Steven Barrera

CIS 110
12/2/14
Conrad Davies

Reflective essay
When developing this speech the main objective is to present an artifact that could be identified
with your culture that you selected previously. Now to start out an artifact is anything tangible that can
be interpreted in regards of a bigger picture kind of like how our state flag is an artifact that represents
the state that we live in. my culture being atheism kind of brings my thoughts and development to stand
still when I was told I had to find an artifact for it. See atheism is the absence of faith which is the
absence of any faith like symbol and text. So what could be identified with my culture: Science? In the
early 1980s some teenage free thinkers developed what is called the Darwin fish. Its a mocking of what
we know as the Icthys or more commonly known as the Jesus fish. The symbol is a mere fish drawn with
legs and Darwins name in the middle, nothing to significant right? Wrong this was a poster symbol of
the theory of evolution that Darwin developed while studying finches in the Galapagos Islands. Change
over time is why we are here, atheist crave knowledge, proof, and credibility so what could be better
than what Darwin learned while staying on some islands in the middle of know where. Know this
information that was just presented is a way of showing credibility when delivering your speech it was a
mere eye brow raiser for my audience if you will. Thus helped in regard of my speech and how my
audience would react to the rest of my information. So as I presented more of how my artifact was
linked in on how atheist view science as their holy book I quickly debunked the stereotypes of what
atheist are viewed at here. Hateful towards life, mean, anti-social, pessimistic, and intelligent are some
of the words that I was conditioned to hear when being brought up when the subject of atheist was
brought to the table. This then helped me to know what to look for while I was researching and
developing my essay paper and looking for my artifact. In my speech this helped me maintain flow and
organization, which is something I have always struggled with. Having some sort of method to the
madness you prepare for helps in the long run because without it makes you look disorganized and less
credible and wont be taken as seriously. In the transition period between my artifact and stereotypes I
did present what it means to be atheist definition wise and the types of atheism that are present in the
world; Positive and negative atheism. The two types only differing in assertion of belief and whether
they care if a God actually exist. This in my speech sets the stage for the rest of the content, you cant
talk about a football play without knowing how to play the game can you? Thus I allowed my audience
to understand the simplistic form of what exactly is atheism.