Evolution

There has always been a big disagreement between the belief in Darwin or God. Who is right and can they both be right? Could God have made an earth in which the '7 day' God spent creating the earth was actually a bad time scale and it allowed for the evolution of man? I know there are some people out there who believe in both, they know God created the earth but all the evidence for evolution seems undeniable as well. For some its hard to admit that we seem to be superior being but we are distantly related to inferior species. Then they think that why would God allow for this to occur when we were made in his image, did he plan for us to develop in this manner or was it by chance?
I think that I would be able to cope with the idea that God created the earth from the big bang, in which everything tha occured afterwards was out of his control. I understand that he is all powerful and all knowing but the chance of human existence seems so variable that I couldn't imagine that he would expect us to turn out this way. The evidence presented by the science sommunity makes too much sense to disregard. I've grown up with the notion that science has allowed us to understand more about ourselves and our surroundings then religion ever could. Knowing the mechanics to life and our world allows for so much more of a useful mind frame then just prayer and worship could. I know science isn't sure about everything but it definately describes many of the usual questions. Maybe the idea that God created man makes less sense as if God created the mechanics of the world; physics, biology and chemistry. This is an understanding I could come to terms with.

Scared places

US Weekly published an article about the most sacred places on the planet. These of course are chosen for their religious correlation. I think its interesting what makes a place scared. An event or experience that occurs at some place can hold this drastic effect on those who viewed the event as important. I think scared places can be evident for anyone from having an influential event occur in specific spot. Such as those who go on a romantic get away, that place will always have a significant meaning to the person. Therefore i think it is unfair to say that only certain places are truly scared, but instead only to those who believe in its significance. I know for me I would never be tempted to travel to the areas the magazine listed for the significance behind the area doesn't appeal to me for my lack of beliefs. But if I could go back to the place where i grew up as a child or my elementary school I would be overwhelmed with feeling and emotion. My point is that we cannot choose scared places for the mass but instead for the religious mass. People will find their own scared spots in relation to what they value, everyone being different it is hard to narrow it down into a few locations. I think Americans value the white house being our nations capitol, this being why it attracts so many tourists. Jewish young adults travel to Jerusalem for its religious significance. US Weekly shouldn't have been so bold as to say that everyone agreed on the most scared places in the world for their religious affiliation.

Click

Today I watched the movie Click, which poses a very interesting idea. In the movie the man was given a remote control that would control hos world. Not only the options of pause, mute or fast forward were used but also there was a main menu. In the main menu the person could skip to any part of their lives to watch what happened. Although this is a little like playing God at the same time the man was unable to control the remote control, given to him by the angel of death. Auto-pilot got the better of him and fast forwarded him through the bad parts of his life. Ultimately he missed out on all the good little things that make up for the bad.
What I don't understand is why he never thought to hit rewind during the times when he wanted to go back to the past...but maybe it didn't work that way.
I really like this movie for i think it poses an interesting idea. What I got out of seeing the movie is that we are unable to pick out the parts of our lives that are important to our being. We cannot chose which experiences will affect our lives, therefore if we were to try we would mess up and completely change who we are and what we would become. I know that for myself I have a hard enough time making any choices about my life that if I had to try to structure it on my own it would be too much for me. Many of the bad experiences I've had I may not have chosen to go through although they shaped my character and the lessons I've learned are priceless.
The movie Bruce Almighty has a similar theme, a man is granted with god's powers. This story is a little more intense for he has to take on the role of God for his whole city. The same ending is reached that we don't like having so much control and that the power always ends up destroying ourselves. We are not capable of being all powerful, I believe its because we aren't all knowing. The knowledge is what really distinguishes the good and bad decisions.

Is God on our side?

Discussion in class confirmed that the God in the bible is a jealous one. It states that he wants the best for humanity and yet there is so much evidence against that. Such as the pain and suffering that we see everyday, not to mention tragic events such as natural disasters. God is said to be 'all powerful, all knowing and all good', therefore by believing in him it is confirming that everything that happens is because he decided it would be so. But this cannot be true if he is allowing terrible events such as the Holocaust. If God were truly good he wouldn't support such pain and suffering.
My thoughts are that if God created us in his image, which brings along some similar characteristics. The creator is able to view our world and our problems, much like watching a drama series. Humans have a history of loving violence, although we don't agree with it we cannot tear out eyes away from the torture. Evidence of this is can be seen from countless events from gladiator shows to the present times of movies like saw or hostile. These events focus on the torturing people. God obviously receives some joying in watching the suffering of human kind. In the beginning he could see that man was making strides in learning, therefore he decided to interfere and make things harder. This is when he knocked people off the tower spreading them across the world with different languages. What other reason would he do this except for that he enjoys watching us struggle. By separating us across the world made us lose our unity and instead create different groups of which there was turmoil between. If we were left being one community there would be less problems in our world, which god wouldn't allow. He knew what would happen and our troubles are obviously what pleases him.

God or Gods?

Its interesting to access the different religions and see their views on there being one god or many. It seems as though if there are many gods then the people who believe this more or less think in a way that they can relate to these gods. People being created in the image of a god are all very diverse so it seems probable that there would be many different types of gods to account for these different traits. Although the point of a god is that they are so much more then we could ever be that any relationship between them and us would lower their standing. Humans are seen as very imperfect and we strive to be better then how we were made to be, trying to be more like those we immolate. If we had gods that we could understand better by having qualities similar to our own then the quest to be better would be much easier then the singular all knowing god. The Jewish believe that there can be no physical comparison between the creator and mankind. This is putting a definite distinction between the creator and the limit of our own being. We can never achieve a status even close to that of a god which makes the effort a little more depressing.
I believe that for there to be one creator then it only seems rational that there would be others of that kind. Maybe the other gods have nothing to do with our existence or have no involvement in our being but they must still coexists. Maybe this idea doesn't matter for if they have no part in our existence then it doesn't help us explain the reason why we are here. Except maybe for the fact that our creator got bored from not being able to hang out with the others of that kind and therefore created existence for self entertainment. Which leads to my point that if there is a singular god then his gift of creation was not for us but more as a science project for the child that got singled out. This explains his allowance for evil, we cause it and for a true experiment to play out there is no interference from outside sources. Therefore we cannot expect that any effect on our life will result from his will. These aren't my beliefs in religion but more or less a random tangent that I thought was interesting.

Body and Soul

During the reading for this week regarding the Halocaust was a part saying "befoulment of the body is experienced as a befoulment to the soul." This link between body and soul are evident in religion as to unite them as one for an overall consistency of being. Yoga is practiced as to achieve this goal. There is much that can be said on how the soul is connected to a persons physical being. One basis much of who they are on how they look and function. Someone who loses functioning of a part of their body can feel like they lost a part of who they are, a part of their soul. The soul can become damaged with increasing torture and pain, both physically and mentally. Everything that impacts us will have an overall effect. In the case of the Halocaust people were subjected to such physical degradation that they changed who they were as to be able to cope. The soul lost what it once was because of this strain. It's evident that no matter how strong we are there is a breaking point, a point where we shut a part of ourselves off for protection. It becomes lost along with the belief that there was reason for it. One may hold something dear to themselves but if an event changes this perspective, the value is lost. This can also be seen when people come back from war. They are changed from this experience, body with soul. People lose their religious ideals maybe believing that not God could allow something like what happened to occur. After reading about the Halocaust its hard for me to believe that something so terrible could happen without cause or reason. The reason of religious plague emphasizes the fact that if there is a God then obviously he's not concerned with the welfare of mankind.
Few examples can be made against this. Many disabled persons lack functioning of body parts but refuse to let it impact who they are. A few years ago there was a young teenage surfer that had her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing. In an interview after the incident she reflected that it barely had an affect on her, and that she was still going to be a surfer and live life just the same. This shows strength in the soul, allowing it to overcome injustice done to the body.

Scientology

For a group project that is coming up my group decided to pursue all that is Scientology. Wanting to get a general insight into their beliefs and background I read up on wikipedia. This is not a creditable source but I think its good at painting the right picture. First of all this is what it said about their general ideas, "Scientology believes man to be basically good and that his experiences have led him into evil. That he errs because he seeks to solve his problems by considering only his own point of view. And that man can improve to the degree he preserves his spiritual integrity and remains honest and decent. (wikipedia, 11/5/07). Now it makes sense to me why celebrities would be so taken with this opportunity, to be able to blame your sins on everything else because deep down everyone is good. This religion is set up to allow people who have a bad past to be able to repent and move on, unlike other religions this one is guilt free. Once again this religion focuses on expanding one's knowledge and becoming more enlightened while immersing yourself in the religion. The method they speak of to achieve these goals sounds similar to a plan to help people lose weight. "Scientologists believe that an individual would discover for himself that Scientology works by personally applying its principles and observing or experiencing results" (wikipedia, 11/05/07). That quote referenced from a general Scientology website. The rest of the reading sounded more like a 'self-help' guide more then a religion. Believing that you can be a better person is one thing, turning it into worship is another.

Religion for Love

Last week in class there was a news article presented about a couple in which one had to change their religion to be married to the person they fell in love with. The problem is that religious beliefs can't be so easily converted, the true beliefs can't be constructed from nowhere. These beliefs need to be accepted by a person and incorporated into their life to show their true devotion to the idea. If one agrees to become part of the church as to be able to get married, this is worse as being a lie. I don't understand how the family and church could accept this person knowing that the sole reason she has joined the church is to be allowed marriage. I would think that either there would be some extreme conviction that would be made by the person or else they wouldn't allow it. referring to 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' the man was baptized into the Greek orthodox church to be able to marry one of the members. Once he was baptized he was accepted by the family and church as if his whole belief system had changed. I just don't understand the difference. People that accept this must not take much pride in their beliefs if they think it only takes one ceremony to convert a persons set beliefs.
Personally if I was put in the situation of choosing to let the love of my life go or joining some church so that the marriage was allowed I would do it. It would probably be the only day I attend the church but if that is the only way I can be with that person then its not that big of a step. The only thing that would prevent me from doing it would be if my being part of the church separated me from my family. My family is the one thing that I will always put first, no man or religion could tear me away from them.

Wedding Flaws

A few days ago was my brothers wedding, jam packed with family and friends. Everyone made their best effort to come down except for my mothers sister. She said that she was too busy with church events to attend. Growing up I always assumed that religion had a lot to do with family and strengthening that relationship within the group. I was completely appalled to hear that she found that church events were more important then her sisters' sons marriage. Maybe its because I'm not in the church so I don't understand the importance of these events but I can't imagine what could be going on at the beginning of November that would take precedence over this event. The cover could be caused by my aunt knowing that the ceremony wouldn't be held in a church as a traditional wedding. How could someone create this barrier between their family because of a disagreement of religious beliefs? Religious differences between family members shouldn't create walls between people. There should be understanding and compassion for your loved ones and eventually acceptance. My aunt has separated herself from those who don't share her beliefs, which has caused her to be completely non-accepting of others. I fear that this happens too often between communities and in families. The whole idea of love thy neighbor is interpreted by them as to surround themselves with people who share their church, so that no disputes will be made.