Eric Lampe

Theology/ Faith ‘06

Journal on Reason

 

            In this chapter on Reason we learned a lot about what goes on inside our head. In order to understand what we place our faith in we need to look at why we make the choices we do.  Why do we make bad choices and what we can do to fix them? We have listed out and explained the Five Common Thinking Errors. Identifying our errors is just one part. Next we looked into the Five Steps to Critical Thinking so that we can try and avoid making those errors. We saw the difference in Theology, the examination of ones faith using reason, and Philosophy, the thinking of big questions about human existence like what it means to be human and what is the meaning of life. We have also looked into the three groups that we place things that we know; experiential knowledge, knowledge based on authority, and reason which is the title of the chapter. This chapter has shown us that there is so much going on in our head and most of the time we don’t even notice it and maybe it is worth working at trying to maximize the potential of the most powerful part of our body; our minds.

 

  1. Five Common Thinking Errors

There are five different thinking errors that cause us to make bad choices and it was very interesting to me to find out the philosophical names of things I do all too often. The first is called a Non-Sequitur. This is where you have two true statements and you make a conclusion from the two but the conclusion does not rightly follow. The second is called false or vague premises. This is when you have two statements and the conclusion rightly follows how ever maybe one of those statements is false or unclear. The third is Ad Hominem. This is where instead of attacking an argument you attack something about the person. I think I probably do this thinking error most of out of the five. The fourth is Begging the Question. This is where people make a point but while trying to prove the point they already assume that it is true. “I believe God exists because He created us.” The fifth is called Red Herrings. This is where people say something beside the point to distract everyone from the real issue.

 

  1. Reason

I had always heard people say things like “don’t think reason with it” and I knew a little bit what they meant but I’ve never actually known what they meant by reason. Reason is the power to think in such a way that we proceed from what we know to what we do not yet know. I also learned now that there are two types of reason. First is Deduction.  Deduction is the process of taking statements that someone believes is true, also called premises, and concluding something about them that is believed to then be true called the conclusion. For example I believe Todd is taller than Joe. I also believe that Joe is taller than Rob. Therefore I can conclude that Todd is taller than Rob. The second kind of reason is called Induction. Induction is the process of making universal generalizations about something based on a limited number of experiences. For example I could say my house is not covered in orange shag carpet. It’s possible that I come home from school tomorrow to find my house covered in orange shag carpet however I have been coming home to my house everyday for the last 9 years and not once has it been covered in shag carpet so I could reasonably say that.

 

  1. What the BLEEP do We Know?

There was a man by the name of Dr. Emoto in this movie who had done numerous experiments on the relationship between thoughts and water. He showed microscopic images of water after it had been prayed on by a Buddhist master and the particles of water completely changed. Now whether or not this is true or factual I don’t know but I found it really interesting because it was something to think about. If 90% of our body consisted of water and we are only using a small fraction of our brain then there seems to be limitless possibilities of what our minds can do for us.

 

 

 


Eliana Gilad and Dr. Emoto


QUESTION: Can people really increase the amount of their brain that they use by a significant amount?

            I think they can and someday I would really want to learn how to do that and I think that is so interesting but I also think that it would be tough unless you examined yourself all the time. I just don’t think I have the time or patience to do that right now. However I would not mind making small strides like maybe spending 30 minutes a day in a dark quite place thinking about things which might lead me to having the patience and making the time to teach myself to increase my brain usage.

 

 

Bettering Myself as a Person

            I can make smarter and wiser decisions by just keeping in mind the Five Common Thinking Errors and the Five Steps to Critical Thinking. By making smarter and wiser decisions I will hopefully be better off as a person and I can just hope for good fortune so that I can be happy and at least I will know that I have done what I can to better myself.

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