2008 Philosophy Mid-term

What is your real name?
I dont know if this is a trick question. Stephen Chakerian

What is your "user" name?
Bigchak23

What is your email address that you use for this class?
bigchak23@yahoo.com

Name and address for your website.
CHAKS TAKE. http://s-chakerian.blogspot.com/

Have you done all the reading for the first three weeks?
I have not read every single word of each assignment. I have read a majority of the pieces and skimmed the long parts.

Have you watched each of the films that were required?
I have watched all the videos although one or two links have not worked for me.

Please place here all of the postings you have done for this
class (you can copy and paste them)
PROGRESS OR DEGRESS? YOU DECIDE
Although i do agree with some of the examples of progress i tend to disagree with the premiss that all groups should be accepted. Accepting every cultural change isn't necessarily progress. Should we then accept bestiality and polygamy, if they become a big enough group in our culture? To one person we are progressing, but that same change to another person isn't necessarily progress. Each person has their ideal society in mind, but each individual utopia is different from another, so not everyone will be pleased at one time. Someone will always have something to disagree about.
CHAKS TAKE

PROGRESS AS A CYCLE
Life is a cycle. Our economy recently has been terrible and many fear a recession or a depression ahead. I do not believe that means our economy as a whole in the long run is bad. We are on the downside of the cycle. Mark my words, we will see better times for our economy! How do i know, because of the common cycle. . . up to the peak, down to the trough and then back up again.
Progress is a cycle. You talked about homosexuality and whether or not we are progressing. I see progress as opinion. One party may look at homosexuality, for example, as progressing. Gay rights is coming along and recently in California they can now officially get married. The other party may look at homosexuality and say we are not progressing. Progress is a cycle combined with opinion of the beholder.
CHAKS TAKE

RELIGION COINCIDING WITH SCIENCE
Chapter 5 of the Socratic Universe poses the question, "Are science and religion compatible." This is a very interesting topic. I do not see how they can be compatible knowing little about science and liking to think i know about religion. I have always thought that scientists believe in evolution and some religions, such as christianity, believe in the creation. If this is true then they dont mix; they arent compatible. They could agree on other issues or topics, but if they cannot agree on how the earth was created then in my opinion they dont agree.
Science is very real. Experiments can be done to prove one thing or another. They raise the hypothesis test it with the experiment and come to a conclusion. There are steps one takes to find what they please. Religion is very different, yet close to the same. The significant difference many would say is "You can't prove that God exists." Of course there are arguements for both sides like every debate. Ultimately religion requires a great deal of faith; believing in something that you cannot see. Many say they cant see God to know if he is real, but to me God exists in our everyday lives since he is the creator of all things. God is much to big to wrap our minds around which is why scientists have a hard coping with the idea of faith.
CHAKS TAKE

Java Philosophy
I'm a really big quote guy. I love hearing quotes from different famous people about life. In this short film there were meaningful quotes and some made me think more than others. There was one by Jean Paul Sartre that talked about living life, "Everything has been figured out except how to live." This quote is very true, there are so many different directions one may go with their life. Ultimately i think people should do things that make them happy. Someone gave me some advice and it was, "You need someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to." As long as you follow these three steps you will be happy.
The other intersting part of the video was where they talked about being cool in college. This idea is so true. Fads are what run our society. If the mainstream is doing something then others will follow it just to fit in. Years ago recycling wasnt really a big deal and now all of the sudden celebrities and the media are making recylcing the cool thing to do and now its the fad to recycle and be more habitat friendly. In my highschool everyone had a car and nobody rode their bikes even though they lived right down the block. Of course everyone has their own situations and you cant judge people, but a majority of people do things just to be "cool".
CHAKS TAKE

Knowledge
Wow, this film was very hard to understand to me but there was a couple of ideas i took away from it. First of all at the very end when it said, "The more he knows that he is unknowing, the more learned he will be." To me this is saying that if someone thinks they know everything they will not attempt to gain more knowledge. So if somebody knows they dont know enough then they will always be striving to learn more. To me this is a good quote to keep in mind!
CHAKS TAKE

Pythagorus
I first heard about Pythagorus as a freshmen in high school when i took geometry. He has a theorem named after him called, "The Pythagorean Theorem." it is used to find theorem of a triangle, a squared + b squared = c squared. liking mathematics i look forward to leaning more about the man who made calculating the area of 90 degree triangles easy.
Reading about Pythagorus reminds me a great deal about Jesus Christ. There was a story of him watching the fisherman and he knew the exact amount of fish that were caught in the net. highly improbable to guess that exact number. Jesus also worked with fisherman and a couple because his disciples. Like jesus Pythagorus taught children to listen to their parents and doing so will lead to a a blessed life. They both taught in parables which isn't that uncommon because its a great way to relate to people. I don't know if it is a coincidence but to me these two historical figures are very similar.
CHAKS TAKE

Life After Death
Life after death is something that is both very real and somewhat confusing. Some believe that we are just physical beings and that once we die we decompose just like plants and animals. We return to the dust of the ground in which we came from. No matter what your religious belief I think we can all agree that our bodies rot and turn to nothing.
For the religious person, the question is where does our soul go after we die. Does it die with our physical body or does it travel to another place for future life, or do we return to earth as another being? I feel this is where the real controversy of life after death is. There are many different beliefs which is what makes it interesting. I believe that after I die my body will be buried, and my soul will go to heaven where I will live for eternity.
CHAKS TAKE

Artificial Intelligence
I agree. It depends how you measure intelligence. There are many things that a computer can do that would take humans a great deal longer to compute or figure out. Computers and calculators can do problems instantly, but that is only after we decide which functions along with what numbers to use. I love technology and the way our society is advancing and it will be amazing what kind of world we will live in even when I am in my late years.
On the other hand i dont believe that robots or computers will be able to make decisions and take into consideration many different variables. The human brain is an amazing decision maker that no scientist will ever be able to match. Then again i could be another doubter. There was always someone who said we would never go into space, talk on wireless phones or drive in cars without gasoline. This could be another one of those events but I'm a doubter.
CHAKS TAKE

Life as a cycle
Although i do agree with some of the examples of progress i tend to disagree with the premiss that all groups should be accepted. Accepting every cultural change isn't necessarily progress. Should we then accept bestiality and polygamy, if they become a big enough group in our culture?
To one person we are progressing, but that same change to another person isn't necessarily progress. Each person has their ideal society in mind, but each individual utopia is different from another, so not everyone will be pleased at one time. Someone will always have something to disagree about.
CHAKS TAKE

Owen Gingerich: Purpose and Time
I totally agree with Gingerich that we are here for a reason instead of just being here by chance. He also believes that God is so complex that he just gives us little mortals to make us think that we know alot about how life works but in reality we will never be able to comprehend the universe. He talks about there being no element on the periodic table with a mass of 5. He believes that God did this on purpose so that humans arent able to make life therefore concluding there was no big bang theory.
He also talks about what happened before the big bang. He says that Einstein talks about time requires change and motion. When there was nothing there was no change or motion so its impossible to wrap our minds around that idea. Everything that we do as humans deals with a time factor: our lives in the past, what we are currently doing in the present and what we will do with our lives in the future.
CHAKS TAKE

Owen Gingerich: God Reveals All
He also shares his view of God. Many times we see him as an old man white man with a beard. It is fixed by the imagery of others who think they know what God looks like. It is so far beyond comprehension that we cannot begin to wrap our minds around it. He thinks that God is so powerful that he can reveal himself in many ways depending on the person he is revealing himself to. The view we have of God is really only a fraction of who God is.
God chose to reveal himself most fully in Jesus Christ. He talks about constantly running out of things and we must learn the lessons of sharing and forgiving others then we are in a dilemma in the human race. The answers are before us, but we are given the choice to put others before ourselves, as God gave his son for our sins, we must give ourselves for our neighbors.
CHAKS TAKE

Big Bang
In the big bang theory it seems to me that every single thing had to be perfect. The universe was full of hot protons and it took 300,000 years for the universe to cool off. I guess energy had to be transmitted faster than the speed of light, which is pretty fast. Also the value of mass density and expansion rate are perfect, which seems to be highly improbable.
To me it just seems that so many things had to fall exactly into place that it makes the big bang theory highly doubtful. Especially in an uncontrolled environment it doesnt seem like these events would ever happen. This of course leads to the idea of creation and shows how religion and science are like oil and water.
CHAKS TAKE

Litttle Things that Jiggle
This is what I pulled from the movie, "Little Things That Jiggle". (http://elearn.mtsac.edu/dlane/thejigglemovie.wmv) "To make a discovery is not necessarily the same as to understand a discovery." Abe Pais. As much as we hate to admit this reality, we often think we know alot more than we really do. Just like Columbus believed he found India but he really did find the "new world", we think we discover findings but we are just barely scratching the surface. There is so much deeper we can go with our research we just need the will to want to learn more and better education.
We still are not masters of the human body. How do we control diseases and sickness and cancer? Until we know cures to these problems we have not mastered our own bodies that we walk around in every day. Do we really know alot about anything? Have we reached the ultimate konwledge to any one specific discovery or do we just discover certain things and fail to look deeper?
CHAKS TAKE

Lisa Randall is to the Universe as Columbus was to Exploration
Lisa Randall talks about multiple dimensions of space. The 3 dimensions we know for sure about are: left, right, forward, backward, up and down and another is time. To me i find it incomprehensible to think about how there could be more dimensions but we do not even know what they possibly would consist of. She says that we cant picture another dimension. A two dimension world or a person living in the flatland would not be able to picture a three dimensional world and the same is true for us picturing a fourth or fifth dimension.
I think that trying to discover more dimensions is a very interesting study. Its kind of like an explorer a couple centuries ago searching for new land. They had an idea that there was something more and slowly explorers began to trickle out to find this new place. Searching for another dimension is alot alike being an explorer. These physicists wonder what could be out in space and if there is possibly another dimension. Many people think what they are doing is crazy, but so did all the people who thought the world was flat and that ships would fall off the end of the world.
CHAKS TAKE

Richard Dawkins: Strange Science
He poses the question, "if the universe is queerer that we can suppose, is it just because we've been naturally selected to suppose only what we needed to suppose to survive, or are our brains so versatile and expandable that we can train ourselves to break out of the box of our evolution, or finally are there some things in the universe to queer that no philosophy of beings however god like could dream them."
He concludes his video with this quote, which to me made the whole movie. I think many people would take one one of these sides to agree with. On the other hand i tend to agree with each one in particular. I think that we were created to only understand certain aspects of life so that we can survive. You dont need to know the exact ingredients of the food you eat or how to rebuild an engine to drive, life is simplified so that us dumb humans can live. I also agree that we were created with very versatile creative and imaginative minds in that we can think out of the box. Also i agree that we will never be able to understand many ideas about the the universe. Each question Dawkins poses, in their own way, is correct.
CHAKS TAKE

Understanding Evolution?
After learning a little bit about evolution realize why many people believe in this form of creation. There were many names that are hard to understand. There is a family tree for evolution called a phlyogeny which explains what creatures evolved from the past. Clades are branches from the phylogeny which show which animals are related to eachother.
What i dont understand about evolution, and maybe somebody can inform me, is if we came from monkeys or chimpanzees why are both of us still here? It seems to me that one of us shouldnt be here. If we are here the chimps shouldnt be because they evolved into us. This is one phenomena that i dont understand.
CHAKS TAKE

Evolution and Philosophy
Without science there would be no philosophy. Both work hand in hand with each-other. Scientists study how we got to where we are today and how the universe obeys physical laws. Science relies on human, or scientists, to gather information, test theories, experiment, so on and so forth. Science is a perceived reality on what we know about the world. Also if something happens in the world there has to be an explanation for it. Whether scientists are right or wrong they always have a reason for why a certain event took place.
Although i do not believe in the big bang theory and how we evolved from tadpoles eventually to monkeys and here we are today, i do believe that humans are evolving. Many of the rules of evolution are true. I think we are the same human beings for the most part we were centuries ago, but as time progresses we do change. I think as a worldwide population our height average has increased from hundreds of years ago due to nutrition. So yes i do think that we evolve but tend to disagree with Darwin's theory of evolution.
CHAKS TAKE

Truth Lies. . . Or Does it?
The opening of the video says that, "What makes darwinian evolution successful... is because it allows for so many testable avenues of investigation which lead to all sorts of surprising and unpredictable consequences." This is pretty much saying that anything can be successful or true because there are no absolutes. As long as something is not proven and it can be debated then it is truth. This is the weakest quote i've ever heard! People who make these types of statements appear to be open minded and searching for the truth however they are secularists at heart and even if the truth was found they would still twist it for their preconceived conclusion.
"Man would have to invent God even if such a being didn't exist." Maybe because people realize that there has to be a higher power. Humans are not big idiots, we realize that life is very complex, if not too complex to understand so there much be a creator. Without truth we would all be skeptics. Could you imagine living life without being able to trust anybody. Truth is what separates good people from scum-bags.
CHAKS TAKE

Fundementalism is a Disease.
"Creationism is taught by only those who cannot think." This video, http://elearn.mtsac.edu/dlane/mentaldisease.wmv, explains why evolution is the answer and creation is a myth. It talks about how natural selection could be the single greatest idea and once you realize evolution then life seems to be easier. It also talks about how God is supposed to be compassionate but because animals kill eachother for food he is proven otherwise. I guess to some the food chain is see as "unnatural" so it couldnt be created by God? It doesnt make sense to me. CHAKS TAKE

11. Why does Lisa Randall believe that there may be many more dimensions than we presently know in current physics? Is there any evidence at this stage for her beliefs?
The first reason extra dimensions could be important to physics is because it may have to do with our universe and how it was created. Another reason could be the string theory because that is the only way that would make the theory correct. In extra dimensions space could actually be warped and gravity could be more highly concentrated in certain areas and weaker in other areas. There will be evidence of a particle accelerator, which will answer the question of the weakness of gravity. The more we know about gravity we will be able to find out more about possible dimensions.

12. What are Pythagoras' philosophical views in a nutshell?
He studied good and evil by using the 'Y" to illustrate his point. The stem of the "Y" stood for us as humans and the "V" part of the "Y" showed a fork in the road where humans can choose to be either good or evil. From what I learned about Pythagoras he very much encouraged relationships. He believed that humans have souls and we should be divine beings. He wanted to live as divine as a life as possible while encouraging others to do the same. He divinely purified and healed the soul because he thought that is what set him apart and made him divine. He lead many disciples to follow his teachings and even had a school.

13. Do you think science and religion are compatible? Be sure to explain your answer by GIVING THE EXPLANATIONS given by philosophers who side with your position from the Socratic Universe (cite and quote when appropriate).
Yes there shouldn’t be any reason why science and religion aren’t compatible. Scientists believe in their studies, they believe creation is not logical, thus faith is not logical. So many scientists make a choice to believe science over religion. I think science and religion can be compatible. There are some scientists who are religious who do believe that science completes religion. They see science proving the Bible to be correct. One example is in Hebrews the author said that the stars in the sky were innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. Back in those days they did not have the technology to look into space and see the number of stars that we can today. Thousands of years later that statement has been proven correctly. There are in fact more stars in the skies than there are pieces of sand. This is just one example where our technology has grown to be able to prove the bible true. Spirituality is rooted everywhere in the world. There is no word in Hebrew that translates “spiritual,” because everything is spiritual, everything is religious.

14. Why was Socrates put on trial? How did Socrates defend his position?
Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth. They later found that he didn't refuse to recognize the god that the state wanted him to believe in so they put him on trial. He also founded new divinities, which was against the states approval. He also taught the youth his views and Greece saw that as corrupting the youth. This was very common back in those years for individuals to go against what their country believed in. Many were persecuted, tortured or even put in games with starving beasts ready to devour their flesh. When it came to his defense he mocked the jury. His intentions were to enrage the already heated bull and he felt like it was okay to die.

15. Give a brief history of philosophy using just 300 words (no more). You may use an outline format, but be sure to cram as many "factoids" (facts) as possible (key names, ideas, dates, etc.). Remember, it must be your own words and not merely a series of quotes.
Philosophy looks at questions such as the existence of life, was is truth, where did we come from and why are we here? Pythagoras was the first known philosopher, who was the student of Aristotle. Philosophy is broken into each time period, so there are many differentiations of philosophy. The most popular are ancient, medieval and modern. Today philosophy is explaining theories of science and being able to find proof. Science and philosophy are very closely related.

16. Explain the big bang and the inflationary universe. Why is it important to know astronomy in order to do philosophy?
The big bang theory is an idea of how the universe was created. The universe was full of hot protons, neutrons and electrons and it took 300,000 years for the universe to cool off. I guess a great deal of energy had to be transmitted faster than the speed of light. The value of mass density and expansion rate had to be perfect. The inflationary universe explained the missing parts of the big bang theory. After the big bang theory we could see particles up close that are now light-years away. This theory believes that the universe is constantly expanding.

17. How do Heisenberg's views on philosophy and science DIFFER from Einstein's? How are they similar?
Einstein, like most scientists. are very factual, meaning that they don't believe something unless they can prove it with mathematics. Einstein had a hard time dealing with the quantum theory because of the simple fact that it was a theory and couldn't be proven. Heisenberg was also a scientist but he had a more open minded view to science. He wasn't so set in stone and would only believe only that which he can prove. His views differed from the other views of the quantum theory saying that the more precise one measurement the more the other measurement would be wrong. This became known as the "uncertainty principle" and Einstein commented saying that "God does not play dice" I think, like most scientists, they agreed on many issues but there were a few minor things where they opposed each other.

18. What is meme theory and do you find it plausible? Explain your reasoning.
A meme is an idea or thought that can be transmitted either through the brain or verbally. It is kind of like a gene, but can be communicated from person to person. Scientists believe that memes evolve with natural selection and the whole Darwinian theory of mutation and inheritance. Therefore some of the memes will be passed on from generation to generation and some with become extinct with time. I don't believe there is a difference between memes and how society acts. Most people act a certain way because they follow each other and determine what is cool and what is not cool. It is a sort of evolution in a way and we as a society change very dramatically. I think Dawkins made up a scientific word "meme" as an observation to the obvious fact of how society runs. Its also like a fad in a way where things are in and sometimes they stick for a while but most of the time they die out.

19. Why is understanding biological evolution so important in understanding human thought and behavior. Be sure to cite Wilson and Dawkins and Darwin when appropriate.
The natural selection process was revolutionary when it was first introduced to the world. It is the theory that the strongest in a civilization will survive and pass on the productive tools to the next generation. Darwin went of a five year voyage to collect data and after he came back from his trip he and his theory of natural selection was warmly accepted by the scientific community. Richard Dawkins made the observation that observable characteristics are not limited to a persons body but the meme can be as widely spread as to the whole environment. This, added to Darwin’s theory of evolution was huge because it made humans seem to be adaptive creatures who are constantly evolving. This does a great job at explaining the actions of humans to get ahead and survive in the world.

20. In one of the films you were required to see, the narrator argued that fundamentalism was a mental disease. Why? Do you agree or disagree and please detail your rejoinder.
I disagree with the video. Just because Christians believe in creationism is a ridiculous reason to say they cannot think. The fact that Christians challenge the world’s standard should at least be heroic. When other “thinkers” question the norm they are awarded, I think people call it the Nobel Peace Prize. I think it takes a great deal more thinking to believe in something that cannot be proven. Humans were created very intelligent beings but God is omnipotent and only gives us little morsels to how workings of the universe. The video also talks about how God is supposedly a compassionate God but because he carefully crafted the food chain and animal brutally kill each other he is "proven" otherwise. I guess the food chain is seen as unnatural so God couldn’t create it.

21. Where do you think Owen Gingerich "parts company" (fundamentally disagrees with) Edward O. Wilson? Who do you think is more persuasive in their reasoning about religion, Owen or Edward? Explain.
Edward Wilson’s facts and details were more persuasive. He talked more about the earth and how we are polluting it and in 100 years we are going to only have half of the species that we currently have today. Edward spoke more to your ethics and emotion and after hearing him you’re more likely going to want to change the way you live. Owen Gingerich was also very good but he talked in a more scientific manner. He explained the periodic table and appealed more to a logical point of view. He gave the example that the big bang was impossible because the hydrogen atom would’ve had to bond to make the fifth element but there is no fifth element so the big bang didn’t happen. Both of these speakers give examples and are very intelligent with how they answer questions. I thought that Wilson was more persuasive in what he had to say but it was easier to listen to Gingerich by the way he talked it was easier to understand him.

22. What does Francis Fukuyama mean by the "end of history." Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
He thinks that historical progress should be seen at a larger picture. If you looked at the last half of the 20th century you would only see democracy but if you look at the broader picture you would see communism then democracy. In his view history is progressing in a good way. Science drives technology, which changes our culture and behavior. So as science changes history changes therefore concluding that the end of history is not yet. I think he makes a good point and it is very valid. The only other element I would take in to account would be God. For me this is the only missing element, for I believe that God is omnipotent and created the universe and likewise he will determine when and how history will end. But if one doesn’t believe that there is a God then really there is nothing wrong wth Fukuyama’s philosophical views.

23. Explain Nicholas of Cusa's philosophy of "unknowingness."
Nicholas of Cusa’s believed that it was impossible to compare things that we do not know. We cannot relate to infinity because we do not know it. However we can compare like things such as numbers. He agreed with Pyhagorus’ philosophy that all things could be understood through numbers. Nicholas also referenced Solomon who said that, “all things are difficult and unexplainable in words.”

24. According to Nietzsche, how did we actually "kill" God? Think before you leap on this one.
I don’t know about Niewtzshe. I looked at the syllabus and I think in week 5 we will learn about him. Hopefully im not missing something here.

25. In the movie, Little Things that Jiggle, physics is explained by a series of slogans. Why, then, is physics important in the study of philosophy? Substantiate your answer.
It is important to understand how the world works, which is physics. Philosophy is an understanding of the things unknown, why we are here, how we got to this point and when will history end. To believe in superstition is the belief in a higher being and to scientists this lacks factual evidence. They only believe in “science that is vision multiplied” or “technology without superstition”. In other words ones philosophy will always be shaped by their scientific views of physics. Whether they choose to incorporate their belief in a higher power or choose to strictly keep it out, which most scientists do.

26. How do you explain the following line, "To have freedom OF religion one must also have freedom FROM religion."
To most Americans freedom is a hard idea to grasp. Sometimes we don’t realize the blessings we have and we don’t, or at least I haven’t, had to sacrifice anything to get that freedom. I would say we’re just lucky. Many have fought and died for our freedoms. We have religious freedom to worship or not worship as long as we determine. No I don’t think that religion should be forced upon somebody at the same time I think that we should have the freedom to choose for ourselves what is suitable for our own lives.

27. Why does Dawkins believe that believing in God is delusional?
Dawkins is a famous atheist. He believes that atheism is logical with evolution and that religion does not agree with science. He thinks that God is an excuse the for the unknown. He also believes that faith is one of the worlds greatest evils. He is one of the more famous atheists who opposes religion and he wrote a book titled, “The God Delusion”, where he encourages atheists to be proud because atheism is evidence to a healthy independent mind.

28. Can science offer a sense of mystery comparable to what certain religions offer?
Well I think it depends who’s point of view you look at. If you ask any scientist if they know everything about the universe they will say they do not even close to know everything. The unknown leaves room for mystery. Like how Lisa Randal talks about other dimensions out in the universe and whether or not gravity is strong in some parts and weaker in others. This all is mystery to scientists. Now for religious people they wouldn’t admit to their belief as a mystery, yet they must take a leap of faith to believe in their “god”. For a non-religious person looking at a religious person they would say that there is just as much mystery for the scientist as there is for the believer. But if you asked a religious person they would say there is no mystery in their religion because most of the time they are convinced they are right as opposed to scientists who are still searching for many answers.

29. How does an understanding of cellular automata suggest a "new kind of science".... according to Stephen Wolfram.
The link for Stephen wolfram’s video, “A new kind of science” didn’t work for me, so I tried to find out more about him on the web. Wolfram is a mathematician and a scientist. He has done experiments with patterns and looks at how patterns work. He has created various systems, one called the cellular automata, which gives multiple steps to see if there really is a pattern. The first steps are very simple and we can see the patterns but after a while we can’t see the patterns but is there still a pattern but we just cant see it? He looks at numbers and their patterns such as pi and prime numbers and he sees that the first couple we can see patterns but we soon begin to see a random sequence. He looks at space and time to see patterns. This is a new strange science because instead of using numbers and mathematics to prove science he uses his cellular automata to see patterns with every possible situation. He believes that numbers and mathematics are not as universal as everyone thinks because he looks at the patterns and concludes that they are random. I don’t know if a agree with what Wolfram has to say, but of all of the views I’ve heard so far I think his finding are the most interesting. Traditionally mathematics is seen as a pattern but he views it merely as random chance.

30. What were the key turning points in Darwin's life?
The key turning point in Darwin’s life was the trip to Beagle. He went on a trip for five years and collected specimens and sent them back along with letters to the university. He noted that birds of the same specie differed depending on which island they were from. Henslow his professor was back at home and gave his letters to different scientists. When he returned he was all of the sudden, what we would call a scientific celebrity. His father, who didn’t previously approve of his work, organized investments for Darwin so that he would be a self funded scientist. From that point on Darwin went around to different labs to research and meet with fellow scientists where he soon became one of the most prestigious.