Post by vchavez28 on Jan 13, 2015 7:04:49 GMT
1. Why was Socrates sentenced to death?
Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death for his love of philosophical inquiry. He was charged with corrupting the youth, not believing in the gods and introducing new ones. These charges were considered impious actions. In ‘The Apologia’, his prosecution is quoted; "He searches into things in heaven and under the earth, that he does not believe there are gods, and that he makes the worse appear the better reason." The three accusers were Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon. Socrates believed that he became odious to many that were considered wise after having conversations with them and exposing the ignorance of them. Socrates was found guilty by the jury and was sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid. He expressed that at such an old age, they were only doing him a favor by passing him onto a better place. Crito was a follower of Socrates and often visited him in his confinement. Many of Socrates followers wanted him to flee and Crito had preparations for Socrates to escape and urged him to do so but Socrates was loyal to the laws of Athens and was ready to accept his fate. He was fearless of death and he knew it would serve a greater purpose. Finally when the time came, he drank the poison calmly and without hesitation.
2. Why is there a conflict (for some) between science and religion?
Science and religion believe in different ways of the nature of reality and how this has come about. This is a struggle for some because it may contradict what they believe but it is something that has evolved and will continue to do so with humanity over time. What we know to be reality is just a small slice of it and how nature really works. That small slice that we are observing could be entirely wrong since we can’t see the whole picture. In the book ‘Matter vs Spirit’ they made this type of relation using Plato’s allegory of the prisoners in the cave. Only upon observing from the outside will you see what created your 'reality' inside the cave. Unfortunately our brains have limitations with what it can experience and understand. With just five senses and such a small window of visible spectrum and audible frequency, we can’t step outside of these bounds to know what lies beyond. Religion has always used ‘God’ as the answer for anything that hasn’t been proven scientifically and anything beyond space and time is inconceivable at the moment so we can call that ‘God’. We still haven't even touched our potential, intellectually, so we have much more to learn but keeping a healthy amount of skepticism is a way to keep accepting everything the universe has to offer even if it isn’t always what we want to hear. There is beauty in knowing truth but it comes along with the uncomfortability of change. When something is proven in science, it might disprove another theory but it opens up a whole new set of paths for us. I think studying the brain and consciousness is where we will see a huge amount of progress in understanding nature and even spirituality better. To further study consciousness it might even take a whole new type of scientific model because the current one is too selective and will have conflicts when studying non-physical phenomena because it’s not considered ‘real’ in this reality. Through it all we have to remember we are looking from the inside-out and living in a different type of ‘flatland’ and this puts us at a huge disadvantage.
Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death for his love of philosophical inquiry. He was charged with corrupting the youth, not believing in the gods and introducing new ones. These charges were considered impious actions. In ‘The Apologia’, his prosecution is quoted; "He searches into things in heaven and under the earth, that he does not believe there are gods, and that he makes the worse appear the better reason." The three accusers were Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon. Socrates believed that he became odious to many that were considered wise after having conversations with them and exposing the ignorance of them. Socrates was found guilty by the jury and was sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid. He expressed that at such an old age, they were only doing him a favor by passing him onto a better place. Crito was a follower of Socrates and often visited him in his confinement. Many of Socrates followers wanted him to flee and Crito had preparations for Socrates to escape and urged him to do so but Socrates was loyal to the laws of Athens and was ready to accept his fate. He was fearless of death and he knew it would serve a greater purpose. Finally when the time came, he drank the poison calmly and without hesitation.
2. Why is there a conflict (for some) between science and religion?
Science and religion believe in different ways of the nature of reality and how this has come about. This is a struggle for some because it may contradict what they believe but it is something that has evolved and will continue to do so with humanity over time. What we know to be reality is just a small slice of it and how nature really works. That small slice that we are observing could be entirely wrong since we can’t see the whole picture. In the book ‘Matter vs Spirit’ they made this type of relation using Plato’s allegory of the prisoners in the cave. Only upon observing from the outside will you see what created your 'reality' inside the cave. Unfortunately our brains have limitations with what it can experience and understand. With just five senses and such a small window of visible spectrum and audible frequency, we can’t step outside of these bounds to know what lies beyond. Religion has always used ‘God’ as the answer for anything that hasn’t been proven scientifically and anything beyond space and time is inconceivable at the moment so we can call that ‘God’. We still haven't even touched our potential, intellectually, so we have much more to learn but keeping a healthy amount of skepticism is a way to keep accepting everything the universe has to offer even if it isn’t always what we want to hear. There is beauty in knowing truth but it comes along with the uncomfortability of change. When something is proven in science, it might disprove another theory but it opens up a whole new set of paths for us. I think studying the brain and consciousness is where we will see a huge amount of progress in understanding nature and even spirituality better. To further study consciousness it might even take a whole new type of scientific model because the current one is too selective and will have conflicts when studying non-physical phenomena because it’s not considered ‘real’ in this reality. Through it all we have to remember we are looking from the inside-out and living in a different type of ‘flatland’ and this puts us at a huge disadvantage.