Religon

One thing that has always really bothered me is the way people react when they here the word "religon" or "god" or anything related to this. I find it really disrespectful for people to be put off by it so quickly. thats not to say I'm not also put off by people with religous views pushing their thoughts onto others who clearly aren't interested. Another thing I really wish religons did was push the views alittle bit - i realize now in days you can be labeled as "non denominational" but people with other views- why can't they push the boundries alittle bit -actually think about whats out their and experience and learn about other religons? I do respect traditions that are often played in catholic, jewish, muslim etc. religons but they seem so meaningless and overdone. I also really dislike how one sided religous - or athiest people are. I really want people to be more open to the ideas of whats out their and not completely turn different ideas off.

How should you live

I want to live my life by being the best I can be each day. My parents have always emphasized to not put things off until tommorrow, that you can do today.

Acquiring material things like that new release of the iPad doesn't make a person complete or deliver real happiness. One needs to take a step back and understand that a simple act of kindness toward your classmate, a relative, friend or homeless person on the street is an important way to live a fulfilling life. Personal sacrifice should be a priority in our lives as we can lend a hand to help out physically or monetarily, it's really pretty simple. In times of crisis like the devastation of a Tsunami, hurricanes or tornadoes, we can get involved.

Part of living life each day is that we should be aware and respectful of the environment around us. The little things add up, as it's easy to recycle or donate items you no longer need.

Try to discover your own, unique passion in life and follow that path to the best of your ability. It sounds like alot to live up to, but trying to live a well balanced life is something we should all strive for.

The Real World

This is basically a response to both Keller and Chevy's opinions on the nature of reality. They both argued that reality is subjective, and that different people see things in different ways. It's extremely easy to see where they're coming from as artists. Give a classroom of twenty people twenty identical apples to paint and you will get twenty completely different paintings of apples.

Individual perspectives are extremely important to the nature of reality because without human observation, there would be no one to assert that it existed or had a nature at all. I agree that their are discrepancies between the way that individuals relate back reality both to themselves and others. However, that is an error in the communication of the mind and the senses.

There is an objective reality or we would not all be able to point to two apples and observe they look exactly the same. When we look at the apple we are seeing the same apple everyone else in the room is seeing, but it is impossible to copy all the complexities of the apple, even though we are seeing them at once, so we invent or simplify the apple in our painting.

I enjoy speculating that the physical world may very well not exist, that I could be creating a reality all in my own mind and that my memory is the only reality that will ever be. Or that since we can never know what reality is when not faultily relaid through human observation and memory, we can assume that only our differing versions of it exist, each equally true.

Despite this speculation, I am for all intents and purposes, a practical person, and so I will continue to operate as if the material world is real and objective.

How Should We Live?

I wish everyone would just live for themselves. Doesn't that sound selfish? Maybe but I keep getting caught up in Aristotle's Vices and Virtues theory. Selfless and selfish. The excess of a virtue is a vice. Sort of like to much of a good thing is bad. Everywhere I go I see people who live there lives for everyone but themselves. I guess this sort of goes back to the discussion we had in class but I feel like to some extent you have to make yourself happy before you can make someone else happy. To many times good, selfless people lose themselves because they stop doing what is right for themselves and they live only to maintain the happiness of others. Like a host for a parasite... but hey, I guess this is what I'm about to tell you all about tomorrow so I suppose I should stop there!