Reconciliation of Conflicting Ideas

Gecheng Zhang/ Gressin
Basic Composition
Assignment #1 Final Draft
September 19th 2013
Reconciliation of conflicting ideas
  In the essay “In the Forests of Gombe” by Jane Goodall, Goodall thinks that she can use the religion as another way to explore the nature in the basis of science. This essay tells people that they can separate two conflicting ideas by avoiding some conflicting details and fully understanding both of them. As for the religion and science, people don’t have to stick to the difference between God and no God; instead they can look into the useful parts of religion to improve science. The avoidance of unessential parts and combination of each other’s advantage is the best way to analyze two or more conflicting ideas. There are three steps to succeed in reconciling two incompatible ideas: to understand these two ideas thoroughly, to admit the multiple feasibilities to success including both of them and to utilize their strengths and avoid the conflicting parts.
    First, what people should do to reconcile two disparate beliefs is get to know both two beliefs totally. If someone does not even understand two complicated beliefs, he will only stand for the belief which he accepted first. Although first impressions are very important, when two ideas conflict with each other in a person’s mind, he will choose the one which he understands better. In the essay, there is one period that Goodall distrusted and even hated the God after her husband Derek’s death. When people meet huge loss, they become distrustful of their former beliefs. Derek’s death of cancer urged her to abandon her belief in religion. Science told her religion was just useless to save her husband’s life. At that period, she could not separate the two beliefs because she did not understand the religion totally. She got her belief back and totally understood the religion later. Goodall found her joyful coexistence with the chimpanzees, the forest of Gombe, and the nature. She...