Even More Coincidences

I'm not entirely sure if anybody even reads these anymore but I needed to share this. Like Karen I had a small coincidence when I got home too. So I got home and I have some reading that I plan on doing as I assume every English major does during break, but once I got to my room I decided to go through my bookshelf just to see what was on there. When my family moved into this house we moved a lot of old books onto the bookshelves in my room, and I never really bothered with very many of them. As I'm going through those books a name caught my eye, it was Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but the book was The Idiot. So I continued to look through my bookshelf and I see another Dostoyevsky book, and this one is The Brothers Karamazov. I'm sure you all remember listening to Dr. Sexson talking about the three greatest stories of human suffering: The Book of Job, King Lear, and The Brothers Karamazov.

I found this book and was absolutely shocked. I lived in this room for 6 years of my life, and never really knew that I had anything of worth on there. So i'm reading the book to see if Dr. Sexson was right. So far so good. I guess I would suggest that everybody go through your book shelves to see if you find anything worthwhile.

Merry Christmas and toodle loo.

Dr. Sexson's Cool New Look

So I was just wondering if anybody else noticed that half of Dr. Sexson's collar was flipped up today? Personally i'm jealous because I know that I can't pull it off. I mean come on we've all seen that one guy who walks into a party and has his collar popped. Usually we immediately make a judgement to not interact with that person, because they're likely to be one of the dumbest people you've ever met. I would like to point out that not only did Dr. Sexson pull this look off, but he was able to pull it off with just one side flipped, an ability that I would have thought next to impossible. Anyways, I would just like to congratulate and thank Dr. Sexson on making what we all thought uncool cool.

A flurry of blogs

Now that I'm finally fully participating in the blogs, and especially since the end of semester is coming, I'm seeing a flurry of blogs from almost everyone, and enjoying all of it. I only wish that I had not been so unsure of blogging and the affect it would have on my class experience. At the beginning of this class I felt that I would only be summarizing what I've read in the Bible. While I didn't read much of the Bible, I now realize that it could have been more, and that I wish I had participated more within my blog. I regret to say that I never feel like I can truly put my thoughts into words the way I want it to be, and this scared me a little away from participating (it still scares some). That's still no excuse, and I would like to apologize to and to thank everybody in the class. Most importantly to Dr. Sexson. I truly wish that this were a two semester class or something that we could continue with past this semester. Oh well, what I do plan on doing over the Christmas break is to read a little bit of everyone's blogs. I hope to see many of you in future English classes.
Good Luck and God Bless.

On the Concept of Belief

One thing I've noticed is that within the Bible there doesn't seem to be much questioning of the existence of God. I don't believe though, that the point of these books is to prove God's existence, but this question is probably one of the most prevalent questions of our time.

Does God exist? my answer- I don't know.

I consider myself an agnostic, I don't believe there is sufficient proof for the existence of some being higher than us, and I just can't bring myself to have faith in something I cannot see or even ever know. For me this means that I'm open to the possibility of God, that my scientific and truth seeking mind cannot allow me to believe that a God can exist. As Robert Langdon says in the famous book and movie Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, "God did not bless me with the gift of faith." I like to use this statement for myself because from time to time I have people ask me if I believe in God, because this statement puts a very good light on not believing. I just couldn't keep saying that I believed when in reality I wasn't entirely sure that I did, and I'm still not sure, but at least I'm not claiming something that isn't true anymore, at least I'm not lying to myself.

Personally though I believe the issue is much bigger than straight up belief. I think we have to question why the concept of God was created in the first place. And that of course was to explain the origins of our surroundings. In order to explain the how and why of existence. But now we have scientific evidence that refutes the stories used to explain these things, and even more we have received more answers on the how of existence in the last 300 years than ever before, and we are continuing to gain answers about the human anatomy, the brain, the universe, and about physics as time progresses. But these studies don't give an answer to the why of existence.

What is the why of existence? Is it just something that randomly happened in the universe as scientist's might claim? Is it because we are supposed to experience all the quirks of life as a precursor to something bigger? Is it for our experiences alone? Is it so that we might find definition for ourselves individually or as a group? Why? Why? Why? Why? I honestly don't know, and I don't think I want to know. But maybe that's where God exists, is in our inability to know this ultimate question. For me, I can't bring myself to believe for no other reason than that I have no answers. I'm not strong enough to convince myself.

Many people would then question what is the point of life, and I would tell them to experience the ups, downs, and in betweens. To observe and to create. To strive and to relax. To wish for everything and to receive nothing. To see pain in another person's eyes and to try to comprehend that pain by relating it to those times when you yourself have experienced pain. To try to define yourself in the best way possible. And finally to ask the questions pertinent to life so far as they have an answer, because the questions that don't have answers will only give you a headache, much like what I have now.

Oops

So I thought for one more good blog post I would attend Catholic Mass and see if I could get something good from it. I had heard that every Wednesday in the SUB that they have service at 5:30, and I hadn't been to a service since the weekend before I came back to Bozeman. As I'm getting to the room I notice there's a little sign on the front of the door that says "There will be no service tonight. See you next semester." My plan has been foiled. And for what reason? Dead Week. I honestly don't see what's so dead about it, I mean I see more people in the library this week than any other week in the semester. Oh well, kudos for trying right?

The Priestly Benediction

So I was looking up fun little things online about certain popular prayers within the bible and I was looking specifically at The Priestly Benediction which goes:

May the Lord bless you and keep you
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace
Numbers 6:24-26

So I looked up this prayer on wikipedia and found out that the actor Leonard Nimoy who originally played Spoc in the popular tv series Star Trek had grown up in the Jewish tradition, and he remembered when he was a boy his father making the hand signals for the Priestly Benediction, which he decided a single handed version would be perfect for the hand signal he would use when giving his Vulcan Hand Salute, which included the famous line from Star Trek "Live long and prosper." So for all you Star Trek fans, just remember that "Live long and prosper" and especially the hand signal that goes with comes from a verse in the Bible. Just makes you wonder how many other little things like that have been influenced by the Bible.
Food for thought.

Song of Solomon

So here's a link to a video of a choir singing one of the many versions of the song Set Me as a Seal Upon Your Heart. I couldn't get the link to attach for some reason so if you want to hear this song you'll have to copy and paste it. I remember performing this song in my high school chorus and thought I could share this with everybody. Don't worry though I went to the trouble of finding the best version on youtube. What I didn't realize until this class was that the lyrics for this song came straight from the Song of Solomon, this gives the song a little more significance to me now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb6uY-y9HRI&feature=related