New Testament

This Book, that you are talking about happens  to be the most  trustworthy book in all of time. It is the book that everyone tries to disprove over and over again but it never works. Scholar after Scholar who set out to disprove something from the Bible always end up believing in it, because it can't be proven wrong. And it was proven by these Scholars that the Bible was written from eyewitness accounts, one even said that "In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the forties and the eighties of the first century..." They can say this because there are so many other written documents that say the exact same thing that the Bible does. An example, would be the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls were found and  dated a thousand years earlier than the oldest manuscript that had been found before them, what was written on the Dead Sea Scrolls was verbatim of what was written on the newer manuscripts and what is written in the Bible today. Some of the works of the famous philosophers were found during this time and they had no eye witness accounts, and were written down at different times and had  for word accuracy. What I don't understand is how people so easily approve of these philosophers work but they don't believe the Bibles? The New Testament laws are applicable to us today, some even say that they would stand in the court of law. The words that are written cannot be stricken down because of the early manuscripts and the eye witness accounts that wrote it. All in all, the Bible is  the most reliable history book ever written and no one could ever disprove it. 

Paige, you are mistaken!! It is quite ignorant to say that isn't true and that it was only biased on the ""winners" view. History is how we learn, how we learn from past mistakes so that we won't make the same ones in the future. All of the things that we learn in class have been proven time and time again. There is archaeological support, and many many written documents that support it as well. To say that history has no importance is just wrong. What I would like to know is how Paige would prove that history is false? With documents? With archaeological evidence? It is impossible to try and prove history is a waste of time. Besides the fact that it is almost impossible to discount history, that people that lived through that point in time deserve to have it be remembered. They deserve to have it written and know until the end of time. Take the Holocaust for example, thousands and millions of people  we massacred, being tortured, beaten, gassed, starved, and  much worse. Do you really think that those people who survived want us to forget that? Or to say it never happened? I don't think so!! They probably want to to be know and talked about forever so that nothing like  that ever happens again. Furthermore, what about our founding fathers? Does Paige think they never existed either? That this free country just appeared one day and no one had to fight for it? I don't think so. Paige is basically saying that despite all of the obvious evidence that history has it is still no true, and that everyone who ever lived before her was a liar, ya that's real intelligent. But as for the "It has been written by winners", that is false aswell. I don't know how many times in the Bible innocent lives were lost, heck, every single one of the disciples except for one died a martyrs death. Even though they were winners in the kingdom, their earthly lives were full of torture and people thinking that they were crazy. Also, when we were in the revolutionary war, we lost a few battles that were very important. And what about when our own country split over slaves? That doesn't sound like winners to me. All in all, history is that thing that we go to for advise, it helps us to understand why things are the way that they are and it helps us to never make the same mistakes that they did. So that all we can do is improve.

socialism is wrong

The fact the some people even think that socialism is a good idea scares me. Taking money from the wealthy and giving it to the poor is selfish and all around stupid. Wealthy people don't just wake up rich, they have put in the blood, sweat, and tears to get where they are today and to take some of that away from them is just rediculious. Some of the poor people in the world think that they are "entitled" to money when they aren't. They need to get off their butts and go find a job and work for your money. Some middle class people have a hard enough time supporting their family, why take more money away from them?! They are working hard, they are sacrificing, and they are the ones who deserve it. Furthermore, by basically paying the poor to be poor the rich will realize that they are getting their money taken away and will lose motivation! And I don't blame them, why work hard when others can do it for you? And if that happens then all of the buisnesses will shut down, laying off all the middle class people who need a job and then they will become poor and who is going to pay them? Pretty soon everyone will be poor, and we will have no outlet to turn to. America is a place where everyone has the opportunity to better themselves, so no one has the excuse that "they can't" or they need more help than they really do. What it all comes down to is working hard. If everyone works hard there wouldn't be a problem, the rich wouldn't be getting their hardearned money taked from and the poor would be able to support themselves. Socailism is just an all arounf BAD idea.

Michael Moore

In the video he talks about his socialistic views and belief of how the government should be run, saying that just because we're in the 21^st century we need to start  changing things. But just because times went on it doesn't mean that we need to change. Change is how our problems begin; people searched for other ways to go, when our country was set up for a reason, they wanted to learn form their homeland and not make the same mistakes that they did in their government. They wanted a place to be able to live their lives a certain way. But one of the things that really bugged me was the whole dancing with the stars generation thing he said in the beginning, how all people agree and think the same way; that the rich didn't earn their money fairly and they should not have it all,that it takes away from “us”, but who in the heck is "us"? Also, since when were Christianity, Islam and Atheism the same thing?! because I'm pretty sure they are all very separate beliefs.  When it comes to the rich, they have the money that they have because they worked for it, they didn't wait to someone else to hand money to them, they went out and got it themselves. They did the work of going to college, getting a job and working hard everyday. That is the difference between them and the poor who keep asking for more, who squeeze as much money as they can out of the government. For the most part, most poverty stricken people are lazy and not motivated by anything so they will take whatever they can for free, I am not saying that there aren't people out there that actually need the money and are barely keeping their head above water in bills. But it's sad that the others have given the real poor a "bad name". Furthermore, something else that bothered me what  when he gave the pizza or pie example, where people were fighting for that last piece and then he just said "yep Jesus agreed with that", and everyone in the crowed cheered?! Where did that come from? Because I have never read that in the Bible? He didn't prove anything by saying that, and where was his source? People are are just listening to the words he is saying and not understanding the true meaning (if there is any) behind what he is saying. That last video was the perfect example of how ridiculous it is that the government is taxing the rich so much more and how it is so called unfair they have all the money they do. People earn everything in society; we work hard in high school to get good grades to get into college, then we work hard in college to get a good degree to get a good job, and then we work hard at our job to earn well earned money for our lives and families. So If someone were to take that away because you worked too hard, and someone else who didn't work as hard or did their part and they need and get some of that for free, it would be taking away money from you that you worked so hard for. It is just ridiculous and unfair. America was built upon hopes for a land where people could come and WORK for their dreams. To work hard and they could accomplish anything. I think that that has been forgotten in America today, and we need a reminder of why we started this country in the first place.

Abortion and Teenage Couples

To start off with there is one point that I want to make very clear, abortion is wrong and should not be legal anywhere. I do not care if you are 15 and  living with your parents or 36 and are settled, either way taking an innocent child's life is wrong and it is murder. Many people bring up the "more likely to leave school", honestly it will be hard and it will be some of the roughest years of your live but you chose to have premarital sex and you owe it to your child to give them the best life you can give them, even if that means staying up all night some days. Another thing that people bring up is that the teenage couple will " rely on public assistance to raise a child". Now lets about this for a moment, two not even graduated teenagers needing help to pay for stuff, doesn't that sound like every other teenager in the world? Of course they are going to need help! they are still children themselves. So what? That is no reason to kill a baby, every single person on the face of the earth will have money issues one way or another in their lives, so why punish those who have it earlier in their lives? Money seems to be a crutch that so many people use today and it's sad. If you really wanted to make a better life for you and your new family then it will take a ton of hard work and dedication. Finally, some make the point to say that teenage couples who have a child and get married "will end up divorced". This may be true because two kids trying to raise a baby is a major struggle and causes a roller coaster of emotions. But yet again, this is no reason to abort a child. It is up to the couple to decide what is best for the child. They are solely responsible for caring and loving the baby no matter what differences there may be. I think that teenage parents should try as hard as they can to not become a  "statistic". like i said before, it will be one of the hardest things in your life but they chose that life and they shouldn't by any means take it out on their child by aborting the pregnancy. Life is a gift from God and we must cherish that.

Art

Well both the video and the essay were interesting but the video stood out to me. But in the philosophy of beauty, something struck me. I did agree with a lot of what he was saying! I totally agree that a signed urinal   isn't art; that a messed up bed and some garbage isn't art. And when the "artist" of the messed up bed said that it was art because "she said so" that struck a nerve. If what she said was true than ANYONE could be an artist, it wouldn't take skill or technique, or understanding a medium or any of the basic principals of art. Take Picasso for instance, he is known for his abstract paintings, but what people don't know is how hard something like that is! He knew the in and outs of art, he understood the "rules" first, he didn't just go and paint all those abstract pieces right off the bat! That's what people are missing today, is the understanding that no everyone can do art. That it IS hard, and that you do have to have a God given talent to do it. And it pains me to see some people take advantage of the broad aspect of art. 
On the other hand, one thing that I disagreed with the movie was how he seemed to only show pieces like the signed urinal or the messy bed as "abstract". There are SO many beautiful, genius, abstract pieces in the world that he failed to talk about. He only stuck to the basic, old renaissance styles of sculptures, or only the portraits of oil/acrylic paintings on canvas. He didn't show anything like Kandinsky or Picasso or any famous abstract sculpture. He never said anything about how hard it is to be an abstract artist, they probably take as much time if not more on a piece as any realism artist because they have to think outside the box, outside the normal and that is intensely difficult. That being said, one thing that I did like about the essay was the he talked about the beauty in abstract art! I appreciated how he went through things and explained them in a way that looked at all ends of the spectrum.
All in all I concluded that in today's world we have lost some of the beauty in art, some of the understanding of what art really is and how to do it, but I also think that in today's world art can be something that doesn't have to be just perfect, or look like you could pick it up, but it shows the world through the artists eyes (after you have mastered the basics of course). 

Shariah Law...oh buddy!

America has been known as "The Land of the Free" for many many years, everyone knows it and many have tried to come to this country because of it. But if America changed to the Sharaih Law which is, the whole "Land of the Free" would never be spoken again. The law goes against what the founding fathers created. In the first amendment they wrote that the people of the United States would have the freedom of religion. Under the Shariah Law, that is not the case. Everyone must be Muslim, and I'm no psychic but I don't think that would go over well with Americans. Also, we no longer would live under a democratic government who strive for peace but a dictatorship that only thinks that what they think is right is the law. Furthermore, the Sharaih doesn't seperate church from state. What they say goes, and it goes completely against Christianity. Christians would and are beginning to lose the values and morals that the Bible says that we should have, and the Shariah Law says taht Muslim is the way or its the highway. All in all, if our country switched to this law the whole basis of theis country would be gone