Ideas That Matter

Four students from Fleming County High School discuss their questions and research topics for their English 200 class. Jesse is interested in how one inspires others, Taylor wants to explore human evolution, Carter is curious about the relationship between science and religion, and Georgia is focusing on why humans act the way they do, particularly in relation to religion. They discuss their findings and personal experiences, with Jesse considering how to inspire students through music education, Taylor exploring the impact of religion on human behavior, Carter reflecting on the interconnectedness of science and religion, and Georgia pondering the influence of religion on human actions. They also touch on concepts like inspiration, significance in education, and the role of karma in human behavior. Hi, this is Jesse Weiss. I'm Taylor Maddox. I'm Carter Dyer. Georgia Langston. We're with Fleming County High School. We're in Brandi Trent's English 200 dual credit class, and we're here today to talk about Ideas That Matter from our book, our textbook, Reading the World, Ideas That Matter, edited by Michael Austin. We were given groups to talk about some questions that we may have, and my question was, how does one inspire? I've been doing work with some teachers, you know, co-opping, and I get to see every day how they invoke inspiration from young scholars, and that inspired me to ask this question. So here we are. Taylor, how about you? I've been reading the chapter Science and Nature out of this book, and my question was, how has human evolution changed over time? And I've always been interested in human evolution and how, you know, where we came from from the past and how we are today. And I feel like it's really important because human evolution is, like, you know, like I said, where we came from and what we will be in the next hundreds to thousands of years. So it's always been a very interesting topic for me. Carter? I'm also doing the Science and Nature chapter. I picked it because science has always been my field of interest in life, more so than English or anything like that. And through reading that, I came up with the question, how has the relationship between science and religion impacted scientific discoveries and developments? But as I researched more and I found more topics to read and more things to look into, I kind of switched it over to how has science and religion impacted one another because my original question kind of painted it like religion is holding science back, but through my research I kind of found that they more so go hand in hand and hold one another back. What about you, Georgia? I'm also doing Science and Nature, along with you all. But my question was why do humans act the way they do, but I've kind of evolved it to do humans act the way they do because of religion since that's what this chapter mainly focuses on. I've come to reading about ways of thinking such as, like, different philosophies, different types of religion, and just all in sort of how humans act outside of religion. Cool. Good job, guys. So I guess I'll start us off with my study on education and inspiration. In our book that we've been reading, I read excerpts by Richard Feynman and Paulo Freire, and it was really interesting to start with those two because theirs kind of went together in a really interesting way. Richard Feynman started teaching a class in Brazil where he noticed a problem, that all of their educators were just teaching the students terms with definitions attached to them and nothing to kind of, like, relate them to. So they couldn't, like, have a real-world example for what they were learning. They just knew, like, the definition of what this was. So it's just like pure vocab. Yeah, exactly. They were just learning vocabulary. And what's really interesting was Paulo Freire kind of solves that problem with his philosophy on the banking theory, with, you know, making your information significant, you know, giving it a – making it inspirational, literally. And it's been really interesting to see my band director that I've been co-opting with and how he takes a group of students at the middle school, you know, and they're learning about humanities, and nobody wants to do humanities. They have to. But, I mean, like, by the second week of them being in there, they're all like, let's learn about Bach, you know. It's really cool to see. And that's kind of what inspired me to ask the question about inspiration. And it's just really – I don't know. It just resonates with me. And I want to be the one to inspire people. You know, I want to go into music education, and I want to create spark in these kids. And, you know, in doing so, in studying and things, I've just had to see how I can make things interesting for people, pretty much. I mean, that's what's answered my question, is, you know, make things interesting, and, you know, make it significant to whoever you're trying to inspire. Make whatever you're teaching significant. Whenever we started studying stuff out of the book, reading from online, I found a teacher that said, you can do all that you can to inspire most people, but some just won't take the inspiration. And he said, at the end of the day, it's up to those who are trying to inspire to actually become inspired. You know, you can do all that you can to teach well, but at the end of the day, it's up to them. And that was – that's really what capped off my research and answers my question. You know, how does one inspire? You do all that you can, but at the end of the day, it's up to them. The person has to choose. The person, yeah. It's the student's choice, or whoever, you know. Yeah. So how would you – like, you said you were going into music education, so how do you think you personally would, like, be the inspiration? I could tell, you know, a story about, like, what music has done for me, you know, in, like, struggling with sadness, or even just, like, being with my family. That's what my family does is music. I mean, that's how I'm – you know, everybody has, like, their family reunions and dinners for us. We're united by music, and I mean, I feel like I could lead some students to feel the same way about music that I do. Right. I mean, look at your dad. You grew up around that. Yeah. Yeah. It's literally been my whole life. Yeah. It's kind of impossible to not feel that way towards music. And I'd like to try to invoke that from some students. Yeah. That'd be nice. You think there's a formula to it, like, a way you would go about it? Based on my summary, I think not really, because everybody has their own way of structure. Like, Mr. Coleman is, like, straight to the point. Yeah, and the way he does it is incredible. He's always moving into the next idea. He's never got any downtime. But, like, Ms. Hamm, the choir director now, she's more personal with you. Like, she'll talk to you, and that's how she – Connects. Yeah, she connects to you, and that's how she's – and she was telling me this morning about a student she had at the middle school that wouldn't turn in any assignments. But, like, one day last week, she started talking to him about cooking. And ever since then, you know, he's just – he's turned in all his assignments. He's got an A in the class now. So everybody has their own way to do it. And I guess the next question for me is, what will mine be? And it'll probably be something to do with how music's been my life, you know? Yeah. Talk about inspiration. Yeah. There you go. Very inspiring. Yeah, I'm inspired, for sure. You're welcome. I feel like I could cry. With you, I feel like you don't even have to do much. You just – like, everyone knows you. And that could be either a good thing or a bad thing. But to me, I feel like it's a good thing because just being around you, you lighten up my mood. Like, I could be in the worst mood possible, and, like, I come around, and you just inspire me to be happy all day. Yeah, you have that – You're just automatically inspirational to others. Yeah. So I feel like you wouldn't struggle with that. You have that bubbly personality. Yeah. I feel like you're – you're crying. I feel like you, like – you're, like, on the right path. Yeah. That is the perfect thing for you, to be honest. Yeah. Well, that's very good to hear. Yeah. Very inspiring. All right. Well, I guess I cast out. So mine is the humans act the way they do because of religion. I read Averroes, and he talked about the Quran. I honestly don't understand. I hope I'm pronouncing it right. He talked about the Quran a lot and how humans act on because of it. There's a specific part. I can't really quite remember it, but it's talking something about, like, do evil and evil will unto you, something like that. But – and I feel like that's really why humans act because a lot of, you know – I mean, look at people in jail. Not even trying to, like, bash on them, but, you know, they might do evil things because of what was done to them. I mean, it's, like, kind of a nature thing. And that could also be why, you know, if you grow up in a very religious household or environment, you're going to grow up to be very religious or even rebel against because a lot of people do that. I know I did. And I feel not necessarily passionate about it, but more so intrigued by it. Do you think that has any relation to the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated? Honestly, yeah. Well, he didn't specifically say that. He did talk about being a decent human being. Like, towards the last few, like, chapters in his book, he talked about to not push your religion onto other people and to treat others as you want to be treated, pretty much. Yeah. Do you think it has anything to do with, like, karma? Because, like, they do unto you. Yeah, for sure. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think that's what, like, the whole Muslim religion is. Yeah, I'm pretty positive that karma is their main... Yeah. I didn't know that. I think they do a lot of karma-based things in the Himalayas, too, in Asia. So, yeah, I mean, it very well could be. It could be a multitude of things. But I do very much believe that karma is a thing. Yeah. Because, I mean, well, I mean, it just happens. I mean, like, you could do something so amazing, and then you would think that it would come to you immediately. And it doesn't. It could come to you years from now. But if you do something bad, it's, like, almost immediately. Yeah. And I think that's crazy. You know, karma's, instant karma. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right, so my topic was the, how evolution has affected life forms over time. And I thought about it, and the way I wanted to discuss it was going over, like, chronologically in the way, like, the orders went. Like the way that you studied it. Yeah, but the way, like, from the early years to now. But I realized that didn't really, it's not going to work out very well for me based on what I've, like, read and how I've learned it. Because mainly this chapter we've talked about is pretty much science and religion more than solely based on my question. There was definitely some things that helped but not, like, enough to answer my question. So I used outside sources. So I'm going to start with the one that helped me the most was David Suzuki in our book. He did, he talked about a lot of things. He talked about, there was these different ways. I don't remember how he says it. It's, there was, he started off with, if extraterrestrial beings, at the time he made it, it was 1997, this book he read. If extraterrestrial beings were to come through Earth, like, a long time ago, like, when we first were starting. Neanderthals. Yeah, like, Neanderthals and that type of, yeah, sure, in that aspect. They would completely skip over us because they wouldn't think we were intelligent enough as life forms. And he talks about how humans in, like, the 3.8 billion years that we've been on the planet have affected and adapted the Earth more than any other species or anything else in, like, ever. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, look at cities. Yeah, like, all the technology we've had. All the technology, the roads. Yeah, and, like, all the technology we talk about, it doesn't have to be, like, technical stuff in that matter. It can be, like, the way our brains have, like, grown or, like, population, structures, anything like that. It can be, like, you know, you talk about cities and then we have how big our populations were. In 1997, he mentioned their population, I don't even think, was barely 2 billion. And that was 1997. That was, what, 30 years ago? And so now we're here with pushing 8 billion people because of all these things that we're able to do. Like, you know, you think about health care and all the technology they have with, you know, like, incubators for babies. Like, people are, like, kids are being born in tubes and all these different things. Like, all the technology that we have is increasing, and it's incredible. And then I also had this outside topic that I found. It's a article. It's Australian Museum. They posted this on their website. It's – they talk about different timelines and how, like, we have – as people, like, physically and mentally have, like, expanded. So it's really weird how this works. So way back when, we – our bones, our brains, everything were bigger than they are now. Ironic. Right. It is ironic. And we talked about – we talked about the backwards evolution. Charles Darwin mentioned that. I forgot to mention Darwin. But he talked about the backwards evolution and how, you know, all the technology bringing us back to where we were before. Like, you know, we were getting somewhere. The technology hit, and now we're pretty much deteriorating. Our brains are. So this article talks about, like, 40 – it says right here, 40,000 years ago, European males were, like, the average height was 6 feet. And then it progressively got shorter. Like, you know, you have 10,000 years ago, it was 5'4", 600, 5'5", and then today it's now 5'9". So do you think we're going to, like, be on this, like, graph of up and down throughout the future? Well, that's the way it's looking, yeah. That's what I would think. Because you wouldn't think how much we've, like, expanded as a – like a life form, you know, us as humans. You wouldn't expect it to go down. Or, like, our brain sizes are smaller. Our bones are – yeah, our brain sizes are physically smaller. We have smaller teeth and jaws. Like, our bones are less dense, and it doesn't really make sense to me. You know, like, if you think about evolution, you think it's a growing thing. You think it would be better. You think it's going backwards. I think it's going backwards. And so I feel like it's kind of like at a stalemate because, you know, you have your evolution, and it's going. It was going great, and then it just kind of, like, falls. It was going, and it's, like, stopped. Right. So it's kind of like it is in between, like, back and forth, bouncing between different things. This is kind of, like, a little bit, like, in the future. But, like, would you say that evolution now is less so changes in the human body and more so changes in the technology we have? I would agree with that, yeah. I think it would be more, like, mainly things around us than just us ourselves. So, like, the things we're creating is our evolution. Pretty much. That's what I would say, yeah. And, you know, like, it shows it. It proves it. Like, you know, us ourselves are going backwards, but everything else that we've produced and made is going up. Like, emissions we have, like, climate's going down, like, ice caps melting, all that different things. That's caused by us and our evolution of, like, advancements in technology. Do you think, actually, that the reason our, like, physical evolution was regressing is because our mental evolution is so advanced that we're not putting as much stress on ourselves? So our bodies don't need to be as big and strong as they were. Yeah, because we don't have to because of what we have. Like, you know, you think way back when they had to build their fires, they had to build their homes, like, rocks, logs, all this type of things. Well, we don't have to now because we have all these different types of things that help us do that. Yeah. We don't have to be as physically advanced as we were a long time ago because we just don't need to. Yeah. And so I feel like that's really affected how we've changed as people now, and it's going to affect how it's going to be later on as well. And then I've also thought about it, the whole evolution thing, because our chapter talks a lot about religion, and I'm a religious guy. So I've always thought, you know, God created Earth, you know, he created the people on Earth, the life on Earth, everything that we have on Earth, God created. I feel that God allowed evolution to happen. Like, so people talk about evolution as a science thing. I believe it's a science-religion thing that's matched. Yeah. So, like, it works on its own. God has allowed us to evolve because, like, that's just how he did it. It's like Aaron's painting. Yeah, Aaron's painting. I mean, they coincide. Yeah. Definitely. They work together more so than against each other, like you would think they would. But, yeah, you know, I mean, it's... It sounds like, you know, humanity's kind of destroying itself. Yeah. In our want to grow technologically, we regress physically. It's kind of like we're advancing so much that our physical bodies and also, like, the planet we inhabit is kind of regressing because of our strive to be better. Yeah, and the way... And I'll tell you what, I know this is going to sound weird, but I think just about WALL-E is a perfect example of this. I really do believe WALL-E is a perfect example. Yeah, it is. Because, like, all the things, you know, we have our technology, it's tearing down the Earth. Like, you know, we have our missions and all that. It's causing, like, you know, effects globally everywhere. So, I mean, like, you know... You think WALL-E could be a reality someday? I really do believe that. I really do. I really do believe that. I agree. Yeah, definitely. And also, I forgot to mention, I read the... I went over the map. There's a map. Claudius Ptolemy, he's a Greek philosopher, and he made this map. And it was used a lot by, like, Christian and Islamic religions. They used it because it related to the Bible. It was very, like, biblically accurate. And they used it for a long time. Like, they would entrap or even execute people if they went against it. But I use this as an evolution thing because this map or the planetary system they have is very Earth-centered. It's an Earth-centered planetary system. And we know now, obviously, that's simply not the case. Yeah. So, yeah, that's about it. I want to go back and talk about the population. You said in, what was it, 1997, there were 2 billion people? 2 billion. No, it was 8 billion. 8 billion. We're pushing 8 billion people. Do you think that we'll have that exponential growth in the future, or are we just going to stop here? Are we capped out? See, that is a... With all our talks about technology. That's a good question. Me, personally, I feel like it will. I feel like we'll keep growing until we can't grow anymore. Until we have a Wall-E situation. Yeah. I think that's what's going to happen. I mean, that makes sense. Yeah. And it's crazy how big of a jump we've made in, like, population just off of that. I mean, it's insane. It's wild. It is wild. I kind of want to link you talking about the Ptolemaic cosmological chart or whatever, and also your evolution to mine, because mine's about science and religion together. And, you know, it's not something that's set in stone, like, religion hates science, science hates religion, you know. Religion's holding science back. I mean, there are examples like the evolution where they completely disagree. And, like you said, you see it as they work together. Well, a lot of people don't see it like that. A lot of people are like, this is a one or the other kind of choice. Either God did it or it was evolution. Yeah. And it's also, like, talking about the Ptolemaic chart with the Catholic Church and everything, you know, the Catholic Church really pushed the Ptolemaic chart. That's what they believed, is that the Earth was in the center of everything. Because the thing about the Ptolemaic chart is it was observable. They could see that, and it made sense because they could see it, and it made sense within the context of religion. Which is why the Catholic Church really pushed it. And anybody fighting against that, specifically, what was his name, I can't remember it. It was Galileo. Yeah, Galileo. He got imprisoned because he said the Earth went around the sun. And, you know, that is kind of what I think planted the seed that religion and science can't be on the same page. But it's actually quite the opposite, is what I've found, is that more often than not, they can go hand in hand. And they may not agree on a specific topic, but if you're a scientist looking at something, you can think of it through, like, a religious person's eyes and see from a different perspective. And I think that allows you to view something in a different light to make more, like, findings, to explore more on the subject. Yeah. You know, I mean, the Catholic Church isn't always negative about stuff. I mean, the Big Bang Theory started with a clergy in the Catholic Church. They made the theory of the Big Bang Theory. Genetics started with the Catholic Church. Pope Francis was actually a chemist. So, I mean, science within the Catholic Church is really woven pretty tight. And it has a lot of, like, it's related a lot to each other. It's, like, there's even this quote from Pope Francis that says, The Big Bang, which nowadays is said to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it. So, like you said, he's kind of viewing it as in they're together, they're the same thing. And I think that's how we should view the world in general. Because, I mean, like, so many of the great thinkers in our book are religious. Yeah. Like, Averroes is Islamic. Maimonides is Jewish. Ricard and Dwan are Buddhist. And, I mean, these people are, they can think about these things and revolve them in their head like a way normal people can't. Yeah. And I think it has something to do with the fact that they're chasing an education, they're pushing themselves, and they have the different perspective of religion. Yeah. And I think that really helps. Especially this book. Like, I've never, I would have never heard of this book until this year when we learned it, when we went over it. And I feel like people now, like, they don't care as much. They either want to be right or they, there's no other option. They just want to be right. Yeah. So they're not going to think about it in another aspect, like, such as they would. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's not a clear black and white, right or wrong religion or science. And I think, like, Aaron's painting or whatever. Aaron's painting literally is perfect for this. They should go together because you get the perspectives. You can see the whole problem from both worlds. And you just, I feel like you can see more of what's going on. Aaron's painting depicts a dove, which is a religious symbol in Christianity, carrying a beaker. And I forget how she explained that it all goes together. But I'm just saying this. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, it fits absolutely perfectly with this discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Another example is from The Universe in a Grain of Sand, which is in our book, with Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Duong Thanh. I think that's how you say it. They're two Buddhists who have PhDs. I can't remember. I think Ricard, yeah, Ricard has it in astrophysics. And I don't remember what Duong's is. I don't either. But, I mean, they're both, like, really intelligent scientists who have, like, a foot in Buddhism. Like, one of them was raised in Buddhism in a Buddhist family, and one of them became a student of Buddhism and has studied it. And they've related Buddhism thought called interdependency, which is where no object or thing that was created or whatever can exist without being linked to something else. It can't exist, like, autonomously, you could say. It can't be by itself. It's got to be linked to something. Suzuki also mentioned that he mentioned it wasn't interdependency itself, but they talked about how everything that exists has a reason to exist. It's not there just because it wants to be there. It has to have something. Yeah, they linked it to quantum mechanics because of, like, light photons being connected to each other. Like, there was an Einstein experiment, the EPR thought experiment, which is basically where, like, if you exploded a photon, it would explode into two particles, particle A and particle B, and they would go in opposite directions from each other. And the way the photons would work is, like, it would be a wave, and then it would become the photon. And so as a wave, it doesn't have a set direction. As a wave, it can go anywhere. But it doesn't matter, no matter where particle A ends up, particle B is always on the opposite side. And they were thinking, like, how can they communicate because if they're traveling at the speed of light, you know, you're not getting any communication between the things. And it's actually a thought experiment that Einstein was proved wrong on because Einstein thought it was impossible that there was something missing there. But the experiment was actually carried out a few years later. I don't remember by who, but they found that there's nothing missing. That's just how it is. Like, they know because they're linked. They know where they're going to go. There's just that connection there. So you probably mentioned it. It just went past me. So I know you think they both coincide. They work together. Yeah. I don't know how I'm trying to word this question here. If you were to pick one, if you had to pick one, do you think one's more right or one works better than the other? I feel like they both have to go together to make sense. Like science or religion? Yeah. I don't feel like – because I feel like there's some religion things that work solely off of science and there's some science things that work solely off religion. But I don't know how you would – I don't feel like you could have them separately. I don't think you can pick one. I think that's kind of where the problem comes up is from picking one. Okay. So we were rudely interrupted. There's a very brief pause right there about Ms. Hall. It's okay. We don't blame her, but it's fine. There was a tornado. Yeah. We kind of had to get out, but that's fine. We had to cut it off after my struggle of a minute-long question that was really simple that could have been done in like ten seconds, but it's fine. It's whatever. So I'm going to ask it again, and hopefully this time I don't struggle with it. Carter, is that okay? That's fine. All right. So my question was do you think that science and religion can go separate? Do you think that they have to work together? I think it's better if they work together because obviously, like I was touching on before, we were rudely interrupted. You know, you get the perspective of both. But, I mean, I guess if you have to have one like alone without the other, I would probably say science because, I mean, science is what has pushed us into the technological era. I mean, like innovation and all that, that's science. It's not religion. But, I mean, I think it's better if they stay together. Which makes a lot of sense considering, you know, science is the technical part. I mean, science is – I guess you could say religion kind of pushed us like culturally, like especially like in like the 1700s, you know, sending out missionaries or whatever. But, you know, I think science is pushing us over the edge in terms of the modern era. So I would probably go with science now. Back then, maybe religion. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's better to keep them together because they kind of propel each other forward. All right. So I feel like a great way to conclude all this would be to say the world is an amazing place full of amazing things. And, you know, I feel like what we're doing in this class is we're unlocking the key to the next, you know, the next thing that we're going to do. Our next chapter? Our next chapter. I don't even think it's unlocking the key. I think it's like unlocking the key and showing everybody in the world. Yeah. Yeah. It's like showing us that we're more than what we think we are, you know what I mean? It's like Greta Thunberg. Yeah. 17, going out, doing big things for the world. Like we can be like that, too. We're not just, you know, some small-town kids in Fleming County. Yeah. That's definitely what this is all about. And, yeah, I feel like we had some great discussions in this multiple-session podcast. Yeah. It was definitely different than like a full-blown podcast, you know. It was like we had to section it into different things. Yeah. I blame you mostly, Ms. Hall. No, I'm just kidding. But, yeah, no, but it was good. It was good. It was like stepping stones, like leading us to where we could be later on in life. Right. We're really happy with how that came out, and we hope you are, too. Thanks, everybody in English class and anybody else who happens to hear it. Yeah. And we love you. Thanks, Ms. Hall, for letting us borrow the room. Oh, yeah. Thank you. That's also great. Thanks, Ms. Trent, for letting us use class time. Yeah, also true. Big time. We'd also like to thank Barney for being our emotional support. Barney's our biggest supporter. Yeah. Thanks, everybody, and I guess we're signing off. Yeah, so. Good job, team.