Alternatively, if you did not attend that lecture, what session did you attend and how can you apply our broad discussion of values to the presentation you heard.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Evolutionary World View and University College Day
I saw many of you in the keynote address on Tuesday, Thank God for Evolution. If you attended that lecture, what did you think of the idea of an "evolutionary world view," or how evolution helps us understand ourselves and our world without removing the importance of the spiritual? Or you can just discuss what you thought of the ideas Rev. Dowd presented. What ever you do, discusss the relationships between the values associated with science and the values associated with faith, and how, or if, Rev. Dowd reconciles the two.
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I thought what Reverend Dowd said about "day" language and "night" language was pretty interesting. It makes sense that different religions have different night languages, or folk tales, that explain creation and phenomenons that can also be explained in day language (scientific analysis). He says that one does not disprove the other and compares their relationship to a human and his or her voicebox. The voicebox produces sound but so does the human. I think in this way he reconciles science and faith.
ReplyDeleteI attended the session over the rhetoric of devolution, crime, and punishment.In terms of values, I can see conformity and control in reference towards the discussion over MS 13 a street gang because the members typically tend to try to look alike in terms of appearance and attitude. The more harm they do to others the more they feel that they have control over. Also, the value of influence is connected to street gangs because it pretty much determines the actions the members take and those actions are dehumanizing. In the discussion over the Andrea Yates' trial the values that can be associated with it could be of conflict, dehumanization, control, and uncertainty. The control is seen in how she was the mother, the authority figure who in a sense had the control of her children and with that control she took their lives in order to protect them. The other case mentioned has the values of uncertainty and dehumanization seen in the crime committed.
ReplyDeleteWell, after attending that session I totally felt relieved at knowing why I love and can't ever have enough sweets and junk food! It was pretty interesting to gather his point-of-view of relating evolution to the spiritual world. In addition to his comments on "night and day language," I felt that he really tied together evolution and the spiritual world. And depending on whether you express yourself with night/day language the values associated might differentiate. Such as, with night language we might look for values which conduct interpretations, and subjectivity where as, day language values would be more objective and factual, rather than spiritual.
ReplyDeleteI attended the session called “Nuts, Sluts and Perverts”, in that session the speakers addressed the MS13 gang, Andrea Yates and another women who committed murder. The first speaker discussed the MS13 gang structure, acts and the inner workings. Some of the values with in this gang are conformity, wealth, big business and collectiveness. In this gang a member must be totally committed to the gang at all time. The other two speakers discussed two high profile cases where women committed murder. The individual values of the women are hard to determine because of the influence of the media and the trial. The people on different sides purpose different values of the women.
ReplyDeleteI was part of the presentation for Women in Early British Literature. Some stories we covered were The Beggar's Opera, Paradise Lost, The Wife of Bath's Tale, Oroonoko, and the Nun's Tale. We generally talked about how the female characters were blamed for men's downfall and how women were overlooked and thought of as gullible and weak. I think some of the women's values we covered were individualism, power, and freedom.
ReplyDeleteI attended the presentation about “Invisible Children.” The presentation consisted of video clips explaining the horrific situation in northern Uganda. For twenty-three years, the Lord’s Resistance Army or LRA has aggressively rebelled against the Ugandan government. However, the LRA is most known for abducting over 30,000 children and forcing them to become a part of the army.
ReplyDeleteIn the presentation I observed the values of dehumanization, power, control, and conformity. The LRA dehumanizes the Ugandan people both physically and emotionally. Members of the LRA cut of the mouths of people who try to oppose them. They purposefully disfigure people and take away their ability to speak up for themselves. The Ugandan people and their villages are left devastated by the cruel actions of the LRA.
In addition, the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, represents the values of power and control. Kony claims to have spiritual powers and believes that he is the Messiah. He uses his power to influence and manipulate people into following his orders.
Furthermore, there is conformity because the Ugandan people are afraid to fight against the LRA. If they speak out, they will be killed. Therefore, most of the children do not resist when they are abducted. The children know that if they oppose the LRA they and their families will end up dead.
I went to the presentation about if dead people could talk what would they say. THe presentation was about about a student and teacher who did a case study about a guy who had passed on and left money to a charity for school. The problem came in place when the money started being used for other purposes not consistent with the wishes of the donor. It was very selfish for the people overseeing the money to spend money on their own personal wants. The problem is some people can't be trusted so if you leave money to charity you have to think twice.
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ReplyDeleteI attended the first session by Michael Dowd, Thank God for Evolution. This session was very interesting. I really don’t know much about evolution. It’s not a topic that interests me, but Dowd made it fun and easy to understand. The Day and Night languages were very interesting. I enjoyed when he talked about the day and night languages of the human brain and the different sections it has and what they do/mean. I really like this quote that he mentioned in his presentation. “It may not be your fault but it’s your responsibility”, this is so true. We are always saying things are not our fault it was an accident and sometimes it might be true, but as human beings we should just stop blaming ours and take responsibility for our actions. (Even if we didn’t do it) the values of science and faith deal a lot with Dowd’s presentation. Evolution is a combination of science and faith. We use science to explain evolution. Everything that happens in the world, scientists take the time to figure out what happened or how it happened.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Karla, that Michael Dowd, session was pretty interesting and his points of relating evolution to the spiritual world. He did do a good job at tying together evolution and spiritual world of day and night language. When Karla mentions spiritual world that were I see the value of faith, because so people believe in spiritual worlds and others don’t. It has to do with your beliefs/ faith. It all depends a how you think or what your culture is. Like he said different cultures describe different experiences through night language or in other things (God…etc.)
ReplyDeleteI am responding to Ahmad, I did not attend that session however, it sounds like it would have been interesting to attend. In consideration to that session I would say that what those people representing that charity did was diminish their own humane values and do with a value such as, selfishness. How awful, to think that there are such horrible people in the world...that is a big shame. and I think that leaving your money to a charity should be done through lawyers with strict paper work and such. Not to mention that those people whom did that will face greater consequences when they pass away themselves. (in my belief--anyway.) But really, that just makes me upset...so good thing I did not attend that session, now that i think about it.
ReplyDeleteI attended the same session Kimesha did and I also saw conformity and control in the MS-13 street gang. They recruit young kids who are willing to be accepted into a gang through either taking a fierce beating as a male or being raped as a female. To willingly take this kind of punishment to join a social group shows a need to be accepted and a likeliness to conform. The gang members recieve orders from higher, more elite members to commit murders and other crimes as such which shows control.
ReplyDeleteI think that the the session Kene went to sounds interesting about how different languages have different night time prayers. It seems very telling in the since that all societes are trying to find answers and explanations as the reason for unexplained phenomenons. Also yeah Karla it was real dissapointing hearing that people with in the school were trying to spend the money on frivolous junk. But, the family wasn't having it so there in the process of suing them. Ijust think if there is one person your not going to rip off it would be a dead person, wow.
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