In response to Shannon's question..

"What are other opinions?...Is it human nature that changes, society or a combination of both?....Do they depend on each other?" 

 I personally feel that the changing in society and changing in human nature coincide with each other.  It can be seen from many different ways, and I don't even think that there is an answer myself!!

Someone brought up in our class, that it seems as if we as humans change to deal with the society around us, but don't we also make society change?  

I feel that we as humans try to change everything around us to make it easier for our living; look around, it's totally true.  I'm sitting at a table, on a chair, with my laptop, in the laundry room of BT, listening to my MP3 player.  All of these things were introduced to our lives to make things easier for us, and we have changed our whole lives around these things, and even CENTER our lives around some items.

Though we as people changed the society around us and introduced ourselves to such items, it inevitably changes how our nature is.  Look back fifty years ago or so, and how technology has changed since then.  Compare it to how we live our lives today... it's totally different.  We seem to center ourselves upon new technology.  Cell phones are everywhere now, and they do more than just call people.  We can do anything a computer and/or iPod can do, just with the simple push of a few buttons.  But we can't blame our changing on technology, because we as humans thrive for new things like such, so we create them.

Humans are forced to change society with our wanting nature, but society is gladly mailable and changes for our favor.

How has human nature changed the idea of complete dominance in our nature (AKA alpha male and such)?

Is there such thing as killing for good?

I was watching the movie The Boondock Saints the other night (if you haven't seen the movie, it's centered around these two brothers who kill the "bad" people of Boston so that good can prosper)and it made me think.  Though the brothers are very into their Catholic religion, they kill.  It is written in the Bible that "Thou shall not kill" (Deuteronomy 5:17) so wouldn't that be going against their religion?  Yes, they are ridding the world of some evil so good can prosper, but aren't they damning themselves to hell?  Even though the Bible talks about killing in many different ways, it is still bad and a sin.

 Also, a song comes to mind (Walk Tall by John Mellencamp; I would link to a video but I cannot find the version with the line that I want).  "The simple minded and the uninformed can be easily led astray and those that cannot connect the dots, hey look the other way.  People believe what they want to believe, when it makes no sense at all, so be careful of those killing in Jesus's name, He don't believe in killing at all"
Why do people kill and say it's in the name of Jesus?  Yes, there was instances in the Bible in which people killed because He told them to, but now in this age I don't foresee people being spoken to like that by God. 

Why do you think people try to twist fate and play "Jesus's role"?  What is your view on people killing to rid the world of evil so good can prosper?

In response to Julia Asthon's Question...

Julia brought up a very interesting question - Why do you believe the human race sees themselves as superior to all other beings?

I personally feel that the human race is extremely pompous and egotistical.  It shows in every single action that is carried out- even in the upbringing of our civilization!  The world is where it is today because creators and inventors thought it would make things more "convince" or "easier" for us as humans.  I've personally asked this question to several people around me before and I've gotten answers as wide as "because we have thumbs" or "because we walk solely on two legs and process our own thoughts", but I think it's because we are truly full of ourselves.  In a way, humans have the right to think we are superior than other creatures, because look at the world that was built around us, we as humans created this; not any other creature.  

Also, due to the way civilization has in a way exploded; we endanger so many other living things because of our selfishness.  We take away the homelands of animals to create places for our amusement?  And then think better and highly of ourselves?!  I see why you raised this question.  I totally agree with you, and I feel it's mainly because humans are SO self centered.  Everything is about us, and what we want, what we "need", and because we act too capriciously to even take into consideration the other living things on Earth.

Just pondering...

Several things that I have read online includes religion in with philosophy.  I am a religious person, so I can see how philosophy and religion can almost go hand in hand.
It seems as if most things that we have talked about, deal with ethics, morality, and right versus wrong, but does that even come into play if there was no religion?

All religions are different, but most generally come down to the same: do well, serve the higher up God/Jehovah/Allah, and treat the people around you well in hopes of pleasing the "higher up" person - all that go along with what we see now as ethics and morals.  These ethics and morals were once woven into the nature and life of every human on this planet.  As society has changed, the nature of humans have changed as well, and the morals of the people have changed as well.

Now my question to you is: Religion doesn't play a role in every life, how has the presence or lack of religion effected your nature?   

In response to Jenny Beers's Question..

Jenny had asked: What is one philosophical question that you think can be answered and what is one that can never be?

 I personally feel that many questions could fall into both parts of the question.  What's great about philosophy is that it seems like we will never know everything, and questions will always arise; but will they be able to be answered?

I feel the number of questions that cannot be answered outweigh the number of questions that can be answered.  
A question that I believe wouldn't be able to be answered is what most people ask; what is the point of life?  I often find myself pondering over that myself... Are we to live and deal with what we are given, and die happy in the process of trying to reach person nirvana and divinity?  Who knows?!
A question that is answerable (trying to steer away from what we talked about in class today), how do we define success? 

My question for you is: How would you personally define a successful life?  What are some aspects that need to be achieved to call it a successful one?

What exactly is Philosophy?

 No matter what question is asked, it could be viewed as controversial.  Trying to define philosophy is extremely controversial and subjective.  Greeks derived the word philosophy from the meaning of "love of wisdom", but doesn't it seem like it is much more than that?  How one person defines philosophy can be completely different than the next, and that is where controversy comes in; no one can fully agree!  I see philosophy as a connection between an idea or thought to the entire world around us, and how it applies to the lives that each and every person leads.  

When a question that stumps most of the people around us, or is seen as "deep", one generally calls it philosophical.  But what do we mean when we say that?  If something is seen as philosophical, it is distinguished and set aside from other thoughts/questions that arise because they address issues and problems that require critical thinking and can bring down the idea of a rational argument.  Though the philosophical questions that are asked are good questions, we as humans can't seem to provide an answer that we all can agree on.  Philosophy may be an interesting and rather confusing branch on it's own, but it has it's parts: logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics.