Post by dabee08 on Jan 12, 2015 6:56:44 GMT
1. Why was Socrates sentenced to death?
According to the book “How Socrates Died”, Socrates was accused and imprisoned for two accounts. First, he was accused of not believing in the gods that the State recognized. Second, he was accused of influencing young Athenians with wrong teachings. During the trial, Socrates did not confirm nor denies his first accusation. Rather, he provided several evidences that he followed the State’s religious customs. However, judges sentenced him death by drinking the poisonous hemlock.
One of Socrates’ friends, Crito, managed to come up with an escape plan for Socrates. But Crito failed to persuade Socrates, and he remained in the prison and received his death penalty by drinking the poison.
Socrates believed in the system he was in. Even though the system sentenced him death, and he believed that he did not commit the accusations that he was charged of, he did not try to escape from it and accepted the fate because he truly believed in the system of the society, and it was wrong to disobey the final verdict that the judges gave him which was also a part of the system.
Even though Socrates was physically died when he drank the poison, I believe that his spirit of believing in truth inspired many philosophers and encouraged them not to be afraid to stand up for what they believe in.
2. Why is there a conflict (for some) between science and religion?
Science is evidence based which has been proved or in the process of proving a hypothesis through experiment or observation, on contrast religion is based on one’s faith towards a god or creator; thus people do not require the supportive evidence.
Scientists analyze observation using standards of methodological rules and formulates models to describe those observations, and this observation or hypothesis need to be tested many times to be accepted by others. People who believe in religion do not ask for evidence, but ask to find answers inside themselves and do not accept other’s opinion if others opinion conflicts with their faith.
There are many who get offended when their belief system is neglected by others. For example, the professor at Mt. Sac who got upset by Professor Lane because he published the interview of Professor Churchland who advocated eliminative materialism which contradicts with his religion. This fundamentalist Christian professor does not need a proof to believe in his religion. And even though Professor Churchland’s statement was based on scientific research and/or hypothesis, he denies the possibility that he might be wrong because to him, faith is everything.
Honestly, I do not think the science society and religion society will be able to unite, however I believe that these conflicts can help each group to do more research and study, which will lead to more advanced areas.
EXTRA CREDIT
What is Matter? The Magic of Physics
“What is Matter?” is a common question we ask when we think about the origin of universe or what humans are made of. Since I wanted to find out the definition of “matter”, so I decided to watch this video to resolve my curiosity about the “matter”. The narrator starts with the origin of a word “matter”, which is “mother”, which was interesting because I never thought that the mother would be the origin of the “matter”, and I think that the matter and mother are where things start. Then he illustrates to find the origin or the mother of the book, “Shadow of mind”. He travels back to find the book’s origin. The previous step to a book is paper, which has a previous step of a tree, which is composed of many cells, which are divided into molecules, which are composed of atoms. Democritus, who is an ancient Greek scientist, knew the presence of atoms, but was not able to explain, and he also believed that the atoms could not be cut further. However in modern science, the atoms were further divided into nucleus and electrons, which are composed of photons and quarks in quantum electrodynamics. Today, we cannot further divide photons and quarks, but we may be able to further divide these matters with more advanced science. As Richard Feynman said, “things are made of littler things that jiggle”, and those littler things are indefinite. Then would you say the matter is littler things? No because littler things make up matters. Matters can be anything that is occupying space including atoms, plants, lands, buildings, mountains, ocean, earth, stars, and even the universe. I agree when the narrator mentioned that “the matter is mystery” because it can be as small as photons or quarks and as large as the universe, which still has tons of mystery.
According to the book “How Socrates Died”, Socrates was accused and imprisoned for two accounts. First, he was accused of not believing in the gods that the State recognized. Second, he was accused of influencing young Athenians with wrong teachings. During the trial, Socrates did not confirm nor denies his first accusation. Rather, he provided several evidences that he followed the State’s religious customs. However, judges sentenced him death by drinking the poisonous hemlock.
One of Socrates’ friends, Crito, managed to come up with an escape plan for Socrates. But Crito failed to persuade Socrates, and he remained in the prison and received his death penalty by drinking the poison.
Socrates believed in the system he was in. Even though the system sentenced him death, and he believed that he did not commit the accusations that he was charged of, he did not try to escape from it and accepted the fate because he truly believed in the system of the society, and it was wrong to disobey the final verdict that the judges gave him which was also a part of the system.
Even though Socrates was physically died when he drank the poison, I believe that his spirit of believing in truth inspired many philosophers and encouraged them not to be afraid to stand up for what they believe in.
2. Why is there a conflict (for some) between science and religion?
Science is evidence based which has been proved or in the process of proving a hypothesis through experiment or observation, on contrast religion is based on one’s faith towards a god or creator; thus people do not require the supportive evidence.
Scientists analyze observation using standards of methodological rules and formulates models to describe those observations, and this observation or hypothesis need to be tested many times to be accepted by others. People who believe in religion do not ask for evidence, but ask to find answers inside themselves and do not accept other’s opinion if others opinion conflicts with their faith.
There are many who get offended when their belief system is neglected by others. For example, the professor at Mt. Sac who got upset by Professor Lane because he published the interview of Professor Churchland who advocated eliminative materialism which contradicts with his religion. This fundamentalist Christian professor does not need a proof to believe in his religion. And even though Professor Churchland’s statement was based on scientific research and/or hypothesis, he denies the possibility that he might be wrong because to him, faith is everything.
Honestly, I do not think the science society and religion society will be able to unite, however I believe that these conflicts can help each group to do more research and study, which will lead to more advanced areas.
EXTRA CREDIT
What is Matter? The Magic of Physics
“What is Matter?” is a common question we ask when we think about the origin of universe or what humans are made of. Since I wanted to find out the definition of “matter”, so I decided to watch this video to resolve my curiosity about the “matter”. The narrator starts with the origin of a word “matter”, which is “mother”, which was interesting because I never thought that the mother would be the origin of the “matter”, and I think that the matter and mother are where things start. Then he illustrates to find the origin or the mother of the book, “Shadow of mind”. He travels back to find the book’s origin. The previous step to a book is paper, which has a previous step of a tree, which is composed of many cells, which are divided into molecules, which are composed of atoms. Democritus, who is an ancient Greek scientist, knew the presence of atoms, but was not able to explain, and he also believed that the atoms could not be cut further. However in modern science, the atoms were further divided into nucleus and electrons, which are composed of photons and quarks in quantum electrodynamics. Today, we cannot further divide photons and quarks, but we may be able to further divide these matters with more advanced science. As Richard Feynman said, “things are made of littler things that jiggle”, and those littler things are indefinite. Then would you say the matter is littler things? No because littler things make up matters. Matters can be anything that is occupying space including atoms, plants, lands, buildings, mountains, ocean, earth, stars, and even the universe. I agree when the narrator mentioned that “the matter is mystery” because it can be as small as photons or quarks and as large as the universe, which still has tons of mystery.