Free

Free Will Essay Vilayandur S. Ramachandran came from a distinguished family in Tamil Nadu, India, and was neuroscientist, which is a field of study encompassing the various scientific disciplines dealing with the nervous system. Ramachandrans views on the brain and how it works are discussed in his work â€Å"The New Philosophy†. In his essay he discusses the nature of consciousness, discussing the effects of certain mental states and their influence on the body and the brain. One of his main topics, however, is the Ramachandrans view of free will. He suggest that â€Å"neuroscience intersects with philosophy because the question of free will has been a philosophical problem for hundreds of years and more† (Jacobus 569). He discusses the significance of the brain imaging that shows a â€Å"readiness potential† and what it really means to have a free will. Through his essay, though, it is interesting to point out where religion and Christianity stands on the issue of free will and whether Christians are puppets under Gods command. Ramachandran poses this question about free will: â€Å"Is your brain the real one in charge, making your free will only a post-hoc rationalization; a delusion..?† When a special experiment was underway, it was discovered that when a person was told to move their finger within the next ten minutes at their own free will, their brain would kick in almost a second before the actual willingness to move the finger. This posed the original question stated above and brought on other questions as well. If this person is now shown the screen displaying the signal from the EEG scanner hooked up to your brain, they can then see their free will. They will then have three options: 1) They will experience a sudden lack of will, feeling as though the machine is controlling them, making them feel like a puppet. 2) They will refuse to have their belief of their free will to be altered but instead believe that the machine has some â€Å"paranormal precognition by which it is able to predict your movements accurately† (Ramachandran 559-60). 3) The person will reconfigure the experience in their mind, and cling to their sense of freedom, denying what their eyes have seen as evidence and maintain that â€Å"the sensation of will precedes the machines signal, not vice versa† (Ramachandran 560). The point when the brain would â€Å"kick in† before the movement is called the â€Å"readiness potential†. The â€Å"readiness potential† is what happens when there is a change in the electrical activity of the brain that occurs before the subjects conscious decision to move a muscle (medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com). Ramachandran believes that â€Å"there is an inevitable neural delay before the signal arising in one part of the brain makes its way through the rest of the brain to deliver the messagenatural selection has ensured that the subjective sensation of willing to delay deliberately to coincide not with the onset of the brain commands but with the actual execution of the command by your finger† (Ramachandran 560). Ramachandran is a firm believer in evolution, believing that the events must have some sort of evolutionary purpose. â€Å"On one hand,† he says, â€Å"this experiment shows that free will is false and cannot be causing the brain events because the events kick in a second earlier. But on the other hand, the pause must have some purpose, otherwise why would the delay have evolved† (Ramachandran 560). Though these events have a purpose, evolutionary is not the answer. In Joshua 24:15 it says â€Å"Choose for yourselves this day who you will serve, as for me and my household we will serve the LORD.† God gives mankind a choice to follow Him and so free will is a gift from God as something to be accepted. Humans have the gift of God to reject or take the free gift that He offers. If humans really are descendants of apes, then when did the gift of free will come into the evolutionary chain of todays mankind? John 7:37 says â€Å"Anyone who is thirsty may come to me.† It is an offer. Not a demanding command. Anyone who is thirsty may come to me, shows us that God does not want us to be without his living water and without him, but it is our choice whether we choose to accept Gods free gift of salvation. When studying free will in the Bible and through works of literature like Vilayandur S. Ramachandran, there will always be people on both sides of the argument. Do we have control of our own destinies or are we merely puppets in Gods giant game of the world? My personal beliefs on the subject are as I have stated in this paper: Though God has a control over the destiny of the world and each of our lives, he gives us a chance to make a decision to follow him or to ignore the free gift of his son that he has offered to us. John 3:16 it says: â€Å"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believed in him would have eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.† Works Cited Jacobus, Lee A. A World Of Ideas. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. Print. The Free Dictionary. Medical Dictionary. Online source. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/readiness+potential Bible. New Living Translation.

Genetic Screening Will Not Put Limits on Equal Opportunity :: Science Biology Biological Essays

Genetic Screening Will not Put Limits on Equal Opportunity Introduction Genetic screening is a pressing issue in today's public policy forum, research and industry. Genetic screening provides enormous opportunities and is an incredible advance in science. However, genetic screening poses problems that are not and can not be easily overlooked. These are the following two issues dealt with in this paper. What can genetic screening offer people that currently is not being offered and at what cost to the people will this advance be? Genetic screening was devised to offer people a service and more important, to essentially, protect them from themselves. Genetic screening involves the screening of persons' genotypes to determine if they (1) are already associated with disease or are predisposed to disease, (2) may pass on disease to their descendants, or (3) produce other variations not associated with disease. (NAS 1975) Genetic screening is used as a means to prevent the onset or provide control for genetically inherited diseases. This in the long run is economical and treatment is effective. Screening of this type involves the detection of genetic disease and must first be defined to assure an understanding in the objectives of screening. Carriers of a genetic disease appear normal and are not affected except if the trait is expressed quantitatively across a population. In this case, the individual will have some disease characteristics however, not as severe as those with the disease. Individuals that have a genetic disease are almost always homozygous recessive for that gene meaning that there is an insufficiency in its ability to perform the correct function. One must not mistake a genetic screening test with a genetic diagnostic test. The difference is great and can be easily confused. A genetic screening test is not a definite confirmation of disease presence. It only gives an alert or signal to the possible presence that could affect the health of an individual. A genetic diagnostic test can tell with greater certainty if a disease is present in an individual. (Blatt 1996) Testing-Methods There are different times throughout the life span of a human in which genetic tests, both screening and diagnostic, can be preformed. The most popular and recognizable are the prenatal tests and testing of newborns. The genetic screening tests currently available for pregnant women are maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) screening, enhanced MSAFP, amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling (CVS), percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS), fetal biopsy and fetal cell sorting.

Paradise Lost Critical Analasis

Paradise Lost Critical Analysis â€Å"Should God create another Eve, and I Another rib afford, yet loss of thee Would never from my heart; no no, I feel The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh, Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe. † (9. 911) John Milton believes it is his responsibility to enlighten the world that predestination and free will can exist simultaneously. He uses the very well-known story of Adam and Eve, and elaborates the details to establish the theme of an epic. Adam is caught in a horrible situation between Eve and God.He has been told to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, but his wife Eve has disobeyed and eaten some of the fruit. Adam’s first thoughts aren’t even to deny the fruit and let Eve fall alone. The thought he goes to is of â€Å"God creating another Eve† (9. 911) and him being depressed with this new woman. She would be a replacement, but the true Eve â€Å" would never from his heart† (9. 913). Adam and Eve’s fall is the center of Milton’s whole argument about predestination and free will. Both people are given a chance to choose what path they will take, and both fall.Adam doesn’t just take the apple and eat because it was placed in front of him; there was a thought process going through his head leading up to his choice of eating the fruit. Eve, â€Å"flesh of flesh, bone of [his] bone† (9. 914) has convinced him to follow to the side of death. There wasn’t even a massive argument between the two: Adam took it on himself and his own thoughts to take the fruit. There is proof in Adam’s knowledge of the different options he has when he states that God can â€Å"create another Eve, and I another rib afford† (9. 911).If free will did not exist there would be only one option Adam could take, but this situation proves that God can know what is going to happen with the tree and Man, but still give him the option to do what he wants, either eating the fruit or avoiding it and following him. When deciding how he will handle this situation lay before him, Adam says explains why Eve is so much more than just his love. She is â€Å"flesh of flesh, Bone of my bone† (9. 913), which causes him to have more of an attachment to her than any modern man can have to another being.This is more than a wife could ever match, and more than any family member could reach. Adam chooses to take part in this sin even though he knows it will cause him to fall from God, because he has been tempted by Eve, the direct embodiment of himself. Up until this point in their relationship, Adam and Eve have been in paradise. This is the first conflict they have reached, and Adam chooses to follow this woman to any extent, through any situation, â€Å"mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe† (9. 916). This decision is made in completely consciousness, without any outside forces acti ng on him.

Organizational Behavior and Communication Paper...

Organizational Behavior and Communication Paper Nordstrom Inc., started as a small shoe store in Seattle, Washington in 1901. Since that time it has become one of the leading and successful shoe and apparel retailers in operation today. After reviewing different information regarding Nordstrom Inc. espoused values and enacted values, it is apparent that they are in alignment. Espoused values are the core values of the company. The history and organizational beliefs, developed into policy for the company. The goal of the espoused values is to create standard of behavior for the company. The enacted values are norms exhibited by employees (Answers, 2013). If the espoused and enacted values are misaligned problems could occur within the†¦show more content†¦(Nordstrom History, Jan) The leadership mantra is that teams and communication should always flow in all directions. These forms of communication enables the team members: to be accountable, have a shared vision, be able to give and receive feedback, engage employees, and provide exceptional customer service. Perception is important in an organizational culture. Perception is a â€Å"process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.† (Judge Robbins, 2011) Nordstrom has a culture of autonomy, empowerment, good judgment, and above all good customer service. The leadership communicates the company history and goals through story telling so that employees can understand the importance of customer service to the organization. For example, in 1978 a customer returned a tire to the store, the employee asked for the receipt and returned the money to the customer. When working for Nordstrom as a seasonal employee, the tire story was shared with the new employees and is currently being shared with new employees. What I perceived the organization to be is one of standing by their claim of superior customer service, using good judgment, and the customer is always right. Nordstrom is an organization that practices constructive conflict. This form of conflict â€Å"refers to conflict in which the benefits exceeds the cost.†Show MoreRelatedOrganizational Behavior and Communication Paper979 Words   |  4 PagesOrganizational Behavior and Communication Paper Evelyn Smith COM 530 October 8, 2010 Organizational Behavior and Communication Paper This paper discusses the culture of the American Red Cross, noting whether the organization’s values align with espoused or enacted values. Also covered will be to what extent is communication in the American Red Cross determined by its organizations culture. 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