Emotions effecting Decisions

I am responding to Bryan's question if I feel that people's use of their emotional side in decision making and if it is a major problem. I do feel like when people let their emotions effect their decision making that it is a major problem. Emotions make people make bad decisions. That is a fact. An example of this is if a person gets into a heated argument and their anger makes them scream and get violent, they may make a decision to strike the person they are in the argument with. This is clearly a bad decision and if the person did not let their emotions effect it they probably would not of struck the other person. I feel like it is impossible for a person not to let their emotions get involved with decisions. That is just the way we are. We have emotions every hour and every day of our lives. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Proof of Truth?

How do we prove that something is true? This question has two sides to its' answer, one is complicated and one is simple. The simple answer here is that we just know that something is true such as 1+1= 2 because that is just the way it is, that is the way that we learned when we were young so we just know that it is true and that is the way it is. The complicated answer is that we can not prove that something is true. The reason being that we can not define the world and what it is. People say that truth is knowledge. Everyone has a different level of knowledge depending on how old they are and how much education that have completed. Some may say that 1 + 1 = 2. Most people agree with this because they have the knowledge of our number system. The only people who do not have this knowledge are really young children, mentally slow people, and some bums who have blown away all their brain cells. This is one of the more simpler examples of something that we know to be true. There are plenty of more complicated things out there that we do not know if they are true because we do not all have the same level of knowledge. What are some of these things though?

Define ourselves or accepting who we think we are

I am responding to Megan Conney’s question about trying to define who we are and if it can ever be solved and if we can not just settle for who we think we are? I feel like these questions are a bit confusing and can raise strong arguments from both sides of the fence. In response to the first question, I feel like it is difficult for someone to define who they are because we discover new things every day of our lives that makes us happy or irritates us. If someone ever is able to define who they are I feel like it is not done until they are very old and have experienced everything in life. There are not too many people that can say that they have experienced everything that life has to offer. But for those few who can, they can say that they have defined who they really are and know everything about themselves from what makes them happy to what a certain food tastes like to them. In response to the second question about can we not just settle for who we think we are, I feel like some people can settle for who they think they are and some people can’t. People that are living a good and happy life are the ones who can settle for who they think they are. People who are living a not so good life are the ones who can not settle for who they think they are. I personally can’t define myself completely, I do not know everything in life that makes me happy and all the things that irritate me. I have been around for twenty years and have experienced a lot of things but not even close to everything that life has to offer. I feel like someday I may be able to say that I can completely define myself because I am the type of person who likes to try new things every day so I will experience a lot more things than someone else that is my age who does not like to try new things. These questions have different answers for different people, each person has their own answer to these questions depending on their personal life.

Good is good and Bad is bad

Good is good for you and bad is bad for you. That is how simple Socrates belief is about good and bad. This is simple because we can all see and we know that good things are indeed good for you and bad things are indeed bad for you. This is the way we were taught. People do good things because they know that they are good and are the, “right” thing to do. Whatever someone does in life, they want to do good at it, that is just human nature. However, there are people that do bad things even though they know that they are bad. Why do people do these things? For different reasons, usually because of greed and selfishness. Why is good good for you and bad bad for you? What classifies these things? Is this the way god made the world out to be? What would the world be like if our customs of good and bad were opposite? So bad things were encouraged as good things are in our world and good things were punishable things? Is this possible? It is very confusing but interesting at the same time.

Turning the Cheek

I will be responding to Bryan’s post about “turning the other cheek.” He brought up the question, “Is there any situation in life when you should not act passively towards aggressors? And if so, when should you not act passively?” I personally feel that there is never a time in life when you should act passively towards your aggressors. I feel like if someone comes at you, you should stand up and defend yourself. I’m not saying that someone should look to cause more drama than there already is but if someone initiates drama such as pushing you, harassing you, cutting you in line, ect you should stick up for yourself and turn into the aggressor. God wants the world to be nothing but peace and love but unfortunately, the world is not like this and I do not think it ever will be. So the way I feel is if someone pushes you, you push them back.

Non-Christian joining a Christian Church?

What is the definition of a Christian? The definition of Christian is, “professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.” In the question and answer assignment we were suppose to discuss Pojmans’ analysis of Jesus Christs’ ethics and if a “Christian Atheist” in this case Robert Jenson would agree with this analysis. I do not think that Robert Jenson would agree with this analysis or even get any part of the picture trying to be painted here because he does not believe in god. During the week in class we discussed how Robert Jenson could be allowed to enter a Christian church when he does not believe in Jesus Christ. He said that the reason why he wanted to join the church is because it looks good and he wanted to be able to talk about political views and church is a good place to communicate with people about these issues. In my view, this is a terrible reason to join a Christina church and a Christian church should not allow someone to join if they do not believe in Jesus Christ. The definition of a Christian is someone who believes in Jesus Christ so someone who does not fit the definition of a Christian should not be able to join a Christian church. I’m interested to find out what others feel about this subject?

SMELLS

Danny Gaines had a post earlier this week about smells. He gave some good examples of good smells and bad smells and had the question what makes these things smell good or bad? I feel like the reason a BBQ smells so good is based on the fact that a person there who thinks it smells good has had a previous experience of a BBQ and knows how the food tastes when it is finished cooking. The same goes for other smells. Garbage smells so bad because we know that it is composed of wasted material "trash" that no longer has any value to its' owner. Another example Danny used was the smell of a new car. A new car smells very good to us humans for a few reasons. It smells fresh because it is new and no one has used it before to get other smells in it. The car has come straight from the factory to the show room and sold to you. Another reason a new car smells so good is because they are not cheap. After a human spends all the money they do on a new car it smells extra good because they are pleased with the purchase that they have made. I feel like smells have good or bad smells do to our previous experiences and other factors that make us feel different ways.

Do Humans really have free will?

Free will is the right for a human to do whatever they want. They have the choice to do whatever they want and will not get in trouble for it. Humans do not have complete free will because of laws. People can not just go out and kill somebody because they want to and not get in trouble for it. I feel like this is a good thing that humans do not have complete free will because if they did who knows what would happen!? Here in America I feel like we have as close to free will as you can get. You have the choice of what you want to do. If you want to work at a Mcdonalds your whole life you can do that. If you want to go off to college, get a degree, and eventually a good paying job you can do that as well. We have freedom of speech and can say whatever we want when we want with a few exceptions. You have complete choice of what you want to do with your free time. Today is Superbowl Sunday and the Saints will be taking on the Colts tonight at 6:25. A very large percentage of Americans will be watching this game because it is the championship. Some watch for the game and some watch for all the new commercials. I personally watch for the game. But the point I'm trying to get across here is that the people watching the game are doing it by choice, they have free will. The people that are not watching the game are doing it by choice. Some people just are not into football or new commercials and they would rather be doing something else with their Sunday night. Some other people are not able to watch the big game because they have work. One might say that the people who have to go to work do not have free will because they must go to work. No, if someone really wanted to watch the game they could quit their job, sit home and watch the game. These people have free will, they chose to go out and get this job. As it can be seen, here in America we are as close to free will as you can get. My question is, what would happen to the world if every human being had complete free will? They could do anything they want and not get in trouble for it? What would the world come to?