I agonized about whether i should write this or not. My teacher seems to have no perception of how one's faith is the very thing that shapes their worldview. But i always knew in the back of my mind that this essay had to be written and i have no qualms posting it here. I'll let everyone know what grade i got...
I dropped out of high school because I was bored with meaningless assignments that were given just to keep the students busy. I was overworked enough without inane tasks that did nothing to expand my knowledge; the busy work did not help me learn, it only inhibited me from living life. Extra work is often just a cover up for the fact that the teacher has nothing of consequence to teach or doesn’t care to even try (this was especially evident in my Spanish class). The human mind is not a bucket to pour knowledge into but a sponge designed to absorb. I detest the fact that the public school system tried to dump meaningless junk into my brain but did not expect me to retain any of it so long as I passed my tests.
After learning things the hard way I decided to no longer accept anything merely because I have read it or am informed that it is true: I will not abandon reason in any area of my life, I will not allow anyone to think for me (1 John 2:27). There is one tool that I predominantly use to measure everything by: the Bible, my weapon along with the faith God has given me (Ephesians 6:10-18). I do not use the Bible because it is a nice "story," but because this book has proven it to be true, a valid document of historical and scientific significance as well as one that promotes spiritual and intellectual growth. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right" (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible does not need to be defended because "the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are" (Hebrews 4:12). Because I have found the content or my assigned reading to often be offensive and/or misguided when compared to Scripture, I intend to debate and clarify the issues that I have read about over the past two weeks and will use the Bible and common sense as my guide.
Gary Snyder asks in from The Etiquette of Freedom "Do you really believe you are an animal?" (15). He asserts that it is a mistake for human beings to think they suddenly became smart enough to invent language and society, and that as such we are no better than animals. And yet he recognizes that nature is beautifully complex (16) and observes:
Like imagination and the body, language rises unbidden. It is of a complexity that eludes our rational intellectual capacities. All attempts at scientific description of natural languages have fallen short of completeness, as the descriptive linguists readily confess, yet the child learns the mother tongue early and has virtually mastered it by six.Yes! God gave us this gift and no other species! Man was created in the image of God and animals were placed under the authority of Man (Genesis 1:26-31). He is the One who sets us apart as greater than the animals, not man themselves. The instincts my body implements to keep itself alive and the mind that plans, dreams, and grows for tomorrow were given to me by God. He knows "what I am going to say / even before I say it" and "made all the delicate, inner parts of my body / and knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:4, 13). Nature is so very complex that it screams out loud that it has been created by someone or something greater than us (16).
Language is learned in the house and in the fields, not at school. Without having ever been taught formal grammar we utter syntactically correct sentences, one after another, for all the waking hours of the years of our life. Without conscious device we constantly reach into the vast word-hoards in the depths of the wild unconscious. We cannot as individuals or even as a species take credit for this power. It came from someplace else… (15-16)
For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see His invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatso-ever for not knowing God. (Romans 1:19-20)
God created man, animals, earth, and the universe in six days (as is detailed in Gen. 1-2). While it is true that believing this requires faith it is not faith without reason: it is merely my theory of choice. The Theory of Evolution breaks several basic scientific rules and has been disproved numerous times: it is always being adapted to fit new discoveries while the creation account provided to us in Genesis has never been invalidated nor modified once. I am aware that other Christians may believe in Evolution or the thousand-year-day theories of God guiding Evolution, but in my research of Evolution vs. Creation I have found the Creation Theory to be much more plausible and that it requires less faith than believing in Evolution.
With the knowledge of God’s command in Genesis 1:28-30 comes the responsibility to protect life on this planet. Loving and caring for the earth is not a desire exclusive to liberals or tree huggers: all of us are charged with caring for the world God gave us. I agree with Aldo Leopold's warning in Thinking like a Mountain (149-150) though it is not God who has used the pruning shears (150): it is our careless actions and the instincts God gave animals. They cannot reason and protect themselves, they are incapable, and as such we are meant to protect them.
Nature is also not meant to be worshiped as detailed in Terry Tempest Williams' The Erotic Landscape (28-30): we must worship the One who gave us nature. He created Earth to shelter us, to connect us to Himself, and remind us of our responsibilities (in chapters such as Ps. 8). Still, I am just as puzzled as Williams when it comes to denying our feelings and losing contact with Nature. While she searches for the sexual side I suppose I search for the religious (30): though I would never phrase it that way. I do not practice a religion, I live a faith, and I often wonder how anyone can see the world through any other context but faith and truth: it is not a concept my mind can comprehend.
Thoreau comments on this when he notes: "By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent" (51). I do agree that the Human Race is caught in a rapid succession of cause and effect caused by our own actions and apathy, yet Thoreau sadly does not seem to find the same answer I have. He seems to have searched for truth in other places. Tom Wolfe's O Rotten Gotham is similar in this respect: Wolfe seems to believe that Humans are animals that merely react and that we cannot think for ourselves (57-59). No one calling the police when a girl is being raped in plain view (58), cutting others off in traffic (61), it's just a reaction to behavioral sink, right? Wrong:
But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)We don't have to react badly or stand by and let bad things happen: that's just an excuse. It's just like Thoreau said: we separate ourselves from our actions, refuse to take the blame, on purpose (51). We don't want to take responsibility because we don't want to admit that the world is messed up, that we feel helpless to change it. "...What we fear most is our capacity to feel, and so we annihilate symbolically and physically that which is beautiful and tender, anything that dares us to consider our creative selves," writes Williams (29).
The way we feel about these feelings, temptation, and sin is also similar to what Ursula K. Le Guin relates in The Creatures in My Mind: "And if I had any courage or common sense, I kept telling myself, I'd step on the poor damned creature and put it out of its misery" (81). But instead she ignored it; she turned away and waited for it to slowly destroy itself, to suffocate to death (82). All humans are the same way: we tell ourselves that it doesn't exist, that we're helpless to initiate change. We're fine without God, right? "It was a responsibility that would not act. It was guilt itself" (82). She asks: "Is it my fault? Did I build the cage?" (82) and concludes:
My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it. The gull stood waiting for the dog, for the other gulls, for the tide, for what came, living its life completely until death. Its eye looked straight through me, seeing truly, seeing nothing but the sea, the sand, the wind. (83).I ask myself the same questions often. Do I live fully? Is there more to life than this headlong rush that we all surrender to? What are we doing wrong, what am I doing wrong? "I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate...But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things" (Rom. 7:15, 17). And so I continue to wonder: how does one form an opinion without belief? How does one measure the world without faith and reason?
All of these essays seem to state a belief about both nature and faith without reason and I struggle to comprehend it. To me faith is everything; I am who I am, I know what I know, because of faith. In my mind no opinion can be formed without considering what God commands in His Word. And yet one of the things I love about being an American is our freedom of speech: freedom to have and state an opinion that is contrary to what others believe is a beloved gift. I do not mind if others disagree with me as long as I have the chance to be heard as well. I inwardly debated with for several days on what to write here... Should I take the advice of my uncle who said: "In college the teachers want you to contradict what they say"? Do I accept the contradictory statements of my teacher (Ms. Penney Hills) when she said "The teacher is meaningless, is trouble," and "Take a chance: you have to step into the river of life"? Do I compromise my beliefs and reason, play it safe, or take a chance and state an opinion... even if it's not what she wants to read?
"What is the pill which will keep us well, serene, contented?" Thoreau asked this question one hundred and fifty years ago then concluded that it is Nature who will heal us (53). I disagree; if such were the case Nature would have healed all of us thousands of years ago--before we started polluting our planet and fighting world wars--and we would have utopia. I have traveled near and far in this country I call home and though I still haven't seen half of it I know that it is not Nature that heals me. It is not where I am physically that makes me content but where I am spiritually. Even though Satan seeks to devour me (1 Peter 5:8) "I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love" (Rom. 8:38a) except for my own sin (Rom. 3:23). I thank God every day for providing a way--for all of us--to reach Him (Rom. 6:23) and am convinced that there is only one answer to the world’s problems and questions: Jesus (John 14:6). I respectfully conclude that no "should" has been included: this is just my opinion.
please excuse the lack of hanging indents
Le Guin, Ursula K. "The Creatures of My Mind." Anderson, Slovic, and O'Grady, 81-83.
Leopold, Aldo. "Thinking like a Mountain." Anderson, Slovic, and O'Grady, 149-150.
Snyder, Gary. "from The Etiquette of Freedom." Anderson, Slovic, and O'Grady, 15-16.
Student's Life Application Bible. New Living Translation. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1997.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Solitude." Anderson, Slovic, and O'Grady, 48-53.
Williams, Terry Tempest. "The Erotic Landscape." Anderson, Slovic, and O'Grady, 28-30.
Wolfe, Tom. "O Rotten Gotham." Anderson, Slovic, and O'Grady, 54-61.
No comments:
Post a Comment