To My Classmates

Well, tomorrow is the big day!  I want to wish everyone God's blessing on the test.  We've all studied hard and know what we're doing, we should be fine.

This was not my most enjoyable class this year, but it was fun getting to know you all and working along side you.  Congratulations to all you Seniors who are going off to college.  And keep up the good work Juniors, next year is yours.

I hope everyone has a great summer and is able to relax a bit before heading to college or back to school.

Here's to 5's for all of us!

Final Thoughts (blog assignment for week 24 #5)

One more post!


The logical thing would be to dedicate my final post to the thoughts I had on whatever book I finished reading, either Blue Like Jazz or The Reason For God.  But...I didn't finished reading a book yet.  I'm planning on finishing Blue Like Jazz because I found it so much more interesting and I plan to read it on the plane on Saturday when I fly to Honduras!!!! (I'm soooo excited!!)


Well, this goes a long with what I was saying earlier and is kind of a repeat from the questions we had to answer before about the books.  Anyway, I was totally more into BLJ (Blue Like Jazz) than TRFG (The Reason For God).  BLJ is much more of a story about the author's life than TRFG is.  And once again, I liked the simplicity of the writing.  Not to say that the writer didn't make good points or didn't have a good writing style, but he used down to earth language that the ordinary person can understand.  TRFG was more like The God Delusion, I had to really focus to understand it and even when I did, it didn't always stick.  Now I'm sure some people really like that kind of style and can understand it no problem; but that's not me.  And we are all different and have different tastes and likes and dislikes.


What I learned the most from having to read all these different books and excerpts it that one type of writing style will not appeal to everyone and everyone will not find the same writing interesting.  It's not wrong to not understand something, it's not wrong to find a book way over your head and it's not wrong that you don't get it and other people do.  I think the problem comes when we compare ourselves to others.  We look around and see people who are so much better than ourselves and come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with who we are.  But there's not.  This is something I've really been thinking about a lot recently and it has come up in conversations and youth group too, so I think God is trying to tell me something.  But each one of us was made unique and special just the way we are, so how can we criticize God's creation?  He created humans and said this is good.  Don't get caught in the lie that others are better than you.  There will always be people who are more talented than you whatever you do; whether it's school or sports or cooking or dancing or music or anything. But it's up to you what you do with the abilities you do have and whether you will use them, or find yourself inadequate because you compare yourself to others.

Crystals, Aliens and Lies (blog assignment for week 24 #4)

I saw the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed when it came out in theaters about 2? years ago.  I thought it would be really boring but it was actually quite good.

Ben Stein interviews Richard Dawkins and many more evolutionists.  I found it interesting that they really weren't sure how life came about.  One guys was talking about cells forming on the back of crystals and someone else even implied that life was brought here from another source (basically aliens).  I liked what Ben Stein said after that: "Crystals?  Aliens?  I thought we were talking about science, not science fiction."  These guys seem so unsure of what they believe, they seem to be grasping at straws for something that is remotely possible.  I think they just don't want to admit to a Creator or higher level of intelligence that created life on purpose and are rummaging around for something they can convince themselves and other of.  

I am completely positive that God created life as the account in Genesis describes.  I am sure.  I know it is true.  You cannot change my mind.  I find it fascinating that I can be so sure of creation, that I can be completely confident in what I believe about the origin of life, and these scientists who have studied biology, studied life, researched different theories and spent hours and hours trying to find the answer can still not be sure and not know how life was created.  And me, little me with not college degree yet and not even out of high school, I hold the answer in my heart while these big scientists bumble around still looking for it and refusing to see the truth.

Over My Head (blog assignment for week 24 #3)

So...5 reflective blog posts in response to our reading and thinking.  Well, I'm not sure if this is exactly what Mrs. Bell meant, but this is a response to my reading.


I read the excerpt from the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and I did not understand remember half of it.  I thought the beginning was good; the stuff with the boy was interesting and a good way to get started.  But ya know, when these writer's start using all these big words and long sentences it kind goes in one ear and out the other: "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."  Uhhh...can you repeat that?  OK, so I like simplicity, in writing at least.  That's why I write my blog as if I was talking to someone.  I like reading stuff like that, it's easy to understand.  So yeah, I would never be able to read this God Delusion book.  I wouldn't understand it and it would be so boring.  


There were a few parts I found interesting.  Like when Carl Sagan was quoted talking about his 'little god'.  Oh, and I never knew Einstein was an atheist before I read this passage.  I thought that was strange.  How could a guy as bright as Einstein who understood science so well not see the evidence of a god?  How could he look at all the complicated science stuff and not recognize that it was created by a higher being?  But anyway, that's not really the point.
Yeah, that's all I have to say about that.


So, my whole point is that I dislike these books and such that seem to address more 'sophisticated' people and that if you want to capture my interest, keep it fairly simple.  I'm not sure if this is rally what I was supposed to do, but this is what I had to think about this passage.

P.S. Mr. Harris... (blog assignment for week 24 #2)(take 2)

Continuing from my previous post about Sam Harris' book Letter to a Christian Nation and branching off with a different line of thoughts.

Okay, so Mr. Harris says that any cell in your body has the potential of becoming a human and that when you scratch your nose, you have "committed a holocaust of potential human beings."  Well, I say that there is a major difference between the cells that make up your body and a human blastocyst.  First of all, a normal body cell must be tampered with before it actually has the potential to become a human.  A cell on you nose will just sit there until you scratch it off or it dies or whatever.  A blastocyst on the other hand will grow on it's own and, unless something goes wrong, it will become a human being.  It doesn't need any help, other than what it naturally receives from it's mother.  This is the way God designed humans.  It's natural.  It's normal.  It will happen with being tampered with.  Therefore, a human blastocyst has so much more potential of becoming a living being than a cell on your nose for instance.

Also, Mr. Harris address the fact that there are more cells in a fly's brain than there are in a human blastocyst and that therefore, we should be more concerned with killing a fly than a blastocyst.  Well, I say that since a blastocyst has the potential of becoming a living, breathing human being, it should be valued so much more than a fly.  Living, breathing human being have souls, flies do not.  If a blastocyst is going to become a human, it is going to have a soul.  Whether is has a soul already, I don't know (only God really does know) but what I know is that is will have a soul.  To kill it is destroying it's chance to have life, not only in this life, but also the next life.  After a fly dies, it does not achieve eternal life (either in heaven of hell) so why would anyone care whether they killed it or not?  A blastocyst will have a soul, therefore, it should be allowed the chance to live.

P.S. Mr. Harris... (blog assignment for week 24 #2)

Here's the beginning to my next post about the audio excerpt from Sam Harris' book Letter to a Christian Nation.

But I'll finish it later because I really should work on my research paper.

Letter to Mr. Harris (blog assignment for week 24 #1)

Wow, we're finally assigned to blog again for AP English!  I'm doing next week's work this week because I will be on a missions trip in Honduras with my youth group next week.  I'm sure I'll have tons of stories and lots of pictures!  So you can expect a few posts when I get back. :)


Anyway,  Mr. Harris...I listened to your clip from Letter to a Christian Nation and had a few thoughts.  First of all, the way you addressed your audience (which was Christians in the United States) was very straight forward.  It was almost like the you was talking to me directly and accusing me personally of disrupting stem cell research.  You made assumptions when talking to  'me': "Your beliefs about the human soul are, at this very moment, prolonging the scarcely endurable misery of tens of millions of human beings."  I personally never stated my beliefs to anyone.  By addressing Christians in general, you placed me in a category that I'm not even a part of.  "You believe that life starts at the moment of conception."  I don't think all Christians believe this; I'm sure that they all don't.  I'm not even sure what I believe--I haven't really thought about it before.  "You believe that there are souls in each of these blastocysts and the interests of one soul...cannot trump the interests of another soul."  Once again, this is an assumption.  Mr. Harris, you are assuming that since 'we' don't support stem cell research, 'we' believe once soul can't trump another.  But I think there are exceptions.  "We should throw immense resources into stem cell research and we should do so immediately."  Well, that's your opinion, Mr. Harris; I want to see your credibility.  So far you have just stated your views and beliefs.  I want to know that you are supported in this idea and it isn't just you who's saying this.  "Because of what Christians like yourself believe about souls, we are not doing this."  This made me feel like, "oh yeah! Christians do have some authority after all!"  'Cause so often it feels like Christians are the minority and the government makes decisions without us and throws aside our opinions.  But now Christian's are the majority and 'we're' stopping stem cell research.  (Does anyone else think that's kinda cool?)


So, Mr. Harris, I disagree with the assumptions you make and how you generalize what Christians believe about stem cell research.  However, I will address the claims you made about stem cell research later.