Response to "Question"

I think Ama's ideas on group vs individual is really interesting, especially the idea that groups could exist without individuals.  However, I wondered if that idea of individual actually exists, if we are all made up of bits and pieces of things that we learn and take from other people (the group)?  I think the answer to group or individual has to be both, because you can't really have one without the other.  Individuals make up groups, but the groups help to make the individual.

Post at http://the-writing-junkie-school.blogspot.com/2013/05/question.html

Optimisim/Pessimism

Thinking about human nature makes me realize alternately how silly and optimistic I am, but also how cynical I can get.  I think that's true of a lot of the philosophers that we looked at.  I think as a whole we want to see the good in things but sometimes get bogged down in the bad.  I think we back ourselves into a lot of corners that we can't get out of, and then sometimes rely on faith and improvable ideas to help us get out of them.  But I don't think that's bad.  And I don't think we're bad.  So, I guess, there's my optimism to end the semester.

Response to "Excuses for God"

Although I don't necessarily agree with philosopher's excuses and uses for God, I can understand why they need to throw him in as a sort of loophole.  I think with some theories they really do just back themselves into a wall that they can't get away from, and I think some lines of thought will really just make them crazy.  In a way, some philosophers could need God more than the rest of us, just to keep them sane and give them a (not really truthful) sense of stability.

Original Post http://siearrasviewsnhn.blogspot.com/2013/04/excuses-for-god.html

Conception

I thought the idea of creating the world was interesting, if problematic and slightly terrifying.  The idea that a person, such as your mother, exists only when you conceive the idea of them was really interesting.  However, I think you would have to make yourself crazy by thinking like that, so I can understand why philospohers would look for loopholes out of it.

Towards the beginning of the year, my friends and I had this really silly joke about how one by one we were going to turn twenty and just stop existing, but since I was the baby, I was going to be just sitting in the dorm for a month talking to my friends who weren't actually there and looking completely crazy.  I guess it makes sense if you think about it in the way where people only exist when you think they exist, but I really don't see how that could be true.

Response to "The Importance of Science"

I completely agree with Sierra that science needs to be considered when considering human nature.  The topic has come up again and again with various aspects of human nature that we've looked at (Darwin, free will vs determinism, nature vs nurture, etc.).  I think that religion can still play a part, and that people can- and should!- believe whatever they want, but I think it still has to be tempered by science and fact.

Post at: http://siearrasviewsnhn.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-importance-of-science.html?showComment=1367174355769#c9061295726226053460

Darwin (And Science Tests)

Although most of Darwin's theories can and have been proven, he's still ended up as one of the most controversial theorists.  (Though, to some extent, nearly everyone we've talked about has been controversial for some reason or another; I guess that's the price of knowledge?) I think that the proof part is actually the part that people have the most trouble with.  Other philosophies can more easily be ignored, as it's just someone telling you that they disagree.  Darwin can actually back up his claims and that's harder to ignore if his beliefs go against yours.  I think that's why evolution is still considered a touchy subject in this day and age, not because there's proof for evolution but because there's proof against creationism.

My cousin actually posted something about this on FaceBook the other day.  If the picture of the quiz isn't awesome enough, the quote from Bill Nye might be: "The Earth is not 6,000 or 10,000 years old. It's not. And if that conflicts with your beliefs, I strongly feel you should question your beliefs."

Article at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/4th-grade-science-test-creationism-questions-dinosaurs_n_3163922.html

Response to "Are There Contemporary Existentialists?"

I thought Hailey's question and her findings were really interesting.  I think this kind of goes back to what I said in my last post about it being hard to connect with the existential ideas because of our need to believe in something.  I think that existentialism might have been so connected to it's historical context that, out of that context, it started to fail.

Hailey's Post: http://hailykellihernhn.blogspot.com/2013/04/are-there-contemporary-existentialists.html