#14 A lot to take in...

         So last blog. Here it goes. I think the most important thing I will take from this class is that not everything is to be taken at face value. What I mean is if we focus too much on the outside appearances or meanings of things, we might miss the deeper, truer meaning that someone or something is trying to convey. Dr. Borders has taught us how to look further into the culture that was around when Jesus was teaching. And with that new knowledge of their culture it gives new meaning to words that we have always used without even thinking twice about them. For example, the word Faith. In our language it is taken as an abstract idea, or noun. It has no other meaning except for a belief. If we merely "believe" in God we are saved. But the word takes on a whole new meaning when not just taken for face value. In Greek, the word for Faith is actually a verb. This presents an entirely different concept than the English version of the word (this class discussion was perhaps my favorite of all). It conveys that faith is supposed to be put into action and not just something to say. By saying and doing, as opposed to just saying, we can be better Christians and set an example for the rest of the world to follow, because quite frankly, talk is cheap when you can't back it up. New ideas that have been introduced to us by Dr. Borders have completely altered my way of thinking about my faith, how I faith, and religion in general.
            This class has been a lot to swallow, especially nearing the end. But ultimately I think it has stimulated more critical thinking from me than my other classes combined. I actually really enjoyed this class, no matter how low my test scores were.  :/

#13

Ok so I know this is entirely off topic, but it is something that I want to have clarified. Why the heck do football coaches (such as Nick Saban) have a higher salary than our firefighters and policemen? Furthermore, why do actors and actresses make more money than people who protect our country? It's ridiculous that a man with a coaching degree (and only God knows what else qualifies him) can make $4 MILLION for just coaching a football team. People may say that he's such a great coach and he deserves to make a lot of money. Yeah that could be true, but our police officers, fire fighters, and military risk their lives every day for the safety of our nation, and they don't make even a quarter of that salary. It's sad to see the priorities of our nation these days.
Sorry about the ranting...

#12

So...I know I've gotten behind on my blogs, and I'm playing catch up now, but I want to address something that has been bothering me for a while now. Why is God pushed out of so many things? They have pushed it out of our schools, trying to push it out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and many other places. So why do people start blaming God for everything as soon as a natural disaster comes or something catastrophic happens? They push Him so far that He finally does what they ask and then they question as to why He "wasn't there" when they needed Him the most. It doesn't make any sense, not to me at least. But yeah...just had to get that off my chest.

Dead Sea Scrolls

So we studied the Dead Sea Scrolls last Thursday in class. I don't know about the rest of the class but I actually really enjoyed learning about these mysteries. I found this website that has some interesting facts about them. Take a look and ponder for a little bit if you'd like.

http://www.centuryone.com/25dssfacts.html

One that interests me in particular is #7. They believe these texts to be the oldest form of the Old Testament and yet these were supposed to be written by the Essenes. The Essenes lived out their existence in solitude did they not? So how on earth were they able to get all of the information to put together this form of the Old Testament? They even have explanations as to why some stories happened the way they did. Ex: Why God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Yeah, this gives us insight into their culture but it just doesn't make any sense. There were no previous texts, no means of communication except maybe the occasional outsider who may have stumbled into their camps. So how did they obtain all of this information? That's just something that's been on my mind. Let me know what you think.

Why does everyone hate the Jews?

The other day in class we discussed people's hatred of the Jews I really don't see a valid reason as to why people have hated Jews for centuries. Hitler, for example, absolutely hated these people and actually tried to wipe out their whole existence. They didn't threaten him in any way. He just hated them. They have been expelled from over 80 countries over a period of 1,700 years. So why does everyone hate them? There is no logical explanation for it. Here's a website that might be of some interest.

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Why_Do_People_Hate_The_Jews.htm

Afterlife???

One of the things we talked about in class the other day was what happens when you die. This subject (interestingly enough) was brought up again today in Physical Chemistry. Dr. Murphy brought up the fact that this is the hardest critical thinking question that we face today. We will never know because scientists that would die (quite literally) to get the answer can't come back and tell everyone their findings once they kick the bucket, and other scientists are too scared or just too fond of life to pursue the answer any further than just a hypothesis. One scientist made the statement that there is no life after death simply because any person that has experienced near-death and has testified to bright lights and tunnels has not died all of the way.

This reminded me of class on Thursday, and it got me to thinking. What DOES happen when we die? Being a Christian, of course I'm going to say that I await the Second Coming of Jesus and then I will be resurrected. But as we discussed in class resurrection is a reawakening of the BODY. So when we are resurrected what will happen to our bodies in terms of Heaven and Hell?? I've always thought of Heaven as a place where our soul goes...but now I just don't know.

This whole class has got me intrigued and at the same time very confused. Sayings like "Oh, they are in a better place now" just don't have an validity to them anymore, and I'm kind of dumbfounded that a saying I've heard since I was able to understand speech is now completely inaccurate. If I'm talking in circles or I just sound plain stupid let me know...otherwise someone shed some light on this whole death thing...

Genealogy of Jesus

Ok so I know I haven't been on here lately but I did some digging and found an article that might interest some people. It's about Jesus' geneaolgy and how Matthew differs from Luke. Let me know what you think.

http://campus.fortunecity.com/defiant/666/genluke.html

Project???

Ok so I'm not sure if I'm just an idiot or does someone else not understand the project either? It sounds simple enough but after actually thinking about it I've come across a few questions. First, we have to classify people into Romans, Essenes, etc. But the thing is we all have different ideas on who fit into what groups. So are we going to just go ahead and question people and then have a discussion or what? I'm so confused so someone please enlighten me on the project...Please!!!

Busy as a Bee??

I know this is really late (Sorry Dr. Borders) but here it is. I would just like to comment on the field trip the other day. I thought it was spectacular! And not to mention getting a breather out of the classroom was rather refreshing also. He really caught me off guard by how he related the bees to the class. "In order to change our surroundings, we must first change ourselves." I love how powerful this statement truly is. What I got out of this was that we are in no way perfect. Not one person is perfect. But if we can all strive to reach perfection, maybe falling a little short will still help promote a change for the better. But still, in order to reach this, we must first look to ourselves and not to others to create this change. It's like the self-help deal only better. You know, the whole "You need to help yourself before you expect others to help you" thing.Well...that's it. Hope you enjoyed.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi

$Money$ Issue #1

Our main topic of discussion in class today was about our issues, whether they be social, economical, educational, whatever. One of the issues relating to Huntingdon was how our finances are being used. This, in my opinion, is one of my main concerns. We all pay thousands of dollars to come here. And don't get me wrong, I love Huntingdon. It's like my second home. But I would kind of like to know what they do with all of the money we shell out just to attend Huntingdon. Living expenses? Well yes, but I'm pretty sure that living expenses don't take up roughly $10-20,000 a semester. Why not actually showing us what our money goes toward? I think I would be correct in saying that no one would complain in seeing how their tuition money is being spent. The administration could sending out an email or letter or something showing that this amount was used for maintenance fees, this amount was used for heating/air conditioning, and so on. Tell me if I'm wrong or if you just flat out don't agree with me...

#4 Shadow of the Galilean

Okay so I admit I haven't been doing much reading of the Shadow of the Galilean until now, and even now I'm only on Chapter 12. The book, in my opinion, was pretty monotonous until I came across some pretty interesting stuff in the 10th and 11th chapters. In the 10th chapter, one thing that particularly caught my eye was in Theissen's letter to Dr. Kratzinger. Theissen says that "Jesus did not want to found a Christian community--he wanted to renew Israel." I find this particularly interesting becuase Jesus wasn't really trying to start anything, and yet an entire religion is founded on him and his teachings. It truly is amazing for lack of a better word.

Another part of the book that really interested me was on page 102. It says "But Jesus isn't interested in that sort of thing...He healed him." This comment is made about a homosexual man. Clearly Gamaliel, the man who made this statement, is dumb-founded by Jesus' ability to look past a person's flaws, regardless of how big or small the flaws may seem. This part of the book really made me realize how judgmental we as humans truly are, and it made me step back and actually reevaluate some of my thoughts and opinions on certain topics. Overall this book is getting really interesting, and I can't wait to finish it.

Faith and faithing... #3

So this entire concept of faith actually being a verb in Greek just completely altered the way I think about my beliefs.We've always been taught to believe that if we believe in Jesus and the resurrection then we have a ticket to Heaven. Well in some ways yes, that's true, but it is also so much more than that. We spent almost an entire class period talking about how faith is actually meant to be a verb. It seemed hard at first to get a clear and full understanding of what it might mean to faith. Then after talking more about it in class we later found it to mean it's not about going through the motions, and it's not about just saying you believe or you have faith. It's about actually modeling your life after Christ, and living just as he did. I don't know about everyone else but to me, that's beautiful. I really liked Thursday's discussion, and I cannot wait for the next class to learn more. Peace out.  :)

Okay so I don't really know what to write about so I'm just going to go with how much I enjoyed watching the Outnumbered BBC clip. I went home and actually looked it up on YouTube to show my roommate, who also thought it was hilarious, and then proceeded to look up more skits from that TV show. I would highly recommend watching the clip about the kids' questions about Jesus, although the satanist one is by far my favorite. That's all I've got...

Opinions and the Truth--8/27/10

Okay so here it goes for my first ever blog post. I got really interested in what Dr. Borders meant by the Truth and opinions. Can opinions really be wrong, or is there no wrong opinion? One student made the comment that there is only one Truth and yes, there can be wrong opinions because there is only one truth or "way" and that all other opinions are wrong. This statement I believe was made in the Christian sense that we believe that Jesus is, in fact, what He says He is, and that He is the way, the truth, and the life. But how do we really know if our religion is THE religion. There are thousands of other religions in this world, so how do we truly know for a fact that ours is the right one? Sure, we have the Bible that tells us Christianity is for sure the way to go, but then again every other religion has some form of literature that tells them their religion is the Truth and that all others are false. So instead of going around in circles I'll end with this. In my opinion, when speaking about religion no opinion is wrong. They may be different, or off the wall, but never wrong because it is what someone believes. If I don't agree with someone who am I to tell them that they are wrong about their faith? I cannot simply because I have no proof that what they believe is wrong. That's all I've got.