The Christmas Tree

Its December 25th and your running down the stairs ready to open your presents. Which one first? The red the blue, the big the small? Should we open the stockings or go straight for the big ones? Breakfast or presents? Of course we want to open the biggest box under the Christmas tree, but have you ever wondered why in the world we have a Christmas tree? What is it supposed to represent? How come its always an evergreen? Why do we put lights on it? I sure don't remember Baby Jesus in the manger with a lit up, popcorn decorated evergreen...

Before there was even Christianity people have been erecting some kind of evergreen as a sign of hope. You never see anybody with regular tree, this is because the evergreen has been a significant representation of life in the winter. Civilizations from the Romans to the Egyptians used the evergreen as a sign and a hope for the upcoming spring. They didn't have whole trees, but they decorated their temples and homes with boughs and reefs of evergreen. This is why we use an evergreen for our christmas trees.

It is not historical fact, but it is widely believed that Martin Luther, the 16th century protestant reformer, had one night looked up into the night sky and had seen the many stars among the evergreens. He wanted his to capture the sight for his family to enjoy so he added lighted candles to a tree. Today we don't have that fire hazard thankfully, we have our electric lights.

Today a christmas without a christmas tree seems wrong. It has grown in so much popularity that every year in New York, presented by the Rockefeller Center, giant christmas trees are put up with over 25,000 lights and decorations.

A question

Its 2009 now, coming up on 2010. What a decade for science, for technology, together they have made us think about our religions and the existence of a God. Of course there is the ongoing debate of, "if God exists than why does suffering exist?" But this is not the subject. Science, has put its cards on the table, and everybody has their money on it. There has been debate about whether to have "In God we Trust" on our coins. Many pious people want that to stay, but why should it? America doesn't trust in God, I see "In God we Trust" on the quarter in my pocket, but isn't it an oxymoron? In our constitution there is a clear separation between Church and State. No trust in God there. Personally I wish we really did trust in God, but we shouldn't have it on our coins if no one believes it, please, lets not be hypocrites.

Religion is becoming a less and less part of our society, and science plays a leading role in this. Science has reasonable, very logical explanations for things that used to be explained by a God or supernatural force. Two of the biggest theories are the big bang theory, and the theory of Evolution. People have taken these as an explanation for God, so God is no longer needed. But if we can figure out how time itself began, than why can't we figure out if Pluto is a planet? Why are we wasting money finding water on the moon if we could be using it to saving our own planet? Is it possible that there is something out there, that is just one step above us, just as humanity is one step above animals, maybe God is one step above us. There are things that animals just can't comprehend, like when you try and save a cat from a tree it just tries and fights you. It doesn't understand what your intentions are or what your trying to do. Just as humans we try and find the answers to these difficult, mind boggling questions, but we still can't make logical decisions, or answer even the easy questions. I think there are somethings we as people just will never be able to understand. We are imperfect, we have faults, and they have been a hindrance ever since the beginning of time... or until we evolved from monkeys...

Meditation

We all have heard meditation, it has been penetrating our society today. One thing you may be more familiar with is yoga, which is very similar to meditation. Buddism is one of the most known religions to practice meditation, but you don't need to be buddhist to meditate.

Meditation is all about clearing your mind. While meditating, the goal is to clear your mind of all things, to think of nothing. Since you are thinking of nothing, there is nothing for you to worry about, and there aren't any stressors penetrating your mind, thus making you more able to focus and control your own thoughts. This is very beneficial to you in times of stress, such as a test, going out on a first date, or having to speak pubicly. Meditation allows you to "tame the mind" so to speak, take control of your fear and anxiety, and really take a minute to focus on the task at hand.

You may be wondering how to meditate. Its very simple, follow these few guidlines and you should be on your way.

1.)Find a quiet, neat and clean space, free from distractions

2.)It will be very tough at first to stay focused, but determination will make it worth while

3.)For your first time, do it for a very short time, 2-3 minutes is a good start. As you get more skilled start doing it for longer periods of time

4.)Take it seriousely, doing it with a freind would be a bad idea because of it can be distraction.

I hope you may try it even just once. It cant hurt!

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Ah its the holidays. The wonderful holidays, snow fights, sledding, presents, and the ever present frost of the cold. At least from where I come from it was cold. But lets avoid these trivial matters and really ponder what really goes on these next few weeks.
Its the end of another year, we all talk how fast it went by, the highs and the lows, and all those embarrassing moments throughout the year. But who do we end talking about these things with? Well, they are there when you wake up to open up presents Christmas morning, there the ones that call you and set you straight when your slipping up, there the ones that you call when you know you are slipping up and need help. These are the ones we talk to. They don't care about how you look, and they aren't angry because you didn't get the right present for them. They are content that you plumped down, in your ugly turtle neck that you wear every December, talking and enjoying your self with them.
These holiday times allow us as families to grow and become even closer as another year passes. You realize that these are the people that still call you when you move away, you see how you hate them, but you really can't live without them. The whole year you are ungrateful for them, you forget that they could be gone any day. During the holidays, we take that time to be grateful for your families just being there around you.
Please this holiday season enjoy your family, cherish them, hug and kiss them, because when its over, life will return to its normal pattern, and you will loose your gratitude.

Merry Christmas!... Happy Holidays?

Since the holiday season is coming up I thought I would address a growing controversy here in America. Years back, many companies said "Merry Christmas!" during these wonderful holiday times, but as political correctness has been emphasized in our society very recently, due to the tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, religions etc, and the expression has changed from Merry Christmas to "Happy Holidays!” Look as you watch commercials on TV. today, and see how many say happy holidays. Chances are you won’t see a specific reference to one particular Holiday.
Personally, I think that it would be a very... unintelligent business strategy to stick with only Merry Christmas, Or Happy Hanukah, because it would be met with very extreme views. Here is a recent Accurance of a large company referring to a specific holiday. As you could see, there were two very different responses. I like though what Best Buy is doing. They support all of the holidays, but they also refer to specific ones, to hit a target audience, making that group feel more special, for lack of a better word. I think there is very small minority of people that would actually refuse to shop at a store because they didn't specifically support their holiday. That is immature, if you wouldn't get upset at happy holidays, why would you get mad at a Happy Hanukah if you are Christian? Isn't it the same thing? Neither of them supports your holiday, why get upset at one?
As a Christian, I do appreciate it when I see a commercial that says Merry Christmas. I see it as, "wow they got a lot of guts to go out and say that." But I can understand when they say another holiday, they have to, it would be bad business.

Mormonism At a Glance

Instead of doing research on the wonderful Internet to find my information, I decided to interview a good friend of mine who is a Mormon, his/her name is unimportant. The interview was to get a basic overview of the Mormon religion, because, I don't think many students are familiar with Mormonism and I took it upon myself to clear up any misunderstanding about Mormonism. Before we start I would like to give some background knowledge, Mormons are a protestant sect of Christianity. They believe in Jesus the same way other protestants do, as the atonement for man's sin, but there are some key differences between other Protestants and Mormons.
Side note: I do not have the exact quotes of what my friend had said, but, I have done my best into putting his words into mine, while keeping the integrity of the meaning of them.

I asked my friend, What some key differences between Mormonism and Other Protestant sects?

-Mormonism's largest most widely known difference between other Protestants is the Book of Mormon, translated by Joseph Smith from sacred plates, similar to the sacred plates the ten commandments were written upon. The book of Mormon is an account of three groups of the "old world" to the American continents, according to the Church's website. I think that the "old world" is the same place the bible is set in, the middle east. In any case The book of Mormon is the account of these three groups, and of the visitations of Jesus Christ to the America's after his resurrection.
- Mormons do not believe in the trinity, which is God the Father, God the Son, and God the spirit all being one entity, rather they take them as three separate entities.
-Mormons believe in baptism by inversion, which is when you get baptized you must fully be immersed in the water, unlike the Catholics that believe you can just be sprinkled with the water to be baptized.

Second Question: I asked my friend to please, for the sake of the students of Cypress Bay, and the rest of the world for that matter, clear up any misunderstandings that we might have about Mormonism.

-Mormons do not support polygamy, They did in times of war so that one man could provide for more than one woman at a time, as to split the work load in the community.
-Mormons do not worship there prophets, the worship God and God only.
-There is no "magical underwear" as some people may refer to it. There is though temple clothing similar to what the Catholics might wear, which does have spiritual significance, but there is no "magical underwear"

Question 3: What is your Concept of Heaven and Hell
-There are three kingdoms, or "stages" in Heaven. There is the Telestial, which is the lowest "degree of glory" but according to Joseph Smith, the main prophet of Mormonism, the telestial kingdom is so great that people would die to go there, even though it is the lowest degree of heaven. The next in line is the Terrestrial Kingdom, or the Glory of the Moon. The greatest degree of Heaven is the Celestrial Kingdom, otherwise known as the Glory of the Sun.
Hell on the other hand is more of a concept in Mormonism than a place. Hell is defined as being totally out the presence of God. Hell is referred to as the Outer Darkness, complete separation from the presence of God.

I hope this was helpful to you in learning more about Mormonism, to find out more information go to the Mormon Church's main website

Christianity

We all are familiar with Christianity here in America. What you may not know is the plethora of Christian denominations, everything from Catholicism to Jehovah's Witnesses.
In Christianity there are two main sects, The Catholics, and the Protestants. Protestants include everything from Baptists to Mormons. The main difference between these two groups is that Catholics are very rooted in tradition and that they were the first Christian Church. Protestants arose in the sixteenth century when they broke off the Catholic Church.
One of the main beliefs of most protestants is that as soon as you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal savior, your eternity in heaven is guaranteed. Unlike the Catholics who believe you have to go through seven sacraments. including, confirmation, marriage and baptism.
A very important difference between the Catholics and protestants is that protestants believe the bible and only the bible to be the ultimate authority. The Catholics on the other hand believe tradition passed down orally is just as important that the bible.
These many disagreements have contributed to alot of conflict between the protestant and catholic Church.

Wicca, Witches and Witchcraft

Wicca, otherwise known as witchcraft, has been doubling in numbers every eighteen months in the United States. With that information I think that it is fair to say we take a minute and learn what Wiccans really believe. As the naive teenagers we are, when we hear the word witchcraft we initially think cauldrons, evil spells, and little broom stick flying, wart covered, pointy hat wearing, green women. But here in the U.S. of A everyone has freedom to religion, whatever it may be, we shouldn't stereotype anybody. So please take a minute to understand really what Wicca is, it can only help you.

Unlike a Catholic church, which is very organized and has certain specific things they believe in, the beliefs of Wiccans can very tremendously. Wiccans are undecided on the amount of deities they have, polytheistic Wiccans believe in ancient Gods and Goddesses such as Dionysius, and Thor. There Monotheistic Wiccans, duotheistic (belief in two Gods), and henotheistic (belief in a supreme God over many)

If I were to make a comparison about Wiccans I would say that they are very much like liberal people. They support preserving the environment, morals are determined by the individual, girls and just as valuable as boys, they value the passing of the seasons, and positive attitude toward human sexuality, which is a gift from the Goddess.

I hope I could open your eyes some to what really is and hopefully they can be just as appreciated as any major religion

Wowzas

Its amazing how many different religions there on in this world. Everything from Satanism to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Sometimes you just have to say wow. If you get the chance, sit down and pick a subject, I picked religion. Find something in your subject that you have always wondered or been amazed by, then just relax and let it soak in, you don't even have to understand it, I look at it like an appreciation. Now that I have sat and wondered I can appreciate the massive amount of religions. Maybe you will choose why is the sky blue, or were do we come from, or even are animals conscious of there existence as people are? Thinking about these things may open up a new appreciation to whatever it is that you picked.
Another thought that I had was how do we know which one is the right one? Are they all right? or is just one, or maybe even known. This has been a question asked by scholars for questions. I guess we wont know the answer until we die, and, unfortunately there is no way to communicate that one religion was right with someone once your dead.
I believe your faith has to be picked by you, no one can pick it for you. Is you choice the right one? I cannot answer that, but either you will suffer the consequences or reap the rewards, or maybe even nothing. I hope you all have a great day, ill see you next time.

Intelligent Design

Recently I was given an assignment in my English class. I had to right a research paper about any topic that has opposing view points about it, such as abortion, and global warming. I took the opportunity to learn more about a topic I was curious about, Intelligent Design, otherwise known as ID. I think it’s plausible to say it would be agreed that most of our student body has never heard of ID, or know very little about it. I would like to take the opportunity now to be the informer and clear up this confusion.

ID is a theory that takes a look at the natural world and sees the explanation for life and matter is an intelligent designer, or a creator. The reason they think that an intelligent designer created life and the cosmos is because of the two concepts of irreducible complexity and specified complexity.

Irreducible complexity is when something is so complex that if you were to remove any part of the system it would cease to function. An analogy of this would a car engine, if you remove a cylinder or a belt or the exhaust the engine would sooner or later break down and need to be repaired. Advocates of intelligent design argue how can natural selection developed an irreducibly complex system if it would only build upon the system one part at a time. For instance, natural selection would have it that the car engine would be built cylinder by cylinder, belt by belt. But, the laws of natural selection would say these spare parts have no benefit to the car so they would be thrown out. Natural selection would not know that these parts are needed for a larger more complicated system, but an intelligent designer would know that because it is intelligent.
Specified complexity is when something is complex and has a certain functioning order. A good analogy for this is a newspaper article. One letter, such as the letter A, is specified because it follows an order of lines, but is not complex. But when you put the letters together to make words it becomes complex because of its length and specified because all of the letters are in a functioning order. In the living world this is something like DNA. How could evolution have come up with something by chance that has commands for everything that an animal or person is?
Intelligent design uses these two concepts to try and prove the existence of a creator, and to discredit evolution.

Taoism

Taoism? What is that...? I believe that it is safe to say that most people here in America haven't heard of it. Taoism is an eastern religion, it originated in China around the same time as Confucius (551-479 BCE). Its founder is of a man named Lao-Tse.

Tao is a power that flows through all things, whether living or non-living. It regulates the events and processes of everything, and the existence of opposites are embraced, without hate there is no love, no light no dark, no male without female. This is were the Yin-Yang symbol originated from. Yang being widely accepted as masculine qualities, Energetic, light, hot and aggressive. Yin is more feminine, soft, healing, cool, calm and passive. The comparison of yin and yang can be applied to things from night and day to boiling an egg and freezing one. It is misconceived by westerners that one is evil and the other is good, instead each are specific qualities neither good nor bad.

Taoists are different in many ways from western religions. Taoists do not pray as Christians or Muslims because they don't believe there is a God to hear them. Instead they "pray" in their own way through meditation. They also place emphasis on respect for the environment and nature. In Taoism it is encouraged to let nature flow and not to interfere because if they did it would upset the balance of Yin and Yang. Similar to western religion though virtue is of utmost importance, the three jewels of Taoism are humility, moderation and compassion.

Star Of David

Im sure you all of have seen this symbol before. If not is known as the Star of David. The Star of David is used to recognize the Jewish faith. I would put money on it though that you don’t know were this symbol originated or what it means and represents. Well now I will share with you the information I have gathered.
According to legend king David had a shield with two interlocking triangles wrapped in leather bands to complete the circle. Apparently in one of his battles it became so intense that the two triangles came together as one and from then on it has been known as the "shield" of David. The Shield of David is what Jews commonly refer it to. This is legend though and has no historical backing.
The representation of the star is also unclear. Some think that the twelve sides represent the twelve tribes of Israel. Other say that the six points represent Gods total control over all the directions, being north, south, east, west, up and down. Also the direction in which the triangles point may symbolize God in heaven (triangle pointing up) and people on earth (triangle pointing down).
I hope you enjoyed this addition to Giovanni's Blog.

Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

There is a new and growing religion established in the year 2005 by a man named Bobby Henderson. They believe pirates are divine beings, and that strippers and beer volcano's await them in heaven. Hell is a not so bad of a place in this church, in Hell its the same as heaven except the beer is stale and the strippers have STD's, no fire and brimstone included. Maybe the most contemporary part is that they believe a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe after a night of heavy drinking.

The followers of this new and growing religion call themselves pastafarians, which has been recognized by sites like facebook as another religion in the "religion Box" of your profile. They believe that the drop in the number of pirates since the 1800's is the reason for the increase in Global tempature. Thier justification for this is that in Somalia has the highest number of pirates in the world, and the lowest carbon emissions. Click here for there church website.

Reading about this new religion is very humorous to most people, thats because its supposed to be. It was created when the Kansas school board allowed the the theory of intelligent design to be taught along with the theory of evolution. Bobby Henderson upset at this new proposal, wrote this letter to the Kansas school board. The letter introduced his faith and that if they were going to teach intelligent design they had to teach all of the different theories of it including his, the belief a flying spaghetti monster created the universe.

Many atheists use the church of the flying spaghetti monster to make a joke of what people who follow intelligent design believe to be. There was a case in Polk County Flordia were five of the seven board members proffessed to believing in intelligent design, so pastafarians sent in emails telling them how they wanted equal time being taught for thier theory. One of the members rejected the emails as insulting and ubsurd.

Don't be suprised if you see this church popping up more as the debate over the theory of evolution comes up in today's education of our youth. I expect to see more of this in the future.

Click here for more information on Intelligent Design

Click here for more information on Evolution

A start

Theology has been a topic i've always been interested in.  Its a study that I have taken up very recently and is something im very interested in.  The main focus of my study's have been in the very focused realm of Christian Apologetics, books like Case for Christ and Case for Faith both written by Lee Strobel.  The first, Case for Christ talks about the objections to the credibility of the Gospels, the existence of Christ, and if he did exist was he who he claimed to be.  Case for Faith is focused on the hard questions of life that nobody knows the answers too.  Questions like, if there is a God why does he allow evil to exist, why is there so much suffering in the world, and why do bad things happen to good people.  Both of these books support God and try to answer these questions using logic and historical evidence for support.  I found them to be very convincing and enforcers of my faith.  

Since I've read these i've had the desire to study other subjects about God and religion.  If anyone is of another religion then christianity then please, id love to know the things you believe and the different ways you do things.  Even if you happen to be an atheist Im interested in hearing why you don't believe in God and to see the effect of it on your life in the way you do things.  This is the start of a great blog I hope, Ill see you guys another day.