Breaking my head
Sometimes people just say things that break my head. What I mean by that, is that after hearing people say something (usually asking a question), I'm unable to think of an appropriate answer or even speak for that matter. The lack of simple logic and sound reasoning just freezes my mind sometimes. I feel like I have to readjust myself to even deal with what they said. If these times resulted in the expanding of my mind or the challenging of old ideas, I would look forward to these moments. Although unfortunately I feel I have to temporarily 'forget' ideas and knowledge that to me are just common knowledge, to properly understand what they are asking.
I just finished watching an intersting lecture about Islam in the world today and how to better understand it within that context. It was very interesting and basically centred around the ideas of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace on all sides. During the question and answer period the speaker had only time for three questions. The last person asked the speaker a question which was more of a statement saying 'look how wonderful Israel is'. The question had nothing to do with the talk and was just a petty remark in response to the speaker's use of the word Palestine instead of Israel. The only time Israel was mentioned, the speaker was pretty even handed in his opinion. One would think that a person who goes out of their way to attend an academic level event such as this would a) be able to follow the topic enough to ask a pertinent question and b) to not make petty remarks about a topic that wasn't even included in the speech anyway. This just really bothered me. I'm fine with people expressing their own opinions, just do it at an appropriate time and place. A similar situation would be if a person went to a talk about how a balanced diet will help you stay healthier. The person then asks the question "If a vegan lifestyle helps you live longer and reduces environmental damage around the world, why isn't everyone vegan?" Yes it is 'kinda....sorta..' relevant, but it is also just an advertisement for veganism wrapped up in the form of a question.
Below is a link to the talk. If you have a little over an hour, its an interesting thing to listen to/watch.
http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=1480
I just finished watching an intersting lecture about Islam in the world today and how to better understand it within that context. It was very interesting and basically centred around the ideas of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace on all sides. During the question and answer period the speaker had only time for three questions. The last person asked the speaker a question which was more of a statement saying 'look how wonderful Israel is'. The question had nothing to do with the talk and was just a petty remark in response to the speaker's use of the word Palestine instead of Israel. The only time Israel was mentioned, the speaker was pretty even handed in his opinion. One would think that a person who goes out of their way to attend an academic level event such as this would a) be able to follow the topic enough to ask a pertinent question and b) to not make petty remarks about a topic that wasn't even included in the speech anyway. This just really bothered me. I'm fine with people expressing their own opinions, just do it at an appropriate time and place. A similar situation would be if a person went to a talk about how a balanced diet will help you stay healthier. The person then asks the question "If a vegan lifestyle helps you live longer and reduces environmental damage around the world, why isn't everyone vegan?" Yes it is 'kinda....sorta..' relevant, but it is also just an advertisement for veganism wrapped up in the form of a question.
Below is a link to the talk. If you have a little over an hour, its an interesting thing to listen to/watch.
http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=1480