Study Journal #1

15 January 2015

1) The Five Orders of Ignorance repeatedly mentions that there's no purpose in rewriting code that has already been written because it doesn't garner any new knowledge, but as I was reading I reflected on the programs that I have rewritten and realized that my experience has been different. While it is true that I don't always learn something new while rewriting programs, I do benefit from the experience because I can see patterns and flaws in my previous implementations and I understand better why the professors told us to design programs the way we did.

2) In class we spent a decent amount of time talking about logical fallacies that exist in The Five Orders of Ignorance, but I don't think it is as full of logical fallacies is we discussed. Granted I don't agree with several of the conclusions in the article. However, I believe that is more because I disagree with some of the premises (such as in the previous entry), not because I believe the arguments themselves are fallacious.

3) Organisms are so complex and vary so much that I can understand there being many things to observe. However, I don't think there is as much to glean from constantly staring at a piece code. Even the more intense pieces of code are simpler than most organisms. Because of this I have a hard time relating to this paper.

20 January 2015

1) Professor Dougal talked about the light of Christ, personal revelation, prophets, and scriptures being a kind of hierarchy, but I disagree. Each serves a different role in revealing God's will to us and guiding us back to the Father. Each can grow or diminish; and each can be experienced by everybody.

2) We talk about no moral relativity, but that is difficult in practice without a prophet. Only a prophet, who is on the watch tower, can rise about relativity into absolutes. This prophetic guidance is what we should live by.

3) Believing that morality is entirely relative assumes either that God has no opinion on what is right and wrong or that his opinion is less important than each person's own opinion. It seems so silly.