Tag: universe

40 Questions to help you wonder … about everything!

Values
1. Are you a fair or a just person?
2. How do you know who your friends are?
3. Should you be rewarded for your efforts in school?
4. Should you let little things bother you?
5. Is it your duty to give to charity?
6. Will having fun make you happier than studying?
7. Should you ever tell a lie?
8. Are there times when you should be violent?
9. Do you sometimes feel weird when you are with others?
10. Do we control technology or does technology control us?

Knowledge
11. How do you know for certain that things move?
12. What makes something you say true?
13. Can you doubt that you exist?
14. Does a tree make a sound if it falls in a forest with no one around?
15. Are you certain that the law of gravity is really a law?
16. How can you tell when you know something?
17. Can another person understand your feelings?
18. Can you lie to yourself?
19. Do you perceive things as they are or only as they seem to be?
20. Can computers think?

Reality
21. Can you think about nothing at all?
22. Does anything ever happen by chance?
23. What happens to numbers when you are not using them?
24. Are numbers and people equally real?
25. Is time what you see when you look at a clock?
26. If the universe came from the BIg Bang, where did the Big Bang come from?
27. Are you the same person you were five years ago?
28. Do you have free will?
29. Does anything depend on everything?
30. Are impossible things ever possible?

Critical Thinking
31. Is it important to speak and write so you can be understood?
32. Should you always listen to the opinions of others?
33. Should you criticize people or the opinions people have?
34. Why is “because” such an important word?
35. Is it easy to tell what causes things to happen?
36. If many people think something is true, is it true?
37. Do two wrongs balance out and make an action right?
38. “I am lying.” True or false?
39. Can something logical ever not make sense?
40. “I wonder … ” what it means to define something?

Personal Universe Lexicon

To construct your Personal Universe Lexicon, start with a new post. You may wish to construct the list with pen and paper first and transfer it to your blog later. Begin by following these instructions:

Write down as many words as you can then sort the words into the categories outlined below. Complete each category. Write as quickly as you can.

Categories:

  • 16 words of each of the five senses (16 x 5 = 80 words). The words must mean, suggest: taste touch, sight, smell, and hearing. For instance, desiccated or frozen might suggest touch to you, or birdsong hearing.
  • 10 words of motion. The words must mean, suggest motion to you. They do not necessarily need to be verbs. Baby could be a motion word for someone, for example.
  • 3 abstractions. Such as love or freedom or truth.
  • 7 anything else. Any word with meaning to you that does not fit into the other categories.

All the words on the list must

  1. have significance to/for you
  2. be specific; that is the word must not be “bird” but “robin,” not “tree” but “aspen.”
  3. sound good to the ear.

Use no adverbs. Use no plurals.

Keep track of the words with your blog. Move them around each other in the list every day for a week. Choose one word at random from the list; write what the word(s) sparks, what the juxtaposition of words builds for you.

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