Tuesday, week 2 Last week’s workshops and surveys Arney lecture – Angels & Demons, literature and truth Zita lecture – “Facts” in Angels & Demons; Genesis and the Big Bang Questions selections from your Beliefs Surveys Preview of tomorrow’s Beliefs Workshop

WebX workshop You learned to use WebX, posted your introductions, uploaded your photos, and formed teams. Good mini-seminar on collaborative knowledge making and responses to essays. A few people missed this workshop last Thus. Who? Find a team (in your seminar) this morning. Have teammates show you how to use WebX. Post your introduction today.

Web Survey A few of you have yet to take it. Do it today after class. Ask teammates to show you how. Is everyone on the same page? Dialogue = exchange of opinion? & WebX are optional? Portfolio due which week? Finkel rules? Monday Seminar: purpose is to try to figure out what the faculty want you to get out of the reading?

Web Survey … Seminar memo = a list of what went well and what went poorly in seminar? Expected to explicitly reference sources, both formal (e.g. texts) and informal (e.g. classmate conversations)? When do we start reading Kuhn? Week 4? Texts: get Kuhn this week! order Lynch now if you haven’t already. If you are missing texts required now, copy the readings from classmate or library. Some people still need to take last week’s surveys today! Ask your classmates how.

Bill Arney’s lecture Angels and Demons Literature and truth

“Facts” in Angels and Demons Your questions My questions and cautionary notes Some answers from CERN Zita: Angels_Demons.htm )Ouline_ Angels_Demons.htm CERN: AandD-en.html

Religion vs Science? FaithvsReason? RevelationvsExperiment? Dogma vs Discovery? Belief vs Truth? other dialectical pairs? Is it that simple?

Big Bang as Genesis A New Explanation from In the Beginning, Ch.1 of Foundations of Modern Cosmology by John F. Hawley & Katherine A. Holcomb Oxford University Press, 1998 In the beginning there was neither space nor time as we know them, but a shifting foam of strings and loops, as small as anything can be. Within the foam, all of space, time and energy mingled in a grand unification. [And] the foam expanded and cooled. And then there was gravity, and space and time, and a universe was created. There was a grand unified force that filled the universe with a false vacuum endowed with a negative pressure. This caused the universe to expand exceedingly rapidly … [And] the true vacuum reappeared, the inflation stopped, and the grand unified force was gone forever. … The last of the matter and antimatter annihilated, but a small remnant of matter remained. The first elements were created, reminders of the heat that had made them. And all this came to pass in three minutes, after the creation of time itself. … And we know not how the universe will end, but it may expand forever, and finally all the stars will die and the universe will end in eternal darkness and cold.

Beliefs Survey Examples of interesting, possibly testable beliefs: Earth is going through a polar tilt, and this is changing weather/climate. Most Americans are constipated, and this causes depression. Aliens exist, though they have not yet visited Earth. Many days without seeing the sun leads to depression. Video killed the radio star. Poverty is a major problem in the United States. Blacks living in south Chicago have a life expectancy of 60 years, while whites living in north Chicago have a life expectance of over 75 years (Nation, 10.Oct.2005) The death penalty is ineffective, unjust, and cruel. Doing alcohol is unhealthy (alternative: red wine helps you live longer). The emotion fear originates in the portion of the brain called the amygdala. Time (the continuum itself) is inherent and exists outside of my sensing it. Women are just as physically and mentally capable to be on the police force as men. If you test positive for HIV, there is a 99% chance that you have the virus. The Sun causes more global warming than greenhouse gases do.

How can you know? How could you find out? Sociological research, statistics, data… But is sociology science, rhetoric, or revelation? Ask people Read books Personal experience Scientific experimentation Could a counterargument or counterevidence change your mind? If someone proved there were no aliens, I could change my mind (NB: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence) As diplomatic as it would sound to say both beliefs are equally valid, I feel my belief is the more valid because … [it] is more logically sound and has more evidence in its favor. If you had all the facts, wouldn’t you think just like me?

Do your beliefs matter? It matters which is better backed up because I use this belief of mine to explain some of the purpose of life. Socially, it affects the politics surrounding compassion - do some animals deserve more, do some humans deserve less? Beliefs can, in theory, lead to wasted lives. It could be at least an interesting piece of a larger puzzle to distinguish between which is more correct. Yes, it can help persuade others that it is a problem that needs to be solved. Yes, if the poor in the US have it good, then there is no reason to pay attention to the social and economic factors that breed poverty. It is an excuse to forget, to ignore. My beliefs matter because they affect my decisions (but I have no beliefs) How would a set of objective truths potentially affect the nature of a human conflict. We have tools but how should we use them? If you test positive for HIV, maybe you should start treatment right away, despite the side effects? If the Sun causes global warming, we can go ahead and burn all the coal we want?

Beliefs Survey Many respondents said that beliefs are personal and all are equally valid. Many of the same respondents said that beliefs can be supported or tested by evidence. Think about it …

We’ll start this in class tomorrow (LH4 at 11:30)

Please see us after class Nathan Greenebaum Kelli Hogan Miriam Sterlin Matthew Matthias James Pratt Will Rockwell Jonathan Sperry Mary Strope Ryan Wachter Bill’s students?

Do last week’s work, today Ask your teammates to help you use InQsit or WebX, if you’re not sure. Take (or retake) WebSurvey today: Greenebaum, Hogan, Matthias, Pratt, Rockwell, Sperry, Strope, Wachter If you need help opening a second browser, ask a classmate or computer services Do last Thursday’s WebX workshop today (with a teammate’s help): Matthias, Pratt, Sperry, Wachter Take Beliefs Survey today: Greenebaum, Matthias, Sperry, Wachter Bill’s students?