Part One: Reading and Quick Summary
A claim is an element of an argument and is frequently referred to as an excuse. Claims need reasons, or support, to back them up. Daily life is filled with claims by advertisements, and are all supported by reasons.
Support is an element of an argument that has reasons provided to convince someone to agree with your claim.
Evidence is an element of an argument that provides reason to suggest that something is valid or not. Evidence includes practically anything that backs the claim.
Explanation is an element of an argument that serves as a form of clarification for evidence. Often times, evidence is not clear and needs further explanation to be interpretated better.
Part Two: Applying the Concepts
1) My immediate response to Crichton’s article is that I agree with him in a way, but I also think his argument on environmentalism is awkward. He seems to flip flop the idea by showing that environmentalism is a religion, and then saying how it needs to be looked at in a scientific way. Crichton’s article made it clear that no two people are alike, and in our society there will always be arguments. One thing that stuck out to me was that he was pretty accurate when stating that people will stick with their religion, and not have people tell them otherwise.
2) The tone of this article is somewhat sarcastic, and negative. He feels very strongly about the topic and tries to get the readers to feel that there is no good in the world, and how he feels about enviromentalism related to religion. He is informing the reader of all the false information that they are receiving about environmentalism.
3) Crichton’s main claim in his article is that the world will never be understood completely and there is always going to be trouble in reality. He supports this claim by referring to Eden as if there never was one. And how there has always been trouble in the world.
4) Crichton supports his claim by giving us evidence of false predictions and arguments. He also asks the question of when the world was, or if it will ever be paradise. He uses evidence such as statistics of how many children die before they reach the age of five, and how many species of animals become extinct every year. This evidence helps prove Crichton’s case of how bad the world really has become.
5) Crichton does not have any citings because he could never do anything to make people counter their faith, and it would waste a lot of his time. Not citing is never a good idea because although he does tell the reader that they are from reliable sources, I think this could still hurt his argument.
6) I feel that Crichton’s argument was very well organized which made it very strong.