Friday, January 28, 2011

MIdterm

1. Be sure to place your entire midterm on your website and when you
are finished send a link of your test to your teacher directly at neuralsurfer@yahoo.com

2. Make sure that it is YOUR OWN work and that if you use other
authors please be sure to quote and/or cite the material appropriately. Plagiarism will not be
tolerated and you will receive an "F" automatically for the examination.

3. January 28th 2011

4. Aaron Andrew Alvarez

5. aalvarez53

6. aaronandrewalvarez@gmail.com

7. Critical Thinking: http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/

8. Yes

9. Yes

10.
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/expert-lecture-week-1.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/assigned-readings-week-1.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/critical-thinking-films-week-1.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-1-expert-lecture-john-m-smith.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-2-expert-lecture-ken-miller.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-3-assigned-readings-physics-behind.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-4-assigned-readings-should-skeptical.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-5-critical-thinking-film-eleven.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-1-expert-lecture-freeman-dyson.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-2-assigned-readings-why-i-am-not.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-3-assigned-readings-exposing-cults.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-4-assigned-readings-running-trains.html
http://alvzcritical.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-5-critical-thinking-films-nicholas-of.html

11. Dawkins views religion as a mind virus because it compromises the brain by letting it believe in the illogical and false to a damaging extent. I agree with this completely due to seeing how indoctrinated and irrational the faithful can be.

12. Most would say that Cargo cults only pertain to the savage minded humans of lands that only know the most basic of human contact. After World War II many cropped up in the South Pacific going as far as worshipping US servicemen as sky gods. While this is an example of an actual cargo cult, I would go as far as saying EVERY religion and faith is in some way a cargo cult. They take logic and reason and instead turn it into something primitive and sad.

13. Feynman believes that we should view the world and objects not for their basic face beauty but for their intrinsic all-encompassing beauty. He says that the only way for proper science to be achieved is to look at something with all of its parts in mind as opposed to only what lies on the surface.

14. It’s like Unbreakable but with a very low budget and no plot. The film has nothing to do with Karma and instead deals with cause and effect if at all.

15. Darwinian evolution basically states that an organism over time will adapt to survive its environment through small genetic changes that take place over a long period of time. John Maynard introduced the possibility that mental disorders and various health problems might actually be apart of evolution as a whole. These defects are actually helping to thin out the herd in a way evoking thoughts of the fittest shall survive.

16. Dyson believes that the Universe may have been created by someone or something. He infers that something’s are far too perfect to have been mere coincidence. He also believes that we have a greater purpose in this universe. Such thoughts are foolish and arrogant for a species that has only been around for such a short time. We mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

17. Chand discovered that it is impossible to know the truth. He believes that the founders of any faith knew as much as any person ever will.

18. Eleven is like American Beauty if M. Night directed it while in high school. It’s a shoddy film that plays on many tropes and was only working off of a post 9/11 world. The message is that bad things happen to good people and that information comes at a price.

19. Simply put without knowing the main message behind anything the whole purpose of the subject is useless. More importantly context is also needed. Without context a numerous amount of mistakes can come about.

20.
-The First Cause, Natural Law Argument, Argument of Design, Morality of a Deity, Remedy of Injustice, Character of Christ, Defects in Christ’s Teachings, The Moral Problem, Emotional Factor, Churches Retarding Progress, and fear. These are the things that Russell states render any belief in a high power pointless. I agree fully with every single point for one simple reason. When thought on all statements are actual givens. These are basic rational statements that any person of logic could agree with.

21. Dear, Johnny Doe.

You will think me a madman for writing you this letter. You will think I’ve been driven insane by a wild pack of beasts. Good god man, that’s not what’s happening at all! I’m writing to you about Critical Thinking and what some other deranged man named James Lett feels about the strange subject. You need to understand Johnny boy this whole Critical thinking mumbo jumbo has a trick to it. There are steps and guidelines and even a degree of trickery. Why should I tell you this, why should I let you in on something so basic and simple? Because man, this is for ranking that my writings depend on. Now listen. The first step is the principle of Falsifiability. For something to be true you have to be able to prove it false, don’t ask why just go along with this. Next you have to make sure what your viewing, testing or what have you is logical and backed by reason and not savagery. You then have to consider how comprehensive the supporting information is. If there are a few results and outcomes you might as well chuck it away. The most important of these things would have to be honesty. After you come to some conclusion or decision you had better hope that you arrived at it from a non-biased viewpoint. If any sort of bias exists the results are probably worth dung in the hand. After all this you’re going to have to see if every single outcome can be replicated. If it can you have yourself a result. Now that you’ve done that it’s up to you to determine if everything found out has any actual merit. So there you go Johnny boy. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I.

22. He believes that skepticism should be applied to religion because nothing is beyond being questioned. To exclude anything based on being sacred or an emotion impact would be doing a great disservice to science and logic. I agree fully. What better way to prove how asinine religion is than debasing it with scientific fact.

23. Pretext, Context and Text are important to analyzing any book simply because to understand what you have read has a need for these things. You need a general grasp of what you are about to read so as to understand what is being read. You need context to understand why what is being read is being spoken of and you need text to sum up the whole. For example, if you read a book about biology published in the 50’s you would need to know not only that it is a book on biology but that it was published in the 50’s. Once you figured this out you will now view the information differently.

24. I transformative UFO encounter is a religious experience that will change your perception of reality. This can come about from seeing or experiencing something you cannot explain. When viewed from an actual scientific perspective most of these experiences are complete bull and can easily be explained away.

25. When using online sources it is important to know where they came from, where they were published and when. Most people tend to trust anything placed online but usually this leads to huge mistakes of accountability. Any person can publish something online, so it’s important to do proper research.

26. Weinberg views religion as unneeded and a root for most of our world’s problems. I agree completely with the man. Religion has caused more wars, famine, abuse, death and stupidity than anything in the world. Nothing good has ever come from it. When I see charity and good deeds being done it its name I think only one thing. These people only do these as a means of not burning in hell. Even good deeds are covered by lies.

27. Sam Harris is an atheist because he views Atheism as a destructive force that causes problems the world over. He thinks that for humanity to prosper we must end religion and all belief of a higher power. I have no problem with any of what he has said.

28. Richard Dawkins. I choose Dawkins simply because the man is brilliant in how he goes about speaking on religion. He is not only thorough but also reasonable and above all else rational. He approaches everything in a systematic way that is very hard to argue against. Everything he says is filled with a fact or a new bit of information that can open the eyes of the indoctrinated.

29. Ken Miller is indeed correct. To suggest that anything in science can be carried by a creator is irresponsible and delusional. Science and Faith are two very different things. One is the continuing search for how the universe and all things in it work. The other comes from idiotic humans who’d rather look for a simple way to answer the great question.

30. Steven Weinberg. Though I completely support the man he has a way of making the subject very boring. In writing he’s very exciting and thought provoking but in a conference setting it’s just horrible. The man lacks charisma and charm.

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