Francis Bacon and his 4 Idols

Bacon came up with four idols. These idols were Idols of the Tribe, Idols of the Cave, Idols of the Market Place, and Idols of the Theatre. Bacon argued that idolatry is a sin and it must be rejected. Bacon used the arguments and the the language of the church against it. Idols of the Tribe is the bias of human beings to jump to conclusions based on what is new or strange rather than investing time to understand what is true. Basically its about human beings judging something because its new or different. We don't know how to react so we just jump to conclusions. Idols of the Cave is creating individual biases through the educational system. Next is Idol of the Market Place, which is the language created to share knowledge locks us into specific ways of knowing. Last is Idols of the Theatre which is the Christian West has given reverence to four or five Greek scholars and has ignored any other understanding of the world. So Bacon uses the argument of the church against it by claiming the Christian philosophy had engaged in four forms of idolatry.

Galileo's Daughter

The daughter of Galileo, Maria Celeste, helped out Galileo is many ways. Some of which greatly affects our world today. She greatly helped him to survive, including feeding him and giving him medicine when he was sick, and making sure that he was always in a good enough condition to make good observations. One of the most crucial and important things that she did for him was edit his manuscript, which saved Galileo time and allowed him to put that to use through better observations, which led to proving the church wrong. Furthermore, after Galileo was on trial for making fun of Pope Urban IV in his book, Galileo was put on trial by the Inquisition. Where Maria comes in in this situation is that fact that she fully prepared Galileo for his trial and told him exactly what to say to them.

Aquinas' arguments

I think that the worst of Aquinas' Five Ways is the fourth one. The Fourth Way says that we are able to judge the good qualities of the things around us because there is a model of every good, which is God. It says that we can see something is ugly because we compare it to our inner knowledge of the perfection of God.
I think this argument is very confusing because what we think of beauty is very different.
for instance, I believe Natalie Portman is VERY beautiful, but there are many people who will disagree with me (namely Emily). Another confusing point in this argument is that Aquinas says that we can know what is ugly, and pretty, based on our knowledge of God. This is confusing because how do we all know this if we've never seen God, or met with him?
it's not like i can recall my brunch with God last week, and remember what He looked like, and be like, oh yeah, Natalie Portman shares traits with him, shes gotta be beautiful.
That's why i don't get his fourth argument, because it makes no sense, to me anyways..

Gothic Cathedrals

Imagine being completely illiterate, and stepping into your first Gothic cathedral. its very brightly lit, and as you stare at the windows, you can recognize figures in the bible, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jesus, and Mary. these stained glass windows show stories, from the sacrifice of Abraham, to such great stories as the death of Jesus and his Resurrection.
this feeling was exactly what Abbot Suger wanted out of the early Christian people. He wanted people to be amazed, so much so that they would tell their friends, and get two things to happen:
1) get more people to go to the church, thus generating more money for the church itself.
and
2) hopefully get the word of God spread around, if people are talking about how amazing these cathedrals are, and the priests say it's thanks to God that these were created, then people may want to convert.
The feeling was called a Beatific vision, by St. Augustine, and it was supose to make you look inside yourself for certain questions, and this was suppose to happen between you and God, and that's why it attracted people, because people wanted these visions, so they can know what lies ahead.

The Man with the "wee" moustache

So today in class we talked about Adolf Hitler and his book. It was quite interesting, because he has had a really set mind frame where what he thought was the right way to think. He thought that the Aryan blood was far superior than all the other races, when in reality, he never had actual tests done to prove this. He said that species of animals never mate with other species, and so that is why the Aryan blood cannot be mixed with other races because it's just against mother natures plan. in reality, there is only one species of human, and that's homo sapien sapiens. Therefore, if I were to have a kid with an Aryan, it would not be wrong (using Hitler's argument) because we are both of the same species, and it would not be "dirtying" the blood of the Aryan race. But overall, all this proved was that Hitler was a crazy person, who would soon become the leader of the Nazi party and kill many inncoent people. I beleive if people looked at this book with a critical eye like we did in class today, then we could have avoided a world war all together.

The cause of Creation

We had a conversation in class about the cause of creation.
was it evolution, like many scientists lean towards today, or intelligent design, a fairly new idea that has some intellectual designer as the creator/s of everything we see today. I personally believe in Intelligent design because that's how i was raised, and that's what i believe today. I don't like the idea that I evolved from a protein, or a monkey for that matter. As much as I hate to use the Bible as a reliable source of information, it's what i believe in, so that's why i lean more towards intelligent design, because it says in Genesis that God created the Heaven and Earth. I think that the world/universe has had to have some other being, watching over us, and that formed us in his/her/its image. I personally don't believe in evolution because it's been shoved down students throats, and nowadays teachers don't even question it, or have a second thought about it, they just teach it. That's why I can't stand it.
The packet we read in class talked about if someone were to find a watch in the middle of a field, and someone found it. One can't be expected to think that the watch just happened to be there, or it evolved from a single celled duracell battery. the watch obviously has had time and effort put into it, and therefore, someone has made it.

Equality? Hell Yes!

So continuing on the whole affirmative action and the whole debate in class, I think that it should continue. For hundreds or years the Black and Latino communities were blamed for various things that they never did, all to assert the white dominance over them. This is a way to pay back those communities. Even though there is still racial profiling, and various other racist acts that those in charge place upon the minorities of America, Affirmative action helps to, in a way, pay back for this because now those that were accused in the past can now step up and take the needed actions for a better life for everyone.
For those who think that racism no longer exists, or that the White community has payed back the minorities for everything they have done, there are still various acts that prove that these things are still alive. For instance the May Day march a couple years back, was a march that the Latino community took to prove how much America needed the hard work and dedication of everyone, but specifically Latinos. This was a peaceful protest that was soon attacked by the LAPD under claims that the march was getting out of hand. There were women, children and everyone of all ages there that were soon assaulted by tear gas, and were fired upon by rubber bullets. This only proves that there is still racism, and affirmative action needs to be implemented.
A good counter argument of affirmative action is that it is racist. Racial discrimination, as defined by the U.N is: "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life." With that being said, if anything, it's prejudiced, not racist. It's also not racist because, as taught in 11th grade core, people of color cannot be racist. Core teaches that only the race with superiority can be racist. And without a doubt, I believe we can all agree that the white community has had power throughout American history.
Also, Myles argued that students apply to certain colleges because they are top end, and do not deserve them because they cannot handle the work load. He used the example of UCLA, and how a student will drop out when he realizes the work, and in result, he will lose the scholarships he has won. Now think about this. To begin with, yes there many scholarships that give money for easy things, for example my brother got a $500 scholarship simply because he was of Latino backgrounds, and was applying to a UC. But, you can't get $2000 simply because of your name of background. Most scholarships make you work for their money, for instance, a recent scholarship was offered to all cleveland students, and it was a 15 page essay, on how to end work hunger. Now what student, with an average GPA, would go through the trouble of typing up that essay, if they knew they weren't going to get into a UC. Affirmative action is really implemented on the lower end UCs, or colleges like CSUN, where you only need a 3.0 GPA to apply. Clearly, a student with a 3.6 GPA, is not going to apply to Standford and get in because of Affirmative action. Use your head people.
Myles also mentioned that lots of people are not graduating because some people who are accepted are not qualified. Now, if these people are not qualified and do get into a college, again refer to my argument above, chances are they will drop out like you said in your ealier paragraph. "They can't handle the college work, because they weren't as studious in high school or for whatever reason, they are not ready."
In conclusion, affirmative action is completely necessary because of the past, and present, wrongs done to the minorities and their communities.