Week 8 Discussion

Discussion Assignment:

Watch the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gHbwT_R9t0

Was the news segment compelling enough to convince you that the Earth could be flat? Whether we realize it or not, we are inundated with causal claims and arguments. The Flat Earth Wiki page explains that the evidence for a flat earth is derived from many different facets of science and philosophy. The world looks flat, the bottoms of clouds are flat, the movement of the Sun; these are all examples of your senses telling you that we do not live on a spherical heliocentric world. This is using what’s called an empirical approach, or an approach that relies on information from your senses.

The causes of the following events and phenomena are well known and frequently discussed. But do you understand these causes well enough to spell them out to someone else? See how well (and in how much detail) you can explain one of these events or phenomena. Post your explanation to the discussion thread. Is your explanation relatively clear, or does it seem more open to debate?

earthquakes/tsunamis
swelling caused by a bee sting
sharp rises in reported cases of autism or asthma
fake news
climate change
popularity of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why
increasing post-graduation debt for college students
outcome of the 2016 presidential election
controversies in schools and online over free speech