Journal 1/3/17 Objective Tonight’s Homework Would you ever eat this? It’s called a Wichety grub and is considered a delicacy in some places. Why do you think some people DO eat things like this? Objective Tonight’s Homework To learn about the different basic mindsets people use to view the world p 170: 1-4

An Interesting Quiz 1) What number comes next in the sequence, one, two, three, __________? 2) How many months are there in a year? 3) As wallaby is to animal so cigarette is to __________ 40 Three of the following items may be classified with salt-water crocodile.  Which are they? marine turtle   brolga(a large gray bird) frilled lizard   black snake 5) Which items may be classified with sugar? honey   witchetty grub   flour    water-lilies  6) We eat food and we __________ water.

An Interesting Quiz 7) Sam, Ben and Harry are sitting together.  Sam faces Ben and Ben gives him a cigarette.  Harry sits quietly with his back to both Ben and Sam and contributes nothing to the animated conversation going on between Sam and Ben.  One of the men is Ben's brother, the other is Ben's sister's child.  Who is the nephew? a. Sam  b. Harry  c. Ben 8) Suppose your brother in his mid-forties dies unexpectedly.  Would you attribute his death to… a. God   b. Fate   c. Germs   D. No-one   e. Someone   f. Your brother himself 9) You are out in the bush with your wife and young children and you are all hungry. You have a rifle and bullets. You see three animals all within range - a young emu, a large kangaroo and a small female wallaby. Which should you shoot for food? a. Young emu   b. Large kangaroo   c. Small female wallaby 10) Why should you be careful of your cousins?

An Interesting Quiz This test was an IQ test given to an aboriginal Australian tribe living on the southwest coast. The answers are as follows: Many. Many can mean any number between 4 and 9 or 10. Irrelevant. The "year" is the time between the onset of one wet season and the onset of the next wet season - and wet seasons may be early or late, so who can be precise? Tree. This stems from the kuuk thaayorre speakers early experience with tobacco which was "stick" tobacco, hence it is classified with tree. Crocodiles, turtles, birds and frill necked lizards are all classified as minh (which broadly might be translated as animals).   Snakes along with eels are classified as yak which may be broadly translated as snake-like creatures. All. All of the items are classified with sugar as they all belong to the class of objects known as “may”.  Broadly translated, may means vegetable food. This includes the grubs, too, as they only live on plants. Eat. If it goes in your mouth, you only need 1 word to describe it, right? 4

An Interesting Quiz 7) Harry. The clues are easy for kuuk thaayorre.  An avoidance taboo operates between mother's brother and sister's son and politeness requires that sister's son should never directly face mother's brother nor talk to him directly in company.  Sam and Ben are obviously brothers because of their unrestrained interaction while Harry, with his back turned to both his uncles is obviously the respectful nephew. 8) Someone. Among the kuuk thaayorre God has been equated with a mythological character and he is definitely non-malevolent.  Both fate and germs are concepts foreign to the kuuk thaayorre belief system.  No-one dies without reason and suicide is unknown to them, so the right answer is SOMEONE - which is the case in this sorcery riddled society. 9) Small female wallaby. Emu is a food that may be consumed only by very old people.  Kangaroos (especially large ones) may not be eaten by parents or their children.  The children will get sick otherwise.  Everyone knows that....don't they? 10) Because some of them have to be avoided like the plague.  For example, a male must avoid his father's sister's daughter, or anyone classified with her.  Such relations are called poison cousins in Aboriginal English. 5

Worldviews A worldview is a person’s picture of how the world should be, what makes it the way it is, and what their place is within it. Worldviews are a deep part of who people are. Most people aren’t even aware they have one, but everyone does. Worldviews cover your basic beliefs. Things about the world that you believe to be true not because of facts you’ve read, but because you deeply feel that it’s “just the way the world works”. We’re going to talk about 3 major worldviews.

Worldviews Modern Worldview This view started in the 1600’s and has lasted strong until about 60 years ago. From 60 to 20 years ago, this view started to fade out to be replaced by the next one. This one originally replaced the medieval worldview. The modern worldview emphasizes facts. You believe something because you have evidence. If there’s no evidence, be skeptical. However, it also emphasizes doctrine – you believe in God because generations before you have and if they had good reason to believe, then you do as well. Right and wrong don’t change. Many of you have grandparents that think using this worldview. 7

Worldviews Postmodern Worldview In the last 20 years, this worldview has become the “main” one that most people in western society have. The postmodern worldview teaches that facts are still the super important thing when it comes to the physical world. But when it comes down to things like religion, stuff that’s mostly opinion, and morals, then “what you believe is just as good as what I believe”. This view teaches that there is no absolute “truth” to the world, that there’s no absolute right and wrong. We’ve seen this in huge ways in how recent society has come to view homosexuality and sexual orientation. Most of you probably have at least some postmodern beliefs. 8

Worldviews Christian Worldview The Christian worldview believes some very different things than either of the other views. We believe that absolutes exist. There are definitely some things that are “right” and “wrong”, no matter what anyone says. We believe that facts are fine in explaining the world, but we put a lot more emphasis on the idea that facts can be wrong and God can’t. The postmodern view says that happiness is where you can find it. If it feels good, do it and don’t judge anyone else. The Christian view says that happiness lies in serving God and others. See a big difference? 9

Worldviews Why does this stuff matter? It’s very hard to change someone’s worldview because it forms the very core of how they make decisions about what to believe or not. If you want to convince someone of something or understand why they believe what they believe, you need to understand their worldview. This idea is going to be huge as we talk about evolution because what we’ll see is that there’s a lot of observations and evidence that can be looked at in more than one way. 10

Notes on Bias Bias is where we put our own ideas or assumptions into what we’re trying to research or study, or where we bend the information towards an answer we want. This can be done on accident or on purpose and is almost impossible to get rid of completely. Types of Bias: 11

Notes on Bias Selection Bias This is when scientists don’t look at all the factors involved. This may be because they’re missing some tools or because they were looking at the wrong thing. Example: Let’s say you decided to ask a bunch of people their weight to find out if Americans are overweight. You decide to put your survey forms up in every MacDonalds in America. To your surprise, you find the average person is horribly obese. You’ve introduced bias because you only did your survey in a fast food restaurant. What about all the thin people that never go there? 12

Notes on Bias Confirmation Bias This is when scientists will bend their research to only notice the things that confirm the result they wanted in the first place. It can also be accidental, where a scientist pays more attention to the stuff that confirms their theory, and doesn’t see the things against it. Example: If you start imagining that the number 5 is everywhere, you’ll start seeing it everywhere. There’s no coincidence or conspiracy, it’s just your brain cutting out what doesn’t fit. 13

Notes on Bias Exposure Bias This is when scientists don’t tell the whole story of what they’ve discovered. They’ll leave out details or pieces to show what they want. Accident here can happen when news sites only find some of the results to an experiment. Example: Our warmup said that a glass of red wine a day is good for you. But is this the whole story? Of course not! Alcohol can lead to liver problems, addiction, and car accidents. But the scientists who did the research were probably told to only find good things. 14

Exit Question Some conspiracy theorists believe that aliens have taken over the government and it’s all just a big cover up. They point to all the sightings of UFO’s as evidence. Which kind of bias do they have? Selection Bias Confirmation Bias Exposure Bias More than 1 of the above None of the above It’s not bias. They’re totally right.