. I think that this is a great explanation for science but how about religion. How do we explain the theory behind evolution or intelligent design.

Week #5 Book- The Gospel of Unbelief

Friedrich Nietzche was known as a very contraversal anti Christ. He criticize conventional religion and philosophy. Not only did he do that but Nietzche never hesitated to give his personal opinion on any topic that would arise. The topic he criticize the most is religion and Christian faith. He states that religion damage you as a whole. That it will make you as a person believe things that are not true.
I feel this book has given me a lot to think of being a Christian. I had never taken the time to see Christianity this way. I clearly understand that people shouldn't need someone else to teach them about common sense or moralities but how about the creation of the earth. How do you explain that? The one thing I agree that Nietzche mentions is that religion makes people believe in certain things that are not true. This is in fact true look at the extremes that people go through because of their religion. They even go as far as killing themselves or others for their religion beliefs.

Week #5 lecture- John Polkinghorne

In his interview we see how John Polkinghorne is able to combine science and religion. It was really interesting to listen on how he was a physician for many years and still was able to believe in God. He beliefs God created the earth but we also need the help of science in order to evolve in a more sufficient way. Therefore we see how society today with the help of science has lengthen our life's and have become more productive.
I truly agree with what John on how science and religion work together. I feel that science deals with facts and religion with beliefs just like Steven Weingberg mentioned but we know that somethings deal with both. The one thing I don't agree on is how evolutionary biologist can't seem to realize how faith deals with religion. This is the part that they need to be critical thinkers. We need to be able to research religion without necessarily leaving our own religion beliefs.

Week #4 film- Beyond Belief 6

In this conference Susan Neiman was asked to explain two questions. The first question was can we live without a god? I personally don't understand how a person can live without god. I feel we all need a higher being to be able to make sense of the world. If a human doesn't fulfill his inner soul with believing there is a god then he will be living in doubt.
The second question was is there a science in morality. This question will be argued continually by both religion and science. The philosopher Neiman states that science is more about description or how the world is and morality is based on how the world should be. On the other hand, Paul says that their can be a moral science. He claims we can see this in our cultural standards. Then we can actually document the length of time that these incidents have been occurring. Therefore society has label this as a social experiment that has created a system of guidelines to follow. Now the final question is what is your belief?

Week#4 Reading- Edgar Cayce

This reading shows how K.Paul Johnson thought greatly of Edgar Cayce. Johnson mentions how Cayce was a great human being but also claims that he had no psychic abilities. Johnson felt that Cayce brought up some valid questions that just needed to be looked at. He didn't feel that because Cayce presented interesting writings that this would make him in counter visions or state he had psychic powers. Regardless of providing concrete evidence Cayce is still considered the "sleeping prophet" and continues to have many followers.
I feel this is another great example of how people belief anything. They feel that anything that Edgar Cayce has to state in his documents reveals the truth. People don't understand how some humans have certain qualities that flourish more than others. Just because Edgar has the ability to engage people in his written articles but that does not mean he is able to tell you the future.

Week #4 Reading-Intro to Critical Thinking

This passage explains how our educational system wants to teach children how to be critical thinkers. The reason is because test scores keep declining. We see how children are able to know "what" to think but not know "how" to think. Teachers are providing the children with the technique of memorizing information but not on analyzing it. Some problems mentioned where students have difficulty understanding what they read, writing a persuasive essay, or simply following a few steps to solve a math problem. Therefore, Steven Schafersman suggest that we need to start implementing this concept in schools.
I understand now why many people have a hard time with math and science. Both of these topics
involve being a critical thinker. I believe that the teacher has the responsibility to show them how to think for themselves. In todays society we see how children are always looking for someone else to make their decisions. They don't have the ability to make a decision on their own. If we would teach children how to be critical thinkers they would be able to know what the context is and be able to know how to analyze it.

Week #4 film-The Guru File

The Guru Film-Video Clip 1
My first reaction, I had while watching this movie was who is this man and what are they saying? The music playing and the little girl sitting in front of this man, rubbing her head, made me feel that their was a problem, This arouse a lot of questions that I wanted answered. For example, why are these children being blind folded? Why are the children sitting and not playing? I really didn't enjoy watching this film. I don't find it interesting to watch a bunch of children sitting down with a scarf covering their eyes. The only time I can think of that I wouldn't mind seeing children blind folded would be when they are having to break a pinata or playing pin the tail on the donkey. Children need to run around and burn some of that energy they have. You can't have them sitting still for a long time with their eyes covered. This is something so crazy and insane to understand that a person can just come up with any vogues idea and people are willing to follow it.
The Guru Film-Video Clip2
The next film went on to answer my questions. The man that was presented in the beginning of the film was Thakan Singh. Thakar Singh is the leader of a cult that beliefs in science of the soul. He came up with an idea to blind fold children from birth to they are five years old so they could find their inner soul. In this particular cult they talk about vegetarianism and how meditation will make you find your soul. Then that answered some of my questions but it still didn't answer the one about why children needed to be blind folded. By saying that they answer some of my questions doesn't necessarily mean I approve of this act. It only means I am trying to learn more about this cult. The film went on to present that this particular cult was abusing children and women. To justify these accusations they provided witnesses such as Heigh Schleeh who states she was abused by Singh. Even though Heigh wasn't comfortable talking about her own personal experience she did mention how other children were being abuse. Heigh claims that children were not being feed, beaten, and not allowed to play. What? No play! This is the part that I have the most trouble understanding. What makes these people believe that covering someones eyes will make you find who you are. I think this act would just make you find ways of getting Singh to stop blind folding you instead of thinking of finding your inner soul. Once Heigh exposed this to the world people began to question Singh. Many of the colleges and hotels where he had scheduled meetings started to cancel their appointments because they didn't want this kind of negative attention.
The Guru Film-Video 3
This will then take me to the next film which explains how people questioned Singh. People questioned him when he attended a meeting at some place by the name of Aunka or something like that. In this meeting a man asked Singh on how he was going to make sure his cult was not going to become another Russel Pearl Emperor or John. Then a lady proceeded to ask Singh to explain a situation that happened in Oregon. When he answered both questions he gave ridiculous responses. He said he would put it in writing and that he had no connection to the man that caused all those problems. What kind of responses are those? He might as well have said that he was . Therefore, the meeting wasn't a success. People began to criticize Singh by saying that he was avoiding the questions and that he was a comrade. I think that if Singh couldn't even answer those questions what makes him think that the people are going to trust him to build his school. That is why I don't agree on the quote they used at the beginning of the film that said " You can't judge someone until you see what they are going to do." We are seeing what Singh is doing in the video and the victims are giving their testimony therefore we are able to judge him.
The Guru Film-4/5
The other two films continued to talk about how his followers think Singh has a direct channel to the old mighty and other cases of woman being physically and sexually abused. One example provided was when Erik Peterson claimed that Singh was God. He states that he would die or live for him. That is incredible in how people actually belief in this stuff. I believe in God but I don't think God would knock me out for eight hours or put his penis in my mouth. That is exactly what Sing did to Cindy Elmer and Jan. Singh thinks that by using physical force you get rid of demons or negative identities and by putting his penis in your mouth you will be cleanse or purified. Gross. My goodness what people will do to get some satisfaction. I think Singh uses physical force with people that use some kind of protest. That is the way of him saying you better stop what your doing or else I am going to hit you until your unconscious. Then their is the part where Singh uses his private part. That is just because he is horny and needs someone to help him satisfy his need.

Week #4 Film- SAI BABA

The first time I played this film I couldn't see what he was trying to say when he was asking to look for a necklace that was circled in pink. After I played the film a couple of times I saw that Sathya Sai Baba did actually switch over the necklace that he then handed to the boy. Wow! this is good proven evidence. I really enjoyed watching this film.
This film goes to show how people, even myself, can be easily mislead into thinking that Sai Baba really had magic powers to perform his tricks. It also demonstrates that even if the people are given proven evidence they still tend to be doubtful. Hopefully one day people will understand, like myself, that in order to belief in something or someone you always need proven facts just like this film provided.

Freeman Dyson and the Mathematical Universe

In this interview Freeman Dyson explains about religion. He started by stating that God is a something that our mind doesn't understand. I feel he gave a great explanation about God because people always want to know does God even exist? Then he went on to talk about church. What is church? Freeman says church is where a lot of people from all over the world come together to talk and to listen to music. The quote that I really enjoyed was when on to say that religion is the way of life not the matter of life. What this means is that always live a good life. Then he was asked about science he went on to say that it was compatible to religion. In fact that makes sense because we always need to have two sides of the story.

John Maynard Smith and Evolution

In this interview John Maynard gives his theory on evolution. He says that a common dependent selection will do well in life while a rare one will die. Then he gives a great example when he states that if you had ten women for one men you would reproduce a boy. Then if you had ten men for one women you would then get a girl. Then I wondered well what keeps this balanced. Well Maynard went on to say that the game theory. He tells us how this theory is able to maintain a stable state. Then I learn that a game theory is the mathematical notion of something. I thought this was all but he went on to talk about natural selection which the reporter gave a great explanation which he said that it's the process decision even if it doesn't design consciously.

Nicholas of Casa

I feel this movie left alot to think off. I feel that the kite that was flying around in the sky was a representation of how we live in a mysterious world. People are always trying to come up with questions that can never be answered. Therefore people just feel more comfortable coming up with theories. Theories that dont prove any answer right or wrong. They dont understand that they hold the answet within themselves to any question they have. I feel that that is what this quote is trying to say when it says "the unattainable is attained by unttainment." Basically, the message behind this video is to believe in yourself and not to get fooled. People need to understand that if you want to obtain something you need to just let it unfold and it will magically appear.

Eleven

This movie got me thinking about alot of things. The most important one was how could he have done that. Well I know that alot of people do things without a reason but I guess his reason was anger. It also make me think about the harm people cause because of their ignorance. This young man got killed because of what he was wearing which was a turban. I understand his justification was that his father was killed on Sept.11th but that didn't give him the right to kill him. Samaya Jones should of taken some time to research about Muslims before he went on to committ this murder. One last thing that this movie made me think of was those innocent by standers that are always getting killed in a drive by. I feel that this was exactly what the reporter was an innocent by standered. I don't understand why people can be so cruel. The only reason I think people do stuff like this is because they let their emotions get in the way of thinking clearly. If they would allow themselves a chance to practice critical thinking then maybe people like Samaya Jones and the reporter wouldm't get killed. Critical thining will allow people to understand the beliefs of others and how to get along with people in general.

pretext/text/context 2

The first part was very interesting so I wanted to keep reading the second part. In this part Dr. Lane went on to explain about consciousness. The way he did this was in its simplest form. He began with his explanation about pretect/text/context. My understanding was that petext was the alphabet. The text then became the word sentences and the context the typography. That was when I realized that Richard Feyman was right when he said that if you translate something into reality then you will be able to understand it. Then I got a better understanding about consciousness. If I am not mistaken the pretext is the brain, text would be your consciousness and the context would then be the place you live at. That would be as far as you can simply because if you try any further you are going to lose its purpose.

The Himalayan

The passage starts of by providing logical reasons why people believe in UFOs. People claim that is because of a natural occurence, knowing and empirical sensory or because there is life outside our own solar system. They will never realize that it may be a balloon, satellite, or a falling stars. That is exactly how the brain works. It has the capability of making you believe your looking at something that your not. Another example given where dreams. Dreams also make you think that they are real. When you are having a dream it feels like you are really there. That is why the brain is so extrodinary. I believe the brain works this way because of the experiences we go through in life. People go through many different experience and because of this they will be faced with different circumstances.

Skeptical Inquiry be applied to Religion

Paul Kurtz wants to know to what extent can skepticism be applied to religion. I think that this question will never be answered. I feel that both science and religion will always argue why they are right. The scientist will tell us how they can prove it with logic and theory. While religion will protest by claiming its because of faith. My suggestions to both sides is to become critical thinkers. People need to allow themselves the opportunity to encounter new opinions or ideas. This suggestion sounds really easy but we know its very complicated. The reason is because most people argue that they where born and raised with their beliefs. This passage is just trying to see if religion is real. He mentions that skepticism has been used in all the areas of science but has not worked in all the areas of religion. I think skepticism should be applied to religion. People will never know to what extent if they don't try it.

Physics Behind Four Amazing Demonstrations

David G. Willey begins his passage by demonstrating physics in an interesting way. Willey presents four topics which are walking on broken glass, dipping fingers in molten lead, bed of nails and breaking a concrete block, and picking up a piece of orange-hot space tile.
All of these tricks confirm that we really need to be critical thinkers. These demonstrations are being described by physics. I think that no matter what explanation you provide people with they will always believe these demonstrations are impossible. Instead of taking some time to figure out how a person made it possible they just waist their time on being amazed. That example goes to show that what Richard Feyman stated is true. Don't just try to learn the name of something. Try to learn how it works or how it's done. I really liked this article even though all the demonstrations he provided look very painful. Although I wouldn't mind learning more on how this works.

Skeptic Believer- week 2

The meeting began with a prayer. That lead me to think the lecture was going to be about religion. I was wrong it turned out that Ken Miller was going to be talking about evolution. Therefore, the begining was difficult to understand but at the same time it worked to get people's attention. Then Miller went on to explain how important it is to teach evolution in schools. Not only does he feel the need to teach it in schools but nationwide. Like we all know this topic is very controversal. I feel that even if this issue is very controversel we shouldn't just ignore it. Miller gave us a great example of this when he talked about the federal law suit he had to attend. I think this happened because parents took the time to encounter such topic and did not ignore it. I feel Richard gave us the correct answer which was to be a critical thinker. I know we have a hard time listening to things that we don't agree on but we need to allow others the opportunity to point out their views.

pretext/text/context 1

Dr.Lane explained how to look at life in the simplest form. We always seem to want a complex explanation for any question we are looking for. He explains that we can start with the basics whish are pretext, text and context. An exampe given was the Britannica Encyclopedia. People always seem to assimilate the encyclopedia with alphabet manipulation. They don't understand how the information is simple. The encyclopedia was put together by words, sentences, paragraphs, the page, and then the chapter. If people try to leave any part of that information out then it wouldn't be called an encyclopedia.

My overall view is to always start with the basics. For instance lets look at reading. When you are learning how to read you start with recognizing the letters in the alphabet. Then you go on to learn the sounds each letter makes. Once you learn both of these things you are ready to be taught how to blend the letters to make words. Therefore, when your in a situation that new vocabulary is presented always remember to go back to those basic tecniques you where taught.

Beyond Belief Section 1

The lecture talked about religion and science. According to Steven these issues have been going on for a long time. He explains how people want to solve the problem by recognizing different scopes for science and religion. In my opinion I feel we are always going to be arguing about topics such as evolution, morality, spiritually and faith. These problem will continue to go on for many years without being able to find a solution. I understand the arguments being made from both sides but I feel that without faith we are nothing in this world. I am also aware that the speakers provide valuable facts about science but once again how about God? All the speakers talk about their beliefs in science but non of them can prove anything about the existence of God. Those are the questions we been dealing with since the Middle Ages states Richard Feyman. Therefore, I know that we will never be able to answer these questions. The only thing we can do is belief in whatever you think is right.

Karma

In this vidoe we saw many examples on how people determine their destiny. I feel that the skits helped us undestand how we do this. We see how the lady inserts money in the lottery machine and in return she gets the winning ticket. In the other hand. the man who decides to still the bag runs away not knowing that seconds later he will get hit by a car. I do agree with this video. I think that while we are here in this world we have the power to determine our destiny. This means that we can either make a good choice or a bad choice. Nevertheless, always remember that once your choice has been made then you will have to deal with the consequence. In other words if you have made a bad choice then you will pay a bad consequence and if you mae a good choice then in return you get a good consequence. Maybe people think this is nonsense but I truly believe we go through this in every minute of our lifes. In that case what lind of KARMA are you going to choice?

Richard Feyman

The video taken with Richard Feyman brought me several questions. Feyman make me wonder on how a flower has more to it then just the outer beauty or why is it that humans tend to name things in this case the bird, without knowing what it actually does. Feyman seems to look at things in a scientific matter in which he always provides an equation. This technique was taught at an early age by his father.
At this point I realized how Feyman was right. We always tend to look at many things and never take the time to observe the inner and outer beauty. It's just like that famous saying "don't judge a book by it's cover." Try to take a few minutes to admire how things work and then their appearance.

Viruses of the Mind

The begging of this article written by Richard Dawkin was difficult to understand. When he went on to compare viruses of the mind with computers and the mind of a human being. After I continued the reading I realized how Dawkin was trying to explain the importance an adult plays in a child's life. This person has the responsibility of imputting correct information on the child's mind. In the computer world it seen when adults communicate information either with floppy disks or through e-mail. This comparison was very interesting knowing that I am new to the computer world. I truly agree on how children's minds are like a computer. As an adult you can input good or bad things that are going to get stored. Then the question is what are you going to input in your children?

Cold Reading

In this article Austine Cline labels astrologers, psychics mediums and fortune tellers as people who perform "cold readings." This is usually done by a reader that must follow various steps in order to provide a positive experience. After the reading it was clear to me that Cline was stating the truth. Many people are always very doubtful about things. These things are common problems based on birth, puberty, task, illness, money, marriage, children, age, death and so on. An example would be in astrology. The horoscopes posted in newspapers. magazines, television or radio have even made me doubtful.


About these cold readings I feel they do a great job making people believe they are real. They do this by providing a place people can go so they can listen to things they want to hear. At this place they also have people that take their time to listen to your needs. Therefore, people are convince that these readings are real. This goes to show you that people can be easy fooled with nonsense.

Cargo Cult Week1

Richard Feyman explains how people have always practiced science thoeries. Feyman says that since the middle ages people believed in UFOs, astology, mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, and ESP. Until this day people continue to perform these beliefs even if nothing has ever been proven to be true. One good example is when Richard talks about the school system. He mentions the fact that schools tend to keep the same personal and just provide trainings in reading. Then the the result you will gain from children will be high reading scores. The truth is that this theory does not work. In reality reading scores keep declining. Richard Feyman goes on to catagorize this beliefs as cargo cult science. He thinks society needs to examen all these theories. In order to perform this task Feyman says people need integrity.
The article brought me to think about the school system. I have been working for a school for many years and I completely agree on what Feyman has to say. Whenever a good teacher comes around the system always seems to manipulate into thinking her methods are no good. I feel people need to keep their integrity.