Book Report

Do I dare?
Really, do I?
I told myself at a few points that it was blog worthy so despite the social whiplash I'm going to get for doing this, I'm doing this.

This past week I read a book titled "Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion." The book was about a woman, Sara Miles, in California converting to Christianity. Not that radical right? Well..
Sara Miles was raised an atheist.
Sara Miles was living in San Francisco at the time of her conversion.
Sara Miles was living with a man in third world country during a revolution and got pregnant and had a baby out of wedlock. She was taking care of this child without a man in her life at the time of her conversion.
Sara Miles is homosexual and living with another woman.

The interesting thing about the book was that she was a real person and a real Christian. Two things don't mix as often as they should.
The impressive part of her writing was that she was able to get to the core of Christianity instead of simply following rules and then calling herself a Christian.
Sara Miles started a food pantry that would sell food for next to nothing to the poor. This food pantry allowed anyone to come and buy food. The process wasn't regulated. It didn't matter if the people were obviously on drugs, were schizophrenic, weren't legal, or if they appeared to be rich. All were welcome.
The food pantry serves over seven hundred people a week.

"These things need to be regulated! This is just promoting laziness!" is the reaction that I think this project would've gotten here in Utah.

But wait! Miles has a point.
The first thing that Miles points to is that Christ ate with sinners and prostitutes. He condemned those who put regulations on every last detail. Remember these weird scriptures:

"For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?"

Honestly, I've given this book no justice. It was quite the book. As far as recommending the book goes: I loved the parts that were about Miles' radically different life and her views on Jesus that were not mystical, but not the mystical stuff (which is the stuff that almost everyone who would read this blog would like more) I really didn't care for as usual.

It would seem as though throughout my life I've never really been exposed to this idea of "liberal Christianity" and now that I keep running into it I've got to say that it has quite a few very valid points. To say something extremely out-of-line in Utah: Jesus teaches mostly liberal ideas.

Overall, Miles makes one really consider Christianity in a different light.

Faking or Refusing

I've spent the night writing a paper on "how [my] previous living environment has affected me."
hahahhah.
That's pretty much ridiculous.
I wasn't required to do so. Why did I do it then?
I can save one hundred plus dollars a month for having written that paper. It was for a housing scholarship with the honors program.

The best part about it is that I know someone who was refusing to write it because it is utterly pointless. She doesn't care as much about the money as her own dignity.
And she's right: it's a bunch of crap that really doesn't mean anything. All of those scholarship and college application essays were. I'm feeling like I'm in High School where I felt this way about nearly all of my essays.

I imagine, however, that it's all my fault because I could've protested against writing a pointless essay and the program chair probably would've let me do something else... but it's due tomorrow and I didn't start it until nine tonight. Next time I'm going to have to stand my own and refuse to waste my time. I'm excited to do so.

Not an element

Uranium, element 92, was named after the planet Uranus. Neptunium, element 93, was discovered later and named after Neptune (as Neptune follows Uranus in the planetary line.) Then scientists discovered element 94 which they named Plutonium likewise because of the planets.

But if Pluto's not a planet, is Plutonium an element?
I demand that we rename it. :)

Self-Proclaimed Evolutionary

So, in case you haven't noticed, I really don't like creationism or intelligent design. (I'm in favor of theistic evolution until evidence for any other theory makes any sense to me.)
These pictures come from a deist facebook page. I like them. :)

Brainwashed

Have you ever been in one of those classes where the professor/teacher states what they think about a subject before a debate and then you come to realize later that the discussion was a little tainted because of their personal preference? A class where you suddenly realize everyone sounds like they've been brainwashed by the professor/teacher...

That's a little how I feel right now. I feel as though I've taken the easy way out.
The funny thing about the argument is that I agreed for the most part with what I was saying. At the time it didn't feel like I was being twisted into saying something and I still don't know why it feels that way now.

On a related note - do other people find themselves stating things that they really do believe and then not too long after asking themselves: do I really believe that? It always seems absurd looking at whatever I've stated the second time.

Anyway, I'm feeling a little tricked (like I commonly would after College Writing last year.) I can still see my professor picking out and praising one person in the class and another person in the class looking at my professor a little like she had been "enlightened."

Simplicity in the Torah

This is one of my favorite religious stories (for the moment). It may sound familiar as the bible has a similar passage. Hillel was a Rabbi who was born one hundred and ten years before Christ. Shammai was another Jewish leader who was born fifty years before Christ. Here's the story:

Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him:
"Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot."
Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding.
The same fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying:
"That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."

It's all ____'s fault.

Because surely "we didn't start the fire."

The other day I got to triple dip by going to a lecture called "I don't believe in Atheists." Which when I first found out about I was left thinking: "Religious studies credit for three classes? My life is complete."
Before you start accusing me of being atheist-intolerant let me get to my point:

Hedges' talk was about the New Atheist (think "The God Delusion", etc.) movement and the Christian Right.
He made some valid points as to why these groups are hurting America and the World. Three of my favorite were:

1. They both treat groups of people as the enemy. With the New Atheists it's those who are religious as can be seen be the major work to take religion out of everything these days. With the Christian Right it's the "sinners" - today this can easily be seen in the homophobic to the point of denial of the existence of homosexuality attitude of many in Christian Right states.

2. Because of this belief the two of them tend to claim that if the "problem" of the people's attitude (sinners saved or religious people becoming existentialist, etc.) were solved that we could miraculously reach a utopia and people would be wonderful.

3. The reason why this Utopia cannot exist is that the problem lies neither within religion or within a specific group (like the gay community) rather the problem lies within the inherint ability of men to do wrong.

I'm not saying that I think that he was totally correct, but he made some dang good points.
(As well as one really flawed one that they debated about during the Q&A section - at which points someone got so mad they asked him "Do you have trouble with English?!")

This all seems to fit well with the "Doctrine of the Mean" by Aristotle which I've recently discovered and really liked.

Anyway, just thought I'd talk about it.
It's interesting to me particularly because I've been trying to find a good piece of atheist literature, but all of the Atheists on Goodreads hate the four New Atheists and call them out on their poorly formed arguments.

On a side note: I really do like the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" and sometime soon I want to go through and read up on all of the events in the song because while I do know about some of the events/people (Cola wars, Ben Hurr, Eichmann) the number of ones I don't is kind of pathetic (children of thalidomide, Nasser aand Prokofiev, Edsel is a no-go.) It should be quite the learning experience... all of the things I should know. Plus - I'll finally get down to reading "Catcher in the Rye."