Thursday, September 30, 2010

Journal #11

There are many different ethics that are practiced today. Sometimes ethics are necessary because of legal repercussions, such as lawyers or psychologists. Psychologists need to use ethics so that they will not physically, mentally, or emotionally hurt someone, which is one of their rules. They also must not lie to the extent that will hurt someone. They must lie to some extent so their experiment will not be compromised and so their people that they are doing the experiment on will not have self-fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecy is when one person thinks that they will experience something as a result, and since they believe it, it really happens. Lawyers must use some ethics, because if they tell other people what is going on in their case, because people could use it against them. The lawyers also can not tell others about their case because if their client is guilty and the lawyer tells someone else, then the client could go to jail because the other person could tell someone that would get the client thrown into jail. Private lawyers are able to have more ethics than public lawyers, because private lawyers can turn away cases of people that they do not want to represent. They have the ability to not represent someone such as a sex offender or a pedophile, becuase they may not want to give that person the chance to get out of jail becuase the lawyer may believe that that person should have to go to jail. Sometimes people have a hard time following their ethics because of the messages from the world. For example, the world says it is okay to have sex before one is married, but many people have ethics that are against that that they eventually ignore because of the pressure from everyone else. Many people have ethics that they want or feel the need to follow, but because of some of the messages the world tries to convey, sometimes it is very hard for people to actually end up following their ethics.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Journal #10

Science and religion are very controversial topics, and are the cause of many arguments. Some people believe that everything can be solved and explained by science, but many other people believe that religion is the answer to anything, no matter what. The main religion that is in the argument with Scientology is any form of Christianity. The people that practice Scientology believe that everything can be explained by science and if it can not, it must not be true. Many Christians argue against this using the things that have been written in the Bible, but since Scientologists do not believe in the Bible, this argument has no affect on them. It would be much more effective to show Scientologists situations where people have been miraculously healed from being close to death, and the doctors have absolutely no explanation for it. Scientologists would look and look for a possible explanation and solution, but it seems that there is not one to be found. Many Scientologists would argue that the Creation of the world by a God is not true either, because they could say that the Big Bang is a true theory and that it would scientifically explain anything happening. Many different things are involved in this argument, and many people are also involved. A lot of people that are Christian or Scientologists are involved in this debate, and there is a good chance that many of them just want to argue. Many people are very stubborn and need to have people believe in their point of view, so they will argue until either the other person believes them, or until the other person at least gives up. It will be hard for many people to let go of this argument, and this argument is not looking like it will be ended or forgotten for quite a long period of time. Nowhere in the near future will this discussion be let go, and people may eventually bring their children into this argument, which is highly unnecessary.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Journal #9

There are many different kinds of religion, and the majority of them are organized. There are many that are popular and well-known, but there are also many that are followed privately and are not widely broadcast throughout the world. Some of the more popular religions are Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestant, and many other varieties of Christianity such as Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, or non-denominational. Some of the less popular religions that are not well-known throughout the world would be more like worshiping the Devil, black magic, and other things like that. I am a non-denominational Christian, which just means that I would not be considered Lutheran, Baptist, or anything like that. I am just Christian. There are many people that are completely against religion. Some people follow Scientology, where that do not believe that there is actually a creator, they just believe that science can explain absolutely everything that can be conceived in the mind of humans. There are also atheists, who say that there is not God or anyone else, and after this life, one is just dead. Even though they say that they are completely against religion, technically they are all following and believing in one thing, so that would be their religion. While many organized religions are beneficial for the followers, some do nothing for their followers and some actually hurt their followers. There was a religion a while ago that had a large group of people following a man who said he was from God and knew what was happening and so they had to follow him. He led them all to an isolated place, and people outside of their group started to be concerned and realized that this could be a bad thing. They talked to governments, and the governments decided to get involved. Before the government could get there, though, the man made everyone drink kool-aid infused with something poisonous, so everyone there died. The man had brainwashed the people to such an extent that they would do anything that he told them to, so many, many people died all because he said that they needed to. Organized religions can be good or bad to their followers.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Journal #8

Taylor Mali was right about the fact that it is very important to proofread. If you do not, there is a very good chance that something will slip by one and go into your work such as an extra word, a skipped word, or different letters that one may have wanted. He proves that if one does not proofread, one can have a very bad paper or writing assignment that is not only grammatically incorrect, but is also inappropriate for the class or person that one is writing for. People may come up with words that while may be spelled right, are not the correct word that one wanted to use, such as using thesis instead of this or something of that nature. Sometimes one's fingers get away from them and are trying to work as fast as their brain, which is impossible, but it is very common for people to leave out words that way. They could be going right along and they may have skipped a word, but because their brains are still going full speed, they may not even realize the word is missing. There is also a good chance that people will use a word twice in a context that it would not make sense for. They could be in the middle of a sentence when, say, their brother interrupts them and makes them pause for a moment, making them lose their train of thought. They may come back to their paper and reread the sentence, remembering their train of thought again, but they may not have realized they already have one of the words down, so they may type it again. Having another person proofread a paper can also be incredibly important, because they may find something that one has missed. There are quite a few possible reasons for people to type things wrong, and that just helps to prove that proofreading, possibly by more than one person, is necessary when writing something that could be important.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Journal #7

I do not follow any superstitions, but there are many out there that people do follow. One of the most popular is being very superstitious about the number thirteen. Many people are scared of the number thirteen, and will have nothing to do with it. They will refuse something if it has thirteen of it, and that is why there is no thirteenth row on an airplane, no thirteenth floor in a hotel, and no thirteenth rooms in hotels. Another popular superstition is that if one breaks a mirror, one will have seven years of bad luck. People will go to great extents to not break mirrors, and if they do, they will get rid of it immediately. Other superstitions are seeing black cats, walking under ladders, and spilling salt. If one spills salt, they must pour some salt in their hands and throw it over their shoulder. Most of these superstitions people follow just come from common sense that someone decided to scare people into following. If one breaks a mirror, it is obviously upsetting, and in the old days when this superstition came about, it probably took that long to receive a new one. If one walks under a ladder, there is a good chance that they will get hit with something. Someone was probably hit by something when they walked under a ladder once, and they decided to tell people about it and tell the others that they would have bad luck now which was shown when the person was hit by something. There are many things that people use to refute this bad luck, such as horseshoes, rabbits' feet, four leaf clovers, or a number of other things. While many people become scared of things such as these, there is also quite a big number of people that are not scared of superstitions such as these or a number of other superstitions that are not included in the list posted above.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Journal #6

There are many possible repercussions for blaming someone for something that they did not do. They obviously know that they did not do it, so they will be trying to prove that they are innocent of whatever they have been accused of. They will be fighting with everything that the accuser has said, and they will not go down, if they are blamed by everyone else, without a fight. They also may know that you did it, and they may try to put the blame back on you. They would try to prove that you were the one who did all the bad actions, and there is a chance that they may succeed. If they succeed, the whole town will blame you for the bad things that you did, and they may take many measures against you. They may kick you out of the town, put you in jail, put you on house arrest, or do a number of other things to you. Whatever they do, they will be extremely upset with you, and the repercussions could possibly be worse than if you had just told the truth to the community. While you may have been punished, there is a good chance that you will receive a lesser punishment than if you had lied and said someone else did it but the whole community found you out and uncovered the truth. If your lie pays off, though, you will get off completely free, while the poor person that you blamed will receive all of the punishment that you should have gotten. It is possible that one may feel guilty because of this, and they may eventually confess, but there is a very slim chance that that would happen. When most people blame someone else, they do it because they do not want to be found out, not because they are planning on confessing later. There are a ton of possible repercussions that could come from putting the blame on someone else, and the majority of them are very bad.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Journal #5

There are many things that could be good punishments during this time. Depending on the age, many different objects could be taken away or forced upon someone. If there was a person that was sixteen, it is pretty obvious that it would be best to take away their car if they had one. Many sixteen-year-olds have cars and they like to go many places with their friends, but it would be much harder to do so without a car. It would also be another good idea to ground them, which is often the case with teenagers. They would have to stay in their house with no contact from friends, no media access, and only time with their families and homework, board games, books, or games in the backyard. Many teenagers would be crushed if they could not talk to their friends all the time or get updates on people through facebook, twitter, or myspace, like they normally do. It would be huge for a teenager to have their phone taken away, because if they are like me, they are on it all the time. I am constantly talking to people either for fun or because I may need help with my homework. There are many reasons for keeping in contact throughout the day, and many teens take advantage of the fact that they are able to do so. Many teenage boys are lost without games and gaming systems, so it would be smart for their parents to take away their gaming systems. The boys would probably struggle to survive without their systems, but they would quickly learn their lesson. It is often hard to get a teenager's attention, but if they are punished they are more likely to listen. Many teenagers have a hard time learning their lesson, but after they have had something taken away that they have a hard time losing, they will be more quickly able to learn what they should and should not do.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Journal #4

Traveling and vacations are incredibly fun. My family takes vacations every summer. Normally we drive, and it is my dad, my mom, my two brothers, my mom's parents, and me. The seven of us fill the whole car, and there is barely any room left for putting all the luggage in. We've been to many different places. We've been to Canada, New York, Washington, D. C., Arizona, Nevada, Florida, California, South Dakota, and many places in between. We have flown to California, Florida, and Nevada, where we rented a car and drove through Arizona so we could see the Grand Canyon, which was breathtaking. We have been to Florida three times. We have driven twice and flown once, and the one time that we flew, we went with my family and a different family, not my grandparents. I love going to different places around the United States, because it is fun to see how people act and dress there. I like seeing the ocean and being able to learn more about history. I love history, and every time we go to a place with my grandparents, our days are always packed full of interesting things to do that are full of history or are just beautiful. We have seen the Grand Canyon, watched a show on Broadway, been in the Washington Monument, seen the changing of the guard, been to the San Diego zoo, been to Coney Island, and been to Disneyworld. I find many places interesting, and I enjoy seeing the rest of my family have fun as well. I like making them all laugh and watching them marvel at how amazing some of the places we have been are. The world is an incredible place and I love seeing how humans have learned to put amazing things in place to help us remember others. I love going on vacations with my family because I always have an incredibly fun time and really enjoy myself, even though it is often a huge pain to have to travel with them everywhere in cars.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Journal #3

I think it would be really hard to be held hostage, but it depends on who is holding me captive. If the captors were very kind to me, it would be a lot easier to be a hostage than if I was in a situation where the captors were very mean to me. If they were kind to me, gave me what I needed, and let me be, I don't think it would be all that hard to be a captive. It would be easy to follow their commands, because they are kind to me and I would want to be the same in return to show their kindness back to them and to prove to them that their kindness works very well. If the captors were mean to me, it would be a lot harder to be a hostage. I would still comply with their demands, but it would be because I was afraid of them and of what they would do to me more than because I wanted to. If they were rude to me, ignored all of my needs, and never left me alone because they were always taunting me or messing with me, I think it would be a lot harder to be held captive. I do not know how I would react to being held hostage. I would like to think that I would react very well, would handle all that they threw at me, and would only comply with the demands that I thought were right, but I honestly do not know. There is a good chance that I would have a hard time, would cry a lot, and would just follow along blindly with whatever they wanted me to do. I could try to look at other people that have been courageous in horrible situations and try to do what they did, but while I might be able to do it, I have the same chance of failing miserably. It is hard to know what one would do in a situation if one has not been put in it.