Seminar Response 9-30

Debate-

In the debate they talked about how people wonder why we are here and if there are more of us. They said that some people believe that things were made by a god to make up for what they don't know and that they just invent gods to prove the unknowable. Something else that was said was that all of the religions that were created all point to the idea of morals and purpose of being on earth and that all of the religions are generally similar. One of the scientists said that the laws of science always going to happen and we can count on them occurring in the past.

Bill Nye-

Bill Nye tought that teaching creationism in classrooms is unreasonable to teach because science is observing around and discovering what you can observe. So we should let our kids discover for themselves if creationism is true or if there is no god and there is an alternative reason for why things are the way they are in this world. He also made the point that science can prove that the earth is over 10,000 years old and that dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago disproving the creationism story of the earth being much younger.

Seminar Response 9-23

After reading the article, I agree with the opinion that it is not ok for us to torture suspects and that it should be abolished from our countries policy. Starting with the Deceleration on Independence we state the idea that everyone is created equal and should be treated so as stated in the famous line, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Even though these people that were being tortured were not U.S. Citizens, they should still be treated like one. And yes, I understand that a certain person may have just helped plot and kill 3,000 U.S. Citizens, but that doesn't mean that they should tortured with techniques that inflict physical pain and suffering just to get information out that may or may not be useful. And what about the person that just may have found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and are tortured to get “information” out of. Say we do adopt torture or enhanced interrogation as U.S. Policy and is used commonly, just like Abu Ghraib, things will go bad and power will change. What was intended as torture will turn out much worse and would get out of control. Like the article says “The migration of torture through the military likely, this loophole ows the doors wide open.” And “Once you permit torture for someone somewhere, it had a habit of spreading (Sullivan).” Torture also poses a question of our own interrogation system, do we not trust our own non torture interrogation techniques? We have devised and tested our own interrogation techniques that have been used for many years. So all of the sudden are these techniques not good enough. I somewhat understand the viewpoint of Krauthammer in that it would only be used in certain situations where information is needed to prevent a possible terror plot. But in reality, do we really capture someone and have knowledge of what they are planning to do? Krauthammer says    “Whatever extreme measures are used are for reasons of nothing but information.” But that is a very fine line and can easily be blurred and crossed. Torture should be abolished because it goes against the morals of this county and if we did so, it would open the door for the future of interrogation. It would also be adopted worldwide and could even be used against our own citizens by other countries or terror groups.

Seminar Response Question

1. Like in the book, when White Fang is pressured by Lip-lip to fight and cause trouble, the staff at Abu Ghraib were pressured into beating up and torturing the prisioners. If you placed one guard in the prision, they wouldn't have done what they did as a group. They would not be influenced by what the others did. Another part of the book when White Fang is put in the cage and morphed into a fighting machine. The prison guards really didn't have a choice to beat up and tortrue the prisioners, they were forced to by people who were above them (Beauty Smith and the interrigation team).
   
   
2. The disciplinary actions taken against the prisioners was not justified. When they rounded up they found all of the people that fit a certain description and brought them to Abu Ghraib for interrigation. They went way past the line for the people who they just thought or assumed had informaion. And even for the guiltly party, there is no reason to inflict so much torture just to get information. What if our troops were captured and went through the same thing. How would our nation act? Just short of nuclear war. Like in the book, Beauth Smith's was influenced by society so that intentions were to make money and be famous. The soldiers were influenced by other soldiers and the higher command into having “fun” with the prisioners and making their life awful.

Seminar Response Question

I found the book “White Fang” more interesting because the plot was easy to follow and it had a very exciting story line. Even though I found the beginning of the story confusing, once White Fang was born and the story of his life was being told, it kept me on the edge of my seat. Whenever Lip Lip came around, I was excited to see what would happen. I was just waiting for the time that White Fang would end up on top. Another part that I enjoyed was the end of the book when Mr. Scott taught White Fang to become loving and not evil. It was cool to see the process slowly reversed and the attitude of White Fang change. Overall, the book “White Fang” was exciting to read and always kept me on the edge of my seat.