Post 1-4 WK 2

Post 4 WK 2
A documentary was done on John Maynard Smith and his ideas on evolution. In this documentary he talked about his religious upbringing as a child and the first time he read Darwin. He stated the he felt a sense of relief. And that religion didn’t give him the freedom that he needed. He went on to say that he is now a agnostic but still attends church. He does this because it is like a community that offers help and security. I’m thinking that this goes back to science and religion. Do the two go hand and hand now? I never really thought of applying science to religion but I have had some questions of proof. Is what is out there real and how can they tell if it is or not? Now I have a better understanding of the possible answers to those questions. John soon goes on to talk about how design and natural selection are similar. Animals and insects adapt to their environment to survive. There body structures are designed to survive a certain type of environment. Though I did enjoy this documentary it was at times difficult for me to follow. John Maynard Smith is a very interesting individual and he made an interesting comment about dependent selection. He talked about how one sex would be more valuable and what would happen if one sex was more popular then the other. I found this documentary very interesting and for me evolution is still something I’m trying to get a grasp on.
Post 3 WK 2
A journal article called “The Himalayan Connection” written by David Lane was about what and how people believe. I have to admit it was a little hard for me to follow. Some words I just did not understand. There was a sentence in the article that really stood out to me and it said “the natures of ones attention is related directly to the perceptions one experiences”. My interpretation of this is that everyone is different and lives different lives; thus, giving them different experiences. These experiences influences a persons beliefs, there behavior and overall out look in life. Each of these experiences are different and for some they may think that there is something mystical about it. For others that might experience something similar they may just brush the experience off and go on with there day. It makes me think that no matter the experience if the person thinks that there is some more to it; mystical, bad luck, or religious. If they want to see something they will find it. At times I have to admit, I will say oh that was just bad luck or what goes around comes around. But I truly believe that because I am a quiet, patient, and very tolerable person I can take a lot of crap. These traits of mine allow for bad experiences from other people, and to justify these experiences I use terms as Karma and luck. My experiences influence how deep I will look into an experience, and what I take from it.
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“A Field Guide to Critical Thinking” written by James Lett is about the importance of critical thinking. James Lett is a college professor that concluded most of his freshman and sophmore students didn’t know how to evaluate evidence for answers. To help his students he came up with the acronym FiLCHeRS. FiLCHeRS is falsifiability, logic comprehensiveness, honesty, replicability, and sufficiency. This acronym is to help students better determine what is true by having evidence for FiLCHeRS.
After reading this paper I found that it is helpful to have something to act as a guideline in determining what is true. Honestly, this paper is basically about needing to have facts and verifiable information to now weather the claim is true. It is important to be able to back up any statement with evidence no matter what it is. I always tell my younger cousin when she’s having problems. If you keep calm and state the facts and have information to back it up you won’t be dismissed. The adults will take you more seriously because they would have realized that you have though things through. And of course she just nods her head.
Post 1 Wk 2
Paul Kurtz wrote a Paper called “Should Skeptical Inquiry Be Applied to Religion?”. He states that skepticism is essential in all areas of scientific research, and to what extent should it be applied to religion. I really enjoyed reading this paper. It raised some interesting questions, and concerns. He states, to some degree, that there are issues in trying to research religion. People are more resistant to researching religion then psychics, palm readers and things of that nature. Applying skepticism to religion is in other words questioning if religion is real.
Wow, what can I say about questioning religion. This is such a sensitive issue. Yes, I believe skepticism is important. It is essential to science in that it raises questions that we have to try to answer by testing possible answers. However how do you apply skepticism to religion? What do you question? There are so many people in this world that believe some type of higher being. Believing in God is more then just something that is done. Believing in God is a way of life. It effects the way people behave, how they treat others. It can even determine what days they are going to demonstrate there belief. Believing in a high being even gives people hope, and faith that people are good, and that good things are out there in the world for those who are good. Questioning religion is a scary thing because as I said before religion is a belief. There may not be any physical evidence that religion or a higher being really exists. If a higher being were to be proven real then things would be great for most, but what will happen if it were proven false? What would happen to all those who believe? Skepticism and religion is a scary combination and for me I’m not sure if I’m ready to seriously put those two together