Week Three

Week Three

The Himalayan Connection

This article starts out talking about the UFO that it is interesting to think that there were people releasing fake UFO video to mess up others people’s mind. Is it because they want other people to believe want they believe? Later on he talks about dreaming which people can get confused by the dream to the reality. For me, I believe dreaming is an action the reveals what people are really thinking. Dreams come from one’s own mind that I do not believe it will predict the future for one, but I believe people can analyze it because one cannot control one’s dream that it shows the true self or deep inside what one is really thinking. If one goes analyze the dream by doctor or others, it will probably tell the character of one that may seem amazing to he/ she, but in reality it might just be one telling the true self from one’s brain.

Should Skeptical Inquiry Be Applied to Religion? by Paul Kurtz

I think skepticism should definitely be applied to religion, as religion has dominated most of people’s life that why shouldn’t people give doubt about it?  Personally, I believe it is people’s right to decide what they want to believe, it is people’s right to be blinded by faith. Even with many evidences prove that many concepts in the religion are wrong, people still keep faiths to it. They can only have faith since there are no grounds to support it. Then my question rises again: why can religion still be a foundation for many societies? It is people’s freedom to keep faith on something, it is my freedom to apply skepticism upon religion.

Filed guide to Critical Thinking by James Lett

Lett organizes a guide for people to diagnose the information we gained from contemporary world. Nowadays, we have many sources to get information such as online, media, TV shows etc. Once my political science professor had asked that nowadays students are able to get information or learn the course from online, then what is the point of student going to the school? Then he answers that the point the professor still exists is that it will be a chaos if one try to absorb all the information and determine what is right or wrong. When we at school, the function of professors are not only organizing the information for us, they teach us how to think critically. After we graduate, without the accompanying of the professors, it will be our obligation to determine our beliefs with the support of evidences.

Mysticism and Logic by Bertrand Russell

At first Russell consider the world as a whole and was divided by two impulses. One is through mysticism and other through science, then, he makes philosophy as a greater of two, as it is the combination of the both. I think that to believe only on mysticism and science only shows the narrow minded of people that they are not willing to be open up to any possibility in the world. To philosopher, they are open-minded and willing to believe anything can happen in the world. I think only with this concept that our knowledge of the world can be improved but not detain.

Intelligent Design by Ken Miller

Right when I watched the film I am confused by the term intelligent design. After he talks more and more, I realizes it is probably the term for anti-evolution that they believe the form of life should began with intelligent causes. I always think that when people gain knowledge from the world, it is their right to decide whether to believe it or not. When Miller describe how his book was label with sticker that is trying to prevent people from believing the evolution theory. It is always important about what to teach in all class in the United States. Instead of parents or schools tell the children what to believe, children should be educated with both sides of knowledge. With the full understanding of it, then it will be fair for anyone to determine their beliefs without biases. 

Week One & Two

Week One & Two

Cargo Cult Science by Richard Feynam

According to Cargo Cult Science, Feynman indicates that people tend to fail the science experiment by always missing the essential information. Whenever people are investigating the new theory, they always take credit from others that they use other peoples claim without testing it first themselves. With the uncertain claim, there will be a high possibility that one fail the experiment. Just as a valid argument, one has to have right premise in order to lead to the right conclusion. As the criminal punish system or educational system, people had assume many ways that will work with these systems, but it all seems to fail because they are missing the essential parts – there are various of people, they all have various characters, to use one fixed system on various people, I believe it will never work out  perfectly.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynam

It’s a really interesting interview that from the beginning he talks about an argument he had it with his friend about how scientists usually cannot appreciate the beauty of an object since they always break things apart and analyze it; however, Feynman disagrees with him that he believes instead of passing over the beauty of every object, whenever scientists analyze it, science actually add beauty to an object because science makes people appreciate things not only from the appearance, but also from various dimensions. I also admire the way Feynman’s father educated him. One popular fallacy people have nowadays is that people believe they already know a great deal about the world from school. From the school, we may get in touch with different names from different subjects, such as the name of a mathematical method or the name of a scientific theory, but in fact we have no idea where or how the idea came from. Feynman’s father indicated this fallacy to Feynman that knowing the name of something do not mean you know anything about the actual thing.

Viruses of Mind

The author uses the idea of computers been infected by virus as a metaphor of human being been infected by religion. In human childhood, people tend to soak up all the culture of the people around them; however, infant is lacing the ability to differentiate right or wrong. Children believe whatever they been taught, and unable to abandon inaccurate information as adult. His idea can not only be use on religion, it can also be use on morality. I agree with him that children are prone to mental infection than adult that they are getting virus from parent versus adults are getting infection from all the media. For example, in the present day, we are receiving all the information from online, TV shoes, or movies that creates vanity among adults. People start to value money or things more than anything else. I will say this materialization is other type of infection as author uses religion as an example. But then who can determine what is the mental virus what is not? Who can decide religion is the virus or atheism is truly the best thing for human? I believe as long as one will not use any beliefs as an excuse to harm oneself or others, no one can say that one’s belief is a false one.

What is Cold Reading?

As I am an international student, I am really aware of how popular the fortune tellers are in China. We have a saying that says “It is always more preferable to believe its existence than to ignore it” that makes most of the people in China become superstitious, they believe in ghost, dream, prophet etc. I think as long as people believe in it, it will be easier for the fortune tellers to manipulate them. Just as my mom has had a fortune teller to predict my future. She predicts that If I get marry after 30 or so, I will be able to find a rich nice guy. This is a vague prediction. From the rational side, people are usually more mature as the age goes up, so they will have better ability to determine who the nice guy is. From the emotional side, people are usually more aware of their age when they get marry after they heard the prediction, and this will probably make the prediction comes true.

Clarity and Exact Thinking by Bertand Russell

I agree with Russell that I believe clarity and exact thinking are important qualities we have to maintain in our life. I remember when I was old enough to making most of the decision in my life; my father always accompanied me and gave me important exhortation. There is one question he always asks me: Do you know exactly what you are doing? When I stepped in to the world, I encountered various types of people. If I lost the clarity of my life, I would easily be influence by others. If I did not what I was doing, I would only drift around the others. Thanks to father, now whenever I feel lost in my life, I will just simply ask myself: Do you know what you are doing? It never failed after this question, it always change the whole thing or whole perspective around.