tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13331371376004430012024-03-05T03:56:26.828-08:00See Jane ThinkElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-4858384658996056952012-05-26T07:42:00.001-07:002012-05-26T07:42:31.927-07:00clumsiness“Why do we have the desire to tease the innocent? Is it envy? ” (GG) Why do we point out flaws in others just to feel good about ourselves. Shouldn’t we be able to know our strengths without crushing someone. We should, I want to, I will. I will from this time forth (of course I will mess up) not step on another to feel better about myself.
CSL says that following the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves does not mean we have to like our neighbor, there are many times we don’t like ourselves. This not liking ourselves is as important as loving ourselves, it should go with self esteem. We should call it, well I am not sure, but it should be something that counters the self esteem myth that we are beyond mistakes and that somehow our mistakes are somehow not part of us. Mistakes may be more apart of us than our talents and good points. How much stronger would we be, how much stronger would our families be, if we could incorporate “that was stupid”, or “I am not doing that again”, into discussions as readily as we say “that was awesome. And with the criticism is a kind of silly laughter. “you silly goose” or “sometimes I do the dumbest things” . The recognition of our weaknesses releases us from criticizing others. When we are honestly aware of our strengths and flaws then we see others’ strengths and flaws. We see others as we see ourselves and the world can breathe a sigh of relief that we are flawed and we are awesome. If I am a child of God and he loves me, then he himself enjoys my mistakes and enjoys my awesomeness. He is simply asking in my clumsiness to lean on him, but I can only do this if I recognize my clumsiness.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-3558182005458133522012-05-24T13:14:00.001-07:002012-05-24T13:14:35.787-07:00clutterI spent most of the morning cleaning the house after being gone last week. My husband and I are both ‘people of clutter’. The difference between my clutter and his is two fold; mine is much more colorful and he can’t see his. I picked up the following items of his this morning: a toolbox, a model airplane, a box of mail that hasn’t been opened (not a small box by the way), a briefcase (which hasn’t been used in 3 years), a pair of work shoes, forestry flagging, a pair of sunglasses, various papers and a set of keys. Now this clutter doesn’t seem all that important except that when he walks in the door he never sees it. He sees the wedding dress that I have to return to a friend laying on the chair but doesn’t seem to see any of his piles of to-dos. (He also doesn’t seem to see the dishes he dirties.)
My mother has a similar problem, she is more of a hoarder than a clutterer, but until someone comes to stay at her house for any longer than a week, she doesn’t seem to notice the mess. Not only after a prolonged stay by the vistitor does she notice the mess, and then mess becomes the visitor’s fault.
I don’t know what this illness (if it is an illness) is called and I don’t know if it can be changed. What makes us not see our own messes? What makes others’ messes bigger and more important than our own? And keeps us from recognizing our messes until we have someone else to blame them on?
Maybe it is because in our entire marriage my husband has never deep cleaned a room. When you have scrubbed every corner, taken apart every cupboard and tidied back up you have a better appreciation for the cleanliness of the room. My husband had his mother to maid for him and my mother had a maid for most of my growing up. So maybe there is a cleanliness detachment.
They are both artists and maybe their mess is actually a ‘work in progress’ and should not be interrupted. I don’t know.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-2328557106122942862012-05-23T09:50:00.001-07:002012-05-23T09:50:39.816-07:00Give and TakeYou see I don’t have mentors in this small mountain community of 4,ooo. Not that this town is void of them, the mentors haven’t yet found me. Found me, how pompous can I be? I have sought for few and I have found none, but I don’t know if I sought for any I would find one. I am cynical, I have been spoiled by the environment I taught in. My students, my colleagues and my mentors fed me , I don’t know if I fed them. I don’t think that we have to feed those that feed us with the same food they feed us. Maybe that is one of the lessons that motherhood teaches us, our children and our husband do not feed us with the same food that we feed them. Mothers, many times, look at feeding their children as a boring chore, and many times it is, but what if it is simply an investment into the energy stash for the food they feed us. And does this change if we eat out? I don’t know. But in the give and take of associations we should not expect to receive exactly what we give; we should be prepared to receive something completely different, surprised by a gift that we could not have guessed, that we could not have orchestrated, that we could not have given ourselves.
So each person we meet is simply a giver of gifts. What will they give you? I knew a family that gave money to a women seemingly in need. The women needed cash for medicine, gas and groceries. There was no accountability for the money that she spent. It just so happens that the money was spent to pay the cable bill and support her adult son’s video gaming habit. What the needy women gave the giving family was a sense of righteousness, a sense goodness and sense of ‘being needed’. But this is not what our relationships should be giving us, this is not the purpose for which we were created. I am not saying we shouldn’t help people, but the association created when you are giving to either receive the same thing or receive nothing but a feeling of righteousness is not giving at all; it is actually taking, and in taking there is no creating.
So in your associations, which include partners, children and colleagues, are you accepting what they are giving you? Are you fully enjoying what you are giving them? This give and take is simply common sense and the only environment where pure charity can thrive.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-8647279942277750552011-04-01T11:58:00.001-07:002011-04-01T12:01:03.986-07:00Numbing Us DownEducation: The fight is against reductionism <br /> <br /> I was sitting in a meeting behind a 13 year old girl and her baby. However, this was not your typical baby, it came with your typical car seat but not so typical computerized bracelet that kept track of when you fed it ,changed it and held it. This was a computerized rubber baby with an adolescent pretend mommy who is suppose to be learning from this experience that babies are hard work. The year is not 3010 it is 2010, this is not a science fiction story it is the story of efforts by social psychologists to discourage teenage sex or at least to encourage teenage birth control. Their message is simple “babies mean work”.<br /> Now I admit that babies are work. I have 5 children and they brought with them sleepless nights and worries. But it was a real human being keeping me awake, a real human being causing me to worry. The computer model baby is one of the many current examples of applied human reductionism. Current scientific reductionism pervades education as well as psychology. In fact reductionism’s greatest danger may lie in its applied methodology within public schools . <br /> “Teaching to the lowest common denominator”, or “dumbing us down” are just two of the terms used by non-reductionist educationalists describing constructivist/progressive education. For constructivists to apply their theories they need a group of guinea pigs and those guinea pigs are located within the prison looking buildings of the public school. Convenient as this location may be a “means not ends” view of the human is still required to give the constructivists permission to use the imprisoned students to develop and test educational theory. There have always been groups that attempt an ideological broad stroke of applied universal values, currently this broad stroke is a broad stroke of dehumanization and with it comes the loss of individual “thouness”.<br /> For education to come to terms with the immense scope and dimension of each student it will have to give up that education is capable of disseminating universality and elevate the free will and responsibility of each student.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-73493444822742005232011-01-23T20:48:00.000-08:002011-01-23T21:00:43.112-08:00No one will read thisNo one is going to read this; at least that is what I think. 21st century grandchildren look at 21st grandparents as old, backwards and less evolved. This is the real danger of the evolution dialogue in schools. Our grandparents, greatgrandparents, old authors, ancient heroes and artists are merely beasts compared to the high-tech, self-actualized child of the 21st century. <br />Technologies of old may still work but they won't produce the child of the common conversation. The child who demands peace without being demanding, who courageously cleans the earth without being courageous. <br />To sustain the evolution conversation it is required that the youngest living generation dehumanize the oldest living generation. They must disregard former meanings so as to laud current meaning. They must brutalize history to paint their history as gentle. This view dismisses brutality that they won't see such as abortion, depression caused by an existential vacuum and other forms of invisible suffering and focuses on visible sufferings such as tobacco use, bottled water and team cooperation.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-11443732128940397872010-10-04T08:28:00.001-07:002010-10-04T08:28:27.765-07:00College MentalityA university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.<br /><br />-John Anthony CiardiElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-32967313096188901572010-08-31T08:32:00.000-07:002010-08-31T08:33:59.065-07:00parallelismus membrorumCome to me<br />and satisfy hunger <br />when you find me<br />love me and change<br />I am the mark <br />of pure completeness<br />enter inElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-58456205080542171112010-08-31T07:56:00.000-07:002010-08-31T08:04:36.897-07:00Chiasmus of marriageLiterary chiasmus is a marriage of words. The marriage between a man and a women is meant to follow the same chiasmic pattern as a literary chiasmus, the goal or destination is the center. Each partner comes to the center from his or her direction, as they approach the center the individual directions disappear and the dot, representing oneness, is attained. Some may think, why do the individual lines and lives need to disappear? The answer is that when 2 become one flesh, one dot, the power of the person literally increased 10 fold, and individuality is refined and strengthened. The center of the literary chiasmus only exists because of the strength of the forms around it. From the center creation takes place.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-570163920156872052010-08-27T10:23:00.000-07:002010-08-27T10:26:32.601-07:00Quote from The Quernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie SocietyThat's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive--all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoymentElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-65065620736966715152010-08-24T14:33:00.001-07:002010-08-25T19:20:45.131-07:00Chiasmus life"Form is only emptiness,. Emptiness only form"<br /><br />Studying merely the form of chiasmus is a plastic science. It is like falling in love with a woman because she is beautiful but never getting to know her. God uses the chaistic form to throw you into the center of his conversation. A great chiasmus doesn't give you a hint of the central message--it hits you in the face like a home run ball hit dead center field. If you are studying chiasmus like a student would study an atom or DNA you are looking at it wrong.<br />Ask yourself these questions--where is the chiasmus taking you and what does God want you to do or feel once you get there? A true chaismic experience changes you, changes your paradigm and takes you on a journey. <br />Following a scientific life never takes you to genius, never lets you experience paradox and therefore never allows you to experience God.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-66052239925110682742010-08-18T08:41:00.001-07:002010-08-24T14:34:05.963-07:00Chiasmus and the crossIn the book “You Shall Know Them” a group of scientists discover a tribe of creatures which could be considered either man or monkey. Through a series of events the court system is forced to determine what makes man a man. This question posed by the book has baffled scientists, philosophers and theologians for centuries, so, of course, the legal system can answer it, if not correctly, then with authority. The courts determine, among other things, that this tribe is human because it creates symbolic representations. It is not clear how they worship or even use the symbols but they are still a representation of an ideal, which is the definition of a symbol and, as far as the author of the book is concerned, the definition of man. <br /> Early cultures represented the earthly experience of life, death and resurrection with stark similarity. This similar symbol, with many variations, is the cross. Latter Day Saints have a reluctant, if not tenuous, relationship with the cross. We recognize the crucifixion as a significant part of the atonement but avoid using the cross to represent or communicate the atonement in its entirety. (If Latter Day Saints wore anything around their neck as a reminder of our Lord’s great sacrifice, it would probably be a rock.) <br /> Chiasmus gets its name from the Greek letter chi, which is simply an X, which is simply a cross on its side. The literary point of the chiasmus is to point you to its center; however, its literary form is secondary to its lesson. The form of the cross is also to point you to its center. The cross is the solid earthly form of the chiasmus, and its communication to the world is the central message of Christ.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9Q8FqviJ6dPRXfBfMdyk5jVnZgcvvjGqEkF6dy9zoEikPrBCJH5NNk38WnFYmDLvhHdKC-y1bFCXqbFnz6m5Ju4J_SsT8h15smY3x1NNBYJOGpjGFXn9qmrPvQcRSS0N2my9EQSANGs/s1600/WDFCl3.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9Q8FqviJ6dPRXfBfMdyk5jVnZgcvvjGqEkF6dy9zoEikPrBCJH5NNk38WnFYmDLvhHdKC-y1bFCXqbFnz6m5Ju4J_SsT8h15smY3x1NNBYJOGpjGFXn9qmrPvQcRSS0N2my9EQSANGs/s320/WDFCl3.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506786841468449106" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> The cross’ four directions, contained within two lines, symbolically represent man’s earthly journey and purpose. The vertical beam is rooted firmly in the earth; it has a beginning, a foundation, a grounding. As it moves upward past the horizontal beam it crosses a line into eternity. The vertical beam represents a connection between heaven and earth. The horizontal beam transforms the vertical line into a balance, the weighing of the soul. On one side is justice and on the other mercy. I call this vertical line the Atonement Line; it is when Christ intervenes in our life. The center of the cross is the place where earth, heaven, justice and mercy meet. It is a place of revelation, epiphany and metamorphosis; this same place is the center of a chiasmus. <br /> When considering chiasmic text we not only look at structure but content. The content or message of the cross is contained within the crucifixion dialogues. The crucifixion dialogues move Christ’s teachings from the abstract to the concrete. <br /><br /> The crucifixion dialogues are as follows: <br /><br />1. Luke 23:34—Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. <br /><br />This first statement connects us directly with heaven and earth. In as few words as possible it describes the Savior’s purpose. <br /><br /><br />2. Luke 23: 39-43— I say unto thee today shalt thou be in paradise. <br /><br />This statement is Christ’s reaction to the plea of one of the thieves being crucified along side him. Each of the thieves statements are placed on the vertical balance line. <br /> <br /> <br />3. John 19:26—Behold thy mother!<br /><br />With this statement Christ forces our view directly to the earth addressing our earthly responsibilities. <br /><br /><br />4. Matthew 27:46—My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? <br /><br />As he cries these words our eyes are directed upwards and onwards towards the heavens. <br /><br /><br />5. John 19:28—I thirst. <br /><br />Here we see that he is still bound to this earth. <br /><br /><br />6. John 19:30—It is finished<br /><br />Looking straight ahead, probably at no one in particular he is prepared to cross over into the next life<br /><br /><br />7. Luke 23:46—Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit<br /><br />And he leaves.<br /><br /><br />They are placed on the cross thus:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsxQ-xWjAYLUHUTNdoF5ryF5BhxNdpH_Hm9TJBrTCtSbFOTapU8nla239a93Me7qJ8yODN3csL3G_hK2iLDhTtTrvfJ47_CdyBoQJviHEkKvE1UvRnuCODXeC0TgrWf_6pnh6bhqgH05c/s1600/Bdyv26.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsxQ-xWjAYLUHUTNdoF5ryF5BhxNdpH_Hm9TJBrTCtSbFOTapU8nla239a93Me7qJ8yODN3csL3G_hK2iLDhTtTrvfJ47_CdyBoQJviHEkKvE1UvRnuCODXeC0TgrWf_6pnh6bhqgH05c/s320/Bdyv26.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506787007434362802" /></a><br /><br /><br /> When considering chiasmic patterns, or any form, it is vital that we consider its application. Without taking the academic and connecting it to the personal it is merely rhetoric, and rhetoric alone should not determine if we are men. Man is defined by his symbols but he should also be defined by the purpose of his symbols and the purpose of the center of any chiasmic pattern is to draw us closer to God.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-78721845463660222312010-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:002010-11-30T09:13:17.550-08:00Book Review "The Devil's Storybook"If wishes were horses not all men would ride; this sums up the first chapter of "The Devil's Storybook". This book is directed at a young adult audience and can best be described as an elementary version of the Screwtape Letters. Discussing the devil and his tactics with children can lead to dark or confusing discussions, this book addresses that problem by discussing Satan using the the fairy tale. The ten tales discusses 10 different ways the devil appeals to us earthly folk. Each tale invites discussion and I recommend that Mom and Dad read this along with their children age 10 and olderElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-74285579363835297012010-04-27T13:11:00.000-07:002010-04-27T13:18:54.456-07:00Book Review "All the World"On the back flap of this picture book it is exclaimed that the authors "spend a lot of time quietly trying to make sense of our big, round world by creating picture books". When I try to have a discussion of abundance with anyone who has a scarcity/global warming/overpopulation ideology, it is difficult for them to 'see' my point of view. This book shows a world of abundance using glorious drawings of a world that is cold and hot, wet and dry, old and young. I wish I had had this book when my own children were developing their view of the world.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-90401069647037567172010-02-11T17:53:00.000-08:002010-02-11T18:11:34.667-08:00THE Best Sugar Cookie1 cup butter<br />1 1/2 cups sugar<br />1 egg<br />1 t vanilla<br /><br />Mix well<br /><br />Add: 2 3/4 cups flour<br />1/4 t salt <br /><br />mix until barely blended<br />form a ball <br />refrigerator for at least 1 hour<br /><br />375 for 6-8 min<br /><br />Frosting<br />1/2 cup butter<br />1 t vanilla<br />3 cups 10x sugar<br /> Mix<br />slowly add water or milk until the desired consistency<br />(for chocolate add 2/3 cup cocoa)ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-16767842314947263132010-01-13T09:02:00.000-08:002010-01-13T09:05:37.819-08:00Addiction to quotes...malady of sameness, our modern malady. We have the malady, whatever may be the cure or the cause. We drove in a<br />body to Science the other day for an antidote; which was as if tired pedestrians should mount the engine-box of headlong trains; and Science introduced us to our o'er-hoary ancestry--them in the Oriental posture; whereupon we set up a primaeval chattering to rival the Amazon forest nigh nightfall, cured, we fancied. And before daybreak our disease was hanging on to us again, with the extension of a tail. We had it fore and aft. We were the same, and animals into the bargain. That is all we got from Science. The Egoist, George MeredithElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-91587810637279616742010-01-02T18:41:00.000-08:002010-01-02T18:52:52.904-08:00My favorite clam chowderJoe and I went to Aubrey's house for Christmas and for Christmas Eve dinner she served delicious clam chowder in the best bread bowl I have ever tasted. My clam chowder is a little different than hers (it has carrots and bacon) but her dinner inspired me to get mine on the web. If you use coconut milk instead of cream it is a fantastic coconut milk clam chowder. <br /><br />2 cans of chopped clams<br />2 med potatoes<br />1 cup onion<br />2 stalks of celery<br />1 1/2 pieces of already cooked bacon, chopped<br />2 cloves garlic<br />1 carrot sliced diagonally<br />sweet basil<br />cayenne<br />2 TBS flour<br />cream or coconut milk<br /><br />Peel the potatoes and cut into squares. Boil the potatoes in the juice that is drained from the canned clams mixed with enough water to cover them about 1 inch.<br /><br />Chopp onion, celery and garlic; fry in 2 TBS of butter (or the bacon grease) until onion is slightly clear. add 2 TBS of flour and stir until all the flour is incorporated. <br />add bacon and carrots. Turn off heat. <br />When potatoes are almost done all the onion/celery/bacon mixture to the pot. Season with about 1 tsp of sweet basil and a dash of cayenne, and some fresh cracked pepper. <br />Bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes<br />Turn off heat and add up to 1 cup (or more) of cream or coconut milk. Yum<br />Then go to North Carolina and pick up some of those great bread bowls.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-49756534591522249692009-12-29T09:32:00.000-08:002010-03-28T05:54:07.447-07:00Finally, a good refried bean recipe.I love bean burritos!! (Just ask any of my kids) After many attempts I finally found a bean recipe that tastes great.<br /><br />2 cups of pinto beans ( I glean through them to see if there are any stones)<br />Soak overnight in lots of water (3-4 inches above the beans)<br /><br />In the morning rinse beans<br />Cook beans with new water covering beans by 2 inches, and add 2-3 bay leaves for 2 hours<br />(Check occasionally so they don't dry out)<br /><br />After the 2 hours take out bay leaves and add:<br />1 small chopped tomato<br />6-7 cloves of roasted garlic (Sometimes I add a whole head)<br />2-3 tsp sea salt<br />3/4 cup canola oil (I use olive oil)<br />(I add 2 TBS of green chilies)<br /><br />Cook for another 1 1/2 hours. Make sure the water stays about 2 inches above the beans. <br /><br />WALA I take off the excess water, (you may use some of this water to get the right consistency of the mashed beans, so don't toss it right away) I mash some and keep some whole. EnjoyElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-9508549774151606162009-12-15T11:12:00.000-08:002009-12-15T11:21:16.872-08:00Women's work and Chesterton (Freedom of Expression)From the London News 1906<br /><br />"The woman's world is a small one, perhaps, but she can alter it. The woman can tell the tradesman with whom she deals some realistic thing about himself. The clerk who does this to the manager generally get the sack, or shall we say (to avoid vulgarism), finds himself free for higher culture. Above all, as I said in my previous article, the woman does work which is in some small degree creative and individual. She can put the flowers or the furniture in fancy arrangements of her own. I fear the bricklayer cannot put the bricks in fancy arrangements of his own, without disaster to himself and others. If the woman is only putting a patch into a carpet, she an choose the thing with regard to colour. I fear it would not do for the office boy dispatching a parcel to choose his stamps with a view to colour; to prefer the tender mauve of the sixpenny to the crude scarlet of the penny stamp. A woman cooking may not always cook artistically; still she can cook artistically. She can introduce a personal and imperceptible alteration into the composition of a soup. The clerk is not encouraged to introduce a personal and imperceptible alteration into the figures of a ledger."ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-24606472233217340922009-12-10T17:59:00.000-08:002009-12-31T13:27:21.538-08:00Why I am not an Atheist:<br /><br />1. The Nazi’s were wrong. This may seem like an obvious statement but have you ever considered that the world can agree the Nazi’s were wrong only if there is an objective truth. And the only objective truth is God. Now, you could say, based on logic, that the Nazi’s were wrong because we are supposed to be humane, we are supposed to protect life. Really, why? One of my students showed me 2 sentences in a book that went something like this, “Man descended from monkeys; therefore we should be nice to one another.” Now there is a middle sentence missing from this logic that should state---monkeys are nice to one another. Since I have never sat and watched monkeys for more than half an hour I can not determine whether the third statement is correct. But I do know that the reason I am nice is not because monkeys are nice and the reason the Nazis are wrong is because monkeys shouldn’t hurt each other. It seems the world can agree on the evilness of the Nazis because we know in our souls what evil looks like and what good should look like. If evil is real then good is real.<br />2. I can look with awe at a painting. Not all paintings are beautiful and you can even convince me that feces on cardboard should be considered art. (But it is not art because it is beautiful, it is art because it is making a statement.) Pure joy from staring at Velasquez in the Prado museum is not an evolutionary experience. It is from another world and only poetry, the language of artists, comes close to explaining the experience. <br />3. I can disagree with you. Only if there is objective truth can you disagree with me and I disagree with you. <br />4. If there isn’t a God then where are we going? Shouldn’t we know what the next step is? Who or what is in charge of this evolutionary process? If it is a mind that has a plan for us then this is the same as saying there is a God. <br />5. I can will myself through emotional turmoil. Where does that will, that strength, come from? <br />6. If God doesn’t exist there is no point and we could never find out that there is no point. <br />7. People that wrote 3,000 years ago were smarter than we are. Read a few ancient texts and you will come to the same conclusion.<br />8. Everything runs down. When did you last tune down your car? Life that is tuning up has to have an up to tune to. What is up? Look up and see. And as dimensional scientist know, "Order will always emerge from chaos". The only thing an atheist offers me and my family is death. It is a choice between nothing and something and last I checked nothing doesn't exist.<br /><br /><br /><br />Oh, there are more reasons but probably the greatest is in the eyes of a newborn baby. He knows so much and he can’t wait to tell you.ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1333137137600443001.post-34726218653563124342009-10-29T09:05:00.000-07:002009-12-05T10:11:51.358-08:00That's Edutainment<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(204, 204, 204); line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The world is a stage of edutainment. Now, some of you may not of heard of the word 'edutainment' before, but even if you haven't you still know what it means. We are being educated by our entertainment far more effectively than our formal educational institutions are educating us. And what exactly is being tutored? Our worldview. In Tocqueville's </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Selected Letters</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, he sta</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">tes, "</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">You know my ideas well enough to know that I accord institutions only a secondary influence on the destiny of men.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Would to God I believed more in the omnipotence of institutions!</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I would have more hope for our future, because by chance we might, someday, stumble onto the precious piece of paper that would contain the recipe for all wrongs, or on the man who knew the recipe.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But, alas, there is no such thing, and I am quite convinced that political societies are not what their laws make them, but what sentiments, beliefs, ideas, habits of the heart, and the spirit of the men who form them, prepare them in advance to be, as well as what nature and education have made them.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">" Industry instead of institutions are directing, not only our youth but, the entire consumer populous. </span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 21px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Schools once watched over by doting parents are now abandoned to educational professionals. Neighborhoods where each neighbor knew where the other neighbor's children were have gone by the wayside. Entertainment has taken over the outdoor afterschool playtime. This happened in my lifetime and those of us raised playing in the streets and coming home to dinnerbells let it happen. I don't exactly know when it all stopped. Maybe when we first heard that a child was kidnapped. Maybe when all the moms stopped baking chocolate chip cookies. I don't know when but here we are waiting for redbox to supply us with something for our family to do.<br /></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 21px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sentiments once turned to wisdom, self control and maturity have, under the direction of a capitalist entertainment system, turned future adults into perpetual children or even worse perpetual teenagers</span></span></span></div></div></span>ElizabethJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04897888512679590731noreply@blogger.com4