Hearsay

The topic that I decided to do for this discussion was “Hearsay”. The definition of hearsay is defined as information that is gathered by a person that was heard from another person about an event of which the first person did not experience the event directly. This type of evidence reminded me a lot of the game telephone mainly because you start with one person saying something in another’s person ear then they would repeat that to the next person and so on, but usually when it gets to the end it’s a whole different sentence than what the first person said. This is also what happens in hearsay evidence because when one person repeats the story they tend to end up forgetting some minor details. I don’t think this a real reliable source of evidence, this is why it’s not really used in court cases because some witnesses may repeat the story, but may accidentally leave out some minor details that could actually prove to be significant in determining if someone is innocent or guilty.

UFO

All the people listed had many different opinions about the existence of UFOs. Edward Condon was widely known as the author of the Condon report. He mainly believed that UFOs didn’t exist because there were barely any scientific evidence to support the phenomenon that were UFOs. The Condon Report soon became one of the most influential findings concerning scientific research and UFOs. Even though he doesn’t believe they exist, he feels that people should continue research to prove that they do. J. Allen Hynek was known as the person that traced and studied evidence left by UFOs. He stated that he feels that there is another civilization out there than man and he defended both arguments relating to extraterrestrial intelligence and extra dimensional intelligence. He believes that everyone that has seen a UFO should come together and talk about what they witnessed in order to gather more facts. Roberty Paynek believes that UFO is just a myth of the new era. He’s one of those see it before believing it type of people and believes that UFOs has to be seen or there needs to be more physical evidence. He states that there is no logical information or contrary evidence to prove that they exist. I believe that Paynek has the strongest arguments because he refutes the two other scientisits arguments by telling them that they need to have more proof before they can claim something existsd

Wisdom

Both knowledge and wisdom are traits that you gain over time. The difference between wisdom and knowledge is when your are able to learn different things such as facts that you learn in school while wisdom comes from the experiences that you have in life while at the same time it tells you how t use the knowledge you learn. In college I believe we are learning both knowledge and wisdom, but I believe that it is teaching more knowledge in classrooms, but outside of the classroom I am learning more wisdom. In the classroom I learn all about facts and equations, but it doesn’t really inform me on how to use those facts of knowledge to get me further in life. I feel like I gain my wisdom when I learn from my failures in class and do something to change my study habits. I have learned more wisdom from the fraternity I have pledged because it taught me how to communicate effectively with other people and people have told me what the right path is for me to take. I think the information age has made us more knowledgeable because all this technology makes us learn facts easier, but we don’t really learn enough to communicate socially.

Concept

The concept that really caught my attention was the concept of dysphemism. The definition of dysphemism is using harsh words or expressions to describe someone or something. It is pretty much the opposite of euphemism. For example instead of calling someone overweight, a person using dysphemism will use even more hurtful words such as fatty or pig just to make the person feel worse. People can use dysphemism to say it as a joke too though. For example my friend hasn't been going to the gym recently and he used to always go. Ever since stopping he roughly still looks the same probably only gained a few pounds. He's not fat at all, but my roommates and I always joke with him calling him fat even though he's not. If he really was fat though there would be no way we say that to him because if we meant it that would be mean. Sometimes dysphemism is used for mean purposes though in order to make people upset or put them down. I don't believe it is right for anyone to put others down in the first place.

Sarcasm

A rhetorical device I used this past week was metaphor. A metaphor is a kind of figure of speech that uses an object or image to describe something else. I recently went on a retreat and I’m usually those kind of guys that tries to lighten up the mood when someone is feeling bad. I had this one friend who was upset due to his breakup with his girlfriend so I used said to him, “Dude love is a battlefield.” He looked at me and smiled and was like yeah you’re right man and we just laughed it off. Another rhetorical device I use a lot is sarcasm. I know I use this all the time especially when meeting new people so that they understand my type of personality. Sometimes when people ask me a question I lie in a joking way and then answer with the truth just so I can see their reaction and most of the time it makes them laugh because they say “woah I thought you were serious for a second” but they end up laughing it off.

Sally, That Girl

Sally Ride was a NASA astronaut and is a physicist. She became a communications officer for two flights for the space shuttle  Columbia. She had to go through a rugged training regime in order to be looked at to become an astronaut. One of the things she had to go through was to show her radio communication skills which she excelled in. She was able to gain great communication skills because she was not able only majoring in physics, but also english which improved her talking skills. She knew that she needed to have to gain communication skills in order to get far in life. You need to be able to get along and get your ideas to others which is what Sally exemplified. After she retired from NASA, she still carried her communication skills because she communicated and spoke to young women in order to try and convince them to study science and math. She used her skills not only to benefit herself, but others around her.

Negative Effects

I chose to do my topic on negative effects on emotion because it has sometimes affected my decision making at some points in my life. I believe that it is best to make an important decision when your mind isn't clouded with negative thoughts. I know an example is when taking a test. Sometimes I know the answer to a question, but I blank out because I'm so nervous that I might get it wrong, and I know my parents would be upset if I ended up failing. I end up getting scared and forgetting alot of things during the test. These emotions can also be a blast from our past. We know the effects of failing and we don't what it to happen again. This could cloud our judgement in many things in life, one may think "oh this seems like a great idea to do," but then they might start freaking out because others may not like their idea because they might have confidence issues that trace back to their childhood. They may be scared to express their opinion because they fear people might think their idea is dumb or stupid.

Aquinas

            All my life I have believed in the existence of God mainly because I have gone to a Catholic school all my life other than college. In contrast though, Dawkins believes that we came here today due to evolution so he sees it as there is no way God and evolution could be compatible. Dawkin’s explanations on evolution isn’t strong enough to sway my opinion in a different direction.If Aquinas were able to respond to Dawkins beliefs, he would argue that Dawkin’s argument saying that there is no proof God exists could be used against him also because he cannot prove that we came here today due to evolution. Aquinas would use some sort of evidence such as arguing that someone wrote the bible after witnessing the life of Jesus and still many people use the bible today. No one knows how this world came to be but I believe that if Aquinas was still alive he would go more into depth and provide many reasons on how there is a God.