Project Journals

2/15/17

What do I want to prove and convey about my WoK?

Faith is a very confusing but interesting Way of Knowing. It’s so broad and connected yet controversial to all the other WoK, similar to the knowledge itself, it doesn’t have a definite definition. And also, there are so many kinds of faith and faith can be used to justify for everything. Faith is a sub division of belief, one of the components of knowledge, therefore just like knowledge, proving this concept and finding real-life situations is extremely hard and misleading. So, today, I want to prove at least 3 points or re-create real life situations demonstrating the role of faith in everyday life and in the search for knowledge (TRUTH):

1. Faith plays the role that shapes the basis of trust in society

2. Religious faith may not be true according to evidentialism but it is necessary to to some ethical element as religions are not created to blindly lead and control people but to guide them to a better future.

3. Are there more bed-rock beliefs other than the 4 in the book? What about faith in the meaning of existence? (seems too far-fetched but it’s faith, why not)

2/15/17 (End of Day)

What ideas do you have about how to convey your WoK?

Faith is hard to convey, it’s very abstract for sure. The concept itself is self-explanatory so there isn’t many real life examples we can use to demonstrate this. If you want to show others about something that takes that something itself in order to understand it, it will be hard to explain what you did that requires or displays that something. I had no idea what to do with faith but Mack in our group came up with an arguable idea: to ask his grandparents who has different belief systems than he does about their beliefs in God. If there is an existence higher than all humans, why can’t we sense its presence other than accepting that existence? Is God real or a projection of human salvation and all the positive human qualities?

2/17/17

What’s your plan for your project?

Restate your main point

We have 2 plans for the project. We want to do either an experiment with trust falls or an interview with Mack’s grandparents about their opinions on Trump or God. The trust fall experiment seems feasible and interesting in terms of creativity but it is difficult to link it to any of the questions for faith. What does trust falls have to do with faith? If we trust our friends enough to believe that they catch you at the right time, it means that we have faith in others but this topic has been discussed in the book very briefly. That kind of trust doesn’t serve to prove any points in trust. We have trust because it’s fundamental to have faith in anything to do anything. Letting yourself fall into another person’s arms prove this point but this question is too basic. I feel like we just hit a wall, and needs some guidance.

2/17/17 (End of Last Prep Day)

What did you learn today about your WoK

How prepared are you for your Badge Project

What’s left to do? Be specific

Faith is a very confusing and intra-personal concept to me. It’s reflective and makes me things to think about the meaning of life, human existence, the possibility of other realities like in what scientists describe as the multiverse. If bedrock beliefs aren’t accepted in your mind, what would be your beliefs? How differently would you think from the rest of normal people? What are the odds of you and me ending in the same school, same class? What if your perception of reality is just data transferred to your brain and you had no physical body? What if questions just keep popping up in my mind. And then, when Mr. Morrison suggested that we see how differently people would react when they are dropped in the fall trust? And then it came to me that I’m so focused to the WoK that I forgot about the point we want to prove. The trust falls will show that faith creates the foundation of society because trust in others gives that leap of faith to find out what will happen when you take that leap. Without it, you won’t ever know what’s behind the door. If you don’t fall back for the other person to catch, you won’t know if that person is trustworthy or not, you can’t find out more about them if you don’t have trust in the first place. It meets both a psychological need and societal need for the person. And to be honest, we know what we’re gonna do for our project but don’t know what the project will say about our WoK (about 75% PREPARED)

2/22/17

What did you learn today about your WoK?

Today, after doing the presentation, I feel like I know how to explain faith to others. It’s not a thing that can be done experimentally or carried out by real-life examples. It must be shown by proving its merits to humans, showing its importance, how no achievements would be made if trust was non-existent in the first place. Without faith, you can’t trust your senses, you can’t trust your mind, or others, and you won’t trust the things scientists claim to have found. Without it, there is literally no meaning to even move a leg to do anything.

2/22/17 (ELECTIVE READING JOURNAL)

What do you think about faith and doubt after listening to the TED talk?

I think doubt is essential to faith because if we don’t have doubt it means that we have all the answers and we know the absolute truth. If we know everything, then we don’t have to have faith in anything, therefore faith would not exist. But if faith does not exist, then when something new pops up, we would negate and deny it, disabling us from finding new knowledge. So if doubt doesn't exist that means we know the captial T truth, which is the same thing as knowing everything and if we know everything, we don't have to have faith.

The person that was speaking in the video believes that a capital T truth exists therefore she revolves her understanding of faith around the fact that its real.