In response to Daniel Gaines

"Lots of people’s lives have been affected by the media just like this, is it alright for the media to do this just because they are dealing with famous people or is it wrong?"

Private lives of celebrities is what makes up the media and entertainment. Yes, it's interesting to learn about what is going on in their lives, and yes some of them do like the attention. But most celebrities probably just want to be left alone. Personally I dont think it is any of our business what goes on with the famous. If they want us to know something they wll tell, otherwise I think they should be asked permission to submit something to the public. If something wrong (like the Tiger Woods situation) happened and the person admits they made a mistake and wants the public to realize that and what the details were then fine, let the media have their way. But if an embarassing story about you got out to the public, how would you feel? It is an invasion of privacy whether it is a story about a famous person or not. Whether it is an embarassing story or one promoting charity; stories should be given permission to be sent out no matter what. So the news might have less interesting stories, at least they would have the right to be in the news in the first place. Stories made about celebrities for entertainment are how rumors get started and rumors that get out of hand. The more you know about a famous person will not change your life or theirs. which leads me to my question:

Can the more knowledge we attain distort our visions/views of [the] truth?

Good people, Bad things

Prof. J brought up a good point that sometimes bad things happen to good people. These obstacles in life are what people like to complain about because they want life to come easy. In reality, life is never easy. If we take a closer look into these situations though, are they all bad things? Or rather, should we worry about them being bad? Maybe the challenges that we perceive as bad things are steps to something coming that is good. Perhaps there is something better in store and all the bad things that lead up to that good thing makes it all worthwhile. It also might be difficult to tell what things are supposedly bad and what are good because everyone's view or opnion of good and bad could be different. There are of course, generally good things like helping someone in need and there are general bad things like stealing. So for instance something bad happening to a good person would be that they got money stolen from them. But maybe a few weeks or even days later, they win a brand new car. From a different point of view, maybe after getting money stolen from them the good person gets the opportunity to help at an orphanage and realize that there could be worse things than losing some money.

I remember when reading Pojman I read something about "all opinions are true." I get what this sentence is saying but my question is:

Is saying that all opinions are true like stating an oxymoron?

In Response to Courtney's blog

"My question, in short, is...do we greatly rely on our conscience and, if we did not have them then would that make us evil?"

I think (disorders aside) that everyone does in fact have a conscience. So in my opinion that automatically answers the second question by default. Whether or not people decide to use their conscience is a different story. Conscience is just that little voice inside us all that pops up when we feel unsure about something or maybe guilty about something. So do we rely on our conscience? I think we rely on it if we are put in the situation in which it shows up and we believe what it says to be the right thing. That being said, is our conscience always trying to tell us the "right thing?" What if it was telling us the wrong thing and we relied on it? Would the situation turn out badly? It's hard to tell if conscience is good or bad really. And because it's not always there (it only comes when we think we are doing something wrong) we associate it with being a good thing. But it's only an inner voice of ourselves who are doing the wrong thing so how can we be sure the conscience is right?

So going off Courtney's question, Should we listen to our consciences all the time?

In Response to Bryan's post

"Do you feel that Americans represent many Sophist ideas? And Do you believe that American people support the wrong principles of living?"

I agree with bryan that the American dream is seen in the Sophist's ideas about life. Americans want to achieve, get more money, and in the process, get ahead of others. Generations are starting to becoming more about competition and people are getting taught that consumerism and as you said "winning the game of life" is important. But I think not all Americans are following the American dream. Sure everyone wants to be successful but everyone's view of success is different. For some it may be to get that really great job and get all the promotions to reach the top. But for others it may be to get married and settle with a family. Both of these views can be good and true to the Sophist idea of a true successful life if you look at it thinking are they happy? There's not really anything wrong with wanting to achieve but if people went out of their way to push someone else down in the process then i think that would be crossing the line. So depending on the rules of society who is to say which people are living by the "right" or "wrong" principles of living?

So how can anyone "win" at life if there is no definition of what that is? Is simply living a life winning?

Forgiveness

I thought Prof. J.'s comment on forgiveness was really interesting when he brought up "as we forgive those who trespass against us" from the Lord's prayer. We were talking about enemies and God's view that we are supposed to forgive our enemies for the wrongs that they commit. How does God make it sound so easy to forgive people who have done something so wrong? I can understand if it was a mistake, but to do something really bad on purpose and just get forgiven so eaasily just doesn't seem like the right thing. Why would He forgive a murderer for taking someone away from their family, or forgive someone accused of rape while the victim could be scarred for life. I know these are extreme situations but it's just to prove the point. This topic of forgiveness ties back into chapter one of Pojman's book in the section describing turning the other cheek, and loving your enemy. Enemies are really only caused because of jealousy or betrayal. Why do these things have to exist if God wanted us to love our enemies? They make it that much harder to forgive or love again. But maybe that's the point. The challenge of relationships and getting along with everyones flaws. But that also brings me back to thinking that murderers probably dont have friends...so who is there to forgive them? Do they even deserve forgiveness?

Why is it so hard to forgive when God wants it to be so easy?

Responding to Karla's question

"Is religion a fair pass to an eternal life?"
I was also thinking about this question, especially during today's class discussion.I seems like the possibility of getting into heaven after our time here on earth is one of the only reasons to be happy or go about our lives normally each day. But if that were the case how would non religious people feel about life? That we live the lives we were given, die and that's it? Being a good person and following God's rules from any position of religion could be the way to that ever lasting paradise in the heavens. It all relies on the faith of what each individual believes and that maybe there must be some great reason for why we are living on earth in the first place.

An intriguing question Prof. Johnson brought up today in class was the classic "if you could go back in time and relive a situation, would you?" I love this topic because it would be so interesting to have the knowledge of what we know today and bring it back to a time when perhaps we made a mistake. What would we change? What would we say or do different? Would we even want to change anything at all? Personally I believe everything happens for a reason and that it was supposed to happen at the time it happened for a reason too. So to answer that question for myself, no I would not go back and change anything.

I am curious to others' thoughts on this topic however.
Would there be any situation that you would want to go back and change? and why?

Nature verses Nurture

The debate about nature verses nurture comes up a lot in classrooms but I always find it interesting and to hear others' views on the topic. Nature is what people are destined to act and behave like and Nurture is supposedly the freedom of how life will be played out. But isn't that also like having our life decided for us in a way? How we are brought up influences how we make choices and how we will end up living. There is, of course, the argument against that saying that people do have their own minds and can make choices for themselves regardless of what their parents taught them.

While I was reading for another class's homework, I came across a part in the reading that reminded me of this class because it ties along with the conversations we have been recently having about truth and free will. "[People have been trying to figure out for a while now] whether ultimate truth was to be found through faith or reason, blind acceptance of authorities or the evidence of the senses, determinism or free will."
What interested me in this was the connection of blind acceptance of authorities and free will. Then I thought about it and realized that this occurs a lot whether people realize they are doing it or not. We as humans (sometimes, not all the time) blindly follow authority because we believe since they are of higher status or ranking, they must be more knowledgeable, and therefore trust them. The same can be true for religion and following God. People have faith in God and blindly accept his word without fully knowing what will happen or whether it is the right thing at the time. But because it's God it must be right! How can we be sure?

Back to the nature vs. nurture, I believe in nurture. I side with empiricism and that people are born with a blank slate and are from then on influenced by the world around them. I don't think people are born good or evil, if either of those concepts actually exist. Though I do think everyone has both good and bad in them because of what we have experienced in the world. Whichever side of us we choose to use with our "free will" is how others perceive us.

-If God did create good and evil together, (evil being bad) why is it that he loves all his children just as they are, even if they are evil?
or
-What is your view on nature vs. nurture?

Response to Karla

This is in response to Karla's question "Are we part of nature or the willing of God?" This question reminds me of the whole conversation and discussion we had in class today and I thought it was a very interesting topic. We make choices every day as part of our own lives, big and small, and never really think too much of it. Many tiems we rely on the conditions and environment around us to help us make our decisions, but is that really free will? It is hard to be sure if these are decisions of our own free will or if they are planned as destiny from a higher source [God]. The choices we make may be what we decide at the time but they also may have been decided for us long ago as a planned future from what God decided and he knows exactly what will happen and what we will decide before it even happens. You always hear people ask the question Why would God let this happen to me? Was the consequence of our own choices or God's plan? This goes into the discussion we had on good verses evil as well. The tough choices we are faced with challenges us to help us grow and appreciate the good things in life no matter how small or great they are. We take for granted the easier choices we make every day like picking out what to wear that day or choosing what to eat for breakfast. Then we complain about a harder decision like having to have an intense conversation with a friend or whether or not to quit a job because of a possibilty of a better one. We blame God for these tough challenges because we wish everything would come easy to us. But again, the challenges make us appreciate the rest of life whether it is destiny or of our own choice. We as humans are only a tiny part of a bigger world. We sometimes forget how much else is out there around us and what is "supposed to be."

Aside from society's rules, would humans be able to differentiate right verses wrong?