Critical Thinking Blog #4

In the last Jacoby readings we were presented with, she writes about junk thought and how it effects anti-rationalism. Jacoby suggests that junk science is presented to the public as facts, smothered in scientific language, but rooted in opinion opposing real science. Many junk sciences include the supposed differences in male/female brains, the made up "post-abortion" syndrome and the power of prayer. One of the biggest things that upsets me is that heavily religious people swear by the power of prayer and consider it to me the all-power cure for anything. Anyone of my friends who decided to become religious study the bible like a textbook, take it everywhere, highlight phrases, and sit and preach. What they also all have in common is a serious lack of motivation to do anything else. They dropped out of school, don't really have a decent job, and just live in a bubble. They claim that God will show them the way and until then they feel like they do not need to do any work at making their lives better. They feel that if they pray, they are good people and things will just work out. It's amazing to me how easily people can be brainwashed by this form of junk thought. Jacoby mentions a study in the reading where extensive research was done on cardiac patients and monks and nuns praying for them. Millions of dollars were spent and the patients made no progress. They answered after the study saying that more research is to be done, that God always answers prayers and that sometimes the answer is no. What a load of crap. People see that research doesn't add up to the thesis and they still bank on prayer saving them. I don't think people are aware that the mind is very powerful and that prayer and religion just gives people something to lean on. Prayer and religion just gives people an excuse to never take irresponsibility for their own actions. My point isn't to bash religion, my point is to iterate how powerful junk thought is. People will believe what feels good to them. Jacoby's take home message is that anti-rationalism is playing a huge role on us stupid Americans. Through junk thought, pseudoscience, and unrealistic claims, people are mislead to believing all kinds of useless information. In more ways than not, we are creating our own ignorance.

Pre-Reading Blog #4

I am really excited that we can basically write about anything in these next two blogs. I saw the titles for Jacobys next two chapters and they deal with "junk thought" and "the culture of distraction". I have no much to say on these topics, I'm never even sure where to begin. In the past three years my mother has gone off the deep end with all this magical thinking crap. So is so into in that she won't go to sleep so she can research more crap on the internet or read this bogus books. It's driving my nuts. She goes on vacations and brings home all these rocks claiming they hold they magically healing powers, she has made little candle shines in her bathroom, and is on this juice kick claiming that this crap can cure aids. I follow in my father's footsteps and come from a very logical, rational standpoint. It boggles my mind that my mother is so swept into this crap. The way my mother praises all of this crap is like a religion, her behavior is parallel to a jesus freak, no offense to anyone religious. I can't wrap my head around how someone can believe holding a damn rock can bring you power and strength, it's just pure bullshit. Watching my mother engulf herself into this craze really makes me understand how power persuasion really is. Teachers, doctors, whomever can say anything and if someone says the right things that you want to hear, you will believe them. My mother would be a great example for Jacoby's book. Jacoby just rips apart anything and everyone that gets caught up in the lines of crap people feed one another. And talk about distractions, my mother will stay home from work so she can do things like meditate all day. I understand that all this spiritual stuff is supposed to give people hope but, I am pretty sure it's not out there to feed off of like a drug. If I have learned anything from Jacoby this semester, it is to never let anyone bullshit you. Pardon the French, but whatever. People must be really desperate to dedicate all of their time and energy to something so intangable. I have learned to never take things for face value. Sure, I am probably become more of a pessimist, but I have grown to be even more of a realist. I don't believe in anything, probably do not trust anything and anyone either, but with so much bs floating around who would? As humans, we are gifted with large cerebrums. We are able to have and utilize, which many fail to, our intelligence. By believing everything that is out there, it just gives people even more reason to spit out more junk for people to eat up. I, for one, will not let this happen to me. You know I've had issues, just like everyone. At a time in my life, I went to AA and NA meeting to stop doing drugs. The central concern was to give up all control and to believe in a higher power. Okay, no sorry, not for me. You know what got to me stop doing drugs, I sat and thought about how it was affecting me and the people around me. I decided to grow up and get my life together and haven't touched them ever since. All of these people who go to these meetings or go to church expect someone or something to deal with their problems. Religion and other spititual practices just give people another excuse to run away from thier problems. America is set up to blame all of thier issues on someone else. People are not taught to face and deal with reality, we just have a plethora of excape mechanisims. Until society refroms and forces people to deal with thier own problems, we will always have pseudosciences, cult religions, and self help books that claim you can talk to ghosts. I'll be damned if I ever let myself become a victim of codependency. I was born to eat, survive and reproduce and those are my main concerns.

Critical Thinking Blog #3

I hope this isn't considered late due to the prompt not being up until this morning.

Consider the current youth popular culture compared to those of the past. What movements do you have in your youth culture? How are you a part of your youth culture?

Thinking about my youth culture, I seem to draw a blank. I spend most of my days in my room, in my bubble studying all day. I feel like i'm not exactly part of anything. When in reality, I am part of the movements of women getting a collage education. The number of women who go to college almost out number men. As a teenager I was part of the typical generation X movement where I sat around all day, didn't work and partied and did drugs all the time. In those partying years it seemed like no one cared about anything or anyone. Drugs weren't scarey, they were fun and whatever happened, happened. My parents give me lots of freedom and didn't make me work for anything that I had. I was definitely part of the youth culture that did whatever they wanted and the attitude was all about me. Now that i'm older, I feel like i'm in the movement or part of society that any job you try to obtain requires years of experience and some college education. I had to go to school for a year to earn enough credits to become a preschool teacher. I busted my ass getting good grades in classes that taught you how to play with children. You might as well have parent training classes before you decide to become a parent. Also during my youth, I am stuck in a time where the country is not doing well financially. Luckily, neither of my parent's jobs have been effected by the economy and they are able to support me while I am going to school. Had that not be the case, I would not be able to attend school or get a decent paying job due to lack of a college degree. Along the same lines of growing up in the "me" generation, I have become very impatient and needy. I do not know how to wait for things, how to budget my money, and I feel extremely selfish. I think I am trying to balance that out by becoming a nurse. Either way, I feel like the movements I am part of are creating a monster of a person and I am not excited to see how people my age act 20 years from now.

Pre-Reading Blog #3

How do you perceive your popular culture? What does popular culture consist of in your world? Music? TV? The Web? Fashion? What attracted you to this particular section of popular culture? Why do you like it? How do you understand its history? Please end your blog with at least one good critical question.

I perceive my popular culture as lively, fast paced, cutthroat, and materialistic. Music from previous decades expressed needs of love, clarity and compassion. The music of my generation is about showing off material items, bragging about how many women or men people have slept with, whining about how hard life is, and screaming about how depressed people are. As an oppressed society women are expected to be thin, have big boobs, big hips, big lip, a tiny waist and straight hair dressed in designer clothes with a Gucci bag on the shoulder. Men are expected to be tall, dressed to look like that have money and to show off any material possession they have. As time goes on, our generation is changing a bit from the gender roles our parents had and still follow, if you've got parents like mine. Our means of communication with the help of technology have rapidly expanded and now it's illegal to talk on the phonw while driving your BMW you're leasing. Heaven forbid someone can't get ahold of you for 15 minutes. As technology makes progress by means of mass communication, personable communication is becoming more awkard and less acceptable. Person to person conversations are a thing of the past and communication is inturn becoming less personable, making us less connected. All kinds of information is being accessed from the internet and it easier now than ever to cheat through things and to steal people's idenity and ruin people's lives. Technology has ruined our lives.

In the world I live in if you don't drive a mercedes, bmw, or range rover, you or you're parents are not up to par. If you don't wear true religion jeans and carry a marc jacobs bag then you have no class. If you don't wear a pound of makeup and straighten your hair, then you are ugly. I was raised with hippie parents and raised not to give into society, but being schooled in a private school, I was taught to be quite the opposite. I've been so confused my whole life as to what I really want out of life. I'm not sure if I want to make a bunch of money and have a lot of things or if I want to make a decent amount and enjoy all the small things. I guess that decision comes to you as you grow and mature, but I feel very pressured to work my ass off to give all my money back to the man. So now more than ever I feel so torn. Do I work hard to become successful in the eyes of society or do I work hard to enjoy life and take it easy?

Critical Thinking Blog #2

This is always a tricky discussion, but Jacoby presents some sharp arguments about the debate between evolution and creationism. For this blog, create your own discussion about this debate. Where do you stand and why? What critical criteria have you used to consider this issue (if at all -- maybe it's the first time you've thought about it)? Where does this issue stand among the issues of the day?


I was raised Catholic, forced to go to Catholic school. I was raised to believe in creationism. It was not until I was in high school that I began to start questioning my beliefs. I started to do very well in science classes and was introduced to the idea of evolution. I then formed the concept that evolution happens everyday, we evolve into the people we are today. Once I understood that concept, I began researching and discussing with other the idea of evolution and natural selection. Today, it does not even seem fathomable to even think for a second that creationism makes any logical sense. I do not have faith. I don't even think anything really happens after death or before birth. We are animals, just like birds and dogs. They don't revolve their lives around worships something that have no idea is real or not. They live day to day trying to survive. I believe in the concept of survival of the fittest. Those that are the most equipped have higher levels of success, no argument there. I have thought long and hard about this subject and the discussion could go on forever. Today I stand by science. I have faith in things that are real and tangible, things that can be proven. The only issues my recent beliefs bring me are that some friends, coworkers and various other people do not agree with me. They stand by their religious beliefs and sooner or later they cut off contact with me because faith rules their life. I see believing in God as the same concept as believing in Santa clause or the tooth fairy, it just seems bogus. I do have an open mind to the concept of a higher power, but not in God or creationism.

Pre-Reading Blog #2

What do you think of when you see the word “pseudoscience”? How do you understand the argument between evolution and creation, as Jacoby presents it? Please end your blog with at least one good critical question.


When I think of pseudoscience, the first thing that comes to mind are diet pills. Pseudoscience is supposed to be fake science or a claim that appears to be scientific but lacks supporting evidence and does not adhere to the scientific method. In Jacoby's book, she presents a clear argument between evolution and creation. Jacoby suggests that intellectuals think, therefore they side with evolution and that fundamentalist, anti-intellectuals, believe, therefore they side with creation. Jacoby presents the notion that evolution is based from scientific data and can be modeled time and time again with the same results; whereas, creation is based from belief and storytelling. The theory of creation has no scientific background, cannot be tested and is completely intangible. However, evolution can be tested with the scientific method and one is able to see the same results every time. The argument between creation versus evolution is extremely controversial and many factors play into one's argument of favor. Jacoby suggests that if one is intellectual, then one will side will evolution and that if one if an anti-intellectual, one will side with creation.


If it has been thousands of years since the bible has been written, why do people follow the bible word for word even though times and living conditions have changed dramatically?

Why do people still have faith in things that has never been proven or tested?

Critical Thinking Blog #1

Part One How do you define critical thinking? Describe a situation in which you thought through something critically. Describe a situation in which you did not think through something critically.

I would define critical thinking as a process of thinking using reasoning, scientific facts, common sense, analysis, observation and evaluation to form a concrete judgement or opinion. Critical thinking is using all of one's senses to form an idea regarding something tangible or intangible. A situation in which I had to use critical thinking was when I decided what college to transfer to. I had to consider what kind of environment I wanted be surrounded by, both people and the scenery. I then had to research what the qualifications to being accepted would be. I also had to research what schools offered the best programs for my subject of concentration. I then had to consider the price of schooling, books, rent, and other various living costs. I considered weather patterns and driving conditions. Most importantly, I had to consider where I would be most comfortable in order to thrive and succeed. In the end I chose University of Reno, Nevada and received a full scholarship for the first year. A situation in which I did not use critical thinking, although there have been many, was when I chose my major. I chose nursing as my major when I was in sophomore in high school when I first started taking classes at a community college. I just knew that the human body was of high interest to me and that is purely how the decision was formed. Although I have stuck to it, I never had a clue as to how difficult schooling would be. I am still very interested and highly motivated to become a nurse but, many of times, I wish I had an easier major.

Part Two"We often long for surefire, step-by-step procedures [to help us solve problems] and the more personally threatening a situation is, the more we want foolproof rules. But there are no rules that guarantee our thinking will be correct . . . The only way we can decide whether to follow certain rules is if we use our best reasoning to determine that those rules are reasonable, that they lead to reasonable results when followed." – Gerald Nosich, Learning to Think Things Through

Describe what you think of when you think of “intellectualism”. Does this word have positive connotations or negative connotations for you? Why? Describe what you think of when you think of “logic” and “reason.” Do these have positive connotations or negative connotations? Why?

When I think of "intellectualism", I think ideas formed from people, not necessarily highly educated but, rather highly informed of both sides of issues and ideas. Intellectualism, in my eyes, is not having all the facts and something concrete but, a continuous learning and sharing process. The word has positive connotations for me but, I see intellectuals as siding more with the pessimistic view. It has positive connotations for me because constantly challenging things and learning can never be a bad thing. I would never want to be ignorant and the idea of intellectualism would bring constant change and transformation in a good way. When I think of "logic" and "reason", two words come to mind, deductive and inductive. Logic and reason are ways of thinking by gathering information and coming to conclusions. Logic and reason are not like knowing that the sky is blue but, rather knowing why and how the sky is blue. These words have positive connotations because I simply would not want to hear, learn, or read anything that is not based on logic or reason. Using logic and reason, one is able to more clearly define the difference between some true and something that is bogus. Without logic and reason everyone would be running around like a chicken with their head cut off.