This week's topic was something I really didn't want to go over because of other classes that I have, Philosophy of Religion, and I felt like I needed a break from the constant ideologies of Religion, God, and Spirituality however this week did bring something new to the table that allowed me learn something new. This week we watched the movie Doubt together and then I watched the movie Life of Pi which both focused on the doubt of reality as it may have happened but with the God question at play. After view those captivating movies, I read the articles and came across one that truly stood out to me, Why I Am Not A Christian. Russell in, Why I Am Not A Christian, expressed key things that I agree wholeheartedly regarding "Christianity" and what it means to be a Christian. I, However, will say that I do believe we could use these religions to reach a higher platform which is supporting and pushing for higher morals and values for people that we all may prosper as a society verses judging those who do not share your same views or picking and choosing which scriptures you want to live by or not.
No, I am not testing your faith by saying "I am not a christian". I am testing your faith, however, by saying that true Christians are ethnocentric due to your core beliefs. Christianity is a religion that is monotheistic which says there is only one God and rejects everyone's else God/Goddess. Fun Fact: Even some Christians that call themselves Christian, loosely, aren't accepted by other so called Christians. Russell brings up the point about what really is a christian and he goes to talk about how vague it is to be a christian now and days as well as the conflict between, for example, Christian, Islam, and Judaism. They all stemmed from the same tree however branch out at certain times because of disagreements. In the movie Life of Pi, the man listening to Pi as he spoke about his life story being stranded out in the sea. He opened up with the notion that this story would make you believe in God. Little Pi tried practicing three different religions because He learned something new from each one and he was attracted the the ideologies of such.
At the end of the story Pi survives being stranded out in the sea but the perspective came in two fold. Either Little Pi survived all by himself by killing and eating the people who were on the boat or he was the only one to survive and he witness the surviving animals take each other out and survive with the Tiger. Russell brings up the point of the moral problem of being in hell. To Little Pi, being stranded out in the open sea, that felt like hell. Why would such a forgiving and meek God let all those things happened to him. In the movie Doubt I was baffled from the examples of doubt that lives even in the church. In the movie you couldn't help but feel the burden of being guilt until proven innocent in the situation. What is even wilder is that fact that it wasn't proven or disproved but the principle was just certain that it was happening and "he must be stopped."
That doubt that eats at us to either believe the better or the later is that same faith you profess for "Jesus". The principal did not turn the other cheek to the Father. She pushed and pushed harder but it wasn't anything christian like. In the church you would hope for people to actually attempt to live as Christ which would be a little more christian than just going to church on Easter and Mother's day. Russell's method in going about expressing how he isn't Christian is going down the line of arguments made to prove the Christian God however after each one we hit a dilemma of almost like an infinite regress or we must just accept it because He is the "First Cause." Moving forward it was interesting to learn of how powerful doubt is to man that it can tamper with your sanctity and certainty in regards to the material or the metaphysical.
Hey Derrick,
ReplyDeleteI really like when you say, "Why would such a forgiving and meek God let all those things happen to him" because this is exactly why I believe Meryl Streep's character in Doubt, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, says that she has doubts. She doubts because she asks God the same question. Why would he allow such a thing. Do you agree with that?
I think you make an interesting point about morals in relationship to religion. It makes me think about this documentary I overheard of a man talking about the Sabbath day. People were attempting to persecute Christ for healing a man on Sabbath which is meant to be a day of rest, no work. Which brings up two questions 1. What is work and 2. In what circumstance should one defy the Sabbath? Christ basically responds by saying that we should not allow a man to suffer just because of a Sabbath; there's no holiness in that. Similarly, with Pi's dilemma, is it better to suffer and allow people to live or to save oneself by committing a seemingly unholy act. In addition, the feeling of doubt also brings forth unholy acts. When all you know has deserted you, you turn to the concrete that is very real and available to you.
ReplyDeleteI like that you touched upon how people will often discredit others' beliefs because it isn't similar to our own. I think that with Pi, he showed a lot of faith in the way that he did adopt three religions because it shows that he has faith in a higher power. The way that I saw it, even though he wasn't just one religion, his acceptance and merging of all of these religions was an example of his spirituality. He adopted these religions because he agree with their morals and their humanity and didn't allow for limitations on his faith even when they were called into question. Which is why when his dad accused him of following things blindly, I disagreed because in my mind I saw it as him being dedicated to the ideas that all religions have in common, which is, that as humans we have no way to tell which religion is right or wrong. So why not instead, profess and explore all of the beliefs around us, and accept the ones which we believe will bring us closer to the God we know.
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