Creationism

Essentially, creationism is that some higher power, either God, or aliens, or whomever created life.
I would like to believe this. I would seem like life wouldn't be so random. Make us seem like we were created for a reason, rather than the result of a random genetic mutation which just happened to live more successfully at the time. But sadly, all the evidence for me points to evolution. I simply cannot see 1 entity creating all that there is to life in what is it 6 days? And all the accounts of how the world was created in the bible are contradictary to say the least. The creationists believe that the bible should be taken literally, and so they believe that god created the world. But other literal translations cause problems of history or even geneology. The sun stopping in the sky... as said in class. And a friend of mine has told me that in the geneologies there are some discrepencies. The same guy was said to have 2 different fathers. Literal translations will get you in trouble I suppose.

I don't really know how the world was created, I guess I am on the big bang bandwagon. A bunch of unstable gasses, creating a ball that was the beginning of earth, and whoops, mix together the wrong things, and you get soemthing different, like screwing up a chemistry experiment. There is life. Then the genetic mutations to evolve to man. I know this is a mean example, but people or animals with genetic mutations just die for a reason. Science will eventually kill off man. For all of time, there is survival of the fittest. While these terrible mutations happen, in pre-science times, the carrier would die with said mutation, and it would be lost. Now people are procreating with these mutations, because science can give people who died early in life before are living to childbearing ages now. And dammit they are spreading. Maybe we should not go against nature. If you believe in the idea of evolution, I would think you could agree on this. We are going to create a species which is no longer the fittest to live, keeping mutations which shouldn't work in natural life.

But oh well, I won't be alive then.

Life on other planets....

would society change.... OF COURSE. We would be influenced by another society. A society which is undoubtably very different from ours. We would either shun them in popular culture, like a new kid at school. Or start to take parts of them and integrate them into our society. I am sure that the science world would be as happy as a kid on christmas day. Heck it would even change the way we view each other, what is normal, what is beautiful, what is ugly. Damn we would have to have a longer history class.... we would have to learn all about their society and their culture.

It would be a great change, but a BIG change.

Are we all equal?

"They think that their right to hold thier own opinion somehow makes all opinions equal." This is an American trait. I know that this makes me seem like i am beating on Americans, but we are not the only democracy in the world, and yet we are usually the ones who take the "I have a right...." to the extreme. As priviledged Americans we think we are right..... about everything. Probably the whole superiority complex. I am bigger and better than you, therefore I am right. Or is it that we are just too lazy to critically think our opinions?

Overall, I think that this idea that we all think our opinions are correct, is normal. Otherwise why would we think them? A reasonably intelligent sane person would only believe correct theories right? Or what we would think were right. I don't think the fault is believing the opinions are true, I think the fault lies in that we are not open to hear claims which may debunk our opinions.

Aliens...

I suppose the question would be ..... "is there intelligent life anywhere other than earth" because we can determine if they are intelligent. or information of another planet. We can find planets when we are pointed in the right direction, but the universe is a big place and randomly looking through the sky is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

What can never be explained......

The only thing that cannot be explained is human emotion and behavior. I am not talking about conditioning and the whole Pavlov's dogs thing. I am talking about why 2 people fall in love, why those 2 people are mates. Eventhough we all know what I am talking about, noone can explain the why of it. Why those 2, why not another person, why not the other twin? Is there some pre-determined mate for everyone? or are there 2 or 3 and you get who you see first? I don't think this will ever be explained.

I think the human is too complex and we might never understand it all, even many biological processes, we can't figure them out. The how, especially. We can understand the why on this one, simply because we see the consequences. Why do we use a seratonin reuptake system, but other neurotransmitters don't? Wierd....

Bible Prophecies

I didn't really understand how this is done. It seems that there is no real science behind it, and you can find what you want to find. Some stoner was probably staring at a text and words were popping out at them. This just seems very ridiculous. What if the text was re-written, and the margins were different, then different words would show. They can't even prove that the words mean anything. This is one of the projects that is really ridiculious. There is no way to prove this, i can't believe that people believe this.

religious supersitions...

I don't really get this one... I suppose any religious activity could be considered just superstitious. Praying so you go to Heaven. Being moral so you don't go to hell. On the same idea as "don't walk under a ladder" or "breaking a mirror will cause 7 years bad luck" They are all unsubstantiated claims, which people believe anyways. Is there really proof that if you are moral, or if you pray you will go to heaven? Just the same as walking under the ladder, or breaking a mirror will cause bad luck, who can prove this? What is bad luck? Who can define it? AND who is coming back from heaven to let us know he is there and that he prayed everyday and didn't have premarital sex?

Penn and Teller

So sad about the recycling. I really have to say it made me sad to think that all that work isn't doing anything for the environment. The guy that made up the paper that said recycling is great for everyone should be shot. He created a huge movement which is actually hurting the environment. I have to say, that if one little paper could make such an impact to create a nationwide change, why can't we simply create another paper with the real facts? Wouldn't that change things again?

I knew they would discredit the Ouija, but hell i still love it.

Ouija boards

I loved these things. Actually my mom got it for me and my brother for christmas one year. I have to say i had an experience with it. We got it to move, and everything. I know it is supposed to only be our subconscious movements that is making it work, but if you think of it from the side of the inventors..... All they did was make a board with letters on it. This is the cheapest game to make ever. I wonder if the people who make these now actually think about the profit more than what it is supposed to be doing, contacting spirits. Ok, sorry for the tangent.... I have to say that even though i know why it is moving and how it is moving and that it has nothing to do with spirits, i still believe in it. I think it has to do with actually seeing it work. I just can't make myself think that i am actually moving the planchette. What can you do...

ahhh fallacies

You know i think everyone inadvertantly, or i guess on purpose (for some of the more conniving people) use fallacies. I do it without even thinking about it. I commonly make appeal to tradition and appeal to masses arguments to friends while debating, or arguing. Luckily they don't know it is a fallacy, but everyone tends to use them. Why do we do it unknowingly? Is it just us trying to win our argument? I would think i would stop using them, now that i can define them, and that i know they aren't real facts or complete reasoning. But i just can't seem to help it, in the midst of the argument, they just slip out. Does everyone do this or is it just me?

demons...

This was my presentation, with the exception of being late, i think we did an ok job. Although I do wish I could have found some scientific evidence either way. But it is more of a circular argument that can't be dealt with. You are mentally ill...... well the demon possession is what caused the illness..... and it can go the other way as well. You are possessed, which is what is causing the illnesses. Something cannot be both a cause and effect.

Some of our references are:

Skeptical Inquirer, Jan 2001 v25 i1 p20
Exorcism! Driving Out the Nonsense. JOE NICKELL.

Vatican updates its rules on exorcism of demons. 1999. The Arizona Daily Star, January 27.

Renaissance Quarterly, Winter 1996 v49 n4 p738(22)
Possessed by the devil? A very public dispute in Utrecht. Benjamin J. Kaplan.

The Journal of Parapsychology, March 1995 v59 n1 p69(8)
Possession and exorcism: an essay review. Ian Stevenson

Journal of Religion and Health, April 2005 v44 i1 p13(18)
The Growing Evidence for Demonic Possession: What Should Psychiatry's Response be? Betty Stafford

The Devil, Demonology, and Witchcraft; The Development of Christian beliefs in Evil Spirits by Henry Ansgar Kelly

The Mind Possessed; A Physiology of Possession, Mysticism and Faith Healing by William Sargant

millerites...

The Millerite tradition is a diverse family of denominations and Bible study movements that have arisen since the middle of the 19th century, traceable to the Adventist movement sparked by the teachings of William Miller.
From Wikipedia...

This just seems like a group of people, with different religious beliefs. Like a cult, but they didn't really do anything bad. They just thought that Jesus would come back on a particular day, which he didn't, then the people went back to their everyday lives. There are still people who are in this faith, but call themselves something else.

Whatever, if they want to believe this, they can.

Therapeutic Touch and Faith Healers

This is all a matter of if you believe it, it will happen. Oddly enough this has been shown to happen in various cases. Not proved per se, but shown repeatedly. Positive outlook on life, believing in the therapy, can cause the person's body to spontaneously heal. These are often seen as miracles, as the overwhelming majority of cases of this type of healing do not actually work.

Essentially, it has nothing to do with the actual therapeutic modality, be it touch or faith, it has to do with random occurances of healing and people having faith.

On a side note, these people are mean, selfish people. The vast majority are taking advantage of people's faith and hope. I would hope that these people would be regulated somehow, like with a disclaimer at the begining of the show or something that says, " these people are BS, don't believe them, but if you liked the show, feel free to give a little money. "

Mediums

I think Mediums are a bunch of BS. Which was verified in the presentation. They are only 50% correct, which is the same as guessing. They use trickery to get people to believe and are generally dependent on the "believers" in order to get ideas right. I really liked that they presented experiments that were done trying to find out if these people were the real thing. I just think that the whole idea of mediums is so vague. However i do think that sometimes people from the past want to communicate with the people of the present, but i don't think the spirits can consult with a phone book to find the nearest medium to their loved ones.

Appeal to ......

More fallacies............

Appeal to authority: when you cite another person to support your argument, while this person can be a person in authority, it is often not someone qualified to be a expert in the argument. For example:
Noted psychologist Dr. Frasier Crane recommends that you buy the EZ-Rest Hot Tub. http://www.intrepidsoftware.com/fallacy/aa.php

Appeal to tradition: supports an argument by appealing to traditional opinion, as if the past itself were a kind of authority. People have believed in God for thousands of years so God must exist. Why else would the belief last so long? www.ramdac.org

Appeal to the masses: everyone is doing it, you should too.

Zeitgeist

I guess this means the "spirit of the times" literally, but means "the general intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era" www.answers.com . I think this can mean different ideas, but that it has to be a cultural idea that many people share.
I also got bands, coffee shops, galleries, and many other things named the same thing. So not really sure.

Atlantis

I think it would be really cool if this society existed, and i think it is a possibility. We do not have the time to search every square inch of the depths of the ocean, and if Pompeii was real, why can't Atlantis be real. The only thing that distinguishes the 2 is that Pompeii was a civilization killed by a natural disaster, which we know can happen. Atlantis was sunk by the greek gods, making the story a little less feasible to the modern world. Although something to think about, people said the gods were what caused things such as storms, and floods, could it be that in fact a tsunami happened on the coast of this island, effectively sinking it, and the ancient people, not understanding what caused it, blamed it on the gods?

Religion or Pseudoreligion?

I don't think there is any real way to distinguish the 2. Religion to me is a set of beliefs which affect and guide people's lives. So if people want to believe that Elvis is their god and that he is going to come back and be their messiah, that is fine with me. It is really no different than believing that Jesus is the messiah. In both aspects the people are changing their lives in order to live in accordance with thier beliefs. As long as the people are not causing harm to themselves or others, as in cults, i think anything which can give people something to believe that they are not alone in the world, and that there is a higher being looking out and protecting them, it can only do these people good. Often depression is caused when people think they are alone in the world.

Dreams

I wasn't quite sure what Nostradomus had to do with dreams. Were all his prophesies from dreams he had? It was interesting to know that we dream up to 250 dreams a night, and that kind of explains why when you wake up the dream you remember is very random and scattered. Personally I don't think that dreams can be prophetic, though this is probably because I don't think people can tell the future any way. Because this means that the future is set, and there are no variations available, which means whatever we do with our lives it is all planned out for us and there is no rea freedom of choice.

Ghosts

What did seances have to do with the basic idea of ghosts? They spent a lot of time on seances, which is interesting, but didn't really have to do with whether or not ghosts exists. I liked the pictures of "ghosts" . I actually believe there are ghosts, and one of the people in the group never actually discounted the idea, just said they are hard to prove they are there. The photos can be fake, but i still have to wonder why certain houses have similar visions, and occurrances. Sometimes the coincidences are way to great. When 2 people can describe the same apparation, it seems like there is something there, even if we can't catch it on photos.

Witches

I liked the presentation. The history was a little scattered, which made it hard to follow. But I liked the fact that they emphasized that it is not a cult, or that witches do not worship the devil. They did not go into what made them paranormal, except to say that they did spells. But do the spells work? ( and i am not talking about the ones that control the weather) Do they know that the other spells do not work? The opening of people's minds ones.

pink unicorns

"Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them." -- Steve Eley

Personally i think this is stupid. Kinda funny, but stupid. It is supposed to show the faith people have for their religions. We have faith that God is out there, but have no proof. I'm sure the christians and catholics are not amused by this.

It is accepted that there are no actual believers in this mock goddess, but it has become popular, especially on atheist web sites and on-line discussion forums, to feign belief in her for the sake of humor and as a form of critique or satire of theistic belief. These professions of faith also make the point that it is difficult to refute avowals of belief in phenomena outside human perception. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Pink_Unicorn

Fallacies in the news

The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly makes a comparison to the Third Reich: “The ACLU is the most fascist organization I have seen in decades. They want to tell you how to live. They don’t want to abide by the Constitution. They want to go around the Constitution. They’re intellectual fascists, and they use the courts as their Panzer divisions.”

This would be the slippery slope fallacy. The ACLU's real job according to www.aclu.org is "We work daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Our job is to conserve America's original civic values - the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."

Just because the ACLU wants to allow people to live the way they wish, they are now fascists, and they want to go around the constitution. In fact, the ACLU makes sure the contemperary laws do not go beyond the constitution. O'Reilly takes a simple group, and makes them out to be fascists.