Science and Society HON 120

Spring 2008

Feder and Larsen

Hard copies due by 11 AM on Thursday, May 15

Answer all four questions. Hand in one copy of each question. Each question should be on a separate sheet(s) of paper and have your name on it. Exception: If you choose to do the extra credit, hand in two (2) copies.

 Any outside sources consulted or cited should be noted. Quotations from Sagan should be clearly noted (with page number).

Students may not consult with any living Homo sapiens sapiens other than Drs. Feder and Larsen. Consulting the dead, the undead, or alien beings, is allowed (and encouraged!)

1) You tell your roommate about this course, and they say "I don't believe in the Big Bang. It's just some stupid theory and there's no evidence for it. Besides, you can't believe in God and the Big Bang!" How would use what you have learned in this course to counter all parts of their argument?

2) Your sister tells you about a discovery she recently read about. Dr. Ima Knowitall claims that if you eat six raw eggplants a day it will prevent you from developing cancer of the mouth, even if you smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. Consider this information by using the scientific method. What questions would you want answered in order to judge the merit of what your sister has told you?

3.Provide a well-reasoned argument supporting or refuting (or maybe both supporting and refuting) the following assertion:

In the spirit of open inquiry and fairness, an alternate view of the development of life on earth—including the development of our species—based on intelligent design, should be provided equal time, alongside the evolutionary approach, in public school biology classes.

4.One way of testing your understanding of the scientific method requires your confronting and assessing a controversial claim that you have not heard previously. How about assessing and confronting the following:

When first "discovered" by the outside world in 1971 the Tasaday were an anthropological bonanza. Their small band of about 25 people were living an apparently pristine way of life in their rainforest caves on the Philippine Island of Mindinao, completely uncontaminated by any elements of western civilization or even of their agricultural neighbors living just a few miles away. They were living a completely "natural life," the equivalent of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "noble savages." They knew nothing of violence, war, or hatred-they didn't even have words for these concepts in their language. People in the West found them charming and riveting, fulfilling all of our 1970s fantasies about the superiority of a simple, uncluttered, non-technological, pacifistic, communal society. They were, in fact, as one writer put it, "paleo-hippies" and many of us envied the Tasaday. Using resources available on the internet, assess the Tasaday story. Based on the evidence you have collected, do you conclude that the story of the Tasaday was true, a hoax, or something in between?

Extra credit: List and examine the most important thing you learned all semester (and why you selected it as most important). The amount of extra credit assigned will be determined by the thoughtfulness of your answer much more than your actual choice.