Monday, May 18, 2009
In memorandum.
A very dear friend recently left my school under less than opportune circumstances. In leu of his not having his own 5-second spot on the senior slide show, he created this. This one's for you, Nik.
Friday, May 8, 2009
WOW
What a huge load of stuff to upload. Sorry if it's a bit overwhelming, but I worked really hard on it. I hope everyone likes it. Maybe it'll even be humorous to some. I also find it amusing how it works out to be twelve posts long. (12 being the number of grades in school, etc.)
My Life and Times Part XII
Twelfth grade began and my tenure at ASFA was almost over. I had elected to take a wonderful, exuberant, outstanding, brilliant, radiant, high-spirited, magnificent, and astounding course in Philosophy (let’s hope flattery will get me somewhere), taught by an equally qualified professor by the name of Brad Hill. (Really at this point I think it’s getting a little overwhelming, so I’ll stop the mild adulation.) It challenged me to begin thinking more and more about an abundance of allegories and actualities, in which I began to philosophize more and more. After being taught the intricacies of Descartes, I became surer of my stance on life, and was able to recognize myself as a rational Atheist. I began writing philosophical proofs and treatise as they came to my mind, and thankfully the teacher accepted them for responses to the philosophical proofs and treatise we were reading for the class. One of the ones I am more proud of is one in which, based on Thomas Aquinas’s idea of a primary cause, using modern proof of his theory and a revised definition for God, proved God’s existence much the same way Aquinas did (albeit without a good definition for god or the scientific evidence to prove this). Later in the class, I discovered Immanuel Kant, who argued that no one could ever really know God or the future. After many long hours of though, I did finally come to a conclusion that resolved my viewpoints with his (he was important, I couldn’t let an important philosopher get the better of me now, could I?). I simply disagreed with him. I believe that we can know that there will be a future in that we know that there is time, and it progresses. There is a past; therefore there must be a future. However, Kant and I are in agreement in that we cannot know what the future holds.
My Life and Times Part XI
Tenth grade was fairly similar to ninth, sans depression. Although I did have this really great English class that year. Something about puritans or some such stuff.
Eleventh was really when I came back in full force. I was feeling better and I had regained some friends lost by the move, and I was back on track to pick up where I had left off four years ago. Except that I now no longer held almost any of the same views. My Deism had faded for a much more Atheistic viewpoint. I no longer believed in a God. Instead, what had taken its place was simply the natural order. There was no need for there to even be a God, barring the mountains of scientific evidence disproving many of the things God had been said to purportedly have done (at least according to most, if not all, of the world’s leading religious texts).
This happened to be the year in which I began taking biology. Prior to this, I had always had the inkling that a rational approach to problem solving had been the way to go, but this course cemented it for me. Science really could be the end-all for discussions. Not only was there a set methodology in which to pursue any line of questioning, but the community was essentially entirely skeptics. Were something to pass through that much doubt and still maintain credibility, the odds of it being true were high enough to be considered truth, in my opinion. All this heavily supported Georg Hegel’s own view that everything could be broken up into ration categories. Science has been able to accomplish this task with most biota on the planet, so why not everything? Now, I understand that this may seem very reminiscent of David Hume’s emphasis on the empirical method, but I differ in that I believe logical proofs are a valid form of proof. Another thing biology cemented for me was the debate between Darwin and Genesis. The body of evidence was so overwhelmingly in favor of evolution that the belief in Creationism, or that God created everything only a short while ago, seemed almost childlike in its simplicity.
Eleventh was really when I came back in full force. I was feeling better and I had regained some friends lost by the move, and I was back on track to pick up where I had left off four years ago. Except that I now no longer held almost any of the same views. My Deism had faded for a much more Atheistic viewpoint. I no longer believed in a God. Instead, what had taken its place was simply the natural order. There was no need for there to even be a God, barring the mountains of scientific evidence disproving many of the things God had been said to purportedly have done (at least according to most, if not all, of the world’s leading religious texts).
This happened to be the year in which I began taking biology. Prior to this, I had always had the inkling that a rational approach to problem solving had been the way to go, but this course cemented it for me. Science really could be the end-all for discussions. Not only was there a set methodology in which to pursue any line of questioning, but the community was essentially entirely skeptics. Were something to pass through that much doubt and still maintain credibility, the odds of it being true were high enough to be considered truth, in my opinion. All this heavily supported Georg Hegel’s own view that everything could be broken up into ration categories. Science has been able to accomplish this task with most biota on the planet, so why not everything? Now, I understand that this may seem very reminiscent of David Hume’s emphasis on the empirical method, but I differ in that I believe logical proofs are a valid form of proof. Another thing biology cemented for me was the debate between Darwin and Genesis. The body of evidence was so overwhelmingly in favor of evolution that the belief in Creationism, or that God created everything only a short while ago, seemed almost childlike in its simplicity.
My Life and Times Part X
Ninth grade was a more productive year in terms of philosophical viewpoints for me than was eighth grade. While eighth grade was easy, it was easy. By this, I mean that while I could relax, it offered me no real opportunities to challenge myself intellectually. During ninth grade I became depressed, and began thinking on many subjects, unfortunately the least of which was school. As my grades sank, however, my mind became more active, and I began to think more and more on many of the aspects of life. I was going to an arts school, and people were creating “art,” but was it really art. I have always found myself closer to music than the other arts, and I was exposed to many newer types of pieces (which were very poor indeed). Unlike Leo Tolstoy, I did not think art merely needed to elicit an emotion from the viewer; I thought that a piece was truly art if the artist conveyed the emotion they were trying to. From this, I did not and still do not consider many pieces which people rave over true “art.”
It was also during ninth grade in which I really began to pay attention to the news. One large story of the year was that of euthanasia in a brain-dead woman in Florida. By this point, I was pretty concrete in my view that euthanasia should be legalized. This was a very humane act, in my mind, and I see now that I was very much in agreement with James Rachels’ views on this topic. Instead of killing, it should really be viewed as a kind thing, to help make another person happier. A tandem story happened to be going on at around the same time as this one, in which the legality of lethal injection for prisoners was being put to question as a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.” The defense argued that due to the ineptitude of the prison guards and staff, the injection was being administered incorrectly and therefore causing the prisoners great pain. I remember that one proposed solution was to get physicians to administer the injection instead. The only problem was that there was not a single doctor in the entire United States of America willing to kill someone. I thought this was a very strong statement for the cause I had rallied myself behind. Even those doctors in favor of physician assisted suicide were not willing to kill someone without benefit to the person. Clearly, there was something to be gained by the patient in death that they could not have in life, even if that something was a painless death.
It was also during ninth grade in which I really began to pay attention to the news. One large story of the year was that of euthanasia in a brain-dead woman in Florida. By this point, I was pretty concrete in my view that euthanasia should be legalized. This was a very humane act, in my mind, and I see now that I was very much in agreement with James Rachels’ views on this topic. Instead of killing, it should really be viewed as a kind thing, to help make another person happier. A tandem story happened to be going on at around the same time as this one, in which the legality of lethal injection for prisoners was being put to question as a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.” The defense argued that due to the ineptitude of the prison guards and staff, the injection was being administered incorrectly and therefore causing the prisoners great pain. I remember that one proposed solution was to get physicians to administer the injection instead. The only problem was that there was not a single doctor in the entire United States of America willing to kill someone. I thought this was a very strong statement for the cause I had rallied myself behind. Even those doctors in favor of physician assisted suicide were not willing to kill someone without benefit to the person. Clearly, there was something to be gained by the patient in death that they could not have in life, even if that something was a painless death.
My Life and Times Part IX
Along with my change in faith (again, pardon the pun) in regards to God came for me a greater emphasis on testing and logic. I realize now that I was a rationalist. It really hit me during science in the sixth grade. This was the way to go. Logic could prove anything! This was science! For some reason though, my mother was much less infatuated with René Descartes than I was, and we constantly argued about logic. She was also not fond of my newfound habit of trying to sleep as late as possible.
In retrospect, I believe my mother was closer to British Empiricism, as she always argued that her experience overruled my logic. And granted I was younger than her by some 30 years (really, that’s not even a third of a decade), but I certainly did not believe that should rule my opinions out. While I always held the Cartesian side of these battles, my mother always seemed to be with Locke, always saying that I couldn’t know without experience. In a funny kind of way, we reenacted the British Empiricists attacking Descartes’ ideas in the 1700’s. And, despite the many arguments lost and won (mostly lost, but I do get to buffer myself some, I’m the one writing), I still remain fairly certain of my standing as ultimately, a rationalist.
As my year in seventh grade came to a close, I had been accepted into the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA). I would be starting there under the math and science program in my eighth grade year. Eighth grade was a bittersweet year. It was enjoyable in that it was easy, but it was difficult in that I didn’t really get along with anyone and in that it would be the last relatively easy year at my tenure at ASFA. For the most part, it was uneventful, but my mother and I did have more Cartesian v. Empiricist spats occasionally.
In retrospect, I believe my mother was closer to British Empiricism, as she always argued that her experience overruled my logic. And granted I was younger than her by some 30 years (really, that’s not even a third of a decade), but I certainly did not believe that should rule my opinions out. While I always held the Cartesian side of these battles, my mother always seemed to be with Locke, always saying that I couldn’t know without experience. In a funny kind of way, we reenacted the British Empiricists attacking Descartes’ ideas in the 1700’s. And, despite the many arguments lost and won (mostly lost, but I do get to buffer myself some, I’m the one writing), I still remain fairly certain of my standing as ultimately, a rationalist.
As my year in seventh grade came to a close, I had been accepted into the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA). I would be starting there under the math and science program in my eighth grade year. Eighth grade was a bittersweet year. It was enjoyable in that it was easy, but it was difficult in that I didn’t really get along with anyone and in that it would be the last relatively easy year at my tenure at ASFA. For the most part, it was uneventful, but my mother and I did have more Cartesian v. Empiricist spats occasionally.
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