from Sociology Chapter 9 - Children and Parents

Q: What do Wilcox and Bartkowski mean when they say that there is a “conservative family paradox?” Be clear about how the realities of family life differ from the rhetoric about family life.

Wilcox and Bartkowski submit that Christians claim to support a conservative family (where the husband is the one in authority) when in all actuality both spouses are equal and interact like other “normal” American couples. They act like this is a huge revelation, that Christians are progressive while claiming not to be, but I think that it is all a case of mislabeling. Paul wrote in the Bible that men and women are equal, and Jesus had male and female disciples (there just weren’t any females among the top “twelve” who led the rest of the disciples). The way men and women interact didn’t stay this way, but to say that conservative Christian values are backward or abusive is just wrong, because one of the main leaders in the Christian movement when it was starting supported equality nearly two thousand years ago. It would be more accurate to say that Americans are following traditional Christian values today (which were very much against the societal norm when the New Testament was being written!) than to say they aren’t being conservative now. From a Christian viewpoint, the man does have the final say, but the woman’s opinion matters to him, and (like in our book) their authority is reciprocal and reinforcing each others’, while both individuals’ opinions and decisions are meant to be in submission to the authority of Jesus. To say that headship can be in existence without servant-leadership is ludicrous, because it was Jesus who is the head, He is God, He is King of all, but he submitted Himself to become a man and allowed Himself to be led to His death. To be a good leader one must sacrifice of himself (or herself), there is no more beautiful expression of love than that.

ok, i am utterly confused

Wade through this if you can, but i will summarize for you. Creationist interviewing people to find out their opinion is wrong? Okay, i will admit that this video has no scientific merit whatsoever, and that they are apparently skewing the truth and evidence. But I haven't been able to study the research of this video's creator, either. The thing that most confuses me is: "abiogenesis is not evolution." What??? First off, what is Abiogenesis?

"The now discredited theory that living organisms can arise spontaneously from inanimate matter; spontaneous generation." (courtesy of Dictionary.com)

"In the natural sciences, abiogenesis, the question of the origin of life, is the study of how life on Earth might have emerged from non-life." (from Wikipedia)

"Classical notions of abiogenesis, now more precisely known as spontaneous generation, held that complex, living organisms are generated by decaying organic substances, e.g. that mice spontaneously appear in stored grain or maggots spontaneously appear in meat." (from Wikipedia)

Okay, so i guess that we can all agree that the classical notion (now termed spontaneous generation) has been disproved... But how is that not evolution? Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the theory of how evolution began that 1. the universe was created by a big explosion of energy and matter that came from absolutely nowhere, and 2. billions of years later, single cell life just happened to have been created out of nothing? That was what i recall my high school biology textbook said, at any rate. More than that, the book said that it happened on its own.

Now, maybe some scientists are making organic matter from inorganic compounds in a laboratory, i don't really care, because you know what the proves? It proves that evolution would have to be guided by intelligence, not that it can happen on its own in a vacuum devoid of God.

Sociology again... /sigh

i hate my sociology book. i like the subject well enough, it's what draws me in a large part to science fiction, and is why i enjoy Heinlein (as well as because of his political themes). But unfortunately this book reads like a poorly written college report that has exploded into epic proportions of dullness.

Still, i can't help but think about what the content is saying to me as a writer and individual. i am not blind to the fact that the way i believe and choose to live is not the way that most people do now. Last week the chapter was on sexuality, this week it's cohabitation and marriage (as well as dating), and it just suddenly struck me... life is so hard. It has been and it continues to be. Our entire culture is focused on finding a companion to share one's life with, maybe have kids with, most movies, songs, books, feature this aspect of relationships and romance, maybe even inadvertently! It's always there, we can't stop it, it's part of us. Part of me wonders why people mess with relationships and babies when things are so messed up, but i think that we do it because they are messed up. i honestly don't think we can help ourselves, it's the way we are wired. Even God Himself pointed out that it is not good for man to be alone (when you think about it, He was saying that even He is not enough) and commanded us to be fruitful and multiply. i wonder if people realize during their dating and cohabitation and wild search for the love of their life that they are obeying God! Even if they are not following His definition of the proper way to go about finding a spouse, they are following His directive. It's kind of ironic.

Someday, i will have one of these...

i just stumbled upon this blog which features a stair case that is also a bookcase. What a dream come true, a way to conserve space that is so functional for the bookworm in me. Everyone has got to visit said blog and check out the pictures.

Incidentally, i accidentally rejected a comment today in which someone stated HAPPY ANNIVERSARY (the stinking links are right next to each other and there are little ones bouncing on me). Thanks for the comment, but i couldn't undo the rejection, lol.

On Fire / Dark Fire / Chronicles' Fifth Birthday

this blog is five years old!

It's hard to believe that i have been blogging (off and on) for five years. My life has come really far and yet not very far at all. Right now i'm in the process of trying to figure out what i want to do with my life... Do i want to continue going to college? Settle for a career? Give up on love, marriage, children (any or all)? Pursue my writing full-time? i'm still working through the answers but i've decided not to attend film school. i need to figure out how to support myself and pay off my debts. There are so many questions but so few answers. Like i said, i've come so far, and yet not at all.