Bacon's Idols

Idols of the tribe: Everyone understands and interprets situations and ideas differently, therefor they react differently. This then distorts the information that they are supposed to understand because their preconceived notions are in the way. 

Idols of the cave: There are biases in education. Everything that is taught is someone's opinion or interpretation of data. 

Idols of the marketplace: The message of a writer is sometimes overshadowed by the words and expressions being used. Wording and such is effected by who the reader is because if they are lost then the message of the text cannot get through.

Idols of the theatre: most people tend to only promote the things that would benefit and assist them in some way. Everyone does something for a reason. There are no selfless good deeds, so its important to look where people are coming from before you jump right into believing what they are telling you. 

Mini Midterm Outline

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Mini Midterm Outline

Maria Celeste - Galileo's Daughter

While Most people know a fair amount about Galileo Galilei and what he accomplished and discovered. They dont know about the person that really made it all happen. Her name was Maria Celeste and she was Galileo's Daughter. She was a nun who was very busy with her work for the church but she still managed to take care of her father both while he was and wasn't under house arrest. She made sure that he was well fed, she did his laundry and she created herbal remedies for his ailments. She monitored him making sure he didn't overwork himself or drink too much. Basically she kept him in tact. But in addition to all the domestic work she also professionally assisted him as well. She was basically the editor of his book. She would read through it and edit and check everything. And through that she learned a great deal about science. It must have been very difficult for her because she was basically caught between two world because her father was discovering and writing about things that went against the beliefs of the church that she was so closely tied to. When her father was placed on house arrest she kept him alive and allowed him some happiness because he was so frequently around the daughter that he didn't see too often in the past. Maria Celeste took her place as the traditional Italian daughter and because of that it can be said that she is the reason Galileo lived long enough to discover all the wonderful things that he did.

Evolution vs. Intelligent

For thousands of years there has been a question of what to believe. The church says one thing and science says another. So what do we believe? Do we have faith, or do we follow the hard facts. This topic is a touchy one for most people because it seems that everyone struggles with  which way they should go. Science says that man evolved and was created through the course of evolution. It claims that the big bang is what started the whole process. But the problem that most people have with this is that no one knows what started the big bang. So people tend to turn to the religious side of it because it basically tells them that not everything needs to have a logical explanation. Sometimes it is necessary to have faith. So here i am. I am stuck. Not quite sure i believe in god but not entirely sure about the science side of it either. Everyone wishes they knew the answer but the thing is most likely, no one ever will. So the real choice we have is whether or not we want to spend our days wondering and hypothesizing or we just want to give up thinking about and just accept that life is what it is and live it without questioning why we are here or how we got here. 

5 ways of Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas developed 5 ways in which he believed entirely prove the existence of God. His argument appear to be incredibly sound and cannot be disproved but he makes some faulty assumptions and without them his arguments wouldn't make nearly as much sense. He assumes that God is the unmoved mover. How does he know that God is unmoved. What if there was a mover before god. HIs 5 ways don't answer the question of how God became himself in the first place. Because Aquinas makes it appear that God basically placed himself there. So he didn't exist yet he made himself exist. That neither makes sense nor is it rational. He says then that God is the uncaused first cause but how is that possible. If he proceeds to say that nothing can be the cause of itself. Then lines down he says therefore their must be an uncaused first cause (GOD). So what makes God the exception to the rule. Aquinas' message is clear but not valid. He makes some enormous assumptions that he is in no place to make. He doesn't know God so how can he assume that he is and unmoved mover. 

St Augustine and Gothic Architecture

One of St. Augustine's primary believes was that we should the holy beauty within by removing the faulty impressions of sensory knowledge to attain divine wisdom. Basically he thought that our bodies were a faulty dark cage and our souls were the light inside. The goal was to allow that light to travel to heaven. He thought that 'by looking inward (introspection) and then upward (for grace), on can achieve salvation and happiness.' The idea that inside their is light that will allow us to get closer to heaven. That believe soon got applied to the Gothic Architectural style that evolved at the time. The outsides of the churches were dark representing our bodies that are cages. But when you enter inside the church it is filled with light from the beautiful stained glass clerestory windows. People like Augustine can experience the heavens and God's power without these windows but the poor aren't saints and they could never  have a beatific vision. The stained glass serves that purpose. As gothic architecture became more and more ornate the windows got larger and larger. Representing God and Jesus coming it the church or cathedral. The stained glass windows allowed the heavenly light to reach those within who were seeking God.