Faith

I am responding to Meghan Cooney's blog question: Question: Do you think it is possible to ever have no faith of any kind in anything?

I think that is possible.... if we are talking about a rock or some other form of inanimate object. Otherwise, my answer is no. I think people will always have faith in something. My perception of faith is that it is something you trust. Something you know will happen, or not necessarily will happen, but you hope it will. I have faith towards many things. I do not have faith in the general context that you would here it being applied to though. Specifically towards god or any other form of higher being. If anything I have faith in myself to do the right thing and create a good life for myself. I think everyone has some sort of faith.
question: I find it interesting that people have so many different definitions/ perceptions of what a word is/means. Why does this happen?

Greater beings....

In response to Alex's post In repsonse to Bryan's post. I think that you do not need to believe in a greater being. I think that people create these greater beings because they are scared of the truth; that there is nothing but us in the world. And if there is a god, most of the time he's not going to help you." I think that people want to believe that they can't be hurt and that nothing unfortunate will happen to them so they create these beings. Mainly, I think that people just do not want to take responsibility for their lives. I think that Instead of praying, people need to go out and make their own miracles. I think that people can do good without believing in a higher being. We all have the same abilities, and I think as long as you have goals in life, that you will do fine. You do not need a god giving you all kinds of rules and watching you constantly, to live a good, moral life. I have nothing wrong with religion, and I think it is nice that everyone in their specific religions get along so great, but I am not religious, and I do not believe there is a being watching over me, or that if i do wrong that I will go to hell when i die. I have a good life though, and I get a lot done. I am also a fairly moral person, even though I do not go to church. I think this is because all people are good at heart and they don't need a god to tell them how to behave. I like to look at most religions as suggestions. I think that is the most productive way to go about things because then you can decide what is right and wrong for yourself.
Question: What do you think?

Is it worth it?

One thing I was wondering this week when we were discussing Buddhism was whether I could do parts of it and whether it would be worth it or not. Specifically, I was thinking about suffering's end with the end of desire. The chapter in the book says that to eliminate suffering you have to reach a neutral feeling. No anger, no happiness, just neutral. I do not know if it would be worth it to give up those feelings. I like to feel desire towards certain things and I think that suffering is worth it, if you gain happiness from it. For example, when I go to the gym I always have trouble reaching my goals, and I feel like I am going to pass out when I am done. That exhaustion is worth it when I am done working out, because I know I will look better and feel healthier later. I really like Buddhism In general, but I don't like some of the small ideas that are part of it. I think parts of it I already follow; I try to lead a moral life and stay positive, even though I do not know all the answers. On page 95 it says that you would have to renounce yourself and your desires to escape suffering. I really do not like that you have to renounce yourself. I like the things that make me, me. I could not imagine just sitting there and being neutral or not liking any of the things I do now.
question: Would you give up your feelings and your life if it meant no more suffering? if it changed the way you lived and thought?

Living Forever

In response to Laura's question, would you like to live forever?
My answer depends because after having a discussion with many of my floor mates and some of our class mates about this topic, I realized that there are different perceptions of immortality. I perceive immortality to involve living forever and never aging. Someone else suggested that you would live forever but,(similar to some Greek mythology,)over time you would age. Another suggestion was that you could be immortal, but there is something that could kill you, which i personally think is contradictory, so I will not be addressing that as an option. If I had the chance to live forever but I had to age, I think I would do it as long as I had the ability to change my appearance. If I had regenerating skin or something and I could not have plastic surgery and stuff then I wouldn't do it, because I would not be happy being that old looking. I know that sounds shallow, but everyone is at least a little shallow, so whatever. If the case of the matter was that you never aged, then I would definitely do it, despite the consequences. I think I would be sad watching all my friends and family members dying around me, but the positive experiences I gained would outweigh the pain I would experience. I would be around long enough to collect money, and see the world. After awhile, I would have enough money to make a difference. I would also have an extended knowledge of the world and the way things work. There are so many things to learn in this world and I think it would be fantastic to learn them all. One thing in-particular I think about is my art. All these famous painters spent lifetimes creating their masterpieces. I wonder what could be done if someone were to live forever, and whether the artwork would actually be any better. I mean, there is only so much you can do before something becomes overdone, but at the same time, there is so much detail in the world we don't notice. Do you think having an infinite amount of time will make a difference when creating a masterpiece?

Natural selection...

The other day we talked about why Darwin's views have political flaws. We said one reason was because people do not like the idea that they will be separated into groups and that natural selection would occur. I think Hitler had an idea that related to Darwinism and it is just not morally acceptable with people. You cannot have superior races I think. There are just too many different traits that apply to different people that work for them, that it would be too difficult to pick and choose which traits are the right ones and the wrong ones. Also, Natural selection is a problem because you do not want it to happen to you, and I believe people have a natural inclination to help one another. I do not think natural selection could occur because people would not just sit by and watch their fellow man die.
I think that genocide is very closely related to the ideas of natural selection, and it worries me because when you put the words down on paper you're like" I would never let something like this happen, that is terrible!" but we let it happen all the time. There have been genocides going on for years in different places, and we all say that it is awful, but i feel like we don't do anything to fix the problem.I do not like the idea of natural selection, so am i being biased by thinking that it does not/ would not take place amongst people? I feel like people are naturally good; if this is true, then why do they let genocides happen? What is going on in the world right now? ( Concerning genocide or anything related to natural selection.)

No more gym class?

One day in class, we talked briefly about gym classes and the presidential fitness tests and stuff that you had to pass in order to graduate. I thought that was really interesting and I wanted to talk more about it. It bothers me that people don't have to exercise as much as they used to. Here is what bothers me the most. When I was a little girl, I didn't have a lot of toys and things to maintain my attention, so I would play outside. I remember more then anything that all the neighborhood kids would drop everything to go outside and play too. Where I lived, you went home from school, got your homework done as fast as you could, and played outside. There are so many things to do now a days, that I feel like no one wants to go and play outside. Television and the internet have made people lazy. In gym class, everyone complains about having to walk, not even run, but walk the one mile around the track. I used to look forward to gym class. I thought it was like having extended recess. I think that more should be done to keep kids in shape in schools. They should have gym class at least 3 times a week all year. It's just healthier that way.
question: Do you think that it is better to have gym, or be done with it? Do we really need gym classes? Will our society eventually break into parts where we have the hardly active shut-ins, and the extremely active people who exercise all the time? If that did happen, Could these two groups coexist? or would Darwin's theory of evolution kick in? (you dont have to answer all the questions, I just wanted to ask all these because they were on my mind.)

Pinocchio Paradox

Awhile ago in class we talked about a paradox with Pinocchio's nose. I recently found a website with a statement claiming to refute this paradox and I found it quite interesting. I think it is slightly ridiculous but I liked the points it made all the same. Maybe you will like it too. Here is the link- http://www.dump.com/2010/02/13/pinocchio-paradox-solved/

Deformed Babies....

In response Julie's post. I think that designer babies are an interesting idea. I don't know how i would personally feel as a parent because there is so much to think about. On the one hand, I would think about probability and just having a kid the normal way, and i could be proud of my kid knowing that they are normal and not some test tube experiment thing. On the other hand, I would never want the possibility of having my child have diseases or things they wouldn't have to have. If i could make life easier for them, like if they were born without asthma, even though my whole family has it, i feel like that would be better. In English class last semester we had to read a book called "Thanking the monkey" by Karen Dawn. One of the chapters touches on the subject of breeding animals. It states that breeding some more aesthetically traits in dogs also has bad effects on the animals health. Pugs for example, are bred to have super cute scrunched up faces, but that makes it harder for them to breathe. I wonder if this effect would happen with designer babies?
I also feel like having the ability to create the kind of child you want takes some of the guess work and excitement out of life. Life isn't interesting if you know exactly how things are going to turn out all the time and you can plan every little thing. What is the point in living if we know what is to come every second of every day? if we know what our kids will look like and how they are going to live their lives? I know I'm taking an extreme approach to this, but something about this topic unsettles me a little.
question: If you had to choose between having a perfectly healthy child that looked awful and grotesquely deformed, or a beautiful child, who had a multitude of serious health conditions, which would you choose?

My dreams

In response to Yvonne's post on dreams. I like to have dreams because my dreams are always really elaborate and i have them almost every time I close my eyes. I personally believe that my dreams are nothing more then an extension of my imagination and that when i go to sleep my head just wants to tell me a good story. I need to be entertained while I'm sleeping so my body creates images solely based on the fact that I need something to look at while i sleep. I feel like without my dreams i wouldn't sleep as well. Sometimes how I feel during the day effects my dreams at night. Like if i just watched a scary movie and went to bed, i have nightmares. If i have a homework assignment due or something else i need to get done, I get it done in my dream. I never really analyze my dreams though. I don't want to take away from the feeling I get when i have them by further understanding them, if they even have meaning. Right now, I am happy with just having them and feeling content.
question: in what cases is it good to over analyze something and in what cases isn't it?

Love it or Leave it?

In response to Chelsea's blog question: Do you think that forcing our children to take art classes (as many elementary and high schools do) creates in them an appreciation of art, or does it cause them to resent it?
I think that appreciation of art stems from how you experience it. If you are in uncomfortable circumstances then your mind will relate art to those circumstances and not be as fond of it. For example; You are in a class room with a teacher that is absolutely unbearable and she teaches art. She screams at you constantly for messing up the assignments when all you want to do is learn. For most people, this experience would put them off from art. Basically I'm saying that in the context of school, liking art depends on the teacher you have. If you have a bad teacher, chances are you will grow up to dislike creating art.
I think in many cases, as long as the teacher has the willingness to teach the students and help in whatever way they can, the subject in question would be more enjoyable. Given that the teacher themselves know enough on the matter to teach it. I feel that way about a lot of things. In high school, I hated history because I didn't get along with the teacher. Then i got a different teacher who knew more and had more enthusiasm on the subject and now I love history.
Question; Do you agree that having a good teacher makes the subject more enjoyable?

Dreams

I am responding to Courtney's blog. Her question was whether anyone disagreed with her about her opinion of Bryan's question, which was" Bryan asked, "Do you think that finding meaning in your dreams would make a significant improvement in your life?".
I mostly agree with her. I think that dreams can have some importance but some are not important. I think that it doesn't matter what kind of dreams you have, but how your mind interprets them and what actions you take prior to the dreams. I agree that understanding your dreams can help you understand stress but there are other things that help you understand stress as well. As long as you realize you are stressed and take the necessary actions to be less stressed then you are changing your life for the better. I don't think that having dreams helps you significantly though. some people don't have dreams and their lives are fine. As far as dreams go, I think they are nice to have but that they aren't very useful.
question: would it make that much of a difference if no one ever dreamed again?

Spoiled children

This is in response to Austin's question "If all parents disciplined and didn't spoil their children then do you think that the world would have better appreciated people rather than a lot of spoiled, snotty and uncaring people?"
I think that if there weren't so many spoiled children in the world, we wouldn't appreciate the children that take the time to behave. Also, I think that saying that the world is full of spoiled, snotty, and uncaring people is false. I think that the world is generally good and that most of humanity wants to help their fellow man. I do think that children should be disciplined more because all children and people in general should have respect for their elders and peers in my opinion. I don't, however, think that an increase in disciplinary action upon children will necessarily improve appreciation for people as a whole.
Part of the reason i see this as a problem is because different children need to be spoken to different ways. There is not just one way to discipline someone. For some kids, yelling works, whereas others would just cry and be even less cooperative/productive than they originally were. I don't think many parents these days know how to deal with their children and so they take the easy way out and let them get away with more then they should. But at the same time, there are parents who do a good job. Even if there are kids that are spoiled, they still know what good is and they want to be good. They just haven't been taught how to achieve that yet. I think that part of the reason I perceive the world as generally good is because when I see someone do good i want to do good as well. Helping people is a good feeling and I know that I'm not the only one that feels that way. I think spoiled children act snotty sometimes because they have been raised to accept that people will spoil them when they act the way they do.
question: do you think that parental beliefs completely affect the behavior of the child and the way he/she will mature? or do you think that everyone is born with morals and they know the difference between right and wrong regardless of whether their parents practice it or not?

Communism

In response to Laura's blog question "Do you think that communism will work now?"
I don't think that communism would work now. the fact of the matter is that we all have different jobs and we expect different pay for what we do. People that go to college expect to get paid more then someone working at McDonalds. Another problem is that we all love our individuality. We take pride in the different clothes we wear that represent ourselves as people. I don't think people would accept communism now. A major problem is the money thing because if everyone got paid the same then motivation to work hard would be eliminated.
I think communists have good intentions because they just want equality amongst the classes but i do not think it would work.I think a big thing with communism is that people dont accept their class levels because everyone wants to be upper class.
question: Confucius taught that people had to accept their places in society and be happy with where they were in life. Do you think a Confucian society would be more successful than a communistic one?

Jealousy

In response to Courtneys blog question "Question...that jealous anger that we sometimes feel toward the wealthy is a vile thing. What does that example say about humans? Can/does jealousy control us?"
I think jealousy controls some people, but that is because they allow themselves to be controlled by it. In some cases i would consider jealousy healthy because it influences you to work harder to gain the things you desire. Jealousy obviously has its bad effects on people as well. When it gets the best of people, murder, thefts, and other things can occur. I think it is natural to want the best for ourselves. The anger that is sometimes synonymous with jealousy has to be controlled before it gets out of control but i think that is more because anger is a dangerous emotion, not jealousy. As a whole, i think that society is not controlled by jealousy because there are too many other amazing emotions to experience.
question: Do you think good emotions can always overcome the bad ones?

Happiness

I am replying to Julia's post question. Which is "So, if this "happiness machine" did really exist, what might you see/perceive by stepping into it? (In other words, what would make you the most happy?)"
I do not know if I would even enter the happiness machine because I would not want to live in a world that was not real. It would bother me to know that everything in there was something I wasn’t actually experiencing. If I had to choose what I would experience in the happiness machine, it would be this; I would live in a medium sized house. The house would be incredibly detailed, (work that I had done myself). I would have a beautiful garden that rivaled many other gardens and inside my house I would have a library. This is the main goal that I work towards and I hope to achieve it soon. I know I would be content living with these things.
Can people ever be truly content?

Reason or Emotion?

I am responding to Meghan’s post question, which is “Why do we have phrases like "follow your heart," "gut instinct," etc? Why is it not like listen to what your mind tells you?”
We have phrases like “follow your heart” and “gut instinct” because people believe that your soul will know what to do over your conscious perception of things. In the desert for example, you see mirages even though there is nothing there. Your mind tells you that the images you are seeing are real, even though in your gut, you know that you are just hallucinating from dehydration or some other effects. Also, to say just listen to what your mind tells you, doesn’t leave a tone of emotion in it. When the phrase “follow your heart” is used, I interpret it to mean that even if there is way to benefit from something; if it is morally wrong then you shouldn’t do it. Basically, (opposite of what Plato believed), we should value emotion over reason. I agree with the phrases because I think that emotions are an important part of decision making and I would not want to make decisions without them.
Would you want to live in a world where decisions were based off of reason without emotion?

Forms.....

In class the other day we talked about the world of forms and used trees as an example, saying that our soul has knowledge of the world of forms and uses that knowledge to recognize a tree as a tree. I think that nature exists and that we name a tree as a tree because we need something to call it. It cannot be proven that there is a world of forms or a soul that has complete knowledge of said world. I think that is why people in the world recognize objects with different words, because they don't know all about forms and things. I think we just label objects with a word because we need a way to communicate to each other what we are talking about. A tree is a tree because we have called it such.
Question: what do you think about the world of forms?

Emotions

This is in response to Kolb's Corner's post question. He asks if we agree with his opinion that decisions will always be effected by emotion. I agree with him. I think that people will always make decisions while taking into consideration their emotions, or the emotions of other people. If your parents tell you not to do something and you want to do it anyway, you would take into consideration how angry they are going to be with you if you do it. I think it is good to have emotion when you are making decisions. In some countries in war, they sacrifice some of their men, for the good of the nation, like the kamikaze fighters from japan. If they had cared about their citizens as individuals more, more innocent people could have possibly been alive. i think its nearly impossible for people to make decisions without using any emotion though. if you make the decision to hit someone, you are feeling angry, if you decide not to hit them, you could be feeling sympathy or something else.
Question: is it possible for people to make decisions without using emotion?

Turtles

Societal Norms....

This is in response to La Tortuga's question on her post. The question is "Do you think social norms keep us from being spontaneous and cause us to care too much about what others think?"
I think that today's society tries to censor kids way more then it should. My sister likes to wear things with skulls on them because she thinks it's cute. However, she cannot wear anything with skulls on it in school because the school counselors link that to depression. In reality, she just felt like wearing skulls with bows that day. Many schools try to censor clothes (T-shirts especially) because they do not want anything inappropriate in school. I personally believe that in life, some things are going to be considered inappropriate and if we censor kids from experiencing it when they are young, then when they do experience it in the future, they won't know how to handle it. By saying we do not want to subject kids to certain fashions or beliefs we are stifling their ability to think open minded about things. In many cases in history, you see people being ostracized from a group, or a war being started because someone was ignorant towards a situation. I think we could loosen up on some of the rules we have, in schools especially.
question: Do you think censorship leads to rebellion and/or ignorance? if not,list some effects (positive or negative) censorship does have on society.

Hamster

The Sophists

First of all, let me clarify that i do not think the sophists were perfect. However, I approve of many of their ideas. On page 30 in Pojman's book ideals of the sophists are listed. One of them states "they embraced skepticism about ultimate reality and concentrated on that which is certain." I think that was a practical choice in interpreting life and what they need to accomplish because you cannot assess a situation without first acknowledging what is certain.Ex.) If you are trying to get out of a room, you have to isolate what you know from what you do not. You would know for certain that there are four walls, a ceiling, a floor,and a door in this room. Anything you figured out afterwords would not necessarily be certain knowledge until you tested it. You would need the certain knowledge to figure out what you do not know. One of my favorite questions that a sophist would ask is "how can i play the game of life and win?" (page 28.) I like that they tried to make the best of things instead of thinking why am I here? or how can I do good? They tried to make the best of their lives and took everything else into consideration after. They made money and got what they wanted and I can respect that.
Who do you like better,The Sophists or Socrates?

To act passively or to not act passively, that is the question.....

This is in response to Bryan's question.Is there any situations in life when you should not act passively towards aggressors? And, If so, when should you not act passively?
In most situations it would be wiser to act passively. Although, there are occasions where acting passively will do nothing for you. Then there are sometimes where you have to make a choice. A good example would be of the movie the Dark Knight. There is a part of the movie where the joker is killing people all over Gotham. By acting passively, Batman enabled the joker to continue killing people. The only productive thing for Batman to do was to come forward and reveal to the joker his true identity. A continuity in passive attitude would have resulted in the deaths of more people. My point here is that, especially when dealing with cereal killers, it is definitely not a good idea to act passively.
Question: Do you think there are people that exist that do things just to test societal norms? If so , why do you think they do this?

Violence

This is in response to Austin's blog question "Do you ever think that maybe people will realize that crime and violence isn't the way to go...or do you think that there will always be crime and violence among societies?"
I think that crime and violence will exist as long as people do. Human emotions will not allow for there to be eternal peace. As for violence, some people will kill over jealousy or hate. It happens frequently and will continue to happen. I think the reason this will continue to happen is because not everyone disapproves of the way the world is. Some people think that violence is necessary, and as long as those people exist, so will violence. I think crime exists for very similar reasons. Some people steal because they are jealous, others steal to see if they can get away with it.
Are there times when stealing or violence are acceptable?

Free Will, Do we have it?

this is in response to austin's blog. i believe that everyone has free will. As long as we are not in some dream state, we have free will. I think the reason that most people believe they don't have free will is because of the consequences society attaches to the decisions we make. It's so unfathomable to some people to break society's rules, that they accept in their minds that they have no choice but to obey the rules that have been given to them. As long as we keep on living the way we are i would see no problem with being controlled by some great being that we do not know about. I mean sure it's disturbing that our decisions aren't our own, but we would never know that if we really were being controlled. whether i have free will or not, i know that i am happy with the life that i have and i would continue to live it this way whether i though that someone else was in control of what i was doing or not. how ever, i believe that is not the case and that people control their own lives and are responsible for their own actions, no matter how miniscule or severe.
question: should all rules society gives us be followed?

Response to smells

This is in response to Daniel Gaines post. I dont know why our minds register certain smells good and certain smells as not appealing. I think it is because that is what we are raised to believe and our minds accept it. Kind of like in class when we talked about nature v.s. nurture. Certain things that smell bad to one person might smell great to another. Even though we do not like the smell of trash, it is quite possible that someone else loves it.
question: Do you think we would react differently to certain smells, if we werent raised to like or dislike them?

Miracles

This is in response to Alex's post (NHN). I believe miracles do not exist. Specific events occur in a fascinating order at opportune moments in time, but they are not miracles. If something amazing happens it is because some one did something right. Many look to a god and say that said god was the reason for something. I believe that things will happen if you take the responsibility to make them happen. It does not make them any less amazing for happening if they are explained. It is still incredible that Doctors save peoples lives. In older times people believed in miracles and witch doctors and magic. They would use some ingredients that had "healing properties." These "healing properties" were just correct ingredients that they chose on coincidence and decided to experiment with. Now we have doctors that know what they are doing and how medicine reacts with the human body, but it is amazing nonetheless. As for the question on whether knowing how things work will cause life to be less exciting, my answer is that life will always be exciting. The reason is because there is always room for error. The reason people's lives are so interesting today is because everyone thinks in a different way, and also because people make mistakes. Things don't always go as planned and they never will, and that is why life is so great.

Lying or telling the truth?

This post regards a question I thought of after a class discussion. The Question is "Would society be better as a whole if nobody ever lied?" My opinion on the matter is that it could go either way. On the one hand, criminals would confess to their crimes and no one would be falsely accused. Judgment in court could be fairly passed. Businesses would have to be straight forward with how they plan to operate, and thus would have to try harder and be more fair with their prices. People in relationships would no longer have to worry about cheating, because everyone would tell the truth. On the other hand, if people had to tell the truth all the time, feelings could get hurt. Teachers could get fired for telling their students how much they hate them. The suicide rate in teens could go up, after hearing from their parents that they were mistakes, or that the divorce really was their fault. Governments would not be able to hide things from their citizens, so if something bad happened the population would fall into mass panic. People being more truthful about their feelings of dislike towards one another could result in more fights. I am slightly confused on whether religion would be effected by this or not because according to the coherence theory of truth people believe there is a god/ there are gods because written documents or some other sort of physical evidence says they exist. If people still believe their religions are legitimate, making the world lie-free wouldn't change anything, would it? That is one question I have for you. The other is whether you think the world would be better or not if everyone told the truth?