In James Martin’s book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life, he outlines the different paths through religion that people can take. In the chapter, “The Six Paths”, he outlines each path, describing how they work, and what the benefits and pitfalls to each are. The six paths are: belief, independence, disbelief, return, exploration, and confusion. I tend to view myself more closely aligned with disbelief, with a dash of confusion and exploration thrown in. Through my experiences in life, I end up finding the most disagreement, personally, with the Path of Belief, and Disbelief. I find the pitfalls heavily outweigh the benefits of those paths, and in such I have commonly found a non-welcoming, elitist environment among people on those paths of religion. Before explaining my positions on …show more content…
It has, usually, the most devout believers, who find “meaning to both the joys and struggles in life” (Martin, page 30), who never feel alone in the world, and who find a community of compassionate worshipers to be with. From this point of view, it seems to be a wonderful option, and I’ve seen it this way: people who have always been in a certain religion are always welcomed in to the community of that religion. But it is not always so wonderful. The Path of Belief can also cause people to be intolerant to those who have differing views, they have a “temptation to judge” others (Martin, page 31), and they do not allow their beliefs to adapt as their lives change. You see this most in fundamentalist groups who see everyone who is not like them as an enemy to their system. But, I believe that this path has a good deal of balance, while there is narrow-mindedness and intolerance in some places, there is also love and hope and support in others. This path has extremes, but most of the members fall on the more positive end of the
Book Report: The Conundrum by David Owen Efficiency is not always the answer, according to David Owen, in his novel The Conundrum, explains that society is headed in the wrong direction, believing that to be greener we need to make our everyday lives more efficient when in reality we need to change our behavior. As consumers, people want to be sustainable and preserve the Earth while greedily expanding our collection of trinkets. Efficiency can be beneficial, but to make the world a greener one, it is essential for people to change their behavior, not efficiency of the products. The Conundrum describes how in modern times we have come a long way in increasing the efficiencies of cars, air conditioners, trains, airplanes, energy resources, or
It has been three years since humanity was still alive. The year is 2020; very few people are left in America. A great series of large volcanic eruptions covered the region. No one could have prepared for them, and not one person predicted these tragedies. The author, Cormac McCarthy, shows the enticing travel of a father and his son. They must travel south for warmth, fight the starvation they are facing, and never let their guard down. They will never know what insane people might be lurking around the corner.
Throughout life people encounter a numerous amount of obstacles, some of these obstacles can be tougher than others. These obstacles don’t define who you are, how the situation is handled does. In the book The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Jessica encounters a tremendous obstacle that life could throw at her. Jessica has had to learn to adjust her life from the way that she used to live. Her life is changing and she has to decide if this accident defines who she is going to be while being surrounded by the love and comfort of her family.
America is full and rich with diverse people, religions and values; they make America great. Just look at Riverside, California, there are over fifty churches of different denominations of Christianity, three synagogues, two temples, and one mosque; all coinciding peacefully in the city (Yellow Pages). Because Riverside is so diverse, religious pluralism and religious tolerance are two steps in making Riverside more connected. The first step is tolerance, a reflex that acknowledges a person will come across people of a different faith. The second step is pluralism, which is a better understanding of a person’s religion as well as the other religions around them. Many believe pluralism is the better of the two, because of the interaction involved and the creation of harmony, but pluralism’s faults are greater than the benefits. Currently religious pluralism is quality America should strive for, but America is not ready for pluralism yet, so religious tolerance is best for the diverse population of America today.
What must first be understood is that the impact that religion has on each individuals life is astonishingly different. Michael Novak called this religious drive a sort of "voyage"; a part of every person's life. Despite the fact that each person is impacted in one way or another through religion; Novak believed that religion was not an "addition" to human qualities, but rather a unifying idea of all of human nature. The idea that religion is everywhere and affecting everyone allows an individual to understand what they (personally) expect from their own religious drives. Of course there are a few questions that arise in the thoughts of almost everyone; Who am I? What am I doing with my life? Are my actions right or wrong? These questions have no concrete answers or definitions; in fact most people live an entire life without being able to answer a single one. But the fact that people do find answers to these questions can bring true hope to the rest of the world. For those people that do find comfort through all the struggles of a religious drive; these people act as symbols of spirituality. As Novak stated, religion is a unifying idea; and if one person can find true faith and real protection from religious drives then it is possible for anyone to fulfill and understand the requirements of a spiritual path.
In today’s society, people are very quick to judge others based on what they look like or how they dress. Recently we have been studying “Martin”, a narrative essay, written by Nick Vaca. This narrative has many beneficial lessons within the story, but one message stands out more than the others. Vaca learns to make assumptions about people, as a result of his childhood experience with Martin.
I have conflicting thought regarding Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. My initial thoughts of the novel were that it was solely built on the complete devastation of two characters lives and the surrounding landscape and their constant search for survival. However after giving it further insight I discovered the underlying messages of the importance of good and bad people in my life, the beauty of the little things in life and constant greed showed by desperate individuals. I believe the novels successes comes from the messages of the significant value of human life and the importance of memories in our lives.
Religion, which is meant to enhance the faith of it followers, has done the opposite. The practices of religion have become overwhelmingly factual that the faith component of religion has vanished. In order to be a genuine beliver one must comprise an authentic faith. Both religious leaders and followers must realize that their religion is not factual, but sustained through faith. The key to the gates of heaven is faith, not facts.
In The Way To Rainy Mountain, the author N. Scott Momaday makes a clear use of figurative language throughout the story and descriptive language to describe the nature around them, explains their myths about how their tribe came to be a part of nature, as well as the importance in nature that are a part of the Sundance festival and the tai-me.
The narrator looks down one road until he cannot see beyond the bend in the road as it goes into the woods.
In “A Worn Path” colors are used to emphasize the depth and breadth of the story, and to reinforce the parallel images of the mythical phoenix and the protagonist Phoenix Jackson. Eudora Welty’s story is rich with references to colors that are both illustrative and perceptive, drawing us in to investigate an additional historical facet of the story.
Religion is one of the touchiest subjects for people to discuss. When it comes to religion most people are set in their ways, and can only see things from the perspective that they have been taught to have on certain things. The word “empathy” comes to mind when I think about some of the nineteenth-century religious movements, and all of the heat that they have had to take in the past for what they believe. The definition of the word empathy is, “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” Empathy is something that is extremely hard for many people to have when it comes to a religion besides their own, especially when that group has some very distinctive practices that effect
Robert Frost was born in 1874 and died in 1963. During his years of living Frost, wrote 105 poems including; The Road Not Taken, Mending Wall, Stars, and A Time to Talk (Best Famous Robert Frost Poems) and many more. While Frost was in his early and late twenties he attended school at Dartmouth University, only to return home and have unsatisfactory jobs, and Harvard University, where he had to drop out after two years due to health concerns. He married Elinor White on December 19, 1895, together they had four children but only two were able to live into adulthood. In 1912, Frost and Elinor decided to move their family to England, where Frost met Edward Thomas. It has been said, that Frost and Thomas would
The poem entitled “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is perhaps one of the most well-known poems to date. Frost’s poem explores the different paths and choices individuals are presented with throughout their life, which can later influence their lives significantly more than originally anticipated. Specifically, Frost describes a fork in the road at which the narrator must choose between two very different paths with varying outcomes. “The Road Not Taken” emphasizes the importance of taking the less traveled road through Frost’s usage of a wide range of literary devices. “The Road Not Taken” suggests that individuals should fully experience the process of making a choice before reaching a decision as that one single choice may later have
Robert Frost put a great deal of emotion, pain, devotion, nature and the aspects of life into his works. His works