Passionately Neutral...

In my opinion class was great yesterday. I don't think I had been present for a session in which almost everyone had something to say and helped the discussion. It was interesting to hear everyone's take on the reading and how the outcome of class was a general agreement and understanding of the terminology brought forward, such as faith vs courage. I liked listening to the different majors and experiences of fellow students and how this shaped their stance on the reading of culture wars. It was very important we were all discussing these terms and the baggage which come with them as well as other words to use instead. I'm glad people can consider that there are individuals working in the scientific community who would characterize themselves as religious, and of any sect, not just Christianity.

I think the article seemed quite biased away from supernaturalism, more so than just looking for the "ideological, neutral public space for secular services." It just doesn't seem like the author was really in neutral ground when composing the article, which is completely fine, I'm merely touching on my notion of the writing, which was passionate of the topic. I think the most important point of the second section is what we mostly talked about in class. The priority to stop this gap in our culture is the need for legislature to base law and public policies on what we may all agree is real and existing on this Earth and what we may all collectively know to be true.

It's All Relative...

I thought of more examples for biological time discussed in class. I loved the point made of dogs adjusting to household environments. This was true in my own house, as my dog would wait at the top of the stairs within ten minutes of me walking through the door from school. She adjusted her behavior when I would leave earlier or later in the day depending on the school or time of class, for example when I came home from high school versus college. These animals have adjusted their innate biological clocks around our busy schedules and still do not need physical calendars. It is all within their natural instinct to stay tuned to the patterns of nature and their environment.

Salmon don't necessary adjust around our presence directly but they are known for the prominent trait of going back to the river in which they were born only having been there once before. The fish know when to go back and how to get there. Somehow they also use their environment and biological senses following patterns to return to their birthplace the appropriate year. The example of the cicada bugs is excellent too because they emerge from the ground after 17 years of metamorphosis. These organisms may have no idea that much "time" has passed, and considering the shorter life spans, it may seem moments pass much sooner because biological changes occur faster than our own.

This example would take Einstein's point of relativity into consideration because time needs a frame of reference to begin a comparison. "Soon" for example, could mean any number of time spans. In the frame of a year one to three months may be considered a while, but in the frame of ten years this span of time seems quicker. It's the patterns which show change. The patterns of nature show end of one cycle and beginning of another. Paying attention to sun, stars, and seasons is what makes the passage of "time" relative. I liked how comparisons to this point were made with parallel time. It may be possible different creatures are experiencing a parallel time because the organisms are passing through our time at an accelerated rate compared to our frame of reference represented by our longer life span. Another favorite point in this discussion was the passage of time described as a flow of moments is merely a human metaphor in comparison to a river. This just shows more examples of the concept of time being based on the patterns of nature.

Considering Calendars...

Wednesday's class discussion was really interesting. I hadn't considered the comparison of calendars to show passage of time as much as biological change. One can consider calendars month to month within one culture as the human need to document events. We write down upcoming appointments to remember as well as common reoccurring events like birthdays. Different cultures may follow a different calendar but use it for the same purpose, the most recent occurring event is the Chinese New Year,which begins later than the Western Calendar. It also seems interesting we follow this type of calendar, with leap years and uneven months when ancient civilizations had much more accurate means of following and recording the passage of time, such as the Aztec and Mayan calendars. These systems of tracking "time" were based on Earth's natural cycles and astrological patterns in the sky.

Nature does not need calendars to follow time because it transcends the passage of what humans consider as time, on one of its lower levels of interpretations. This is probably why I like to think of "time" in terms of nature and biological change. To me, calendars are accurate, but not precise enough to rely on. All other species on this planet follow a distinct and precise pattern of behavior based completely on their innate senses and surrounding environment. As humans, with technology and endless forms of entertainment as means of distraction, have lost much of this ability. I know calendars and clocks are necessary now because we have evolved as a species and have jobs for example. However I think cultures used to keep calendars almost as a hobby because we felt the need to record events in our lives making a record of "our time" among everyone else's.

"There is Time to Kill Today..."

I agree with Kant’s explanation of time as a form of phenomena which we merely perceive moments and events within. This interests me because of the many different ways we are all trying to understand it and make our own conclusions and agreements or disagreements. This reminds me also of Einstein’s theory of relativity, slightly, and how moments of perceived “time” seems different to each organism at each given interval. I have heard the phrase “time stood still,” and many of us, including me, have felt this way. Another is how “time flies by” when we are actively enjoying an activity or event. I agree time is so much more than a four letter word.

I also like the causal theory and how Event A and B are related. It makes sense to me, and I understand how outgoing events originate from a single correlated event however, incoming may not be. Hume’s stance on cause preceding effect is something I can relate to, it does seem conventional, but I have had a sense of an action before it took place, although that would make one wonder if the sense in turn made the event happen, even if it is not originally considered an event. I can’t really imagine incoming, correlated events such as the rock and pond example reversed.

Possibly conflicting with this is the concept of parallel time and parallel universes. This does seem completely within reason to me somehow, probably based on my understanding of how we all have different perceptions of the world we live in, like realism, but also every action causing an equal and opposite reaction. I like the thought of circular time, just because an event is a cause which makes an effect, which in turn would become a cause for another effect and so on. I cannot picture “time” or events not occurring, because nothing is still something if it is in mind and therefore either time or something within “time” would always take place.

We Run to Catch Up with the Sun...

I wish I had been in class for the discussion of the time reading. I don’t think we realize how valuable it is until we are absent, although this may be another reason for maintaining blogs because reading other’s opinions has helped a considerable amount.

I agree time does exist, at least to the organisms on Earth because we grow up and age. I also like the example of breathing one student discussed. At its fundamental use, the breath is an event which helps one to continue its life processes and also aging. Events compiled together display motion and order which could be an arrow display of time. Age alone shows change in oneself from beginning to end and we begin to age the moment we are born; in some manner we begin to die the moment we are born.

Descartes had an interesting view of time in which God recreates our body in each instant successively because we do not have temporal endurance but rather spatial extension (I hope everyone may consider that religion may play no part here necessarily). This theory can be supported by the aging body because we are never the same moment to moment. For example, a cell dies and a new one takes its place, our hair follicle produces another protein molecule, our DNA becomes a little more worn from replication; all showing age although the later in mitochondria shows age most. I think realism would support his view the most because this line of thinking could coincide with an organism’s reality being different at every instant as well independently of one another, as aging affects us all differently.

Borrow claimed time did exist, however it did so independently of motion and change, therefore time exists whether or not an event takes place. I think this is interesting because earlier in the reading the discussion of “zero” seemed to imply the existence of nothing and Borrow’s claim supports this mathematical need. It is minding bending to consider the existence of nothing, and I would relate this to the existence of pure, empty, space; it must be something to be in mind remember. I do not agree time is a container for all events in the way he does because the events display an arrow of direction in an ordered sequence, of “time” and to me this is a direct relation. In short, I think for this section of the reading I agree somewhere between Descartes and Leibniz.

" What I am to You, is not what You mean to Me "

I really enjoyed the discussion of perception and viewing an object, such as an apple, from different perspectives. It was very interesting thinking of properties missed by our senses which may be limited in comparison to senses of another organism. Some of these properties included texture and smell which may be distinct to us as human, and even person to person because some may have a more developed taste and others more developed sense of smell. However, none of these perceptions match that of the apple's perception, which may be the only true way to determine the reality of the apple because without it our perspective will remain objective, merely speculating from our experience the existence of the apple, but not its complete existence.

These apple discussions lead the class to talking about personalities and our social circles in which we view the properties of our friends. This is a great use of how realism could argue the of use perspectives to represent to differences in our perceptions of our loved ones and its impact on their reality and ours. We have all been asked to describe a person to another and possibly discussed later someone would not use the same description of the individual. Here constructivism plays the role, I think, because we use our perspective to construct our perceptions and knowledge of our social lives. We then use this knowledge to gage our relationship with people and determine its positive or negative impacts on our lives, our reality. In this case, different from apples, we may ask the individual about themselves, however their own view on their personality could still find disagreement of our experience with them and our senses.

(The title of this posting is from the Damien Rice song "Volcano")

The Unexperienced World

I like the discussion of perceiving the unperceived reality. Merely having the notion, or conceiving the thought of something therefore makes it a perception in the universe. It is empowering to take to heart anything one can dream up, they could possibly make their reality. Our individual perceptions come together on what overlaps and this creates the world in which we live and share, however where our experiences differ creates the gray.

I think the world does exist independent of us because, as the Neptune example in class, there are places and creatures which some people know to exist in their experiences which I will never experience for myself, however they do exist and I accept their existence despite my personal lack of seeing or experiencing it for myself. This last statement could lead into the notion seeing is believing but this is not my goal for right now.

The Earth exists independent of us as it did before we got here or evolved to the point as which we are now. However, where we have settled and developed our perceptions into technology, we actively make more comfortable, whether by raising food and shelter for survival, or aesthetically pleasing to inhabit with the community. I also think our perceptions are meant to be shared and developed because we are a communal species seeking knowledge and means to thrive in the environment which we live.