Considering my blog postings have gathered a month's long dust, I presume it to be necessary that I reflect upon the past month, as succinct as possible.
As half of the class adventured on the concept/meaning of "The Sparrow" with me, we decided to conclude upon the idea of faith. However, this only led us to a struggle in grasping the concept of faith. In broad terms, faith is to believe or to have trust in an uncertain entity. Some would say that faith can dictate a sufficient and meaningful life because you can give all your trust and hope into it, which is fufilling in itself. In "The Sparrow", Emilio had faith in the crew that was sent to space with him. He also had a faith in God that would aid his trip. After coming home with his faith shattered at the death of his friends, Emilio was forced to reconstruct his beliefs again to same strength they were at pre-trip. This idea of losing trust due to unfortunate events is evident in modern day among all christians, catholics, jews, muslims, athiests, agnostics, etc. Everyone has moments that tests their true beliefs. It seems to be, however, it is about how you can put things in perspective after a moment of betrayl even if the situation does not change.
In the "Grand Inquisitor", I found the ideas between Ivan and Zossima to not be completely similar but radically different. Ivan spoke of the Grand Inquistor's ideas on freedom and happiness; the two do not come together. Zossima then contrasts freedom and isolation. These men speak in terms of religion, but a perspective beyond religion can be formed. Human nature is described in the book. It is human nature to desire and cherish the freedom we are given, but in its simplest terms, it is not what we want. To be free, we are independent from others, we are independent from forced decisions, and independent from happiness. Although we may search and plead for freedom, we would rather want decisions to be made for us and someone to follow. However, when Ivan approaches the prisoner, Jesus, he condemns him for manipulating the people into thinking they were free, when really they were following him only because it is what their natural needs inclined for. However, I feel that if people are truly content with following another and feel free, then why detest it? Sometimes I want someone to follow, it shows me there is a path for me. Although there are also times of indepence that strike in me and I want to be a nonconformist. To really evaluate the way I have lived in this sense in the past 18 years is difficult, even frustrating. I do not want to be happy yet be known as a follower at the same time. I want to be a leader, is this what Ivan is suggesting? Hard to tell.
"Doubt: A parable" is very thought provoking and leads to uncertainty, hence the "doubt". First, 'a parable' means a short story or an analogy. The play is concise, thus leads to a vast amount of uncertainty and questions. I like that the play brings several characters into the scenes, yet all of them seem to have doubt in some way. My evidence for this is Father Flynn temporarily has doubt in Sister James. Sister James doubts Father Flynn. Sister Aloysius doubts Father Flynn as well as Sister James. Mrs. Muller doubts the situation Sister Aloysius is presenting to her. Yet with this entity of doubt, no one seems to inevitably change. Although Father Flynn moves to another parish, he never confesses anything, leaving us and the rest to further doubt. I certainly have uncertainties in my life, but always seem to overlook them, as I find them a waste of time. I consider doubt to be a confusing topic for it is inevitable, yet never ending!
I feel as if I am becoming flustered and irritated by the fact that I have just embarked on more than my share of confusing intellectual topics for one hour. Perhaps I will start to blog more frequently to avoid this circumstance again.
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