Monday, September 21, 2009

Man vs God

1) write the main thesis / argument for each and then give as many of the main supporting arguments for each.

Richard Dawkins's main thesis is that evolution is the creator of life. Darwinian evolution is the only process we know that is ultimately generating anything as complicated as creative intelligences, according to the law of physics. Whereas Karen Armstrong's main thesis is that religion is a kind of art form that introduces us to a mode of knowledge that is different from the purely rational and which cannot easily be put into words. stories in bibles provide how to cope with mortality, discover an inner source of strength and endure pain and sorrow with serenity. it is supposed to help us live reavtively with realities for which there are no easy solutions and find an interior have of peace. they are the theses that are explicitly represented, however I think they are saying the same thing; religion and science are separate entities that take influence in different sections of life and complement each other for human's sake. it is also sufficiently supported by both authors by stating contradicting ideas against their own theses, such as "if there was a divine plan, it was cruel, callously prodigal and wasteful", "they evolved by trial and error and god had no direct hand in their making", "god is merely a symbol" and "we cannot regard God simply as a divine personality, who single-handedly created the world" from Armstrong as well as "if God is real for you, who cares whether science has made him redundant'? such arrogance@ such elitism" from Dawkins.

2) what is most intriguing and / or interesting to you. Give at least one example of something that made you "think".

the most intriguing statement in these articles is what Dawkins mentioned to explain that god-like aliens cannot be gods. he said that however god-like the aliens might seem, they would not be gods, and for one very important reason. they did not create the universe; it created them. I figured that this statement could be false and god-like aliens might have created the universe and eventually us. Because planktons in 40 feet aquarium conditioned by me, if capable of cognition, would not think that more evolved planktons have made this aquarium. it might be just one of what-if question however it can be also a question of perspective.

3) Finally, develop a ToK approach to the reading. What is the "knowledge" presented by each of the authors.

both are metaphysical propositional ideas that are backed up by synthetic propositions to explain the idea with ease. at first place, talking about the existence of god and evolutionary theory fulfills the requirement of metaphysical proposition.

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