Discuss the following in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group taking opposite points of view.
1. Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.
2. Advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events.
3. Traditions, rituals and funerary practices must be respected.
4. Knowledge about the past is useful to complete our knowledge of the world we live in.
1.
Group A : Favouring the statement
Group B : Against the statement
Group A : Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.
Group B : No, scientific intervention causes unnecessary complications.
Group A : How ?
Group B : Let archaeology take control of buried mysteries. Science should not come in between.
Group A : Archaeology has changed substantially. It employs sophisticated methods to unearth buried mysteries.
Group B : Archaeologists with their groundings in history, architecture and culture can provide sufficient knowledge.
Group A : CT scanning can give wonderful results. Don’t you know that CT scans of young Egyptian king Tut were used to create a three-dimensional virtual body ?
Group B : Scientific intervention only gives birth to many controversies. Never forget archaeology and anatomy are totally different branches of learning.
2. Group A : Advanced technology gives us conclusive evidences of past events.
Group B : No, historical knowledge and understanding is the basic thing.
Group A : Do you see any conflict between the two ?
Group B : Yes, certainly. A historian is not a scientist. He deals with human beings and different aspects of their lives which they lived centuries ago.
Group A : Without advanced technology, archaeology is reduced to mythology.
Group B : And advanced technology degenerates archaeology into an experimental science.
Group A : Advanced technology like CT scan can reveal and unearth many secrets lying buried deep in the earth.
Group B : The focus is on evidences. Where is the soul and spirit of times and people ? It is lost in the lab.
Group A : Without conclusive evidences, archaeology is wrapped in mystery.
Group B : Spirit of the age and historical facts are the basic things.
3. Group A : Traditions, rituals and funerary practices must be respected.
Group B : All traditions and rituals need not deserve respect.
Group A : Traditions and rituals reflect the spirit of the age and its people.
Group B : Many of them are nothing but mere superstitions and blind faiths.
Group A : Even funerary practices like placing gold and other necessary articles near the dead so that they might be used by them in the after life deserve our attention.
Group B : The very idea of rebirth is superstitious. Such practices defy reason and good sense.
Group A : Everything can’t be judged from the yardstick of science and reason.
Traditions and rituals are an integral part of our social and cultural life.
Group B : Superstitions and funerary practices need not deserve our respect and attention.
4. Group A : Knowledge about the past is useful to complete our knowledge of the world we live in.
Group B : Past is dead. Let us live in the present.
Group A : What is the present? It is nothing but the extension of the past.
Group B : The present demands our immediate attention. We should care for people and things of the contemporary world.
Group A : That’s right. But remember knowledge about the past saves us from many blunders and mistakes.
Group B : Every age has its problems. They are unique and need different solutions than what were tried in the past.
Group A : Human progress is a continuous process. Present times can’t be separated from the past. The shadow of the past wraps the world we live in. The bond is inseparable.
Group B : It’s nothing but nostalgia. It promotes escapism. Let us live the moment we are living in.
