Tok Essay Essay Example for Free

Tok Essay Essay People’s choice of belief is possibly one of the most intriguing topics one can study. The journey of gaining knowledge in itself is so dynamic and full of factors that one couldn’t possibly be able to analyze in full. In this essay, the question that is to be answered encompasses and questions the details of that journey in one of the most controversial topics of all time; religion. The question above subjects the issue of belief to the spotlight as it is one of the largest aspects of life that is to many people asserted with no concrete evidence to be found; in my perspective. Yet again not all people agree that evidence must be concrete and therefore the relativity of evidence from a believer to a non-believer could be drastic. Thus, this essay will examine my argument for this statement through personal experience and the lenses of emotion and language in the subjects of World Religions and Philosophy as well as possible counter arguments. Many followers of faith would disagree with Hitchens on this statement, taking the believers of the Abrahamic religions as an example; they believe that their prophets came with miracles like Christ walking on water for example. They don’t have concrete evidence yet to them they see that what came in either the Torah, Bible or the Qura’an is definite truth for many reasons; each generation was told by those before them that these stories did take place so the generations that supposedly witnessed the miracles told their kids about them and the stories kept passing down until our day today. Moreover, the authority of a parent tends to be huge therefore when these stories are told to little kids to be true the kids believe their parents, they take it as a 1+1=2 situation where the student is taught the very basic rules of math, if one asks me why or how do I know the 1+1=2 I wouldn’t be able to answer yet I know it’s a mathematical fact (even though I know there is reason and evidence behind it now, but I am not really interested in reading) so these kids take what their parents teach them at such a young age and not question it. Just like the followers tend to not dig around what they believe to be true because they believe it is already true, the same way many people don’t look into why and how 1+1=2. Believers tend to have what they call a relationship with God, what they feel when they pray is something they can’t put into words yet they know it’s truth for themselves even though they can’t prove it and therefore they won’t agree with the Hitchens statement. Those people have no concrete evidence yet that â€Å"relationship† is evidence enough to them. The followers of Islam for example brag about how the Qur’an has an answer for everything and that to them is evidence enough it’s true, yet again many don’t try to look for the real reasons. The followers of religions in general have a problem with accepting that there are some things one just doesn’t know, they need to be certain about everything to go on in life and that is basic human nature. By the same token though, a lot of other people do agree with the statement above, the majority of scientists, doctors, mathematicians and many more as a mere example. In the subject of world religions we are taught that religion is passed down through language; that in itself proves the Hitchens statement right. Language is a very molding way of knowledge; it changes from time to time according to society it is in. Things can get out of context, meanings could be lost in translation or lost due to the changing nature of language, for example the word â€Å" † which is now used as an adjective for â€Å"good† literary translates to â€Å"wicked† or â€Å"horrid† in classical Arabic and therefore this could be applicable both ways to this arguments; words that were used 1400 years ago in Islam could have meant something in it’s cultural context but now means something completely different which would make a certain rule of Islam that is now applied invalid or vice-versa. Also, Christianity being the most popular religion in the world was originally written in the common Greek language of the first century yet now circulates mostly in English. A huge limitation to this fact is that meaning could’ve been lost in translation, as some words that are used in one language just don’t translate to other languages, therefore basing some of the religion on misinterpreted verses. Now looking at the use of emotion in Philosophy of religion, a theme studied in the subject of Philosophy; the epistemological theory of evidentialism is best described by Clifford’s quote: â€Å"It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence† (Clifford 1879: 186). † Which agrees with the Hitchens statement above. Since I’ve established above that there is no concrete evidence about the truth of any kind of religion, one must assume that believers use emotion as a way of knowledge and not evidence. This in itself has many limitations to it because when emotion is used on it’s own as a way of knowledge it usually prevents one from being objective. Moreover, it also limits the use of other ways of knowledge; for example perception, where because of emotion one might look at things differently or even reason, where if one is too attached to what they â€Å"believe† in this could lead to their lack of open-mindedness. The use of emotion too also leads to a huge logical fallacy; the â€Å"appeal to emotion† fallacy where if for example X makes me feel good I will assume X is true, which is basically the basis of many religions. Furthermore, religions tend to use Pathos in most of their verses; for example in the Qur’an verse 102:3 until 102:7 says: â€Å"No! You are going to know. Then no! You are going to know. No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty. You will surely see the Hellfire. Then you will surely see it with the eye of certainty. † The use of emotion here to scare the reader that is being spoon-fed since an early age that this is the absolute truth when reading this will defiantly lead him to think a thousand times before questioning the religion because he is scared he’ll â€Å"surely see the Hellfire† and thus making many believers just people that are afraid to think or tempted with the concept of heaven but very few that actually went through the process of actually trying to find out if what they believe in is absolute truth or not. In conclusion, as someone that will be studying law, being objective, putting aside emotion and avoiding logical fallacies are vital to me. I also never felt that â€Å"connection with God† and therefore I do agree with the Hitchens statement â€Å"That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. † Because the counter arguments aren’t convincing enough and there are too many question marks on them. On the other hand my argument is a lot more valid because it’s Empiricism based, which means it’s based on facts and past experiences, not speculations. [ 1 ]. Most Popular World Religions. About. com Geography. N. p. , n. d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012. [ 2 ]. Standard New Testament introductions listed below under Further reading: Goodspeed, Kummel, Duling and Perrin, Koester, Conzelmann and Lindemann, Brown, and Ehrman.

Natural Night Vision Essays -- Biology

Admit it, night vision is an ability that we would all enjoy having. Who would not want to be able to see the world at night without the use of fancy instrumentation, like night-vision goggles? Unfortunately, humans become colorblind at night because their eyes switch from normal daytime vision to a color-insensitive rod system. Unlike humans, a lot of other animals have the ability to see in the dark. This nocturnal ability is a major subject of research because scientists want to know what causes it, what methodology lies behind it, and what limitations there are. Alnut Kelber, Anna Balkenius, and Eric. J. Warrant studied the night-time vision of a nocturnal hawkmoth, Deilephila elpenor. They wanted to know if the hawkmoths can truly see colors at night, or if they are using other means to find the right kind of flowers to feed from. For example, humans cannot see colors at night and therefore have a harder time differentiating between objects using vision alone. However, a person could find food in a dark room using his or her other senses, such as smell or taste, or could rely on colorless vision to choose food based on its shape. The scientists tested a series of experiments to show that hawkmoths use color-vision at night, as opposed to reverting to their other senses like humans do. Deilephila elpenor moths were trained to associate a sugar reward with a color, either blue or yellow by feeding from colored artificial flowers at a light intensity equivalent to late dusk. Deilephilia Elpenor Moth The moths were tested (without a sugar reward) at five different light intensities ranging from mid-dusk to dim starlight, to see if they could pick the training color from eight different shades of gray... ...we have a limited field of vision, and we can’t see in the back of our head. Continuous Visual Stream humans only get one shot to allow their photoreceptors to see an image, the images come through the eyes into the brain in a constant stream and are lost almost immediately, not stored. Advantages brain power that could be used to store up images to help see color in the dark can instead be used to make a clearer, better-resolved picture Disadvantages humans need more light to see color Photoreceptor Types humans also have 3 types, but: red, blue, and green Advantages we have trichromatic vision, which helps us differentiate objects and appreciate aesthetically pleasing sights Disadvantages we can’t see in the UV spectrum, and there are other animals such as butterflies which have 4 or 5 different photoreceptor types and can see more colors than us

Famous Canadian Killer Essay

Canadian Criminals are a major part of Canadian society. In our country if you were not the direct victim of a crime you tend to forget the members of society that take pleasure in causing societies grief. As in the case of James Hutchinson and Richard Ambrose, whose crimes were committed in December of 1974.1 They were convicted of killing two Moncton City Police officers. Today, years after the murders were committed Ambrose and Hutchinson are still the center of a major controversy that has plagued our parole system. In order to fully understand the controversy that Ambrose and Hutchinson posses you must look at the chronological order of events that lead up to the slaying. Richard Ambrose and James Hutchinson lived in the outskirts of Moncton, New Brunswick. Ambrose and Hutchinson committed two indictable offences under the Criminal Code of Canada (CCC). On Tuesday December 12, 1974 they violated section 279.1(c) of the Criminal Code with the kidnapping of Raymond Stein and by December 15, 1974 it was apparent that another crime had been committed. Ambrose and Hutchinson violated section 229(a)(i) of the Criminal Code, murder which would be defined under section 231(4)(a) of the Criminal Code; murder of a peace officer in the first degree.2 14-year-old Raymond Stein was the son of a Moncton restaurant owner and on the night of December 12, 1974 Raymond and his grandmother returned home from his father’s restaurant and found two men already in the house (Ambrose and Hutchinson). The duo tied the grandmother to a stair railing with tape and took the boy to an apartment somewhere on the western fringe of Moncton.3 Shortly before 1am on the 13th Mrs. Stein freed herself and telephoned the boys father and informed him of what had happened. Around 1am Mr. Stein received a phone call and a ransom demand was issued. Mr. Stein received two more calls at 2 and 3am. At 3am a ransom demand of $15 000 was agreed upon.4 Mr. Stein drove to a designated location somewhere close to the Riverview Mall around 3:15am. Mr. Stein drops the bag containing the $15 000 in a ditch about 100 yards in front of another car. The boy was released immediately and the car containing the two suspects  speeded off. At 3:50am Cpl. Bourgeois and Cst. O’Leary from the Moncton City Police were in the area of the drop-off in an unmarked police car and announced to dispatch that they would be going off air to investigate a suspicious car they had spotted.5 They were never heard from again. At 9am the unmarked police car was found in Salisbury locked and abandoned. There was no trace of the officers, their sidearms or a shotgun they were carrying. Around noon the RCMP turned over to Moncton City Police a man they had arrested after stopping a car that had matched the description of the car used for the ransom trade. In the car was a set of keys that fitted the unmarked police car and over $6000 believed to be part of the ransom money.6 By 2pm Moncton City Police arrested another man in the city and was questioning him in regards to the kidnapping case but later was released. At 6pm Moncton Police Chief C.M. (Moody) Weldon pleas on the radio for help by the public and offers $5000 in reward for information leading to the whereabouts of the 2 officers.7 At midnight Moncton Police announced they confirmed the presence of human blood on a glove that was seized from the abandoned car. 7:30am on the 14th over 300 searchers fan out over 125 square miles area in search for clues, between Riverview and Salisbury. At 11 am the Moncton City Police in conjunction with the RCMP held a press conference announcing that there would be two teams set up, each involving the Moncton Police and members of the RCMP, one team was responsible for the search of the officers and the other for investigating the crimes that Ambrose and Hutchinson committed. During the same conference policed reveled they have found what appears to be a bloodstained patch of snow in a field near Salisbury. At 5pm Cpl. Bourgeois’s torn drivers license was found by a covered bridge on Shediac River, approximately 15 miles east of Moncton. Due to the fact that sunset had past the police decided to cordon off the area and await daylight to continue the search.8 The next morning at 8am the search resumed with the aid of tracking dogs. Within an hour police found the missing revolvers, radio, pick and shovel in the water downstream. At 2:15pm the searchers found the graves on a hill near the covered bridge and at 1:30pm on December 15th, 1974 the police carried their fallen officers out of the woods wrapped in blankets.9 It was later determined that Ambrose and Hutchinson drove the two officers to the secluded wooded area and forced them to dig their own graves and then shot each of them in the back of the  head.10 Richard Ambrose 22 was already in custody at the time the bodies were recovered. Later on the December 15th a few minutes after 11pm James Hutchison 43 turned himself in to Sgt. Greg Cahoon of the RCMP. Hutchison stated that he turned himself in because he knew he was wanted by the police and he thought they would ‘shoot first and ask questions later’. Ambrose and Hutchinson were to have their first appearance in court on December 23rd. Both Ambrose and Hutchinson were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging in 1976. When the Trudeau government repealed capital punishment later in 1976 Ambrose and Hutchinson’s sentence was dropped to life in prison.11 Hutchinson was serving time at Pittsburgh Institution outside of Kingston Ontario, a minimum-security prison, and escaped at the age of 73. Prison files show that Hutchinson has expressed deep hatred toward police and had thoughts of thrill killing. Hutchison had admitted to his life of crime that dates back to the 1940’s, which has stemmed from an insatiable hunger for excitement, and the thrill of outwitting authorities.12 The Ontario Provincial Police classified him as extremely dangerous and Staff Sgt. Rick Myers of the OPP Penitentiary Squad described him as â€Å"looking like anyone’s grandfather but capable of anything†. Prison officials also stated that Hutchison has been plotting his escape since he was jailed in 1974. In 1997, Hutchison persuaded the National Parole Board to grant him escorted temporary absences. His main argument was â€Å"the burnout theory† stating that in today’s workplace also applies to longtime criminals who lose their desire to keep breaking the law. Hutchison was denied parole because of numerous escape plots.13 Three years later the parole board reviewed several reports filed by a supportive case management officer, the board ruled his risk to the public was â€Å"manageable†. In 2000 Hutchinson was granted a leave to volunteer at a shelter for stray cats and dogs approximately 12 kilometers from Pittsburgh Institution. Hutchison finished cleaning the stalls around 2:30pm, laid down his broom and walked away as a free man. He was recaptured two days later. This however was not the first time Hutchison escaped custody. In 1966 Hutchison was serving a 10 year sentence for robbery and was being transferred from Kingston Penitentiary to Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick. It was at this point where Hutchison made his first escape.14 He was arrested the same day at a train station in Moncton. Hutchinson made parole 4 years later, in 1974, that is when he murdered the  two Moncton Police officers. Hutchison lived with the prison’s Small Group Living Program. This is where prison officials believe that Hutchison did most of the planning for his escape. Prison files show Hutchison as having obvious planning skills. Prison psychologist used to consider Hutchison antisocial and sick enough to carve self-inflicted wounds.15 In this program inmates lived peacefully and less supervised. Although many reports stated that Hutchison was not rehabilitated, Deputy Warden Ron Fairly described Hutchison as a â€Å"model inmate.†16 Ambrose however, had quite a different prison life he was 22 when he was first arrested for the murder of the two police officers. Throughout Ambrose’s incarceration he claimed innocence and refused to speak about the crime. As well, he has expressed remorse and pleaded for life beyond prison. In the late 1980’s Ambrose got married in a prison ceremony and became a father to a baby girl in 1992. Ambrose told parole board members he is a reformed man, and deserves a life outside of the public’s eye. Ambrose changed his surname to Bergeron and in the summer of 2000 won full parole. According to a psychologist report prepared for Ambrose’s parole hearing indicated that he still posses a moderate to high risk to re-offend in a general and violent manner.17 On December 10, 1999 The Canadian Justice Foundation released an article alerting the public that Ambrose was granted day parole after he had changed his name to Richard Bergeron. The Canadian Justice Foundation has called on the Solicitor General to launch an investigation in regards to the parole. Shawn Howard, the Managing Director of The Canadian Justice Foundation said: â€Å"If inmates are allowed to change their name and erase their criminal identity, it poses a risk to public safety† he goes on to say â€Å"its obvious that Ambrose is trying to disappear by cloaking himself with a new identity†.18 Previous attempts to locate Ambrose have been unsuccessful since his original name was removed from the parole-hearing list. A Moncton reporter recently alerted the public that Ambrose had legally changed his name to Richard Bergeron and may return to Edmonton where his wife and child currently reside. The parole system in Canada has let out more ‘Cop Killers’ then Richard Ambrose. 19The list is long and in each case the criminal was perceived as a good inmate. When you look at the crimes committed by Richard Ambrose and James Hutchison with the murder of a two police officers that carries a sentence of life in prison as well as the kidnapping case that  carries a sentence of imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of four years. However Richard Ambrose was granted parole 25 years after he showed no mercy to the two police officers that were only doing their job. In the Hutchison case a 73-year-old man who has made more then one attempt to break out of custody and who also stated squeezing the trigger, was a ‘reflex action’ was given the opportunity to work outside the prison, and was able to walk at a humane society for animals that he was allowed to work unsupervised. Many citizens are enraged that these two criminals were allowed to leave the prison system. They showed no respect for the law and killed two members of society who have sworn to uphold the law. Both persons were described as being a moderate to high risk to re-offending but are still allowed to go into the public unsupervised. James Hutchinson December 1974 Bibliography Final Tribute Paid To Slain Policemen. Mark Pedersen. Telegraph Journal. December 16th, 1974 Hunt to Resume Today For Missing Policemen. Don McLeod. Telegraph Journal. December 14th, 1974. May Have Been Forced To Dig Their Graves. Don McLean. Telegraph Journal. December 16th, 1974. Alan Cairns. Prisons a ‘disgrace’. The Toronto Sun. November 20, 2000 Dimmock,G. and A. Sands. Escaped murder kills for thrills: 73 year old fugitive. Retrieved from the World Wide Web September 9, 2002. http://www.dimmockreport.com/escapedmurderer.htm Howard, S. The Canadian Justice Foundation. June 10, 1999

Prostitution, Drugs And Money Laundering - 922 Words

Prostitution, drugs and money laundering are all tied together in the underground world of the public crimes arena. In fact, acts are all influenced by the political, economic, and social relations intertwined with organized crime resulting in violence, public health issues, and money laundering schemes. Markets can be found online, on the streets, and through legitimate and illegitimate practices. The very nature of prostitution and drug crimes are considered victimless crimes, resulting in collateral damage against the innocent, but each criminal act can harm the innocent in various degrees. Drug addiction has affected all classes, races, and ethnicities for all time around the world. Drugs have not only been used for medical and religious purposes, but they are also illegally manufactured, smuggled, and distributed globally on the criminal market due to technological advancements today. One might say this harm is only affecting the individual user, but this is simply not true. Dru gs use leads to addiction causing mental and physical damage to those who use them. However, the power of addiction often leads to other heinous crimes and theft to support the habit. Antidrug legislation and policies have been used to control the drug problem by implanting stiffer penalties for drug offenses even in small quantities. Nevertheless, the manufacture and distribution of large quantities can carry a sentence of 10 years to life and $4 to $10 million dollar fine. AlthoughShow MoreRelatedIllegal Drug Use, Illegal Prostitution, and Money Laundering2993 Words   |  12 Pagescertain illegal drug like marijuana for personal use or prostitution to help stimulate the economy is one of the worst ideas ever. It was also said that it will eliminate money laundering problem. By keeping illegal drugs, prostitution, and money laundering illegal will prevent criminals from exploiting the poor and unfortunate people. 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