Select two countries and summarize the kinds of human rights issues those countries face, and reflect of the differences or similarities between them.
Category: Law
Exploring the Role of Prayer in the Return of a Beach Ball: A Rational Analysis
CASE 4
Dr. Tom Morris, former professor of philosophy, Ph.D., who taught for fifteen years at the University of Notre Dame, wrote Philosophy for Dummies (1999), which sold millions of copies in the U.S. In his bestselling book he writes: It was a sunny and unusually warm early spring day in the north Midwest. Desperate for some sun after a long gray and bitterly cold winter, I had taken my family to Warren Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan, to sit in beach chairs, enjoy the sunshine, and watch the waves roll in. My daughter Sara was about six, and Matt was only four. The very few other vacationers who were also silly enough to think that the lakefront would be sufficiently warm for a first day at the beach, scattered along the shore, staying out of the frigid water, and trying to keep the wind from blowing their possessions away. Matt had brought a brand new, multicolored beach ball, a little bigger than a standard basketball. He was standing at the edge of the water tossing it just a few inches up in the air. I said, ‘Matt, be careful with your ball. The wind is blowing toward the water, and if you’re not careful, you’ll lose it.’ He said, ‘Okay, Dad.’ I lay down in my beach chair and closed my eyes. ‘Dad! The ball!’ I opened my eyes just in time to see the beach ball 30 feet out in the water, being blown farther away every second. The wind was lifting it up and dropping it down. I jumped off the chair and stood with Matt while we watched it literally disappear across the lake for Milwaukee. ‘Well, it’s gone now,’ I announced. Matt looked up to me, and with the most angelic look on his face, said, ‘Dad, if we pray to God, he’ll give us our ball back.’ The first reaction I had to Matt’s remark was to say to myself, silently, in the most cynically sarcastic way possible, ‘Right.’ Out loud, I said, ‘Well, let’s just be more careful with our stuff now.’ Inwardly I was thinking, ‘Poor Matt, he just doesn’t understand yet the way the world works.’ As I walked back to my chair, Matt’s words echoed in my head: ‘Dad, if we pray to God, he’ll give us our ball back.’ The childlike innocence. The simple faith. I sighed. I was a philosopher of religion. I had already written ten books focusing on the philosophical side of theological matters. I had written powerful defenses of classical religious beliefs. Yet I was being inwardly dismissive about my son’s simple faith. I was a little disgusted with myself. I was writing books like a religious believer but living day to day in a thoroughly secular way. I lay down in the beach chair and closed my eyes. I felt a burning sensation in my face. A sense of compulsion I could not resist. I said, silently, and with complete sincerity, ‘Okay, God, give us our ball back.’ I thought to myself, this is a test. ‘God, I ask you to honor this little boy and give us that ball back.’ I relaxed and nodded off. 45 minutes later, I was eased into consciousness by the faint sound of a boat motor and opened my eyes to see on the horizon the small speck of a very large boat in the distance. It was the only boat we saw all day. The boat was so far away that I could barely see a bright red cap on one of the boaters. The boat turned and slowly disappeared from view across the horizon. An hour passed. Again, I heard the faint distant sounds of a motor. I looked up, and there was another speck in the distance coming in. Could it be the same boat? I felt strange and stood up. It was a very big boat. When it was about 30 yards out, I waded out into the freezing water. There were two young men on it. One bent down and came up with the beach ball in his hand! ‘Is this yours?’ one asked. I called out, ‘Yes, thanks a lot, how did you get it?’ He yelled out that, earlier, they had pulled up and used binoculars to see if there were any girls on the beach. Not seeing any likely prospects, they turned the boat and headed out. Half an hour later, they happened to catch sight of a brightly colored beach ball bobbing on the water. They managed to get a hold of it. They decided to turn around and scope out the beach one more time. The binoculars this time revealed a few girls on the shore, not far from where we were sitting. So now, 30 minutes later, here they were. They were not even planning to be out on the water that day. It was too rough. No other boats were out. When I told other philosophers of the miracle, they scoffed: ‘It would have been better if the ball had floated back to you three feet above the water.’ Undaunted, I replied: ‘Yes, but that’s not what I asked for: God returned my son’s ball. I am attuned to the miracle God has granted us.’
PROMPTS:
(a) Which is it more logical to believe: God returned Professor Morris’ son Matt’s beach ball by making sure the young men saw it sailing across the water’s surface, e.g. God made a firecracker pop next to the ball, so that the young men saw it. Second hypothesis: God didn’t respond to the philosophy professor’s prayer. The young man saw the ball on their own and took it back to shore on their own. Explain.
(b) Using inference to the best explanation, which explanation is more likely why the ball was returned: God or girls? Explain.
(c) The Bible says: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” “A decade-long religious-funded study at Harvard University (2006) showed that prayer has no positive effect on hospital patients.” Does prayer work—does it cause results to occur? The Bible: “And Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelaech and his wife, and his maidservants” (Genesis: 20). In 2006 Herbert Benson reported (in The American Heart Journal) the enormous STEP project (Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer) with 1,802 coronary artery bypass patients. They were divided randomly into three groups: Group A (604 patients) were told that they might or might not be prayed for – and in fact they were prayed for. (Each individual in the Church groups praying were given the patient’s first name, a photo of the patient, and his or her diagnosis and general condition. The prayer was done outside the hospital every day beginning the day before the operation and continuing for 14 days after the operation. Each “intercessor” was asked to pray daily “for a rapid recovery” and for prevention of complications and death.) Group B (597 patients) were also told that they might or might not be prayed for – and in fact were not prayed for. Group C (601 patients) were told that they would be prayed for, and were. Benson found that within a month, major complications and sometimes death happened to 52% of Group A, 51% of Group B, and 59% of Group C. In other words, people who knew that prayers were being said for them actually came off slightly worse than the others, in this particular event.
The therapists wanted Emily to become famous
CASE 3
“Biofield therapeutics” is known commonly as touch therapy. The practitioner moves his hands over the body of the patient an inch or two away, smoothing and balancing the patient’s “energy field” or aura. Practitioners claim this field extends outward from the body for several inches. A trained touch therapist says he/she can sense by touch your energy field and then fix it if it’s not aligned. The practice was adopted in the U.S. from ancient Chinese practitioners of qi gong by Delores Krieger, a professor of nursing at New York University. No one has been harmed by having his or her aura read and manipulated. But there is no evidence of therapeutic benefit, other than testimonials from satisfied recipients. Emily Rosa was an 11-year-old schoolgirl who decided it would be possible to do a double-blind test of the claim that touch therapists can feel the body’s energy field, described by therapists as tingling, warm, or offering a gentle resistance. She asked 21 local touch therapists in Boulder, Colorado to submit to a beautifully simple double-blind test she invented for her science fair project. She spent $10 on materials. She was seated across a table from each touch therapist. The table was divided by a screen so Emily and therapist could not see each other. The therapist would extend both of his/her hands, palms down, through holes in the screen Emily purchased. Emily would then place one of her hands just below, but not touching, one of the therapist’s hands. She used a coin toss to decide under which of the therapist’s hands she would place her own (left or right). The therapist would then be asked to begin, and he/she was to identify under which hand of his/her own was Emily’s hand, left or right, based on sensing Emily’s hand’s energy field. The entire procedure for all 21 therapists was captured on video tape. In 273 trials (each therapist got to try 13 times), therapists scored a combined total of 44% correct in their identification of Emily’s hand being under their own left or right hand, based on reading of her hand’s “energy field.” Guessing would produce 50% accuracy. (Emily’s experiment was written up and submitted to the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association. Emily became the youngest person ever to have a paper published in a major medical journal.)
Three of the therapists subsequently responded to Emily’s published article, each with one of the following claims:
(a) We wanted Emily to become famous and we don’t believe her scientific report “exposing” us will prevent any of us from continuing our careers as manipulators of energy auras (if for no other reason than that our clients don’t read scientific journals).
(b) We only identified her energy less than half the times we tried, but that is because she doubted our abilities to read auras. She blocked us by doubting us. We can read anyone’s energy so long as they believe in us.
(c) We have learned from this experience that we have to see the patient’s body in order to read and manipulate someone’s energy field. We didn’t realize this before, thinking our hands alone were enough to manipulate the real, colored energy coming off everyone’s bodies. Thank you, Emily. We learned more about our own powers because of you.
PROMPTS: Analyze each of the responses (a), (b), and (c). Prove each excuse is logically unacceptable.
Casino results can be analyzed and tested using logic and critical reasoning
CASE 2
The psychologist Terence Hines wondered if psychics are real. They claim to be able to see the future before it happens. (You pay for a reading.) Hines then argued that gambling casinos provide a real-world test for the existence of psychic phenomena. Every spin of a roulette wheel is an opportunity to test precognition (seeing the future before it occurs). If psychics really possessed the supernatural ability of precognition (seeing he future before it occurs), Hines argues, then the earnings of casinos would be negatively affected. Any psychic would go any time and take cash, beating the odds and threatening any casino with bankruptcy. But audits of all Las Vegas and Indian casinos show they make in profit what probability calculations predict they should make (not one has ever been bankrupted by legal gambling activities). Fact: By foreseeing just 9 straight spins in roulette on an initial $20 bet (the odds are 35-1 on any correct call of a single number), a psychic would have amassed over $1.2 trillion in cash by simply letting the winnings from each correct call ride on the next spin, and then stopping after the 9th spin. No casino in the world could pay that (not even Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, could). But in fact, in the history of roulette, no one has ever predicted three straight spins.
More facts: On June 15, 1997 the horse race play called Triple Trio was won at Happy Valley Racecourse, under the auspices of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Thousands of tickets were purchased: The winner, if there was one, would have taken home $25.9 million if he/she only staked $1.39: The person had to successfully pick the first, second, and third horses, in order, in the second, third, and fifth races. Over one hundred thousand tickets were purchased, and not a single winning ticket emerged. (However, on July 28, 1974, at a horse racing event in Wilmington, Delaware, Charles Lamb, a writer for the Baltimore News American, picked all 10 winners of each of the 10 races. This has never been done before or since. (He said he was lucky and not a psychic.)
Some psychics have replied to Hines’ claims that casinos never losing money proves psychics are not real:
(a) “We can see the future whenever we wish to. Casino results do not prove we are frauds because our psychic powers cannot be used to make money.” Analyze this. How could you test it?
(b) “Casino results do not prove we are fake. We can foresee the future, but we just can’t foresee any future numbers, only future events.” Is this logical? How could you test it?
(c) To prove we are real, we foresaw the future and gave the last 3 Super Lotto winners the winning numbers. We told each of them if they ever revealed who gave them the winning numbers, we would have them killed. (We also foresaw they never would tell anyone who gave them the numbers, after we warned them not to.)
PROMPTS: Respond to (a), (b), and (c) using logic and critical reasoning.
Craig is a supernatural being capable of breaking the laws
CASE 1
Philosophy professors Barry Singer and Victor Benassi performed experiments on community college students in the late 1970s and early 1980s at Long Beach City College. The two told their own critical thinking and logic students that a magician was hired to perform psychic feats for them in class. Professors Singer and Benassi hired a man listed in the newspaper as a professional conjurer and told the classes he was hired to perform for them. He repeated a single performance in front of 10 different philosophy classes. He wore a purple robe and gold medallions. He introduced himself as “Craig” and he chanted before each supernatural feat he performed. 70% of all students who witnessed his act said afterward that Craig the “magician” was real: he could break the laws of nature. They watched him with their own eyes make paper money appear and disappear, both before and after holding it up for all to inspect. He smoked a cigarette, then asked a student to open her hand, and she was shocked to find ash there when there was no ash there when the performance began; a metal bar was passed around in class and no one could bend—every single student tried—and then Craig, after a chant of words not in English or any other known language, Craig bent the bar easily, without effort. He asked a random student to choose a number between 1 and 100 and then he guessed that number correctly the first time, to the student’s utter amazement.
70% of the college students who witnessed Craig’s feats said he was the real deal: A practitioner of the paranormal capable of suspending the laws of nature. They said he (Craig) was actually tricking the philosophy professors Singer and Benassi into thinking he was just a regular human, a mere paid “magician” when in fact in reality he is a supernatural warlock. The college students claimed they did not know how powerful Craig was, but that he revealed enough for them to know he had real powers. (Several college students wrote exorcisms on their paper to ward off the Devil, and others prayed to God for their personal safety.)
PROMPTS:
(a) Is it logical to believe what the majority of college students believed? Is it rational? Or is it logical and/or rational to believe Craig is a regular human being who is a professional performer, unable to break any laws of nature and perform any supernatural feats? Explain.
(b) How could Craig be tested outside the classroom, by experts? Explain. Suppose Craig refused to perform under test conditions: For instance, when given a metal bar chosen by scientists, he will not bend it; when asked by scientists he refuses to tell them what number they are secretly thinking of between 1 and 100; and Craig will not make ash appear in any of the scientists’ hands, or make a dollar bill appear or disappear. Could Craig still be supernatural, given his refusal? What would logic and science say? Explain.
(c) What if a public internet search turned up the following: Craig had purchased the following books in the past five years after leaving his job at Big O Tires: 101 Magic Tricks by Bryan Miles, Modern Magic Effects and How to Perform Them, by Geo DeLawrence, and Jim Stott’s Ultimate Street Magic Kit. Would this prove logically that he is just a human conjurer? Or would it only give you strong evidence he was merely a human conjurer? What if Craig said in response he has real supernatural abilities but he wanted to appear to be a regular human magician, in order not to be persecuted by those who found out his true powers? Is it logical and is or it rational to believe this is why Craig made the purchases of those books (to masquerade as a human and not be discovered to be a real wizard)? Analyze this defense in detail.
(c) Suppose Craig were paid a tremendous sum of money and shows us privately how he performed each act he carried out in front of the college students. That is, suppose he shows us his secret how to touch the bar that makes it pliable, etc. Now suppose someone still claims he is supernatural—even after showing us how his classroom feats were in fact accomplished by stage magic. What could be said to this person, clinging to the supernatural belief even after the revelation? Explain.
Jurisdiction in Car Accident Case
If a car dealership in New York sold a car to a person, and that person two years later got into a car accident in Oklahoma, would it be fair for the car dealer to be subject to Oklahoma State court jurisdiction? Why or why not?
Do you think Courts should permit evidence about a defendant’s propensity to commit bad acts? Why or why not?
What do you think about the Judge’s ability to issue a “judgment notwithstanding a verdict”? Is this a wise check on juries or does it raise the potential for abuses of power? Why or why not?
The Mechanics of the Hamoud Brothers’ Operation
The most popular means for terrorist groups to raise and transmit funds in the United States are charitable and nongovernmental organizations. Some charities have been abused by terrorists, who have redirected money meant for humanitarian purposes to terrorism. For example, Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization, used the Holy Land Foundation, a US charity organization, to fund its terrorist activities.
For this assignment, review the subject of terrorism financing. Read the case of Mohammed and Chawki Hamoud, two brothers who lived in North Carolina and raised millions of dollars for Hezbollah.
Mohamad Youssef Hammoud sentenced to 30 years in terrorism financing case https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/mohamad-youssef-hammoud-sentenced-30-years-terrorism-financing-case
Prepare a report that covers the following points.
Describe the mechanics of the Hamoud brothers’ operation. Show specifically how they managed to raise so much money.
Identify and explain the specific laws that were broken.
Discuss Hezbollah, including their mission and history. What might that group have used the money for?
Describe the other ways that Hezbollah receives funding and from whom.
Evaluate the efforts being made by counterterrorism authorities to identify and disrupt operations designed to raise money for terror groups.
Judicial Ruling on Abortion Pill Approval: Violation of Administrative Procedures Act
Read: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3873279-federal-judge-shuts-down-abortion-pill-approval/
Recently a judge restricted the use of the Morning After contraceptive drug. Explain why the judge found that the FDA regulation was in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act and what administrative agencies must do to avoid finding an administrative rule or regulation from being invalid.
The Film’s Relevance to Species Justice or Animals and Criminal Justice
1. Explain at least one way this film related to (an) issue(s) in Species Justice or Animals and Criminal Justice.
2a. Did your attitudes, beliefs, feelings, or choices regarding non-human animals and related issues change as a result of viewing these films?
2b. What specific aspect about a film or films caused this shift in you?
Worker’s Compensation: Is The Town Times Responsible?
Johanna applied for a job with Freedonia Publishing, a public company that oversees 7 newspapers across the United States. Upon receiving her job, Freedonia Publishing assigned her to a small newspaper in Plainview called The Town Times. Freedonia Publishing set Johanna’s salary, gave her a job description, provided her with housing and was solely responsible for all hiring and firing at The Town Times. The Town Times set her hours and oversaw her work product and The Town Times logo appeared on her paycheck.
The Town Times has 4 full time employees including Johanna. On occasion, Johanna’s husband, Emil, would fill in with some of the accounting work and with filing The Town Time taxes. Emil was never paid for this work.
Johanna moved to Plainview and happily worked at The Town Times for 3 years before getting her hand stuck in the printing machine. Johanna sues The Town Times for worker’s compensation. The town of Freedonia requires an employer to have 5 employees in order to be responsible for workers’ compensation. The Town Times states that it is not responsible for paying workers’ compensation. Is The Town Times correct? Please explain your answer.