"Any meaning is better than no meaning". That we can not live withoutpurpose. It is the true that the truth lies so we are able to live another day. You can not put this in any better way than the way that the movie put it together. Like Jack Nicohlas says " do you want the truth cause you can't handle the truth". Well that is true because we are all trying to find meaning out of life. Like what the point of our existence is. We don't know what it is but it serves a purpose that we try to find it but we dont ever get there. This is what Benjamin Franklin said from the very beginning, that we are searching for the pursuit of happiness, however that is exactly what it means becuase we never may find happiness, but we are able to search, that is a freedom that our country has that some other countries don't have.
What we as man need to understand is that any meaning we are able to find out of something is better than not understanding it at all. Because there are a lot of things that we are not going to be able to understand simply to the fact that we weren't here in the time that it happened. No one is going to exactly understand why Hitler thought the why that he didn't. We didn't have any modern physcharists there to anylaze his behavior or his mind. We can kinda understand we he did things the way that he did based off of his actions but we are not 100 percent and we will never be to. Here's the thing, that we are able to understand a little bit we can get a better idea of what happened and know a little to why things happened the way that they did.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Week 5-Films- "Natural selection is really natural editing"
Looking from the way that this film is set up, it is easy to see that the film is talking about evolution and how we have changed. The film is taking about how we started out as monkeys and evolved over time.Also it takes about natural selection and how the strongest sperm wins in the fight for reproduction. A lot of this has to do with Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest. That in this world a lot of people or things are going to become extinct due to the changing factors or what we would call evolution. Because we know that from the beginning of time to now things have changed drastically and continue to change day after day. Take a look at the dinosaurs as an example. No one really knows why the dinosaurs are extinct but if we have to take a guess the theory that we would have to go off of his the change in climate. That the dinosaurs were not able to adapt to the change in climate. Everything that happens, evolution, is part of the life cycle and is never going to stop. We are changing as we speak. The sun is rise and then the sun is setting. And one day the sun will set never to rise again. At that point what happens to man kind. We no longer can function anymore. A plant can longer create photosythesis. At this point we will become like the dinosaurs. But the point being is that just like the sperm fighting for the egg we as humans are fighting everyday, for a job to support our family or a house to help us live, life is a constant battle and those who lose or give up become no more.
Week 5-Assigned Reading- Richard Dawkins, ``The Selfish Gene''
Dawnkins in this article talks about humans have a "biologicaladvantage" to all other species and I believe this to be very true.Dawnkins talks about our hunting process to an animals and how we arejust much more sophisticated. Well this belief that he has comes backfrom the theory of evolution that we evoloved from different things.We as humans do have the advantage because we are able to fend forourselfves because over time we changed from being cave man to beingmore sophisticated coming up with better ways of hunting for food,producing food, and of course trough technology.
Week 5-Assigned Reading- Sociobiology
One the most well known philosophers came up with this idea ofsociobiology and his name is Edward Wilson. Sociobiology deals withthe success of reproduction in any type of species and this has todo with natural selection. Sociobiology has yet to really capturethe study of things that are not human, we tend to still not reallyunderstand them to there fullest. The reason for this is because insociobiology you have to take the culture and mind into account withand animal it is rather hard to do this. A second criticism concernsgenetic determinism, the view that many social behaviors aregenetically fixed. A lot has to do with they believe that there is astatus quo, so that is why this doesn't work for that.From that sociobiology is seen as evolutionary science in thebehavior of humans and how we change our thoughts over time.Evoulution not only has to do with the change of a humans genes overtime but it also has to do with how a human thinks of time or thepsychological side or culture changes of humans. What we end upseeing that is one of the biggest factors in sociobiology is socialstatus or wealth.This subject I think is so cool I like the section where it takesabout the selfishness about human nature. Because as humans we tendto be greedy or never satisfied with what we have. So research ortrying to understand why things happen with the way that they happenis really cool. Another thing is cool when it takes about cheating.When you get help but do not give anything in return. We all do thisand this is linked to humans being greedy.Edward Wilson has great thoughts, maybe the best theories thatrelate to things that are happening today and will be there in thefuture.
Week 5-Assigned Reading-Evolution 101
Biological Evolution is descent with modification. This is justsaying that the changes don't happen in couple of years but overgenerations we changed as humans becasue of climate changes orsocial changes. Usually things don't change over days but yearsthings happen like the ice age or global warming. These are thingsthat will change the structure of us in the long run. The basics ofbiological evolution which I agree with is the we do carry a commonancestor, that we all started off in the same place.This theory comes up with that basically in one or two differentways, we as human beings have something similar to another speiceslike a shark, it has a vertebre like a human and amphimians haveegss just like humans. So this goes back to the common acestortheory that we all came from the same thing.Off of this you then get a family tree, which I belive this to betrue that we share the same common patterns of differences.Thisshows the idea that all of life is related and can be divided intothree major clades, often referred to as the three domains: Archaea,Bacteria, and Eukaryota. All this evoultion goes back to the centralidea that we are similar to so many different things that we ashuman beings evolued to what we are now today from previous things.
Week 5-Expert Lecture- Richard Dawkins and the Strangeness of Science
What Dawkins says about the universe holds to be true. That philosophyor sciece will not be able to grasp it becuase we will really neverknow the truth. Science has taught us that everything is compose of anatom, a tiny empty space. Well with that if we are looking at a rockif it is a tiny empty space then we is it so big and hard, that youare unable to penetrate them. So basically he is saying that we aretrying to navigate through these different obstacles. That we live inthe middle world so that is why we are not capable of comprehendingeverything. I like how he talks about Galileo's theory that a heavyobject and a light object will hit the ground at the same time becauseof air friction it doesn't matter and this goes back to Dawkins theorythat we live in middle ground. That in middle world we have changed sowe are able to live here.
Week 5- Expert Lecture- Edward O. Wilson and Consilience
Wilson's thoughts in Consilience is that a common body of inherentprinciples underlies the entire human endeavor. He says that hebelieves that the scientists in the 17th and 18th century got it rightfrom the beginning. Basically saying that we live in a material worldwhich the knowledge we have comes from science and humanities. He saysthat we are in this world to be able to explain everything and complywith the natural laws. That this world acts in two ways. The first oneis that it is organized by the laws of physics and that it goes off ofthe basic theory of evolution. That everything must change in order toadapt to the constantly changing world. Wilson talks about the socialinstutions and what it means to man kind. Without social instutions wewould be lost souls and would not know what we should follow and whatwe should avoid. Wilson has a unique perspective which helps you torealize that without human thought, we would not be able to see howeverything is connected.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
MidTerm
Mark Reynoso-markman3188
Markman31@aol.com
Philosophy-http://markman31.blogspot.com/
8). Yes I have done all the required reading for the class.
9). Yes I have watched all the films some I did not understand completely but tried my best to understand them.
10.) Posts- Week 1- Expert Lecture- Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley video on Man's Search for the Truth is rather difficult to understand and follow. Huxley talks about the inconsistencies in what he has written throughout his life. Basically for Huxley he believes that searching for the truth is what sets us free. However searching for the truth well is only a search because we may never find the truth. Then he talks about the mystical experience of the universe which is rather difficult because you then bring up the
questions who are we, who is man, and what is the point to our existence? Thomas Mann says "the doors of perception" if we stay fixated on something then we do miss out on life is true. Huxley talks about an escape is that we all will experiment to find out what is true for ourselves.
Week 1- Expert Lecture- Francis Fukuyama on the End of History
In this video Francis Fukuyama says that the end of history may be near because the experience of the 21st century, he believes that we need to change our life styles. He believes that there has been a gradual evolution in modern liberal democracies. Francis believes that for the most part has been peacefully and the major democracies would not go to war. That only the smaller countries are fighting. Basically he is saying that history has a direction and it is going towards the good. Another thing that Francis says is that we are something special in creation and that at the end of this door there will be more enlightenment. Subjective experiences give us a sense of what is right and wrong. We have to feel certain away to do a certain thing. Which
means in principle you can build a robot as complex as us. Another thing that has a direction is that religion has a direction as well as history. That if you look at religion it is a common book of social rules or corporative rules. Religion is more functionally important than some people realize. However, we are in the age of science which has stripped away some meanings of religion. Francis says that religions will need to evolve to keep up with modern science. Francis
says that if you believe that our institutions are the struggles around us and it forces us to look at the abstract of basic principles.
Week 1- The Socratic Universe
After reading the texts I found some of the concepts to be truthful, however, some to be a little farfetched. I do believe that at some point or place we need to have a separation from religion and science. Most things in life science are able to explain but it’s for the paranormal or the occurrences that have no explanation you then have to look at faith. When you look at the earth and say how it was created you can then go back and say that the big bang happened which gave us where we live today. But where did that big bang come for? Can we really and truthfully answer all those questions with science? Most likely not so it is important to have a balance. In the text a lot of the reading had to do with how we answer the questions that we don’t know. There are many things that go behind the thought of a question. Whether or not you are going to answer that with more of a scientific approach or with a religious approach. If we are able to combine both of these then we will be able to better answer the questions.
Week 1- Apology by Plato
To the defense of Plato there are three different parts to the story. The first part to the apology is for his for his colloquial style. The problem with Plato is that he has always been his own worst enemy and I mean that because he feels like he has this undying passion that he has to tell the truth. Most people belie that he is subject to public opinion as well as he is the ring leader to the youth's opinion. His accusations can pretty much speak by his accusers as "Socrates is an evil doer". To his accusers that answer to that begins with that being a natural philosophy are that he knows nothing. See the thing is that you are not guilty of anything if you chose not to pursue anything because you are ignorant of them or you chose to say that these notions are not important. So not teaching anything is because he didn't know anything therefore he is not responsible for anything.
Week 1-History of Philosophy
As time goes on and we keep learning about human nature and the experiences that occur through life it is quite interesting to see that man has not really changed over time. We don't really know anymore today than we did yesterday. From a science stand point yes there are new break through everyday but from an ideological sense we are still stuck with the same question that no one can answer, why are we here, what’s the point of our existence? When looking at philosophy and examining the purpose of it, I think that one of the best things about it is that philosophy has not limits, no prejudgments, no stimulations. Philosophy changes from culture to culture but the questions that we ask ourselves are the same. From the ancient philosophy to contemporary philosophy today, philosophy is just trying to make sense out of things.
Week 1- Java Philosophy "Who are You"
This clip of video brings up some interesting questions. Sore Kierkegaard says “I see it all perfectly, there are two possible situations--one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or don't do it--you will regret them both. This was quote that stood out because it brings up so many different questions that you a can ask yourself about different situations. This simple Saying quoted by Soren plays a role when deciding if you are going to purse a dream that is well just a dream. And just for sometimes it is true that we do feel like we are a part of the a chess game that Soren talks about because there are times in our life that we are buried so far down that we can no longer see the light, or that the piece on the chess board can't be moved. But what I say to that is that for every predicament that you get yourself in there is always a way out because there was always way in. Sometimes we don't realize that we are stumping ourselves when there is always a move.
Week 1- Nicholas of Cusa
I didn't really understand the point to the film. I did like couple of different quotes that came from this because a lot of them are really truthful with life. "These points are recognized in mathematics, where the propositions are quite easily traced back to the first and most evident principles but where propositions are traced back with more difficulty because they are only traced back through the mediation of the earlier ones. This is interesting because this basically saying that we need to solve to problem instead of putting it off. It is often funny to think that Aristotle one of man's most intellectual people would not have known anything but I guess that is part of philosophy.
Week 3&4- Expert Lecture- Owen Gingerich on Astronomy and God
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible"-Einstein. That fact that we can hope to understand it’s amazing and that we have the ability because there is something fundamentally there to comprehend it. What I was able to pull from this video from Owen Gingerich is that the universe and religion there is unity. Without some of the gravitational constants we would not be able to live regardless of religion. What I find interesting is that he talks about people in general, how that everyone to a certain extent believes in god and that is why some people opt out of believing in a god. Sometimes people have a hard time believing that there is a god because we are going through so much suffering. What I found interesting is thinking about what happened before the big bang. Scientist are now coming to think about eternity, that when you think about time you are going out of our time because you would need change and motion, however you could define eternity because it is embedded. Most preachers’ thing in terms of cause and effect. Basically what Owen is saying about the big bang theory or before it is that scientifically are not able to prove anything. Christians for a long time have been talking about other dimensions in the sense that another universe would be heaven. What I found weird is that Owen being a preacher he regrets his faith not being as broad as it was as a child. What I picked up from the video which is most defiantly true is that the human race is in jeopardy if we do not change something. We are running out of resources. The future of the human race is dying because with anything in life there is a time frame or a cycle. That the human cycle is coming to an end.
Week 3 & 4-Expert Lecture- Stephen Wolfram and a New Kind of Science
"How does anything complicated get produced"-Stephen Wolfram, the question that he asks about anything in the universe. What is interesting that Stephen says is that nature follows some kind of rule. The conclusions that Stephen drew in 1982 were incorrect he believed that if something in physics or anything starts out simple it will be simple and if it starts out complicated then well it will end up being complicated, however Stephen used a triangle formula with a simple black cell to find out that something so simple can become quite complicated. Basically he came up with and found out that some of these rules didn't follow a general rule. What Stephen is trying to get at is that a simple cellular model can become really complex and it can begin to start to generate its own idea’s. His idea quickly translates to the world, that we live in nothing but space. That the particles bring up quanta mechanics saying that it has it's own random us and this goes into space and time. Watching this video I didn't understand the inferences that Stephen was trying to make. I don't get how a simple cell can well make up or well change anything. Unless you look at it from the stand point is that we are made up from cells and if you change a cell on us you are changing, well, you can pretty much change anything. But based on the ideas that Stephen was conveying through mathematics I think that it was amazing how we are able to determine those kinds of things from just a simple cell.
Week 3&4-Assigned Reading-Cosmic Inflation
Trying to understand the basics of cosmic inflation is a little hard to understand. Basically this is saying that the universe's expansion was because a vacuum pressure that exponentially grew. Inflation then caused the universe to expand which leads us to be we are at today. The whole reason that we look at inflation is because there seemed to be some holes in the big bang theory that seemed not to make a whole lot of sense so inflation can help us understand how the big bang theory works. The first thing to understand about this whole theory is that we can see the universe and we can touch it so by those stipulations we are than able to conclude that we are than unable to try to understand it. So if we can understand or come up with a base of what we are trying to understand than we can then expand our knowledge like physics or human physiology. In science there are basic principles and patterns to how things work. Most things follow these rules which make it quite easy for us to understand new concepts.
Week 3&4-Assigned Reading- WAS COSMIC INFLATION THE 'BANG' OF THE BI
Sometimes it is hard to believe or understand how the structure of our world or universe is because of thermal expansion. But if you look at it everything starts back to the beginning of science bringing that everything is made up of atoms and electrons. What scientist believes is that they have a problem looking into the big bang theory because of the "horizontal flatness". So with this whole theory that the universe exceeds critical density, than therefore we can come up with the assumption or the conclusion that there will be a reverse big bang theory to end time called the big crunch. It is hard for me to understand the whole pressure vacuum concept because it is not something that you normally hear about or it is such a new concept tome.
Week 3&4- Assigned Reading- Physics and Philosophy
Plato's idea that prisoners in a cave can only look in one direction is very truthful. He is not able to see shadows in the cave because there is no sun, that when he leaves that cave he will now be able to experience "the light of truth". What I love about being able to find out the truth is that we are than able to make our own judgments based on our own experience. We can hear stories or try to believe things but human nature better understands things that happen to them on first hand. So saying all this, by humans being able to understand science better and take different angles at it, we are now able to have a better understanding of the world and what is around us. I also like Descartes fundamental principle that we attempt fundamental knowledge. The understanding of mind and body is one of the first things that we need to be able to grasp to have a better understanding of things. The he talks about the relationship between me and the world. This is important because sometimes I think that the world is only a direct relationship between us and no one else that we may live-in different time periods. I mean where you were 1 year prior to your birth, I mean your parents were living yet we can't recall anything. Time has relativity.
Week 3 &4- Assigned Reading- The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum
The theory that
Week 3&4-Assigned Reading-Science and Philosophy
"One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have."-Einstein. Einstein is saying that sometimes our best knowledge is outdated or that we really don't knew whole lot about anything. "What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism." Even withal the different theories that Einstein came up with he is still notable to explain matter to the fullest. He doubted his own an ability to find a "complete theory”.” The essential in the existence of a man like me is what he thinks and how he thinks, not what he does or suffers.” These words from Einstein basically say that through pain and suffering is how we learn and how we understand why things happen the way that they happen.
11). What Lisa Randall is saying that there may be more dimensions than we know about could be true. One reason that she says that there be more dimensions than we know about is because we are not able to conclude that there isn’t, therefore until proven otherwise you can conclude that there may be more. What I found interesting her work was that out of the four fundamental forces, gravity is the weakest force. The theory that tries to prove Randall’s thoughts of extra dimensions is the string theory basically saying that we need to be able to start with one dimensional objects and if we can figure out how they expand than we are able to come up with the an equation about how there may be more dimensions. There is evidence about the extra dimensions that may be out there but there is still much needed research to find out if there are more worlds out there.
12). Aldous Huxley’s view on education is that it is one of the most important things we can do in our life. Coming from a wealthier family Huxley was well educated and went to college. Going to college not necessarily gave him more knowledge but it allowed him to be able to explore possibilities and think for himself. For Huxley, his experiences drove him into how he perceived things. It is with education that we allow our minds to think. You can look at the four different parts of the brain which allow us to freely think or dream but in the end it's our education that allows our minds to be able to wonder. A person once told me that in college a lot of things that you learn you will not remember but what college teaches you is how to find answers and how to think for yourself which is more than anything in it's self. Huxley had a very open mind when it came to school because to go to college in this day of age you were considered to be so far advanced from others. I mean the majority of people didn't go to college because they had to feed a family by 15. So the education that he got allowed him to see things in a different context.
13). Science and religion are not compatible. When you look from the religious aspect, science contradicts everything that religion believes in. Whether it is with the theory of Darwinism, and the big bang theory, these theories are all unproven but it doesn’t mean that they are not true. Looking from the science side, religion is just a belief to believe thing, that there are too many uncertainties that fall into religion. And with science are able to prove these theories and come up with an answer. Socrates believes that you have to be able to reason to come up with a solution. He is saying that without being able to reason religion is like a cult, you are worshiping to maybe something that isn’t what you think it is because there is no logic behind it. But depending on what side you take you can look at Science from a religious aspect basically saying that there are things in Science that no matter who you are, you are not going to be able to answer them because these phenemons that are happening are way out of the normal. So when Science can no longer answer that question who do you look at? You have to look at religion. Yes i agree with the thought you don't believe just to believe because then you are just wasting your time but you believe because you know (instinct) that religion is what started us here. You can look at the big bang theory to why man is here but then you begin to wonder, what started the big bang? Can anyone answer that? Or than you can look at why Dinosaurs are now extinct? We could look at the theory of evolution but who tells what to evolve. There are two sides to every story just like the side of Science there is religion and vice a versa.
14). Socrates was tried and convicted by the courts of democratic
15). There are three basic principles of philosophy or to the study of what philosophy is about: metaphysics which would be the study of things and why they exist, ethics, which is the study and how one should live, and logic, on how we should reason. There are different branches to philosophy; the first one that I am going to talk about would be is Western Philosophy. "The point of philosophy is to start with something as simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it." Bertrand Russell said this, a philosopher that dealt with logic. His history of Western philosophy is often divided into three periods: Ancient philosophy, medieval philosophy, and Modern philosophy. The beginning of Philosophy would be the Greco-Roman philosophy which can be divided up into pre-Socratic period, the Socratic period, and the Post Aristotle period. Socrates and Aristotle were amongst the most known Philosophers whose principles and theories we still use to this day.
16). The Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion. The theory is based on the mathematical equations, known as the field equations, of the general theory of relativity set forth in 1915 by Albert Einstein. However, the initial state of the universe is still an unknown and that this theory is the most accepted one to how the universe started but is still unproven. The inflationary universe is a theory that says that the universe expanded from nothing. The inflationary model has many interesting implications, including the possibility that our universe is only one of billions of universes. It is important to understand how the universe is created because it directly correlates with philosophy. This meaning that philosophy is the study of things and why things happen, to try to get a better understanding of the world.
17). Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is one of the fundamental concepts of Quantum Physics. Heisenberg’s framework is drastically different from classical physics. Einstein believed and used the practices of classical physics. The difference between classical and quantum physics is that whereas classical mechanics presupposes that exact simultaneous values can be assigned to all physical quantities, quantum mechanics denies this possibility, the prime example being the position and momentum of a particle. How they were the same is that they both were trying to come up with a theory of relativity or be able to explain it.
18). You have to find the meme theory plausible. I mean it corresponds with
19). Evolution itself is simply the process of change over time. Biological evolution is an important thing to be able to understand because it allows us to be able to understand human nature better. Charles Darwin said "Natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life". In the end the basis of evolution is to try to understand the life cycle.
20). Fundamentalism is a mental disease because it’s our inability to see God. We can not see god. Therefore it is all in our thoughts which means that god can decompose too.The force of fundamentalism as well as the implications for interreligious dialogue, specifically, how can people entrenched in oppposing religious perspectives step away and really see how they think or communicate with others and how it affects them. I think that the Renaissance was a period of time that had a lot to do with a new era of fundamentalism being that it redirected people’s attention from God and the kingdom of heaven to humans and humanity’s progress in this world. With that people started to turn to science and question the workings of a god or a religion. This was really the new era when people started wondering if there were other answers outside of religion that might make a little more sense.
21). Gingerich believes “there is a God as a designer, who happens to be using the evolutionary process to achieve larger goals — which are, as far as we human beings can see, self-consciousness and conscience.” He said that you are not able to prove that there is a God. Gingerich believes in the common descent theory saying that we all start or come from the same place.
22). Francis Fukuyama talks about the “end of history” which is a really interesting thing to talk about because you can’t prevent the end of time. Francis is saying that we need to talk better care of the environment that we live in because everything in the universe has a life cycle but he believes that we are altering the life cycle by the way we live. He talks about the big bang theory and how that happened, that if there was a big bang theory than we must be able to assume that there is a crash theory where the universe will be of no more. Eventually the sun will die out and other things will happen and there will be no more existence, it is evolution. \
23). Nicholas of Cusa's philosophy of "unknowingness" is that we can not be definite or indefinite. As we all think that we have all the answers to all the problems that we really don’t. That we can’t even be sure if we are really holding a piece of paper because how we are so sure that it is a piece of paper. So knowing that, the things that we learn are things that we either experience or learn from other people.
24). The death of God is actually meaning that through all these different things or theories that we believe in, God is no longer an answer. Through cosmic, physical and absolute values, God no longer exists. With this in mind if god no longer exists and you can't see him that means that he must have been just like us. That we were worshiping an Ali and that he really wasn't a God. So the death of God they say it is what allows us to sin and forgive but who really knows that for sure because God if there was a God is no longer here to tell us that is why he died for us. Unless he really wasn't able to escape the cross because if he was able to escape from death who wouldn't escape. So when we now look at answers we look for more logical answers that may make a little more sense like the sense that science can answer a lot of these questions like how the world started.
25). The Little Things that Jiggle is an eye opening clip to watch because it allows you to understand how physics interacts in our everyday life. Basically saying that, man is man’s worst enemy. This happens to be really interesting because with all this technology that we are able to come up with, it is destroying our habitat. It is important that we know physics well because it is able to help us understand evolution or the big bang theory.
26). “To have freedom of religion one must also have freedom from religion." This is saying that to truly follow your religious beliefs you can’t be tied down to a single domination. Basically saying that no one can dictate how you believe. This means that the government is separate and if not than you are not able to find your own nirvana through religion. What is so nice is that we live in a free country where we can choose to believe in religion or we can choose not to. Basically if you have to believe in only religion you may not get to see what science has to offer or the answers that science can give you without a God.
27). Dawkins says that believing in God is delusional because he believes in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. That there is no proof that God has ever existed so why worship to something that can not be proven real. There is no evidence or tests that we will ever be able to do to determine if there is a god or not so you are wasting your time worshiping to something that does not exist. With this you have to believe that we all came from something greater than what we can think. That from the big bang theory which we can say time started. And as we see with Darwin's theory that everything evolves over time and if we dont evolve we then will become extinct like the dinosaurs. This goes back to the theory of survival of the fittest. This makes a lot of sense because the Earth has it limitations as well as the humans have as well. There can only be so many people on this earth before we start having problems whether it be with limited resources or just the space we need to survive. So Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest shows us that we dont need a god to determine why people die or for answers we do know that we are just like every other animal and that there is a life cycle and we, well, we are in it as well.
28). Science can offer a sense of mystery when it doesn’t coincide with the theological teachings of the bible. If you read the bible its says the universe was created in seven days, yet the big bang theory says that it is the beginning of life, to me that’s where I see the mystery. Whether you are a person that follows science or religion it comes down to what unknown you rather believe because there are many questions that science and religion can not offer. In the end they are a mystery to both of us but it is faith that allows us to believe because with faith you can believe in the unknown. Sometimes things are meant to be unknown and we are not suppose to be able to figure them out. However, with Science it seems to me that there is a black and a white answer. That you can't have a gray because to scientist there is a solution or answer to every problem just like math, there is no median ground.
29). Cellular automata suggest using a series of mathematical equations, number, and patterns to hypothesize or make predictions of biological behavior. Cellular automata are extreamly simple computational systems that create interesting images which show some even more interesting behaviours. Essentially, these images show the product of thousands of simple computations based on rules that should be followed regarding what that image is suppose to look like. But what is so interesting or different about this topic is that with such a simple pixel you would think that it is suppose to follow these simple rules which it does not follow at all. Thats what makes this so interesting.
Extra Credit
“Who are you” is a film that means we need to all analyze how we are going to live our lives. That in a free society we should take advantage of our freedom and allow our minds to wonder because part of being human is our ability to imagine thinks and dream. At the same time that we are stuck in a game that sometimes we are not able to make certain moves because there are restraints to certain things. So the film is saying that we are here for a certain reason to find our way in life.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Week 3&4-Assigned Reading-Science And Philosophy
"One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science,measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it isthe most precious thing we have."-Einstein. Einstein is saying thatsometimes our best knowledge is outdated or that we really don't knowa whole lot about anything. "What I see in Nature is a magnificentstructure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that mustfill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinelyreligious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism." Even withall the different theories that Einstein came up with he is still notable to explain matter to the fullest. He doubted his own a abilty tofind a "complete theory"."The essential in the existence of a man likeme is what he thinks and how he thinks, not what he does or suffers."These words from Einstein basically say that through pain andsufferring is how we learn and how we understand why things happen theway that they happen.
Week 3 &4- Assigned Reading- The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantu
The theory that Copenhagen uses is based off of classical physics.Basically this is saying that we are able to use expirements to findresults and even with results and answers that there is still a bit ofuncertainty about things that we are not going to be able to find outor understand. These concepts that Copenhagen is saying are difficultunderstand. I think he is trying to say or go back to Aristole'sconcept that we don't know anything, even if we think that it is apiece of paper that is made from a tree, which came from a seed, whichis made up of atoms, which well we just don't know what that paperreally is even with exact information of how it is made therefore evenwith experiements and a simple answer the answer may not always becorrect.
Week 3&4- Assigned Reading- Physics and Philosophy
Plato's idea that prisoners in a cave can only look in one directionis very truthful. He is not able to see shadows in the cave becuasethere is no sun, that when he leaves that cave he will now be able toexperience "the light of truth". What I love about being able to findout the truth is that we are than able to make our own judgementsbased on our own experience. We can hear stories or try to believethings but human nature better understands things that happen to themon first hand. So saying all this, by humans being able to understandscience better and take different angles at it, we are now able tohave a better understanding of the world and what is around us. I alsolike Descartes fundamental principle that we attempt fundamentalknowledge. The understanding of mind and body is one of the firstthings that we need to be able to grasp to have a better understandingof things. The he talks about the relationship between I and theworld. This is important becusae sometimes I think that the world isonly a direct relationship between us and no one else that we may livein different time periods. I mean where were you 1 year prior to yourbirth, I mean your parents were living yet we can't recall anything.Time has relativity.
Week 3&4-Assigned Reading- WAS COSMIC INFLATION THE 'BANG' OF THE BI
Sometimes it is hard to believe or understand how the structure of ourworld or universe is becuase of thermal exspanision. But if you lookat it everything starts back to the beginning of science beinging thateverything is made up of atoms and electrons. What scientist believeis that they have a problem looking into the big bang theory becauseof the "horizontal flatness". So with this whole theory that theuniverse excedds critical denisty, than therefore we can come up withthe assumption or the conclusion that there will be a reverse big bangtheory to end time called the big crunch. It is hard for me tounderstand the whole pressure vacuum concept because it is notsomethign that you normally hear about or it is such a new concept tome.
Week 3&4-Assigned Reading-Cosmic Inflation
Trying to understand the basics of cosmic inflation is a little hardto understand. Basically this is saying that the universe's expanisionwas because a vacuum pressure that exponentially grew. Inflation thencaused the universe to expand which leads us to were we are at today.The whole reason that we look at inflation is because there seemed tobe some holes in the big bang theory that seemed not to make a wholelot of sense so inflation can help us understand how the big bangtheory works. The first thing to understand about this whole theory isthat we can see the universe and we can touch it so by thosestimpulations we are than able to conclude that we are than unable totry to understand it. So if we can understand or come up with a baseof what we are trying to understand than we can then expand ourknowledge like physics or human physiology. In science there are basicprinciples and patterns to how things work. Most things follow theserules which makes it quite easy for us to understand new concepts.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Week 3 & 4-Expert Lecture- Stephen Wolfram and a New Kind of Science
"How does anything complicated get produced"-Stephen Wolfram, thequestion that he asks about anything in the universe. What isinterseting that Stephen says is that nature follows some kind ofrule. The conculsions that Stephen drew in 1982 were incorrect hebelieved that if something in physics or anything starts out simpleit will be simple and if it starts out complicated then well it willend up being complicated, however Stephen used a triangle formulawith a simple black cell to find out that something so simple canbecome quite complicated. Basically he came up with and found outthat some of these rules didn't follow a general rule. What Stpehenis trying to get at is that a simple cellular model can becomereally complex and it can begin to start to generate it's ownidea's. His idea quickly translates to the world, that we live innothing but space. That the particles bring up quanta mechanicssaying that it has it's own randomous and this goes into space andtime. Watching this video I didn't understand the inferences thatStephen was trying to make. I don't get how a simple cell can wellmake up or well change anything. Unless you look at it from thestand point is that we are made up from cells and if you change acell on us you are changing, well, you can pretty much changeanything. But based on the ideas that Stephen was conveying throughmathmatica I think that it was amazing how we are able to determinethose kinds of things from just a simple cell.
Week 3&4- Expert Lecture- Owen Gingerich on Astronomy and God
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at allcomprehensible"-Einstein. That fact that we can hope to understand itis amazing and that we have the ability because there is somethingfundamentally there to comprehend it. What I was able to pull fromthis video from Owen Gingerich is that the universe and religion thereis unity. Without some of the gravitational constants we would not beable to live regardless of religion. What I find interseting is thathe talks about people in general, how that everyone to a certainextent believes in god and that is why some people opt out ofbelieving in a god. Sometimes people have a hard time believing thatthere is a god because we are going through so much sufferring. What Ifound interseting is thinking about what happened before the big bang.Scientist are now coming to think about eterinty, that when you thinkabout time you are going out of our time because you would need changeand motion, however you could define eterinty becuase it is embeded.Most preachers thing in terms of cause and effect. Basically what Owenis saying about the big bang theory or before it is that scientficallyyou are not able to to prove anything. Christains for a long time havebeen talking about other dimisions in the sense that another universewould be heaven. What I found weird is that Owen being a preacher heregrets his faith not being as broad as it was as a child. What Ipicked up from the video which is most defianlty true is that thehuman race is in jepoardy if we do not change something. We arerunning out of resources. The future of the human race is dyingbecuase with anything in life there is a time frame or a cycle. Thatthe human cycle is coming to an end.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Week 1- Nicholas of Cusa
I didn't really understand the point to the this film. I did like acouple of different quotes that came from this becuase a lot of themare really truthful with life. "These points are recongized inmathematics, where the propositions are quite easily traced back tothe first and most evident principles but where propostions are tracedback with more difficulty bcasue they are only traced back through themediation of the earlier ones. This is interseting becsaue thisbsaically saying that we need to solve to problem instead of puttingit off. It is often funny to think that aristole one of man's mostintellectual people would not have known anything but i guess that ispart of philosophy.
Week 1- Java Philosophy "Who are You"
This clip of video brings up some interseting questions. SorenKierkegaard says " I see it all perfectly, there are two possiblesituations--one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and myfriendly adivce is this: do it or don't do it--you will regret themboth. This was quote that stood out becuase it brings up so manydifferent questions that you a can ask yourself about differentsituations. This simple Saying quoted by Soren plays a role whendeciding if you are going to purse a dream that is well just a dream.And just for sometimes it is true that we do feel like we are a partof the a chess game that Soren talks about becuase there are times inour life that we are buried so far down that we can no longer see thelight, or that the piece on the chess board can't be moved. But what Isay to that is that for every predicament that you get yourself inthere is always a way out because there was always way in. Sometimeswe don't realize that we are stumping ourselfves when there is alwaysa move.
Week 1-History Of Philosophy
As time goes on and we keep learning about human nature and theexperiences that occur through life it is quite interseting to seethat man has not really changed over time. We don't really knowanymore today than we did yesterday. From a science stand point yesthere are new break throughs everyday but from a idieological sense weare still stuck with the same question that no one can answer, why arewe here, whats the point of our existence? When looking at philosophyand examining the purpose of it, I think that one of the best thingsabout it is that philosophy has not limits, no prejudgments, nostimpulations. Philosophy changes from culture to culture but thequestions that we ask ourselfves are the same. From the ancientphilosophy to contemporary philosophy today, philosophy is just tryingto make sense out of things.
Week 1- Apology by Plato
To the defense of Plato there are three different parts to the story. The first part to the apology is for his for his colloquial style. The problem with Plato is that he has always been his own worst enemy and I mean that becuase he feels like he has this undying passion that he has to tell the truth. Most people belie that he is subject to public opinion as well as he is the ring leader to the youth's opinion. His accusations can pretty much spoken by his accusers as "Socrates is an evil doer". To his acusers that answer to that begins with that being a natural philosphy is that he knows nothing. See the thing is that you are not guilty of anything if you chose not to puruse anything becuase you are ignorant of them or you chose to say that these notions are not important. So not teaching anything is because he didn't know anything therefore he is not responsible for anyhting.
Week 1- The Socratic Universe
After reading the texts I found some of the concepts to be truthful, however, some to be a little farfetched. I do believe that at some point or place we need to have a seperation from religion and science. Most things in life science is able to explain but its for the paranormal or the occurences that have no explanation you then have to look at faith. When you look at the earth and say how was it created you can then go back and say that the big bang happened which gave us where we live today. But where did that big bang come for? Can we really and truthfully answer all those questions with science? Most likely not so it is important to have a balance.In the text a lot of the reading had to do with how we answer the questions that we dont know. There are many things that go behind the thought of a question. Whether or not you are going to answer that with more of a scientific approach or with a relgious approach. If we are able to combine both of these then we will be able to better answer the questions.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Week 1- Expert Lecture- Francis Fukuyama on the End of History
In this video Francis Fukuyama says that the end of history may be
near because the experience of the 21st century, he believes that we
need to change our life styles. He believes that there has been a
gradual evolution in modern liberal democracy's. Francis believes that
for the most part has been peacefully and the major democracy's would
not go to war. That only the smaller countries are fighting. Basically
he is saying that history has a direction and it is going towards the
good. Another thing that Francis says is that we are something special
in creation and that at the end of this door there will be more
enlightenment. Subjective experiences give us a sense of what is right
and wrong. We have to feel a certain away to do a certain thing. Which
means in principle you can build a robot as complex as us. Another
thing that has a direction is that religion has a direction as well as
history. That if you look at religion it is a common book of social
rules or corroprative rules. Religion is more functionally important
than some people realize. However, we are in the age of science which
has stripped away some meanings of religion. Francis says that
religions will need to evolve to keep up with modern science. Francis
says that if you believe that our insitutions are the struggles around
us and it forces us to look at the abstract of basic principles.
near because the experience of the 21st century, he believes that we
need to change our life styles. He believes that there has been a
gradual evolution in modern liberal democracy's. Francis believes that
for the most part has been peacefully and the major democracy's would
not go to war. That only the smaller countries are fighting. Basically
he is saying that history has a direction and it is going towards the
good. Another thing that Francis says is that we are something special
in creation and that at the end of this door there will be more
enlightenment. Subjective experiences give us a sense of what is right
and wrong. We have to feel a certain away to do a certain thing. Which
means in principle you can build a robot as complex as us. Another
thing that has a direction is that religion has a direction as well as
history. That if you look at religion it is a common book of social
rules or corroprative rules. Religion is more functionally important
than some people realize. However, we are in the age of science which
has stripped away some meanings of religion. Francis says that
religions will need to evolve to keep up with modern science. Francis
says that if you believe that our insitutions are the struggles around
us and it forces us to look at the abstract of basic principles.
Week 1- Expert Lecture- Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley video on Man's Search for the Truth is rather diffucult
to understand and follow. Huxley talks about the inconsitency's in
what he has written throughout his life. Basically for Huxley he
believes that searching for the truth is what sets us free. However
searching for the truth well is only a search becuase we may never
find the truth. Then he talks about the mystical experience of the
universe which is rather difficult becuase you then bring up the
questions who are we,who is man, and what is the point to our
existence? Thomas Mann says "the doors of perception" if we stay
fixated on something then we do miss out on life is true. Huxley talks
about an escape is that we all will experiment to find out what is
true for ourselfves.
to understand and follow. Huxley talks about the inconsitency's in
what he has written throughout his life. Basically for Huxley he
believes that searching for the truth is what sets us free. However
searching for the truth well is only a search becuase we may never
find the truth. Then he talks about the mystical experience of the
universe which is rather difficult becuase you then bring up the
questions who are we,who is man, and what is the point to our
existence? Thomas Mann says "the doors of perception" if we stay
fixated on something then we do miss out on life is true. Huxley talks
about an escape is that we all will experiment to find out what is
true for ourselfves.
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