While cerebrating for a brief period of time on writing, belief and evidence; defining what notion is can be a difficult task. According to our dictionaries and books, credence is an acceptance that a statement is true or that something subsists; trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something. However, beliefs are built on how an individual accumulates evidence and decides what makes sense to him/her utilizing his/her logic or what suits him/her best. From there, people decide what evidence to bear in mind, and that is how an individual makes conclusions.
Being born and raised in Saudi Arabia (Islamic country) as a Muslim in an Islamic family, culture and environment never gave me the radical opportunity to question my own credence. It
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was more akin to “The “Banking” concept of Education” by Paulo Freire “Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat (Freire, 216). However, after my advent here in the United States as an international student to pursue my Bachelors in Computer Science (Logic plays a fundamental role in CS), I befriended different race, cultures and religions and one of them turned out to be my life partner(hopefully), who was born and raised in Mexico with a Catholic background. I was thoroughly oblivious to her notions neither her practice. My ignorance aroused my curiosity. Thinking back through my past experience with her and my friends, I can recall moments where my evidence had been queried which caused me to doubt my own notions. One of those moments was a discussion with my girlfriend on the consumption of pork. Then, I commenced to question everything from pork, to not covering the face and marriage, etc. Nevertheless, one of the practices that caused my attention the most was the fact of consuming pork.
This fact was genuinely surprising because everyone doted pork even though it’s verboten. Pork is one of the most prevalent meats eaten here and accommodated in every restaurant. In my country, no pork was sold in any restaurant because it was against the religion and I never queried why it was forbidden; just knowing that it was just forbidden. My girlfriend and her family personally love pork. It’s not that I have never endeavored pork ever, since I got here. I recall mandating pepperoni pizzas all the time, not knowing that it was pork, until someone told me. I was like “What!” Even though it’s verboten in my religion, I have endeavored it a few times and I liked it, except the fact that it was always too salty!
Not until I came across Schulz essay “Evidence” “where she says” Of course, we don’t necessarily form accurate beliefs based on good evidence”. Overthinking about that, led me to a research to why pork is forbidden and people are still consuming it. That is why I ceased victualing that for that time being, till I had it rectified. As I kept wondering, it didn’t matter if I relished it or not, what mattered was why people eat it even though it’s forbidden in some of the religious books like Bible &
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Qur’an. At the commencement, I mentally conceived maybe everyone has different taste when it comes to aliment. So I commenced to amass scientific information, and evidence from The Qur’an and The Bible. After doing my research all over again, I came across this statement written in The Qur'an. The verse of the Holy Qur'an, 5:3 states that pork is forbidden, "Forbidden to you are: swine, dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah." The Bible also proscribes the consumption of pork in the following books, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah. “And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass," this is a verse from the book Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 8. Some of the scientific evidence that I found claims that the consumption of pork can also affect the human’s health, because pigs’ blood contains an abundance of uric acid, a chemical substance. Additionally, the pig is found to be a host for many parasites leading to get a disease in humankind. All of that information cleared my head, and I still revered her decision of consuming pork.
But then, I asked her once "Why do you victual pork?" She said “I am catholic and my religion does not prohibit it. I am in liberty to victual anything I want, except humans. I was like but "The Bible enjoins you guys from consuming pork." She thought I was inculpating her on being erroneous. I didn’t go any further with that discussion because this could have caused a prolix argument, without a conclusion at the end. I advised her to read her Bible, and get apprised about the consumption of eating pork. To confute me, she inquired her mother. Her mother told her that pork is precluded in the Bible. She felt like all her life was a lie. She commenced to wonder why her mother, who had guided her about God, had encouraged her to ingest pork. Most of the Catholics that she knew were also not aware of this fact. It impacted her, how something as the prohibition of the consumption of pork is not informed to Catholics. I wasn’t trying to stop her from eating pork, but I was just informing her. But that never obviated her from consuming pork because she loved it and she can’t stop eating the only meat she loves the most and has been consuming her entire life. A fascinating consideration would be the possibility of believing one thing while doing another. For example, my religion prohibits me from imbibing alcohol, but I still drink sometimes because I relish it and I like to have fun.
Another example would be, we all know racism is erroneous, but actions still reveal a pattern of discrimination. Therefore, this event proves the points that Kathryn Schulz verbalizes about on her book “Being Wrong.” She states that to being wrong is not bad, it leads us to becoming correct and to dare ourselves to find out what is the true.” She specially verbally expresses to challenge ourselves to confute us. A quote that I identify myself with the author’s concept of being wrong is the following “To err is to wander and wandering is the way we discover the world and lost in thought it is the also the way we discover ourselves. Being right might be gratifying but in the end it is static a mere statement. Being wrong is hard and humbling and sometimes even dangerous but in the end it is a journey and a story.” However, all of this led me to the fact by Schulz “What makes us right is, what makes us wrong.”
Kelly James Clark, who is a former Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College, wrote “Without Evidence or Argument” which is published in Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy. The article starts off with the scenario of a stranger giving a man a note that his wife is cheating on him. However, there is no evidence and her behavior has not changed at all, how should he react? Does he take the note as complete truth and confront her or should he find security in the trust that he has built up with his wife over the past years together (Feinberg 138)? Clark uses this example, as well as others, to bring attention to the connection between significant beliefs and evidence. Furthermore, Clark goes on to state his
and that it can in fact be reasonable to hold a belief without sufficient evidence. Both
Upon reading Will to Believe, there is no doubt we will all begin to question how we’ve gotten to our beliefs and why we believe what we do. William James argues against forced beliefs and expresses the importance of choice. The idea of choice is one I strongly agree with. Although we are easily influenced by others, when it comes to beliefs free will must come into play. As far as the science method, which I have discussed, a belief is just as valid whether there is evidence or not because most scientific methods will never be one hundred percent proven and they will change over
Chapter three of Cognitive Science, Theology: From Human to Divine Minds, the author, Justin Barrett gives the reader insight on the term belief. Barrett divides this into sections of testimony, two-system model of reasoning, two kinds of belief, content and context biases, and how the belief-formation process says about whether our beliefs are true (Barrett, 2011, p. 40-57). He goes into great depth in these sections how we as people justify our beliefs. Different scenarios and people can affect our beliefs and Barrett wants to explain how it does so.
“The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that their treatment has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."(Schopenhauer). I always wondered why some people are not so drawn to the consumption of meat and fed up with only one thought about it. Why so many people loathe of blood, and why so few people can easily kill and be slaughter animal, until they just get used to it? This reaction should say something about the most important moments in the code, which was programmed in the human psyche. Realization the necessity of refraining from meat is especially difficult because people consume it for a long time, and in addition, there is a certain attitude to the meat as to the product that is useful, nourishing and even prestigious. On the other hand, the constant consumption of meat has made the vast majority of people completely emotionless towards it. However, there must be some real and strong reasons for refusal of consumption of meat and as I noticed they were always completely different. So, even though vegetarianism has evolved drastically over time, some of its current forms have come back full circle to resemble that of its roots, when vegetarianism was an ethical-philosophical choice, not merely a matter of personal health.
Credibility is the ability to gain trust in others it is gained through the two components (Richard Hughes, 2012), which are expertise and trust. To increase my credibility, I am attempting to increase my knowledge and accomplishment in my chosen study, also building trust by constantly speaking up for important values and constantly making certain they are watched, and also trying to construct relationships with different people in the area.
Although statistics rule in favor of vegetarianism, it is inaccurately disputed by the meat-consuming opposition. One popular argument maintains that balance is essential to constitute exceptional health (Trapp). Of course, a bala...
Many people don’t believe think anything of what they eat or how it got there. But the harsh truth is the meat that you eat was once a living, breathing creature that had feeling and emotions. Maybe next time you order a steak or chicken nuggets you should think about the animals that went through extreme pain and conditions for you to eat. Not only is it inhumane to put animals through such pain, not eating meat and having a vegetarian lifestyle can have huge benefits to animals, the environment, and your health.
In exploring what faith really is, we must remove the stigmatism of being purely religiously based. Faith, in its truest form, is the reliance and complete confidence in a set of principles, standards, person, thing, doctrine, theory—anything that cannot be fully proven. While most of faith appears in a religious context, faith can be used in many different ways and in different subjects. The classic example of a chair comes to mind when exploring the meaning of having faith: scientifically, the person must retain the faith that the chair will hold him up when he sits down. This lies in true in science in discussing the forces of the universe throughout the galaxy, scientists cannot yet understand all the knowledge concerning the forces of space, but scientists have faith in the continuation of the forces and account for what is assumed will happen with the forces.
In conclusion, the extent to which we need evidence to support our beliefs depends on which area of knowledge being discussed, as those known for their objectivity and fact-based theories such as science and math require evidence to support the beliefs of individuals to a large extent, while those such as religion and art require little evidence as they are based upon our individual sense perception and faith, and therefore because it is not based upon reason but emotion does not need evidence to be justified, or to be justified at all. In these areas of knowledge, it is only to see how valid a belief is that that evidence is necessary.
They say ‘you are what you eat’. The traditional thing is eat together with your family, however society has changed. I’m a Pakistani Muslim teenager who lives with a very colossal family. As we are a very colossal family, my dad has to go out to work to fulfil our needs. My dad works late and so he doesn’t always join us for dinner time. This tradition has been broken, and it is the case in many households. Nevertheless every week, on Sunday’s my family and I go out to eat pizza, this is a ritual we have been following, so we can spend quality time together. I eat different varieties of food, but there are some foods I cannot eat. This is due to my religion and my god doesn’t sanction me to eat it. As a Muslim I do not eat pork as it is forbidden in the holy Quran.
However, as I got older I became exposed to new teaching of Islam. I began to learn about different prophe...
In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.
Reason as a way of knowing denotes constructing meaning by modifying and justifying ideas and beliefs based on new or existing information. The term logic, meaning deriving from the use of valid information, is used synonymously with reason, and is recognized as a branch of reasoning. Reason is a way of thinking and the word logic describes the way reasoning follows certain rules and standards. When making a claim to knowledge, coherent reason and consistency are expected to support and provide stability to an argument. Reason plays the role of discovery, creation, and justification in knowledge claims. When a dispute or argument occurs, validity of logic and appropriateness of reason are essential elements in not only justification of one’s point of view, but also in the acceptance of reliability of one’s knowledge. The advantages of discriminating between valid and invalid arguments, good and bad reason, and more or less persuasive reasoning are found in increased problem solving skill, the acquired ability to recognize important ethical and moral values in society, and the advantage of flexibility found in arguments or disagreements where opposition is encountered.
Meat is a major part of people’s diets all around the globe. According to Jennifer Preyss, award-winning writer for the Victoria Advocate, “About two billion people around the world that eat meat in their diets” (2012).Now, two billion might not seem like a large number due to the world population being about seven billion but, one cannot wholly deny the fact that 2 billion people is still quite a lot of people in world to be consuming meat. Also, in 2015, Roberto Ferdman, a reporter for the Washington who is well known for covering topics regarding food, exclaims that “industrial countries consume about 210 pounds of meat while the countries of the developed world eat about 66 pounds of meat each year”. This is a shocking fact indeed, as it helps to show just how much people in the world are affected by meat-based diets during this modern age . Even in the days of humans hunting and gathering their food, people consumed meat then and they still do now. That being said, people devour meat to survive and thrive. Though, it is apparent to many that time has progressed since prehistoric times, what stays the same is that there are people who still continue to eat meat for the sole purpose of survival and being able to live a healthy lifestyle. Besides the fact that meat has been so widely integrated into society, it also is filled with a