Faith or Fact?

by Alex Butler

Throughout history, both religion and science have been a huge part of the human ability to understand truth. In Europe, during the scientific revolution and enlightenment, the church had a lot of power and beliefs that disapproved new discoveries in science. This aroused questions along the lines of 'what criteria can we go by that will help us to define what is truth?' There are different views that came about during this time period that still have people in conflict today. Deism is one of those different views that some people looked at and started to think about, starting during the Scientific Revolution. It helped to clarify thoughts for some people and helped them to define their own truth. From the Renaissance through the Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and a lot of the Enlightenment, many religious leaders thought that religious and scientific views could exist together and actually benefit each other.

During the late half of the Enlightenment the church started to lose their control over education. With the new science, it brought science and religion into a conflict that continues still today. Humanism at the time was also developing as both religious and scientific and sometimes showed how the two ideas could help each other. The humanists are actually some of the first people to look at both scientific and religious ideas and would also sometimes put them together to make ideas that would be acceptable to many more people.

The Scientific Revolution was a period of time in which there was a lot of scientific discovery, development and improvement. It was also a time in which science developed its connection with religion because there was questioning about the traditional religious views of the Universe as well as the understanding of the Bible. What could possibly be the biggest part of the Scientific Revolution is the creation of a more 'accurate' view of the universe. The Geocentric theory was challenged by the new Copernican System, which stated that the sun was the center of the universe. The church's view was of the Earth being the center of the universe which in turn questioned God's role in creation. At this time the Catholic church thought it was a crime to stand for this system of thinking and so, when Galileo backed Copernicus' discoveries, the church decided to put him on trial. Galileo went on to defend himself saying "(the church leaders) have failed to understand (the bible) properly" and they "had a greater fondness for their own opinions than for truth." In saying this, Galileo made another conflict for the church and and science which was how to interpret the Bible. He also suggested that the Bible, although the things that it taught were still correct, should be interpreted more symbolically. Which, if this were true and the Bible were more symbolic than literal, the many religious institutions of the time would have to make many, many changes to their beliefs. The Scientific Revolution was important to science and the church because it developed and uncovered information about the universe and a rational approach towards the scriptures.

The Enlightenment grew through the rational approach set by the Scientific Revolution. This also meant that religion was challenged immensely. Rationality went against recognizing superstition, and miracles, without proof. In his book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume discusses miracles. He describes them as "violations of the laws of nature". He basically says that a person has to decide if it is more likely for the miracle to have occurred, or for the person who says to have witnessed the miracle to be wrong; whichever is more likely to be accepted as a fact. This challenges the base of very many religious beliefs by implying that both biblical and contemporary miracles may not have occurred.

Many thoughts of new rationality showed in the development of Deism. Deists were not atheists. They simply said that everything and anything in the universe had its own rational laws given by God which humans could understand using their own reason. This meant to them that the ways both the human and physical worlds worked could be understood by humans when they used their reasoning. What this means is that the ways in which the world (human and physical) could be comprehended was separated from religious thoughts. John Locke thought that people should use nature, their senses, and reason to establish their true knowledge of God. Thomas Paine showed his views on this in his book Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion. He starts by saying that all religious members are deists and then goes on to say "The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater miracle than the creation itself, and his own existence". What he says in this is that all religious people can be reassured to the truth of God by their own existence.

When we move on to science and religion and the conflicts we have today we see that one of the biggest issues happening right now is stem cell research. Many researchers are saying that a lot of very effective medical treatments can be understood through cloning stem cells. The reason for this is because stem cells can be made to copy specific human tissues. The cells offer a possible renewable source for replacement cells and tissue to treat a numerous amount of diseases and disabilities which include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. There are many, many sections of medicine that this will help.

On the American Catholic website, the Catholic Church describes why they are against stem cell research by saying this 'The Catholic Church is against embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of human embryos. Pope John Paul II said embryonic stem cell research is related to abortion, euthanasia and other attacks on human life'. The controversy surrounding this is similar to that of abortion because the stem cells are gained from destroyed embryos. There is another possibility that cell lines could be developed using cloned embryos, which raises many concerns and controversy that also has to do with human cloning. The biggest opponent of this research is the Catholic church (although many individual Catholics do not have the same view). The official Catholic position is opposed to in vitro fertilization as well because it is 'unnatural' and it results in the production of embryos that are not used.

As long as there are new scientific discoveries being made, there are going to be conflicts and controversy with religion. Between fact and faith. More along the lines of having faith in someone or something would be color. A color to one person could be different from that of another person. Someone could have something wrong with them physically and not see 'true' colors, or colors as they really are. These people need to have faith in other people to know and understand what a (certain) color is. Evidence and proof are the base of where some people put 'fact' and 'truth'. Although many people put faith in scientists and professionals that they know what they are doing and they know how to do their job. These people also put faith in these scientists that they know the 'truth' and are displaying 'facts'.

There are both similarities and differences between the conflicts of these two time periods. During the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment period, it seemed to be that science would keep challenging the church and, in effect, the bible and the faith of the religious people. There were huge discoveries in science that would go against the church and the church would have to defend itself. In the current world, the church is especially concerned with ethics and what is morally right in science and especially in the (human)n and (physical) world. It seems today that the church and religion go against new scientific discoveries and now science has to defend itself against the church.

Although there are many ways to understand and comprehend the universe as well as both the human and physical world, deism seems to be a good thinking process to bring some of science as well as religion into one. Deism focuses on bringing reason into a thought process instead of focusing only on belief and 'miracles'. Belief is still in ones thinking about the universe, but reason helps possibly clarify that enough to have a legitimate thought based on other things in the universe.

The ongoing disputes and controversies between science and religion will never completely cease. As long as there are two kinds of people and two different opinions in the world there are going to be conflicts between different beliefs in science and the church or religion.

Leonardo di Vinci, his paintings and works of art, and chiaroscuro come together to influence later works of art and many new techniques for painting and even photography as well.

Leonardo di Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. He and his family settled into Florence in mid-1460 and Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, being a very cultural and artistic part of Italy, could offer. About 1466, Leonardo di Vinci was sent to be trained as a studio boy to Andrea del Verroccio (who happened to be a great Florentine painter and sculptor). Later, in 1482, he entered the service of the Duke of Milan (Ludovico Sforza) as the principal engineer and as an architect as well. The Duke had him painting, sculpting and designing court festivals as well working on designing weapons, buildings, and machinery. Leonardo's interests and studies differed so much that he failed half the time to finish projects and other things he had started. He only finished about six works of art in the seventeen years that he worked for the Duke of Milan. These works of art include The Last Supper and The Virgin on the Rocks, although he also left many paintings and works of art unfinished.

In 1499, after the French invaded and Ludovico Sforza fell from power, Leonardo di Vinci was left to look for a new patron. Over those next sixteen years, he worked and traveled throughout Italy. He found a few new patrons during those years, including Ceare Borgia. He traveled with Borgia’s army for about one year serving as a military engineer. In 1503, Leonardo di Vinci was a member of a group of artists who were supposed to decide on the right location for the David, the marble statue by Michelangelo.

From about 1513 to 1516, he worked in Rome on projects for the Pope Leo X, running his own workshop as well. During this time, he lived in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican.

After his patron of this time (Giuliano de Medici) died in March of 1516, he was offered a job as Premier Painter, Engineer, and Architect of the King by Francis I in France. King Francis I, who happened to be his last patron, gave Leonardo di Vinci a well-paid, easy job. This job included an allowance of some sort and a manor house in Cloux, France, where he would later die on May 2, 1519.

Leonardo di Vinci has many, many paintings and works of art for which he is famous for. One of the most important of his paintings, during the Milan period was called The Virgn on the Rocks, which he seemingly worked on for a very long time. From 1495 to 1497 worked on his work of art called The Last Supper, a painting that shows the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. This was one painting in which he tried painting with oil on dry plaster and because of this, it had started to deterriorate by 1500. While staying in Milan, Leonardo also produced many other paintings, drawings, theature designs, and dome designs for the Milan Cathedral. During this time he also started a monument toFrancesco Sforza (who is the father of Ludovico) in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco. Although this was left unfinished because in December 1499, the Sforza family was driven away from thier home from a french invasion, who also destroyed it.

During the second Florentine peroid, Leonardo painted many paintings, the only one of those surviving happens to be the Mona Lisa. The other name for this painting happens to be known as La Gioconda, supposedly after the name of the woman's husband. This painting is also known for the mysteriousness of the woman in the painting, some rumors say that she was pregnant and that is the reason for the grin on her face. Other scientists are saying that the woman was actually Leonardo himself, after studies of photoraphs of him and the painting. This painting is also an example of two different painting techniques, sfumato and chiaroscuro, which Leonardo was one of the best at.

The definition of chiaroscuro on dictionary.com is the distribution of light and shade in a picture: Painting. The use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade, esp. to enhance the delineation of character and for general dramatic effect.

Chiaroscuro is a painting technique that uses tones, shades, shadows and highlights to make it look like there are three dimensions on a two dimensional surface.

Developed in the Renaissance, chiaroscuro comes from the Italian words for bright or clear and dark or obscure. It is usually translated as ‘light-dark’. Prior to the Renaissance, shapes were made to have outlines and were also flat and seemingly two-dimensional. They could even be considered as looking cartoonish today. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is the painter (other than Leonardo di Vinci) who is associated with chiaroscuro a lot. The idea behind chiaroscuro is that most people cannot design a colored object with a three-dimensional look or ‘feel’ mostly because their brain ‘overprocesses’ what a persons eye will actually see.

Leonardo di Vinci, his paintings and chiaroscuro come together by Leonardo di Vinci wanting to set himself apart. He was seeing the same pattern with all paintings before his time and even during his time. All of these paintings were ‘flat’ and lifeless. Even though they were on a two-dimensional surface, they could still look real and lifelike. Leonardo di Vinci decided that there should be a certain lifelike quality in art if it was supposed to be of something real like a human or an inanimate object. He wanted his paintings to be different and realistic so he came up with or ‘discovered’ chiaroscuro.

Leonardo di Vinci, his paintings and works of art, and chiaroscuro come together to influence later works of art and many new techniques for painting and even photography as well. Leonardo's discovery and invention of chiaroscuro affected art centuries after he had died, especially the 16th century. This new technique affected how artists painted in the 16th century, and in affect changed art forever. Chiaroscuro is also used today in photography and in flim as well.

There are many factors for PERSIA in the book Medici Money and any of these could be very influential for revolutionary change at this time. The Medici family is very much involved in economics with their banks. The building of different banks all over the city and even elsewhere was a cause for change, building, and revolution in this book. Although this is very influential, the most influential factor of PERSIA in this book is the politics. Politics was the cause for the most change for the Medici's and for all of the city as well because of their government. The people evolved with each other as a whole and as a community, which is why it is very revolutionary.

The way that these people went about running the government was different and caused a lot of change and revolution. To make sure that one person was not going to become a tyrant, there was a new government made up of eight priors and one gonfaloniere della giustizia (which means standard-bearer of justice) elected every two months. The men who were chosen to be a possibility had their names written on tags of paper, which were then put into leather bags representing different sections of the town. From this point nine names were chosen at random. There were two priors for each of the four quarters of the town which meant six priors from seven of the richer guilds, two priors from fourteen of the artisans guilds, and one other from the richer guilds to be elected the gonfaloniere della giustizia. Although these men were chosen at random, they were selected beforehand based on a certain criteria they had to meet which included family and financial history.

In 1421, Cosimo's father (Giovanni di Bicci) was elected gonfaloniere della giustizia (standard-bearer of justice) of the Florentine government. This was the first time a Medici had the honor since Silvestro sided with a revolt in 1378. This also meant that the Medici family was once again up , third richest in the city.

The city made it so that in order for no single man to rule, everyone will rule ( at least everyone from the wealthy classes) if only for a very brief amount of time. It was a smart and idealistic plan, but it was also not the best if they were going to try and decide long term happenings in the city. It is easy, though, to see how this could help a city to evolve on its own. By having every eligible man in the city running it at some point (for a brief time) it means that everyone is contributing to help make the city grow and develop. At this point in time politics was the most influential and biggest factor for revolutionary change in this city.

Human interaction and development in both humanism and the flat world are significant to how humans act in these revolutions. Human interaction is something which helps a revolution because people need to interact with each other to be able to change the future. Development obviously contributes to a revolution because humans develop new ways of doing things and thinking, which starts a change in people overall. Humans need to change over time to learn new things and how to do them. Revolutions help people learn and gain knowledge of what kinds of changes are good for them and what kinds are not going to help develop the future.

Something that impacted both humanism and the flat world is development. Humanism developed when people started to focus on other goals which they had for their themselves and which they wanted to accomplish. These people started to realize that they could have something to live for in their lives other than just to focus on getting to heaven or to the afterlife. This meant that humans were actually living their lives the way they wanted to and had more to live for. Individuals found new ways in which they could view their time on earth and make it worth something, discovering what would make themselves happy every day they strived for that as well as still being involved in the church and wanting to get to heaven. Development with humanism helped people to figure out what it meant to each and every one of them to be a human. Each person thought about how they were considered human other than just by their physical appearance and body. Humanism developed new individuals with new life goals and renovated thoughts about themselves. Development impacted the flat world with its increasing technology. Technology is basically what the flat world is about and what made the flat world. Technology allowed humans to develop so many new connections and in turn allowed them to also figure out who they were as indiviauals. The flat world made people need to be willing to try something new which could eventually help them or control what they wanted to do with their lives. These many people need to be accepting of change and revolution in their daily lives. Development in the flat world broadened the ways in which a person would do their daily activities and go about their daily lives. It broadened many categories in which people could begin to shape and mold their futures and see where they were going to fit in in the ever changing world. The developing flat world also made people everywhere in the world more equal becasue of the rapidly growing technology and communication people could have with each other. Ways that development helped both humainism and the flat world is by looking to the future. Humanism made humans make goals for themselves to accomplish in their lives to make them better and happier. The flat world helped humans set their futures, by being able to discover what they would need to do to get the lives they want, with communication. Development also helped humanism and the flat world with ways for people to express themsleves as individuals and actual people in their competitive world.

Human Interaction impacted both humanism and the flat world. Human interaction with humanism helped people to realize how they were all individuals with different lives that they needed to live. These people all had one thing in common, which was their religion and worship and what they beleived. All of these individual humans could come together to strive for one thing , which was to get to heaven, and could then have their own meanings of their own lives to focus on. Human interaction affected the flat world in many, many ways. Competition in a flat world is magnified because every person is competing with the whole world to get the future they want. Technology is overpowering in the flat world and could be an advantage to some people, which makes people work that much harder to accomplish what they want for themselves. Communication is much easier in a flat world, where you can discuss anything you could ever want to with anyone you could ever want to. Human Interaction also means collaboration in a flat world, where people can help each other that much easier. Both humanism and the flat world have human interaction with classification of every person. Everyone classifies themselves in some way as a human being and in some way, every human is going to be classified with another human being, which is the way that humans think.

While the flat world and humanism are very different in some ways, they are that much more similar in other ways. By looking at humanism and the ways in which humans went about changing their lives for themsleves, we can possibly anticipate what changes are yet to happen in out flat world. Humans have wanted, and always will want, what is best for themselves and will do what they need to to make their lives what they want them to be. Humanism started a revolution of which people realized they needed to change their lives gradually for themsleves to get the future that they wanted someday. We expect, and know, that people today in our flat world want to be happy with their lives and their futures. These same people also know that they have competition in trying to get to their future with so many other people as well. What we can know about the flat world is that people are going to do anything that they need to to get the future that they want for themsleves.

Dr. Faustus

Doctor Faustus sells his soul to the devil by signing a contract with his own blood. By doing this he has limitless knowledge and dark magic. Faustus realizes by the end of the play that he was not happy with the bargain that he made. It may have helped him a few times, but he realizes that he could have had a much more pleasant life if he had not made the bargain. I believe that the term 'Faustian Bargain' means that you believe you can control your fate by not doing any of your own work to help yourself. It may mean that you regret the bargain you have made because you realize that you would have been better off without it. Before Lucifer takes Faustus with him, Faustus pleads not to go and I believe that in that time, he regrets the bargain. You do not want to regret anything at the end of your life, but that's what Faustus did.

The World is Flat (6)

This book really made me start to think about what is happening around me and in my life everyday and how I do not realize it, but it will change the way that I someday live my life. Technology and the flat world have already changed how I communicate with friends and family, and now, how I do my schoolwork. It affects how I may purchase some products and how those products get to me. The flat world and technology affect how my friends connect with friends. Some in a good way and some in a bad way, for example, MySpace is a bad influence of the flat world on my friends. There may be someone who my friends meet online with whom they do not want to 'connect with' in our flat world. Is my future 'untouchable'? I do not know if what I decide to do with my life will be untouchable or if I may have to change what I want for myself in my future because of what I want being 'untouchable' for me. We are all living in a quickly changing and accelerating flat world and I will embrace it and go along with it as long as possible. Only so far can I embrace something which could be affecting what I want for myself to move forward in my life: before it starts to control me to an extent where I cannot stop it to control my own future.

The World is Flat (5)

In some ways the flat world is a positive thing for America. People can connect with people so much easier in a flat world and people rely on technology a lot. Outsourcing is a positive thing for America because it saves companies money while doing the exact same work. Outsourcing could also be viewed as a negative thing for America because by moving work to another country, Americans are losing jobs. Supply-Chaining is a positive thing for America because it means collaborating among suppliers, retailers, and customers to make something valuable for everyone. For the flat world to really be a positive thing for America, the people need to be willing to change the ways in which they live in order for the new technology to help them and be a good thing for them. Everyone in America has to collaborate to make the flat world become a positive environment for them. Yet, sometimes people do not want change in their lives.