Taoism

Taoism is the philosophy/religion that was created in ancient china. The best analogy to taoism is a flowing river. You may try to resist the river and climb upstream but eventually you flow in the same direction. In life, you are always meant to arrive at a certain point, you can resist that or let it happen. Taoist texts help us to deepen the understanding of anchient china by showing us their mindset. They believed in a great after life, so no matter what happened in life everyone would arrive at the same afterlife, with or without resistance. This is interesting because it is similar to the phrase "Go with the flow."

Is Our World Real?

Today in class we questioned whether or not the world we live in is real. Recently there was a conference in new york city with some of the most knowledgeable scientists. They arrived at the conclusion that there is a 50/50 chance that we are living in a virtual reality. I am unsure if i agree with this hypothesis. It is really scary to think that today might just be a figment of someone's imagination. At the same time i want to believe that the world is just as i always thought it was.

Faith

Today i read about a holocaust views article. In this article there was a very interesting perspective. It showed how a mans parents, who both survived the holocaust, had very different view on faith. The mother, resented what god had done and demanded justice, while the father believed in the greater good. He believed that us humans could not possibly understand gods ways. This is very similar to a biblical story we read. The book of Job. It is the same kind of test of faith. I don't think i would have been able to keep my faith after such a tragic experience. I agree with what somebody said in the article. That it is a miracle that some people survived Auschwitz and still have faith in god.

The Book of Job

Today in class we looked at a different bible story not from genesis. This was the book of Job. Mr. Reiff pronounced it "Jobe" which rhymed with probe. Oh well i'll just say it how it looks. In this story satan and god make a bet. This is the first time i have ever read, or heard about satan and god openly conversing, seems kinda odd. The bet they make is whether or not Job will stay pious even without out all of materialistic items, or even his health. This is very similar to the other stories we learned about because god is testing how much the people love him and have faith. This is a little different however because the person being tested, job, is actually being physically hurt, through disease and torture. I found this story pretty disturbing but quite interesting. This question keeps arising in my mind. If god is all knowing, then why does he constantly feel the need to test his followers faiths?Doesn't that seem odd?