Life and Death
I agree that life and death is a good thing because once you experience all the things you wanted to during your lifespan, things would start becoming boring at some point. I believe that the point of life is to live a good life so you can die knowing that you have accomplished all the things you wanted to. Before you were born you never really knew what life was like. That’s the same concept with death because you are not aware of anything that happened while you were alive. There is no actual direct evidence against an afterlife. Some people might say that evidence for life after death can not be proven. Just being conscious of our existence suggests that there may be an afterlife. I agree that our awareness of our mortality or immortality and what it means goes beyond the awareness you exist. I know that one's existence can end at any time and is not everlasting, it makes ones existence pointless at that point. There is no scientific reason for the existence of life. Life on earth has especially been more advanced when humans came about. It is difficult for some of us to believe there is life after death because it is all seems too incredible that we have a soul which leaves the body upon physical death and goes on to somewhere else. We really do not sit down and think sometimes. little things going on in our everyday life. If we came from the 'other side', then should we not have fear of returning to it. So we should not have a fear of death as we could make the assumption that we would likely have some instinct built into us that we don't need to worry about our mortality since we are immortal. In juxtaposition I believe that life and death is a good thing and we should not go through life living in fear.
Dualism
Some individuals may argue that the mind and the body are composed of different substances and that the mind is a thinking thing that lacks the usual everyday things. I believe that minds and bodies causally affect one another. I also argue that mental states are irreducible attributes of brain states. Consciousness is the most widely recognized example of a non-physical property of physical substances. When there is room to believe in god we often don’t as people. Yes many have different religions or different followings that they live they life under but often we use materialism as a void to fill from us dealing with reality. The way people go and get these materialistic things you can work hard from rewarding themselves as an accomplishment and being able to buy it as a financial blessing. Now oppose to those who cheat their way, scam their way then buy a bunch of materialistic things in abundance is taking from others hard work. The point is u work then you bare the fruits of labor, but you can’t cheat and thank you can. All of the arguments about there non-psychically being a god are not successful because there’s many forms of proof. For example, like said earlier working hard and bearing the fruits of labor and getting all these things you worked hard for can be a form of god. Being in a bad situation with another person while being lost and not knowing how to get out of it so you pray for those enemies and negativity to be removed from your life. In due time those problems are gone there again another form of physical proof, and even situations like a new born baby the biggest proof you need. Finally, facing reality and facing the moment is more important than trying to pay attention to things that are going to be gone tomorrow.
Epistemology
A statement I know is true is my belief in god. Others my oppose and others might shun my belief but he won’t. There’s too many events that transpired in my twenty years of living that could’ve killed me but I’m here and I’m stronger. There was a time at four years old where I was crossing the street to get a ball and a car was speeding down to get a ball and a car hit me. The rest was a blur, but the idea of me being alive wasn’t. In addition, I had a neck brace and was handicap and in a wheelchair for a period of time. That shaped my life forever. In juxtaposition, a epistemological statement that we learned this semester was a recent one (RWA#4) with a quote. “The spiritualization of sensuality is called love: it represents a great triumph over Christianity. Another triumph is our spiritualization of hostility. It consists in a profound appreciation of the value of having enemies: in short, it means acting and thinking in the opposite way from that which has been the rule.” For example, there’s many times I felt failed and felt unheard but all I have to do is say a prayer and I’m alright. I have many ppl in my life besides my family including my boyfriend who I go to church with I pray with and before I start my day at school or work we say a prayer. That prayer which is “Today is the day that the lord has made, we’re going to be Joyce and be glad in it today’s going to be a great day. You will really feel a difference in your day with a extra little prayer on the side your all set even the ignorant and the evil might get to you, but I never catch myself fully getting upset. In addition to end my night we also say a prayer that he or I initiates time to time. The thing that is delightful to me is having someone your in a Union with with the same belief and having the depending trust of praying to make situations less dark. To conclude, love within self and others is a bigger win, when you have love within self and others it becomes easier to deal with enemies.
Free Will
I do not believe that free will is a myth however; I do believe that there are different levels to free will and that the choices we make determine the outcome of our lives. I can remember as a child hearing from my pastor that God has given us the free will to serve him. I often heard that God allows us to choose whether we will accept or deny him. Moreover, if you accepted him you would give up your sinful past and aim towards doing what was right in the sight of God. This is something that grew up believing and still follow. I feel that, as a Christian believer you still have the free will to choose right from wrong however, whichever you choose will lead to different results. It is the expectation of the believer to choose what is right however, God is not a puppet master. He will allow you to make those decisions. If I look at free will outside of religious context, I will still say that free will is not a myth. Every day that I wake up, I have free will to determine what my day will look like. There are certain things that I will not have control over like the weather, traffic or any other challenges that may occur in the day however I do have the free will to decide what I am going to do daily. I can freely decide if I want to go to school or work or just do nothing but I know that outcome will be different depending on what I choose. Therefore, can we truly have free will? I will have to argue that yes to a certain extinct. We must know that with free will there are definitely going to be outcomes that we may or may not as if however, we have been given the ability to make that decision for ourselves.
Personhood
Over the years technology has become more savvy. It’s scary but amazing at the same time because you can see the evolution of technology in its many forms but you can also see the downfalls of it. In the phone world We went from big body phones to vertical, to flip phones, to slide ups to sidekicks to iPhones. In the computer world we went from big body computer desktops, to gateway to Laptops of the toshibas, Sony’s, Dells vs Mac’s. In the competition word windows and Mac are head to head just as iPhones and androids are. In agreeance humans are more dependable on technology more than ever, but it’s not just the physical aspect we’re mesmerized by, it’s the features. For example the form of communication has evolved beyond over the phone via voice texting became a phenom as being an alternative way to speak to one another when not available to on the phone. In addition, Social media is like the angel and devil on each shoulder, many pros many cons but as a whole a powerful outlet that’s been introduced to humans. Social media has given people the power to make money, bully, post and receive images, and even videos. Furthermore, a large percent of the human race made this artificial phenom of “Social Media” apart of they conscious. The memes and the facades that people upload, others feel as if this is a way they should live their life and do. It gets worse when we see people that were wealthy that go on these big trips, buy these expensive cars and large homes we often think we lost. That is a lousy way of thinking of life because we don’t know these people from a hole in the wall but we’re dictating how to live our lives to impress others while not realizing were hurting ourselves in the long run. Social media often pressures people in the physical appearance aspect. For example you see ppl that look beautiful and beyond gorgeous but what they won’t tell you that it’s plain “Catfish”. Now we go out to get all these surgeries and procedures when it’s the soul that really needs it. To wrap this all up this is why I would never be uploaded into an artificial world and I would remain my subjective self.