My webstie was
http://www.shopsofweb.com/categories.ASP?MainCategory=Health_%26_Beauty&SubCategory=Alternative_Medicine
This website is basically a store for a lot of scam "medicines". Most of the product descriptions use the word "natural" or "organic" to suggest that the product is from nature so it must be good. For example, the Bios Naturals store sells a wide varity of random products that I'm pretty sure don't cure anything. I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure that eating "shark cartilage" or "deer velvet antler" will not cure anything. Call me crazy but I don't think Emu oil will cure skin diseases. Most of these stores do not even say what their product is spose to do. They just say that their product is natural and promotes healthiness.
Another form of alternative medicine that I found was listening to "hemi-sync" tapes that supposedly alter brain wave patterns. This is spose to help about twenty different disorders. From plain "health" to "ADD" to "surgery" and even "exploring states of the conciousness" this tape does it all. Not likely. I bet the scam artist who is selling this piece of garbage doesn't even know what brain waves are. I could not find any mention of a doctor recommendation of any of these "alternative medicines." Therefore, I have concluded that they are all scams.
Monday, September 24, 2007
My revised paper with half the word count
Religion, Parental Influence, and Reason
Abortion is a highly controversial issue. Valid arguments are made on both sides. However, the arguments for it, with certain exceptions, outweigh the arguments against it. I came to this conclusion through parental influence and religious education class. This process of decision making deserves a careful explanation.
As a child, the Church was my sole influence on abortion. It was made very clear to me that the Church believes in life at conception. In the eyes of the Church, abortion is murder. The Church strongly opposes abortion, as it holds all life to be sacred. Since I was young and indifferent to the issue, I adopted these beliefs. However, I preferred not to talk about it because it spurred so much controversy. I never participated in any abortion protests, but if someone asked me if I was pro-choice or pro-life I would have responded pro-life. In retrospect, the only basis I had on considering myself pro-life was because it was the stance of my religion. Thus, at a young age my opinion on abortion was formed solely by my religion, I didn’t delve into the issue any further than what I was taught in my religious education class.
My parents had a great deal of influence in shaping my beliefs, including my beliefs on abortion. I remember coming home from school one day in eighth grade and telling my mom that someone had put bright orange “pro-choice” stickers on all the lockers during lunch. This was the first time I ever had a conversation about abortion with my mom. Both my parents are from large Catholic families and attended Catholic schools from preschool through college. Surprisingly, my mom was slightly pro-choice. She told me her main concern was for the safety of young women who feel the need to resort to desperate measures. She was the first to tell me about coat hanger abortions. I was appalled and thought that no one should have to be subjected to such torture. On the other hand, my mom told me stories of women she knew who had had an abortion and greatly regretted it years later. This created a dilemma in my mind, because I still thought abortion was wrong, but I also thought it was wrong to leave young desperate women to such horrific circumstances. It was clear she believed abortion was terrible and had many repercussions. However, it should be an option for desperate women, so they do not resort to self-mutilation. Essentially she was trying to convey that outlawing abortion would not stop it from happening, it would only create dangerous situations. This had a profound impact on me because I never considered this side of the argument before. After this conversation, I did not consider myself pro-life or pro-choice. I remained neutral on the issue.
Another significant influence on forming my opinion was my dad. He was the one that tipped me in favor of being pro-choice, which is surprising because in almost every respect my dad is conservative. His stance was that victims of rape or incest should have the option of abortion. He believed that society did not have the right to force a woman to have a child if she was raped. I completely agreed with my dad. I still thought abortion was a terrible thing, but I thought it should be legal for some extenuating circumstances.
As argued above, a complex decision takes careful thought and reflection. Reporting on this process requires analysis and the precise use of words, a useful exercise for any decision. Through this technique I came to have an opinion on abortion.
Abortion is a highly controversial issue. Valid arguments are made on both sides. However, the arguments for it, with certain exceptions, outweigh the arguments against it. I came to this conclusion through parental influence and religious education class. This process of decision making deserves a careful explanation.
As a child, the Church was my sole influence on abortion. It was made very clear to me that the Church believes in life at conception. In the eyes of the Church, abortion is murder. The Church strongly opposes abortion, as it holds all life to be sacred. Since I was young and indifferent to the issue, I adopted these beliefs. However, I preferred not to talk about it because it spurred so much controversy. I never participated in any abortion protests, but if someone asked me if I was pro-choice or pro-life I would have responded pro-life. In retrospect, the only basis I had on considering myself pro-life was because it was the stance of my religion. Thus, at a young age my opinion on abortion was formed solely by my religion, I didn’t delve into the issue any further than what I was taught in my religious education class.
My parents had a great deal of influence in shaping my beliefs, including my beliefs on abortion. I remember coming home from school one day in eighth grade and telling my mom that someone had put bright orange “pro-choice” stickers on all the lockers during lunch. This was the first time I ever had a conversation about abortion with my mom. Both my parents are from large Catholic families and attended Catholic schools from preschool through college. Surprisingly, my mom was slightly pro-choice. She told me her main concern was for the safety of young women who feel the need to resort to desperate measures. She was the first to tell me about coat hanger abortions. I was appalled and thought that no one should have to be subjected to such torture. On the other hand, my mom told me stories of women she knew who had had an abortion and greatly regretted it years later. This created a dilemma in my mind, because I still thought abortion was wrong, but I also thought it was wrong to leave young desperate women to such horrific circumstances. It was clear she believed abortion was terrible and had many repercussions. However, it should be an option for desperate women, so they do not resort to self-mutilation. Essentially she was trying to convey that outlawing abortion would not stop it from happening, it would only create dangerous situations. This had a profound impact on me because I never considered this side of the argument before. After this conversation, I did not consider myself pro-life or pro-choice. I remained neutral on the issue.
Another significant influence on forming my opinion was my dad. He was the one that tipped me in favor of being pro-choice, which is surprising because in almost every respect my dad is conservative. His stance was that victims of rape or incest should have the option of abortion. He believed that society did not have the right to force a woman to have a child if she was raped. I completely agreed with my dad. I still thought abortion was a terrible thing, but I thought it should be legal for some extenuating circumstances.
As argued above, a complex decision takes careful thought and reflection. Reporting on this process requires analysis and the precise use of words, a useful exercise for any decision. Through this technique I came to have an opinion on abortion.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
My Original Paper
Religion, Parental Influence, and Reason
Of the most controversial issues in today’s society, abortion ranks among those at the top. It’s not necessarily a new debate, but one that has been going on for quite some time. Since the Supreme Court case of Roe versus Wade in January of 1973, abortion has been a heatedly debated topic. The legalization of abortion alone has furthered the division of the right and the left in American society. Both sides full heartedly defend their position on this sensitive matter. The right argues for life at conception and equates abortion with murder, whereas the left supports women’s rights and pro-choice. Thus, as a member of society I was exposed to many different opinions on this issue. In order to form my own opinion, I had to take into account all of the opposing view points and come to a decision based on my own reasoning and logic. Of the many influences I’ve had, the three that stick out most in my mind are the Church, my mom, and my dad.
As a young child my main source of exposure to the abortion issue came through the Church. Being Roman Catholic, I was thoroughly taught the Church’s beliefs and standpoints concerning abortion. It was made very clear to me that the Church holds to the belief of life at conception. Therefore, in the eyes of the church, abortion is essentially the same as murder. This of course means the Church is strongly opposed to abortion as it holds all life to be sacred. During my religious education classes my teacher, Deacon Tony, conveyed to me the Church’s views on abortion. Since I was young, I didn’t care to think too much about the issue so I just adopted the beliefs of the Church as my own. I accepted the idea that abortion was morally wrong and that it should be illegal. However, I was young and didn’t feel as strongly about the issue as some of my classmates. In fact, I preferred not to talk about it because it spurred so much controversy. I never participated in any abortion protests or anything like that, but if someone asked me if I was pro-choice or pro-life I probably would have responded pro-life. In retrospect, the only basis I had on considering myself pro-life was because it was the stance of my religion. Thus, at a young age my opinion on abortion was formed solely by my religion, I didn’t delve into the issue any further than what I was taught in my religious education class.
Like most people, my parents had a great deal of influence in shaping my beliefs, including my beliefs on abortion. I remember coming home from school one day in the eighth grade and telling my mom that someone had put bright orange “pro-choice” stickers on all the lockers during lunch. This was the first time I ever really got into a conversation about abortion with my mom. Both my mom and dad are from large Catholic families and attended Catholic schools from preschool through college. However, they are both products of growing up in the sixties and seventies, which was a time notorious for liberalism. To my surprise I found out my mom was loosely pro-choice. She told me her main concern was for the safety of young pregnant girls who feel the need to resort to desperate measures. She was the first to tell me of the infamous coat hanger abortion. I was appalled at such a gruesome act and thought that no one should have to be subjected to such torture. On the other hand, my mom told me stories of women she knew who had an abortion and greatly regretted it years later. She said it was a huge psychological blow to these women. This created a dilemma in my mind, because
I still thought abortion was wrong but I also thought it was wrong to leave young desperate women to such horrific circumstances. It was clear my mom believed abortion was terrible and had many repercussions. However, her stance was that abortion should be an option for desperate women so they don’t resort to self-mutilation. Essentially what she was trying to get across was that outlawing abortion wouldn’t stop it from happening, it would only create dangerous situations. This really got the wheels turning in my head because I never considered this side of the argument before. I was never told about coat hanger abortions in my religious education classes. My religious education class didn’t take into account the safety of the pregnant women. After this conversation with my mom I didn’t really consider myself pro-life or pro-choice. In fact, I tried to remain neutral on the issue. Thus my mom contributed to my opinion on abortion, in some ways, more so than my religious education class.
Another significant influence on forming my opinion on abortion was my dad. He was the one that tipped me in favor of being pro-choice, which is surprising because in almost every respect my dad is conservative. However, what put me over the edge was the issue of rape and incest. His stance was that victims of rape or incest should have the option of not having the child. It was his belief that society didn’t have the right to tell an individual that they must have a child if they were raped. I completely agreed with my dad. I began to think of the abortion controversy more of an issue of providing a safe opportunity to have a medical procedure than the morality of the situation. Obviously I still thought abortion was a terrible thing, but I thought it should be legal for the reasons my dad explained to me. Through my own reason and judgment, I decided society didn’t have the right to force a woman to have a child if she was raped. Then I thought to myself, if abortion were made illegal what would be the punishment for women who had an abortion? Would they be sent to prison? I decided it would be ludicrous for society to have that power. Therefore, my dad was the one who tipped my internal pro-life pro-choice scale in favor of pro-choice.
It’s strange how people’s opinions can change throughout their lives. One moment they can feel one way about something and the next moment they feel the exact opposite. This is what happened to my own opinion on abortion. My original stance of pro-life was formed at young age by the guidance of my religious education teacher. Quite simply I was taught that abortion was bad, which I still believe it is. However, as I grew older and was exposed to different sides of the issue I came to have a new opinion of pro-choice. I decided upon this after various conversations with my mom and my dad. Both my parents agree with the teachings of the Church that abortion is bad, yet they still side with pro-choice. Neither of them believe abortion should be a form of birth control, such as using condoms or the pill, but they believe it should be an option for a few desperate situations. Being as it is that parents have a remarkable influence on their children, I to have adopted this stance on abortion. My opinion solidified when I heard Bill Clinton’s famous quote, “Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare”. Thus, my stance on abortion was formed by taking into account many sides of the argument and using my best judgment to form an opinion.
Of the most controversial issues in today’s society, abortion ranks among those at the top. It’s not necessarily a new debate, but one that has been going on for quite some time. Since the Supreme Court case of Roe versus Wade in January of 1973, abortion has been a heatedly debated topic. The legalization of abortion alone has furthered the division of the right and the left in American society. Both sides full heartedly defend their position on this sensitive matter. The right argues for life at conception and equates abortion with murder, whereas the left supports women’s rights and pro-choice. Thus, as a member of society I was exposed to many different opinions on this issue. In order to form my own opinion, I had to take into account all of the opposing view points and come to a decision based on my own reasoning and logic. Of the many influences I’ve had, the three that stick out most in my mind are the Church, my mom, and my dad.
As a young child my main source of exposure to the abortion issue came through the Church. Being Roman Catholic, I was thoroughly taught the Church’s beliefs and standpoints concerning abortion. It was made very clear to me that the Church holds to the belief of life at conception. Therefore, in the eyes of the church, abortion is essentially the same as murder. This of course means the Church is strongly opposed to abortion as it holds all life to be sacred. During my religious education classes my teacher, Deacon Tony, conveyed to me the Church’s views on abortion. Since I was young, I didn’t care to think too much about the issue so I just adopted the beliefs of the Church as my own. I accepted the idea that abortion was morally wrong and that it should be illegal. However, I was young and didn’t feel as strongly about the issue as some of my classmates. In fact, I preferred not to talk about it because it spurred so much controversy. I never participated in any abortion protests or anything like that, but if someone asked me if I was pro-choice or pro-life I probably would have responded pro-life. In retrospect, the only basis I had on considering myself pro-life was because it was the stance of my religion. Thus, at a young age my opinion on abortion was formed solely by my religion, I didn’t delve into the issue any further than what I was taught in my religious education class.
Like most people, my parents had a great deal of influence in shaping my beliefs, including my beliefs on abortion. I remember coming home from school one day in the eighth grade and telling my mom that someone had put bright orange “pro-choice” stickers on all the lockers during lunch. This was the first time I ever really got into a conversation about abortion with my mom. Both my mom and dad are from large Catholic families and attended Catholic schools from preschool through college. However, they are both products of growing up in the sixties and seventies, which was a time notorious for liberalism. To my surprise I found out my mom was loosely pro-choice. She told me her main concern was for the safety of young pregnant girls who feel the need to resort to desperate measures. She was the first to tell me of the infamous coat hanger abortion. I was appalled at such a gruesome act and thought that no one should have to be subjected to such torture. On the other hand, my mom told me stories of women she knew who had an abortion and greatly regretted it years later. She said it was a huge psychological blow to these women. This created a dilemma in my mind, because
I still thought abortion was wrong but I also thought it was wrong to leave young desperate women to such horrific circumstances. It was clear my mom believed abortion was terrible and had many repercussions. However, her stance was that abortion should be an option for desperate women so they don’t resort to self-mutilation. Essentially what she was trying to get across was that outlawing abortion wouldn’t stop it from happening, it would only create dangerous situations. This really got the wheels turning in my head because I never considered this side of the argument before. I was never told about coat hanger abortions in my religious education classes. My religious education class didn’t take into account the safety of the pregnant women. After this conversation with my mom I didn’t really consider myself pro-life or pro-choice. In fact, I tried to remain neutral on the issue. Thus my mom contributed to my opinion on abortion, in some ways, more so than my religious education class.
Another significant influence on forming my opinion on abortion was my dad. He was the one that tipped me in favor of being pro-choice, which is surprising because in almost every respect my dad is conservative. However, what put me over the edge was the issue of rape and incest. His stance was that victims of rape or incest should have the option of not having the child. It was his belief that society didn’t have the right to tell an individual that they must have a child if they were raped. I completely agreed with my dad. I began to think of the abortion controversy more of an issue of providing a safe opportunity to have a medical procedure than the morality of the situation. Obviously I still thought abortion was a terrible thing, but I thought it should be legal for the reasons my dad explained to me. Through my own reason and judgment, I decided society didn’t have the right to force a woman to have a child if she was raped. Then I thought to myself, if abortion were made illegal what would be the punishment for women who had an abortion? Would they be sent to prison? I decided it would be ludicrous for society to have that power. Therefore, my dad was the one who tipped my internal pro-life pro-choice scale in favor of pro-choice.
It’s strange how people’s opinions can change throughout their lives. One moment they can feel one way about something and the next moment they feel the exact opposite. This is what happened to my own opinion on abortion. My original stance of pro-life was formed at young age by the guidance of my religious education teacher. Quite simply I was taught that abortion was bad, which I still believe it is. However, as I grew older and was exposed to different sides of the issue I came to have a new opinion of pro-choice. I decided upon this after various conversations with my mom and my dad. Both my parents agree with the teachings of the Church that abortion is bad, yet they still side with pro-choice. Neither of them believe abortion should be a form of birth control, such as using condoms or the pill, but they believe it should be an option for a few desperate situations. Being as it is that parents have a remarkable influence on their children, I to have adopted this stance on abortion. My opinion solidified when I heard Bill Clinton’s famous quote, “Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare”. Thus, my stance on abortion was formed by taking into account many sides of the argument and using my best judgment to form an opinion.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Holocaust Denial
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/holohoax.htm
The article I chose to read was titled, "Is the Holocaust a Hoax?" The main claim of the article was that the holocaust was fabrication made up by the Allies after world war two. The author tries to discredit any evidence of the holocaust ever happening. However, his own evidence is sketchy and questionable at best. For example, he talks about how a man named Fred A. Leuchter, who is suposedly a specialist on the design and fabrication of execution equipment, scraped samples from the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Leuchters finding were that the walls contained no cyanide residue and that they must if gas had actually been used in the chamber. In my opinion, its going to take a little more than some evidence from skecthball Fred A. Leuchter. I mean come on he's a specialist in execution equipment, he must know what he's talking about. First of all, what makes him a so called "leading specialist" on the design and fabrication of execution equipment. Usually in an article like this if the author references an expert his name will be followed by the letters Phd or atleast give some explanation as to what qualifies him as an expert. The author offers absolutely no explanation as to what makes Leuchter an expert. For all we know he could just be some nut whos hobby is learning about killing people. Furthermore, the author goes on to say that the Polish Government tried to disprove Leuchter but came to the same result. Once again the author doesn't provide any evidence of this experiment carried out by the Polish Government. He thinks the reader should believe him just because he said it. Its ironic that the same thing he is accusing the "fabricators of the holocaust" of, he himself is doing. He goes so far as to say the diary of Anne Frank was a fake. His overwhelming evidence is that a portion of the diary was written with a ball point pen and that these pens were not in use at the time of Anne frank. Once again, where is the evidence? He is making a lot of claims and providing no credible evidence. In the end he fall back on the claim that all the corpses people found at the concentration camps died of Typhus. This seems to be a favorite explanation for all holocaust deniers. The Iranian television program said the same thing. In summation, the author offers absolutely no credible evidence for any of the claims he is making and its obvious he is not very fond of Jewish people to begin with.
The article I chose to read was titled, "Is the Holocaust a Hoax?" The main claim of the article was that the holocaust was fabrication made up by the Allies after world war two. The author tries to discredit any evidence of the holocaust ever happening. However, his own evidence is sketchy and questionable at best. For example, he talks about how a man named Fred A. Leuchter, who is suposedly a specialist on the design and fabrication of execution equipment, scraped samples from the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Leuchters finding were that the walls contained no cyanide residue and that they must if gas had actually been used in the chamber. In my opinion, its going to take a little more than some evidence from skecthball Fred A. Leuchter. I mean come on he's a specialist in execution equipment, he must know what he's talking about. First of all, what makes him a so called "leading specialist" on the design and fabrication of execution equipment. Usually in an article like this if the author references an expert his name will be followed by the letters Phd or atleast give some explanation as to what qualifies him as an expert. The author offers absolutely no explanation as to what makes Leuchter an expert. For all we know he could just be some nut whos hobby is learning about killing people. Furthermore, the author goes on to say that the Polish Government tried to disprove Leuchter but came to the same result. Once again the author doesn't provide any evidence of this experiment carried out by the Polish Government. He thinks the reader should believe him just because he said it. Its ironic that the same thing he is accusing the "fabricators of the holocaust" of, he himself is doing. He goes so far as to say the diary of Anne Frank was a fake. His overwhelming evidence is that a portion of the diary was written with a ball point pen and that these pens were not in use at the time of Anne frank. Once again, where is the evidence? He is making a lot of claims and providing no credible evidence. In the end he fall back on the claim that all the corpses people found at the concentration camps died of Typhus. This seems to be a favorite explanation for all holocaust deniers. The Iranian television program said the same thing. In summation, the author offers absolutely no credible evidence for any of the claims he is making and its obvious he is not very fond of Jewish people to begin with.
Monday, September 10, 2007
UFO's
http://www.rickross.com/reference/ufo/ufo7.html
The article I read is about a 28 year old who gave up his job as the owner of an online company worth three billion dollars to search for alien life. Being as he is financially set for life, money is of no object to him. The article states that he has spent millions of dollars in his quest to find alien life. The article says, "Joe Firmage believes in aliens - visitors, UFO's. Not just that they exist. That they're here. They walk among us." In my opinion these are some pretty far fetched beliefs. He offers some explanations for his beliefs but I think they all boil down to theories not facts. He talks of a strange experience that he had when an "image of a being" appeared above his bed and spoke to him of space travel. He also believes alot of the world's religions were formed by off worlders. Personally I think what he says is interesting, and I think its cool that hes putting alot of money toward finding extraterrestrial life. However, I don't think he has any factual grounds for his beliefs. Overall though he sounds like a pretty interesting guy. It sounds like he knows a whole hell of alot about computers and physics, but in the end I think his imagination is getting the best of him.
The article I read is about a 28 year old who gave up his job as the owner of an online company worth three billion dollars to search for alien life. Being as he is financially set for life, money is of no object to him. The article states that he has spent millions of dollars in his quest to find alien life. The article says, "Joe Firmage believes in aliens - visitors, UFO's. Not just that they exist. That they're here. They walk among us." In my opinion these are some pretty far fetched beliefs. He offers some explanations for his beliefs but I think they all boil down to theories not facts. He talks of a strange experience that he had when an "image of a being" appeared above his bed and spoke to him of space travel. He also believes alot of the world's religions were formed by off worlders. Personally I think what he says is interesting, and I think its cool that hes putting alot of money toward finding extraterrestrial life. However, I don't think he has any factual grounds for his beliefs. Overall though he sounds like a pretty interesting guy. It sounds like he knows a whole hell of alot about computers and physics, but in the end I think his imagination is getting the best of him.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
This is my first post on my new blog. One instance that I can recall when I had difficult understanding someone was when I had a conversation with one of my friends about dinosaurs. My friend happens to be a creationist and takes every word written in the Bible literally. I happen to be a contextualist and believe when one reads the Bible they have to take into account the context in which it was written. Anyways, one night a couple of my friends and I got into a brief discussion on dinosaurs. None of us denied that dinosaurs ever existed but my friend believed that dinosaurs could only have existed after the creation of earth five thousand years ago as written in Genesis. I couldn't understand any of the logic in his arguments because he always fell back on, "its in the Bible". Nonetheless, we are still friends but I think he has some very strange beliefs.
-Peter
-Peter
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