Monday, November 23, 2009

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

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

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

Thursday, November 12, 2009

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.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

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.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

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.