Galileo's Daughter

They say that behind every great man lies a great women. This is most certainly the case when considering Galileo Galilei, one of the first men to observe and catalog the cosmos, despite the objections of the church. Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste, worked as an apothocary in a convent in San Matteo. Although she remained there for most of her days, she could be described as the "super daughter" of the renaissance, finding time to send her dad medicinal remedies, provide moral support, and edit his controversial literature all while maintaining her dutes as a nun. Even though she was a woman of God, it is evident through the 124 letters she sent that her true alliances lied with her father. It is even very possible to suggest that were it not for Maria, Galileo might not have lived long enough to publish his brilliance. She protected him from almost anything, whether it was the dangers of disease, or the inquisition. Always ready to offer her help, she edited Galileo's work so that there was enough ambiguity to claim the theories as hypothetical. In the end, Galileo was praised for his findings but Maria, who kept him alive long enough to make the findings was overlooked in history.

"A woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me."
- G.G.

St. Thomas' Invalid Claims

At first glance, St. Thomas Aquinas' five proofs for the existance of God appear fairly valid. However, a in depth examination of his argument reveals many hidden fallacies that would otherwise go unnoticed. His very first claim, "The Argument of Motion" already exhibits one of the many common errors of statements. He argues that God was the first being to give motion to the universe, granting it with the wealth of potential energy it possesses today. He has in essence, begged the question, or in other words assumed a condition about something based off the title it holds. Just because God is presumabley almighty, doesn't mean that he is capable or even responsible for granting the universe with what it has. In addition, he assumes based off no evidence that God did not have an original, other wordly mover. Viewing things that way, something had to have given God that energy in the first place so it could be transfered to us.

The second argument, "Causation of Existence," states how one cause had to be the origin of all objects and things in existence. This claim is an assumption in itself, as suggested by the statement, "There can not be an endless string of objects causing other objects to exist." Here, he makes a hastey generalization regarding the nature of matter. They did not know then, nor do they know now, exactly how physics works. Modern science has not progressed nearly far enough, to be making such claims, especialy without any evidence. Just because we have not seen something happen does not mean it can't happen. As for the other arguments, other common assumptions are frequently displayed throughout, such as the claim of contingent and necesary beings. He claims that only beings can give rise to other beings, though as demonstrated by numerous experiments, scientists have indeed proven that beings can arise from inanimacy. Given the right conditions and materials, the environment can give birth to the basic proteins of life, which ultimatley cause organisms.

St. Augustine and the Begginings of Gothic Architecture

In 1194 a large rise in the Gothic form of achitecture can be seen within the Christian faith. Popular not only for it's elaborate art style but for its deep spiritual message that seemed to resonate with St. Augustines veiw of the world. The traditional Gothic churches do not appear to be much on the outside however, from within they are designed to display the most beautiful and magnificent imagery available. The interior of most Gothic churches possess several features to perfect their depiction of beauty including candles that add a luminescent glow and contrast to the structures detail as well as colorful tapestry that banners the ceilings. Although, of all the features, the most crucial has to be the clerestory mosaics that depict bible stories through a magnificent kaleidoscope effect, producing various hues and colors in the church as the sun moves through the sky. When combined, all of the visuals work together in order to produce a spiritual feeling within the church. In the end, it is just utilized for the time old tradition of increasing the Christian faith.

In the Renaissance, the Gothic churches highly spiritual style can be seen as a sort of embrace of St. Augustine's philosophies in order to fortify the faith. St. Augustine believed in a form of "introspection," the embrace of inner experience to gain purity. He believed the human body to be an impure creation and thus preached against all physical temptations. His belief is a constant with that of the "divine spark," which claimed that supposedly a peice of God's soul lived in all of us and only be seeking it out can we atain purity. In addition to that belief, St. Augustine saw the bible stories as a sort of cleanser and claimed that one must utilize them in order to reach heaven. With such beleifs established, the Gothic church was born, reitterating the Saints messages in order to beautify the church. They depicted a dreary and dark setting on the outside and a spritual haven on the inside in order to create the contrast between the physical and spiritual. One could only attain happiness within the church because the outside world was seen as corrupt. The creation of mosaics eventually furthered this mindset for they showed a light upon the bible stories that St. Augustine beleived one needed to embrace in order to go to heaven.

The Fallacies of Mein Kampf (Chapter 11)

Not surprisingly, these writtings of Hitler are overrun with with common biases and faulty claims. His clear willingness to "eliminate" the supposedly sub dominant species gives rise to numerous flawed claims of of fact. Instead of actually stating his argument clearly, throughout he merely uses a form of rhetoric to persuade the reader, impulsivley making assumption after assumption. The first evidence of his error is visible in the line " Each animal mates only with it's own species." First of all disregarding the various exceptions of nature, he is assuming that there are other sub genres of the human species. With that statment he has suggested that the human race is composed of different species, which is already a fallacy in itself. There are no sub-human catagories to date and it is not likely that there will be any in the near future. Further more even if there were, it's fairly irrational to suppose that one holds dominion over the other as he states "For this reason it must eventually succumb in any struggle against the higher species." Without any evidence or reason he is is just to suppose that one group of people is stronger than the other. Reading further into the document it becomes clear that this is no more a research book than it is a call to arms.

Evolution V.S. Creationism

Both theories attempt to explain where we originated from but none seem to be very solid. Still however, being a man of science im more inclined to take the side of evolution. In all of the debates i have seen so far, evolution has had somewhat of a advantage regarding evidence. The theory of creationism appears to have little factual support and it's advocates' only strategy is to disprove evolution. Creationist debaters rarely provide evidence for there theories and only disprove other theories leaving us with nothing but religion to believe in. This raises the notion that probably none of us are really right.

As for the concept of the wristwatch in the field, I beleive that to be relative to our current position in the world. A wristwatch is a symbol of perfection and complexity, but relating that to ourselves seems rather irrelevant because humans are FAR from perfect. We get diseases, fight wars, and resort to violence at the drop of a hat. I do believe it's amazing that we are alive and can even ponder these concepts however, im not about to give the credit to intelligent design due to the millions of other possibilities.

Barack Obama & Affirmative Action

The election of Barack Obama marks a revolutionary bound in the United States’ concept of equality, however, much like all monumental occasions, it is prone to generating controversy. In this case, I speak of the notion of affirmative action. The acceptance of a black president has raised the question of whether or not affirmative action is even necessary any more. Although the newly elected president has caused many to find affirmative action unnecessary, I believe it should still remain as an important integration in society. The very purpose of civil reparations is to atone for the past and present discriminations, both intentional and unintentional. With 74% of the population being of Caucasian descent, harm has and is bound to occur upon other ethnicities. Affirmative action is an attempt to negate the damages caused by the offenses and just because one minority has success I do not see it as a sign to forget it.

My wanting to keep affirmative action is primarily motivated by several opinions.
It is evident that this single minority has found success but that does not mean that others have necessarily recuperated from the past. One man is not a representative of his entire skin color and many are still affected by discrimination. Historically speaking, the past offenses have given many minorities and communities an unfair start in this country which explains why Caucasians have been able to secure the majority of economic power. I believe it would be premature to assume that one’s race is in adequate condition just because of a single member’s success. The majority of government positions are still held by whites, affirmative action is merely a means of leveling things for other races. In addition, Obama’s election showed that a minority can be elected, but under what conditions? It’s possible that he could have had to work much harder than the average white man in order to get to his position. The 43 white presidents are a testament to how unequal this country has been in the past and now the thought of removing the few benefits minorities are offered seems to go against the philosophies this country was built upon.

Syllogisms, Modulus Ponens, and Modulus Tollens

Although these three ways of reasoning share a common purpose, the seeking of knowledge, they are highly disparate in the ways by which they acquire knowledge. The primary distinction between the different forms of deductive logic can be found within their organization and structure. Syllogisms attempt to prove a statement through the transitive property. Using an intermediary term, they are capable of establishing what truth is by relating one term to another. Modulus ponens statements on the other hand use a much simpler method of reasoning. They establish a certain condition and based on the conditions requirements, tell whether it is valid. Lastly, the reasoning in Modulus tollens states how one condition is true based off another term.

Syllogism:
All watches give the time
I have the time
Therefore, I have a watch

Modulus Ponens:
If there are buttons, I will push them
There are buttons
Therefore I will push them

Modulus Tollens:
If Mr. Posito is here, there will be RAPs
Mr. Posito is not here, therefore there will be no RAPs