John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

The truth Thomas Jefferson was talking about, in the declaration of independence, was the fact that "all men are created equal." This phrase states that everybody is not created to be treated unfairly than others. Like all others they should be receiving similar or even same "rights" such as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. These are the three things that every individual should have and even though I mention them as an individual’s but together they form the whole group.

According to the declaration of independence the government comes from the people. They decide who should lead it, they decide whether if the choices that are made are good ones. One very important line from the document is that if "Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." Basically it means if the leader or whoever is in charge of the power, becomes a tyrant or too power hungry then the people have the right to remove him from the position and or make changes to the system. They have the right to form their own form of government to whatever they please to their own "safety and happiness".

You can immediately see the changes in the structure and system in government than from the older ones like monarchy. These ideas were developed and formed by John Locke who gathered bits and pieces of ideas for the perfect government from enlightenment thinkers. Those ideas soon formed into what we have now and that is known as a democracy where the people have power and a say in what goes on in their own country/nation.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

When you think of the solar system, there are two important theories you should know about, heliocentric and geocentric. When you break the words down they go to their Greek meanings. In Heliocentric: Helios is the Greek word for sun. While in Geocentric; Geo is Greek for earth. In both words: Centric comes from Kentron which is the Greek word for center. Geocentric means that the earth is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it. Heliocentric is a little different than that. It states that the sun is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it instead of the earth. Obviously both of these theories are not true. The Geocentric theory may have come first but it is not the correct one. 
When you think of the solar system, there are two important theories you should know about, heliocentric and geocentric. When you break the words down they go to their Greek meanings. In Heliocentric: Helios is the Greek word for sun. While in Geocentric; Geo is Greek for earth. In both words: Centric comes from Kentron which is the Greek word for center. Geocentric means that the earth is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it. Heliocentric is a little different than that. It states that the sun is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it instead of the earth. Obviously both of these theories are not true. The Geocentric theory may have come first but it is not the correct one. 

During the scientific revolution advances in scientific and mathematic ideas were taken to different levels. Great advances such as views towards the universe were challenged. One of them was that everything does not revolve around the earth. In the 16th century Copernicus had developed a model of the heliocentric system. Though it did come up till consideration until 1,800 years later, Johannes Kepler was able to work with and add on to Copernicus's theory.  

Galileo Galilei was a famous astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and a physicist. He played a very important role in the scientific revolution. In 1630 Galileo published the "Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World." He had discussed the heliocentric theory and denied the geocentric theory. Unlike the geocentric theory Galileo was able to support heliocentrism with acknowledgeable facts and evidence from his studies of physics and his findings through his telescope that was placed in his garden. Galileo was surprised to find that his theory had more skeptics than believers. 

For his actions, Galileo was taken to trial, in 1633, by the Catholic Church because they on the other hand did not follow the same beliefs and ideas as Galileo did. They strictly followed the teachings of philosophers like Aristotle, Ptolemy and things taught within the church. Basically the church saw him as a threat to the public and if people found out that he was actually right then many people would challenge the church as well. 

After the trial Galileo was forced to renounce his beliefs in heliocentrism and his book was banned by the Catholic Church. His original verdict was to be jailed for life in prison but was changed the day after to house arrest which led up to his death. Only after his death in the 1990's did the Church lift the ban that was placed on his book "Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World."

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

The Scientific Method is a reliable way to question or challenge an idea or even come up with something then test it. People couldn't challenge an idea if they didn't know what it was, considering the fact that ideas were argued rather than tested back then which is not only outrageous by the fact that people believed it, but also people who came up with the theory didn’t even bother checking to see if they were right. One reason why is because they wouldn’t know what to do or how to go about finding out answers. Basically everyone just went with the first thing they heard. 
This method is very organized and goes step by step. Each step is very crucial. You start off with observations. Basically all you do is observing something and if you find something that looks interesting then you can start to form questions about it. The next step is the hypothesis 

A hypothesis is your opinion/prediction/educated guess on what you think is going to happen. Once you have come up with a hypothesis you perform experiments. 

By doing these tests you get closer to answering your questions and proving that your hypothesis is right. These tests have very detailed steps known as the procedure. They would also contain multiple trials because you can't base your decision on just one try. 

If anything turns out to be false then you have to go back to the hypothesis stage and start over from there. When the tests are finally done and you have results proving your theory right, then you can come up with a conclusion stating it and call your idea a theory from then on. 

It may seem like a really long process but in the end it’s all worthwhile knowing that you can tell people something they know is right. Also if some criticize you, instead of just arguing you can show them the facts and results to make believers out of them as well.

An example of an experiment that utilizes the scientific method is to see if lack of sleep affects a person’s mood. First off you would form your hypothesis which in this case would be mine and I would say that "I think a person would have be more ill-tempered and vinegary (cranky) if they have lack of sleep." Then I would have to move onto my tests by getting people willing to be a part of the experiment.

Then I would have to divide the people in half and have a control group and experimental group. The people not getting any sleep would be the experimental while the people who are would be the control. In each trial I would have to record the difference between the experimental and control groups behaviors and actions. In the end when I have completed all my trials I would gather all my results and come up with a conclusion stating everything that has happened.

There I will have proof stating my hypothesis right or wrong. I can't say which right now because I have not done this experiment, but form prior knowledge of the human mind I can say that my hypothesis is correct.  

Evolution vs. Creation

The theory of evolution basically deals mostly with nature and sciences. I'm not just saying it has to do with nature just because of Natural Selection but because it takes up majority of what Charles Darwin was trying to prove in his theory of evolution. His theory suggests that all people and animals have a common ancestor. That ancestor could have walked/swam etc...On earth millions of years ago and through natural selection (survival of the fittest) the organism developed more into the years and formed more complex organisms. Basically put, all of the advanced organisms are able to survive under the conditions while the weak are at a disadvantage as they start to die out. Passing on traits to the next generation is very crucial or nature itself will take you out. The one thing about this theory that makes it so unique and draws attention to people is that we humans/homo-sapiens/people have common ancestors to animals, mostly traits identical to primates. We developed from cavemen as they grew in intelligence. One question that people ask to skepticize this theory is "how was the first organism created?" That one question alone is able to shoot down majority of the ideas that Darwin within his theory. That question leads me into the theory of creation.

The theory of creation deals with religious beliefs. These religious beliefs all begin by saying that some kind of divine force/deity/god(s) created all life, hence the name "theory of creation." According to the book of genesis it simply states that god created the first man, Adam, and takes one of his ribs and forms the first woman, Eve. People that favor the theory of evolution critique this theory by saying that you can't prove that god created life neither can you test it. The only proof that is available is found in the bible. Throughout the years people have become more sophisticated, thus people gained the courage to challenge this theory and try to prove it wrong with evolution. Overall both theories are able to question each other and have reasons to back them up with. I know I may seem more lenient to evolution but actually evolution has many flaws that are found within while creation all begins with the idea of god creating life.

In my opinion I stick in between both theories. The reason for my decision is because both of these theories are not perfect and have many flaws some yet to be uncovered. I do give a little nod towards evolution because of it natural selection and passing traits on to the next generation idea. Even though it says that humans developed from primates it still defies the idea of god creating two human beings and letting it start from there. I have to agree with people who pointed out this major flaw in the theory of evolution "what created the first living organism?" Like I mentioned before, this one question alone can eliminate many ideas within evolution. In my mind I still believe that something had to create it and by doing so evolution just seems less and less believable. I also wondered if there was a way both of these theories could be right and that the flaws in both of them could be found in one another. I doubt that a lot or any people would agree with me on that thought but this is how I view life.