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II. Revision Chart Secind Draft: Explaining Science-Based Beliefs such as Darwin s Evolution and Big Bang Theory as a form of Creationist Beliefs Everywhere on earth, there is life: from the depths of Pacific Ocean to the top of Mt. Everest, from the desserts of Africa to the rain forests of Amazon. Our world is filled with a tremendous variety of life. Its origin is not a mystery. It is an important discussion of how and where life owes its existence and how did it began. When discussing the subject of "origins" (i.e. the question "How did we get here?"), people often make both religious and scientific claims. Additionally, people have many different views on the proper relationship between science-based beliefs and faith-based beliefs. Despite many people's tendency to think of all creationists in one group and all evolutionists in another, "creationism" refers to a wide range of beliefs (Isaak, 2000, para. 1). Though these science-based beliefs (e.g. Big Bang Theory, Darwin s Evolution) are supported by scientific explanations, they remain to be a creationist s beliefs. Have you wondered why human beings look somewhat like apes and dolphins came to be good swimmers? The science of evolution answers questions like these. The word evolution comes from the Latin evolvere, to unfold or unroll -to reveal or manifest hidden potentialities. Today evolution has come to mean, simply change (Futuyma, 1942, p. 2). Evolution is a change in the genetic composition of a species and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications of successive generations
( Evolution, n.d.). It simply means change in life through time. The theory of evolution removed the whole image of god as the creator of organisms and pointed out that no supernatural was needed. One mechanism through which evolution occurred is adaptation. Adaptation means change in response to environment. Adaptation happens if a species or population changes in response to its environment and that change is genetic. For example, ancient giraffes had varying neck lengths. With climate change, long-necked giraffes could feed on tall trees; short necked ones could not. Short-necked giraffes died; long-necked giraffes survived to reproduce. In other words, adaptation is a process of evolution. It is the process upon which evolution (like the slow change between species, or common ancestry between species) depend. During and since the birth of evolution, people have been looking for and studying evidence in nature that teaches them more about evolution. One example of evidence of how evolution takes place is from the fossil record. There is one fact that tells us how the fossil record supports evolution. The fossils of the same group organisms can be found on a particular age of rock. Therefore, if a species go extinct, they permanently disappear. For example, Cambrian rocks, which generally contain trilobites, never contain dinosaurs or horses, only trilobites. Recent Pleistocene rocks contain no trilobites (Dusheck and Tobin, 1998). Another science-based belief of how life originated is from the Big Bang Theory which can be credited to Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer. The Big Bang is the name of a scientific theory about how the universe started, and then made the groups of stars (called galaxies) we see today. The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what
happened at the very beginning of our universe. Discoveries in astronomy and physics have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that our universe did in fact have a beginning. In the Big Bang theory, the universe began as very hot, small, and dense, with no stars, atoms, form, or structure (called a "singularity"). Then about 14 billion years ago, space expanded very quickly (thus the name "Big Bang"), resulting in the formation of atoms, which eventually led to the creation of stars and galaxies (Big Bang, n.d. In Wikipedia). One observation that supports the Big Bang theory is that galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance. This is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who discovered this phenomenon in 1929. This observation supports the expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted. On the contrary, going to faith-based belief we can have the Biblical Story of Creation as an example. According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, the word creation means "the act of creating; esp: the act of bringing into existence from nothing, the universe or the world or the living and nonliving things in it." Creation simply means the act of creating. Throughout this paper, we will more focus specifically on the biblical story of Creation. Biblical creation is primarily based on: the compelling testimony provided by God's wondrous creation and the historical and prophetic evidence supporting the Bible. The creation as described in Genesis states that God created the world in six days. The creation story in Genesis summarizes the drama that was about to unfold. It clearly states that the lives of plants, animals and humans owe its existence to God, the Creator. The Lord God created plants, animals and humans already in their
present form. It means that they are mature and ready to reproduce. We all know that according to the theory of evolution the Earth is a million years old but according to creation the Earth is only young more like 6000 years old. One example of evidence that confirms a relatively young earth is very little sediment on the sea floor. If sediments have been accumulating on the seafloor for three billion years, the seafloor should be choked with sediments many miles deep. The evidence of very little sediment on the sea floor, confirms a relatively young earth. Another type of evidence is the soft tissue in fossils. If dinosaurs lived over 65 million years ago, why do some dinosaur fossils still contain wellpreserved soft tissue? Needless to say, no evolutionists have publically considered the possibility that dinosaur fossils are not millions of years old. It means that life on earth did not take to exist millions or billions of years. In my opinion, though these science-based beliefs (e.g. Big Bang Theory and Darwin s Evolution) are supported by scientific explanations I conclude that the specific science-based belief that it closer to Biblical Creation is the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory is one of many theories trying to account for the fact that the universe is continuously expanding. The Big Bang Theory is the theory with the most evidence, and has made a number of predictions which were later found to be correct. The Big Bang Theory says nothing about life. Likewise, the theory of evolution tries to explain why many animals and plants which existed in the past no longer exist today; while many plants and animals which exist today first appear in the fossil record millions of years after life first emerged on earth. The theory of evolution explains this by natural selection and adaptation. The theory of evolution doesn't say anything about how the universe or the
earth was created, or how life was first formed on earth. It only explains how life, once started, changes over time through natural selection. III. Entry Essay Michael Joshua M. Ramos January 6, 2014 ST: 12:00 ET: 12:50 S20A The Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Internet, as we know it, had given numerous advantages for the society. In spite of the advantages, Internet had also given disadvantages that some of us may not be aware of it. Internet has been known for resource of information. One advantage Internet had given to us is that it had been a great tool for research and academics. IT provided us informations, data and researches of scientists that we all used to discover the things around us. One example of what Internet has to offer is Wikipedia. I think we all know what this website is capable of. It helped us discover new information and gather data that we have not yet known before. Even though Internet had given us advantages it also has its disadvantages. Many people do not realize the value of intellectual property rights. When you get information from our research, majority of us do not cite the sources. Internet had greatly contributed in our lives. We should know how to use it properly. By giving value of what Internet has to offer, we can improve and see what Internet is really more capable of. Internet can be useful to us of we know how to use it and if we know how to value the works of other people.
III. Exit Essay Michael Joshua M. Ramos March 26, 2014 ST: 11:40 ET: 12:30 S20A When we hear the word technology, what come to our minds are innovation, robots, supercomputers and many more. Technology have extended and changed the way mankind live and interact. Technology, throughout the years, has solved some of the world s social problems. One feat of technology it had offered to humans is Internet. Internet is an electronic communication networks that connect computer networks and computer facilities around the world. Internet have contributed great feat in human researches, communications and the things that is happening around us. After all, though Internet may have been an achievement of technology, it had also been a place of bullying, theft of intellectual property rights, cybercrimes and many more. During the past twenty decades, Time Berners Lee invented the Internet. It improved the way humans interact with each other and how humans use Internet in their research. Despite of these advancements, many people have now forgotten the integrity and the purpose of having Internet. For example, Internet has introduced us some social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype and many more. It changed the way humans connect and interact with each others. Communication with other people even in distant places has been made easier through Internet. Although it may be useful to us, some people might contradict if it preserves the traditional communication (i.e. talking face to face). In traditional communication, you can see the hand gestures and facial expressions more clearly. Another disadvantages of Internet are bullying and theft of intellectual property rights. We know that Internet is a place where we can research and get and discover new informations. Although we benefit from it, a lot of us forget to value the rights of the owner. Another, disadvantage is bullying. Social networking sites such as Facebook had been an example of bullying particularly cyber bullying. Because of the freedom, people tend to go beyond the line when they are connecting to Facebook. One feat of technology it had offered to humans is Internet. There are also numerous achievements Internet continuously offering to us. It is in our present hands that will affect the future minds.
IV. Reflective Essay Michael Joshua M. Ramos April 4, 2014 S20a One misconception I know from myself is that I m a bad writer: I can t keep all the grammar rules straight. Readers expect certain conventions of grammar and punctuation in your writing so that they may clearly follow your ideas. However, it s not a crime or a sin not to have every last comma rule memorized, and although problems with punctuation or grammar might sometimes obscure my good ideas. My teacher helped me to review and improve your sentence-level writing style. The difficulties I encountered in writing my extended definition essay and argumentative essay were how to get started, how to make a clear thesis statement, and how to cite sources. Difficulty in starting an essay is often one of the first problems I run into. What I learned in ENGLCOM is I can save time by first identifying the purpose of your essay, then brainstorming points you might make to achieve that goal. I write down every idea I think of, even if I am certain it won't end up in the essay. Then, I can take this material and find the most important points to address. Second problem I encountered difficulty is how to write a clear thesis statement. A thesis statement is a sentence that explains the essay's main point. Without a clear thesis statement it can be more difficult to structure and organize my ideas. One good tactic I learned is to draft my thesis statement before I begin writing the body of the essay, then showed it to teacher and fellow students for suggestions on how to make it more specific. Third problem I encountered difficulty is citing sources. Documenting sources through in-text citations and works cited pages is an important convention of academic writing. Unfortunately, confusion about how to cite correctly can result in plagiarism. What I learned in ENGLCOM is that I can avoid plagiarism by carefully documenting sources as I do research. My teacher created a schedule and gave me enough time for researching, consulting and writing the paper in order to limit stress and then review the correct way to directly quote and paraphrase sources. From the entry and exit essay that I have written, I learned how to revise my paper. My teacher encouraged me to revise my work or for peer review. My teacher provided formal steps for revision by asking me to submit first drafts of papers for my review or for peer critique. My teacher also explained to me that writing is hard work. When I learned that writing takes effort, I won't anymore be discouraged by my own pace or progress. I have well achieved the ENGLCOM and portfolio objectives by using what I learned in the previous lessons.
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