In my history class today, my teacher was talking about the Christian model of belief, and like a good (cliche) college professor, it's both inadequately and improperly represented. What do I do, though? I so wanted to say, "Um, actually, the Bible, if it's in fact read, says that the race of man fell, in the garden, not because of the deceit of Eve, not that she was even deceitful, that was Adam's own deception, but because Adam ate of the fruit. It says that. I promise you." There were other things she said too, but this one exceptionally stood out to me.
I remember. It's the bizarre assumption (that mostly comes from a couple of hundred of years of scripture abuse and ignoring facts) that somehow Christianity is a religion that doesn't bother to use our intellect, despite the fact that many of the advances in many different fields of, well, everything, were performed by Christian men and women, or at the very least, people who had belief in a monotheist faith or deity. Several times she talked about the world "organizing itself into the more rational secular model." These comments make no sense, and I really wanted to say something. I still feel guilty, like I didn't stick up for a friend who was being humiliated, but ultimately, I think I might have come off as a knowitall, when she doesn't even yet know or understand me or my nature. I might have seemed combative. Perhaps comments and argumentation will come later, but right now I think I need the teacher to see that I'm a dedicated student that wants to learn about history in addition to being a dedicated Christian that believes in the ethics and teachings of Jesus as rooted in the Judaic tradition.
In other news, I hate poetry (as a general rule of thumb. Sometimes I'm surprised.), but I do enjoy T.S. Eliot. He underscores the philosophy I hold that, in writing, people who rock go by their initials, which is why I have taken up this practice. We Got T.S. Eliot, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Chesterton, and others. I like Eliot because he writes, essentially, really introspective short stories that seem to, by chance or design, or both, the poetic structure. I'm currently reading two collections of his stuff via dailylit.com. Unfortunately, I don't think they offer "The Hollow Men," which is, of course, his best poem. Fortunately it's public domain, which means I can find a copy of it no problem.
<
