By Thomas Lynn<\/p>\n
Even after an hour of their first meeting, the new group at Daytona State College, Sapientia, still couldn\u2019t find an answer for the question, \u201cwhat is a human being?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Ram Nayar, director of academic research, always knew he wanted to form a group of inquisitive students that would be able to sit down and have educated conversations about controversial topics. He figured, as a first step, asking the question \u201cwhat is a human being\u201d was a good start. Sapientia means wisdom in Latin and was given by an adjunct faculty member, Dr. Christian Rivera, who co-founded the group with Nayar.<\/p>\n
Contrary to popular belief, Rivera says, \u201cTextbooks don\u2019t know everything.\u201d And for that exact reason, Nayar and he formed Sapientia to bring students together with their own questions and answers to brain-teasing issues that they may struggle to understand on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no wrong answers here,\u201d says Nayar, \u201cmy goal is to make the people feel comfortable and feel free to express themselves outside of the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question, \u201cWhat is being human?\u201d may seem like an easy question and one not deserving of a whole discussion between a few doctorates and some wide-eyed, eager students. But, in the Schildecker Science Hall, room 123, after an hour and a series of debates over ants, religion and viruses, not all the doctorates in the world could answer these five little words. An argument was suggested by Richard Doolin, School of Biology and Physical Science teacher. Although seemingly too simple, his hypothesis for what makes humans special is that we can steal ideas, habits or skills from other organisms.<\/p>\n
Scientists have the ability to reengineer viruses that were originally meant to attack the body to now assist the body. We can render a virus harmless and then piggyback off its tenacious ability to spread through our entire system. But, instead of spreading sickness, death and plague, it can be used for good or whatever else the mad-man in the white coat wants to use it for. The room falls quiet after this suggestion as people search for contentious disputes to it. Nothing reaches the forefront other than a possibility that dolphins are capable of mimicking other animals. The group concedes that there is still too much they don\u2019t know about in the world to be sure. But the answer seems too easy.<\/p>\n
A change of gears leads the group into controversial territory \u2014 religion. \u201cHumans are the only animals who worship a higher power,\u201d says a confidant voice. But are they? This unleashes a torrent of more questions that could never be answered, especially with a little less than an hour to do so. \u201cHow do we know other animals don\u2019t worship a higher power?\u201d \u201cWhat is a higher power?\u201d The topic soon reached a need to end and what better than warfare to put a stop to it?<\/p>\n
Someone offers to the debate that humans are the only animals that kill each other in massive numbers. This is shot down by the fact that red and black ants have been waging war since the beginning of time, with no end in sight. And, just like all the other possible answers, warfare is put up on the shelf.<\/p>\n
One aspect that attracts people to Sepientia is that there is no reservation to any topic. After each meeting, every Friday from 11 to 12, the members will decide on the next question to debate over. If students have questions and like a good debate, this club\u2019s could feed that need to attain wisdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Thomas Lynn Even after an hour of their first meeting, the new group at Daytona State College, Sapientia, still couldn\u2019t find an answer for the question, \u201cwhat is a human being?\u201d Dr. Ram Nayar, director of academic research, always knew he wanted to form a group of inquisitive students Continue reading Group develops sense of wisdom<\/span>