Monty Python -- Ugh?

I am not at all a fan of Monty Python or at least I wasn't until I watched the clip "the funniest joke in the world" I guess I was introduce to Monty Python at an age when I could not appreciate it. Anyway, I though the clip was hysterical particulary when John Cleese discusses how they had to go about translating the joke into German in "joke-proof" conditions. What I got from this clip is that if you truly created the funniest joke in the world there would be know why someone could live through the laughter. So developing or finding the ultimate answer to anything would be too much for anyone to handle. So if there was this one and only answer to the meaning of life it would be too much for us to handle too overwhelming for us to manage. I think its much safer for us to realized the meaning of life in small does. This is why , as I wrote in my DB post, that the meaning of life is perpetually being defined. As we age and mature we develop knowledge and wisdom that help us to see more clearly (mostly because of the benefit of hindsight and experience)what we are here to accomplish and strive for. We are just mere mortals incapable to mastering the super powers required to 1) know the meaning of life and 2) ever hear the funniest joke in the world. :-)

Today we still see double standards in the enforcement of laws. There has, over the years, been an organized movement to offer the same access to and rights of a legal marriage for same sex couples. Marriage laws have been called “unjust” by some, because it does not allow same sex couples to exact a legal marriage.

In California and some other states, elected officials have “disobeyed” laws by issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. In 2004, San Francisco’s Mayor Newsom justifies issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples by invoking the pledge he took upon taking office as mayor. The Mayor stated, "Upon taking the Oath of Office and becoming the Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco, I swore to uphold the Constitution of the State of California. Article I, Section 7, subdivision (a) of the California Constitution provides that "[a] person may not be . . . denied equal protection of the laws." This example of "civil disobedience is just and should have been used in every US state.

Although Martin Luther King is not the author of the now well-known excerpt “…an unjust law is no law at all...” his reference to St. Thomas Aquinas’ words in his letter is regularly cited to support legal arguments, and social commentary on equality and social justice. King’s effective use of the St. Thomas Aquinas quote has caused it to be widely used for more than forty years to influence understanding and acceptance of equal protection under the law and justification for acts of civil disobedience.

The Cycle of Good and Evil

There must be evil if there is to be good.

Evil helps bring out the best in people and can impact their lives in such a way they can protect others from evil events and situations. Disease is evil. Good has come in the form of medical discoveries and treatments that have helped society. The "evil" events over the 46 years of my life have made me the person I am today. I have been able to turn "evil" situations and events into positives and have even "paid it forward", something I try to do with all that I am involved in. Pass on what I have learned during difficult and very very difficult times in my life. I also realize I am fortunate that I have the ability to do this, Not everyone is as fortunate and sometimes the "evil" continues, but eventually the cycle is broken by good. I haven't learned this through any sort of organized religion, not at all. It's life, and overtime, over a lifetime, you can see the cycle of good and evil.

I'm Not A Believer

I feel somewhat guilty for my lack of faith. Both my mother's and father's family were religious, however I guess with some of the personal struggles my mom had with being a single mom, religion was just not one of her priorities and also given her pastor told her that being involved with a black man and giving birth to bi-racial children was wrong, no wonder she never turned to the church for strength and spiritual guidance.

I have attended church and in fact my grandfather was a deacon and I had to attend church every Sunday while staying with my grandparents each summer. I never got what it was all about. There were people preaching, singing and then the best part....a trip to the candy store when it was all over.

Anyway getting back to my guilt. I am a pretty free spirited person. Live and let live and live by your own rules, but when it comes to religion I feel like people make a very quick judgment on whether I am good or evil. I need concrete evidence that God exists. There is none. I do believe in forms of spirituality. Whichever form a person believes in to help guide them through life's difficult times or to help them live a life worthy of living is valid.

I find my spirituality not through formal religion but through seeking ways to live a physically and emotionally healthy life full of truth, sharing and understanding.

Thought This Was Relavent

Artificial Intelligence

Progress in the development of artificial intelligence has without a doubt come a long way and will continue to develop probably far beyond what we can imagine today. But I wonder if the development of intelligence in the human race will develop at an equal pace. I can just see it now, despite the fact we are an intelligent species, we do and believe some really outrageous things, particularly when it comes to co-existing with technology. How smart can we be when we post our uncensored opinions, compromising pictures and personal details on a public electronic bulletin board for millions to see (My Space). How smart can our government officials and leaders be when they transmit pornographic images using their computers at work and think it can not be traced to them. I guess what I am saying is that, while we have intelligent members of our species that can develop and further perfect artificial intelligence, I do not believe the masses will have the intelligence to use it and will ultimately be manipulated by government, corporations and the power elite through the use of artificial intelligence.

Our Reality Is Not Only The Physical

It seems that reality is dual in that what constitutes reality is both physical and mental. The way I mentally translate or interpret my physical reality is my reality. My mental state helps dictate or determine the reality around me. An example might be people who are religious and influenced by religious teachings and practices have their reality altered by it. What a person believes (the mental) impacts their physical reality.

Very Challenging Assignment....Indeed

My philosophy professor is quite sneaky. He figured if we can explain feminism and empiricism to children...then we should be able to explain it and understand it ourselves... Not only is he sneaky..he was pretty smart to use this as a teaching technique.

I thought about this assignment all week. It was a very simple assignment. Have a bunch of college students explain something to children. How hard could that be. But I soon remembered that this was philosophy we were talking about, and I first had to decipher the philosophical text I was assigned to read (ugh!). Well it was far easier that Kant I tell you that and since I am female and I somewhat a pragmatist (i didn't know this until this assignment) it really became much easier for me to tackle this.

I do have some thoughts on feminism that are probably not so feminist. Please do not take this the wrong way, I am a strong believer that women are smart and shouldn't be discriminated against in the workforce, and in general, because of their gender...however I have learned over time that men and women are different -- period.

Each gender has strengths the other does not. While I believe we should teach our young girls that they can accomplish most anything. We should not send them out into the world thinking they are physically equal to men. We are not. I learned this through practicing martial arts. I trained just as hard has the men. However, when I went up against a new male member of the dojo with no training, their punch and strikes were powerful. While mine may have been powerful for a woman of my size and level of training, I could not match that of a man. That is not a deficit for women it just is. Women go through hormonal ups and downs monthly and all through their lives. We have to deal with it. These are not faults, these are just the facts of life and our biology and if we would approach it that way, maybe feminists would not be seen as anti-men. Whew!

Wholly Philosphical Disaster Professor Foster!

OMG! This is exactly what frightened me about taking philosophy...reading text on Kant had my mind running in circles. I do have a slight reading comprehension problem so I take plenty of notes and re-read passages to insure I understand what I am reading. The reading material this week just had me running in circles and confused. I think we were studying the rationalists and empiricist's theories on knowledge...I think. I completely enjoyed our assignments previous to this even though some of the concepts and material were a little confusing I was able to digest the information and spew out coherent responses on both the discussion board and blog. I didn't even do that poorly on the quiz.

Well I'm off to take the quiz now...wish me luck....

Skeptically Speaking

News media were asked not to show this and other "disturbing" images of 9/11. If we have no direct access to information we can not have knowledge -- I suppose these are the words of a skeptic.

Today we have so much information to sort through to be educated, to make informed decisions, to understand the world around us and to interact and manage the people we co-exist with that we have no other choice but to believe most things until we have reason to be skeptical. We have been trained to seek out information related to current events from mainstream media sources (television news, newspapers and magazines). We grow up learning that if news media icons such as Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric report on something it must be true. However we really can not arrive at true justified beliefs through mainstream sources and would probably have to be directly involved or experience an event to claim knowledge of anything.

Emerging from "The Cave"

Over the course of one's life we will at one time or another discover that we too have been in an a dank dark place similar to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. A place not so far away from a reality that had we only freed ourselves and taken a few steps, we might have been able to experience it earlier. Sometimes we are not ready to be exposed to a new level of reality, sometimes we need to be lead to the reality, and sometimes we may want to retreat back to the "cave" where all we ever knew and understood is still there waiting for us.

We must approach life with an open mind, seek out mentors that can help us discover new levels of reality and understand that exposure to higher levels of understanding may not feel totally comfortable in the short term, but will become our reality over time and prepare us new life discoveries.

What a great idea...

I have always wanted a reason to blog...I think maintaining a blog for this course is a great idea. I am excited about this course because I am entering a world I know very little about. I am hoping this course will teach me to look at things in new ways.

This is a work in progress....