Taoism

I have learned alot about Taoism as we have been studying it. If you just looked at Taoism not really studying it, it would seem like a lifestyle that would be fun to live. Not having to worry about anything, always being calm and never having to deal with stress, and always finding good in evil. But if you study it like we have over this week you realize that Taoism would eventually be hard to deal with. You can't always be calm. Stress is apart of life and everyone experiences it sometime. Also in Christianity we don't always find good in evil like they do in Taoism. As Christians we do not believe in incarnation. We belive that once you die, if you believe in God, you go to heaven. Unlike Taoism that believes you can come back after death in some way. We believe that we are saved by God unlike Taoism which is not a salvific practice. In Taoism there is nothing that one needs to be saved from, and belief in salvation would lead to belief in damnation in the same manner as belief in good leads to belief in evil. Also as Christians our goal is to strenghthen our relationship with God and share his word with others unlike Taoism where each belivers goal is to harmonize themselves with the Tao. Reading the book about Pooh really opened my eyes to Taoism. We do not live in the hundred acre woods and we have bigger problems then how many jars of honey are in the cupboard or how to make Eeyore's house stay up. Although i think Taoism is very interesting, i find it very unrealistic.

Koran.

I found the Koran very difficult to follow and understand. Although there are many similarites in the Koran and the Bible the Koran jumped around alot more then the bible does which made it very confusing. Therefore i find the bible a much more reliable source then the Koran. I find the bible much more reliable because Jesus had witnesses unlike the Koran which is bases around Allah who did not have witnesses. Studing this small portion of the Koran helped me understand the Muslim culture alot better. While reading the Koran i learned that Muslims view anyone who is not a beliver of Allah as stupid. Muslims do not like outsiders especially Christians. Also something that caught my eye is that woman are on a much lower level then men. They woman do not have the freedom of speech, their husbands tell them what they can and cannot do. Today in the Christian society although woman are not exactly equal with men, they are pretty close. I learned that instead of judging someones religious beliefs right away because i view it as wrong, i need to understand why they belive what they do. While i was reading the Koran it helped me understand why the Muslims believe what they do and although i do not agree with it i now know the background of their religion and how it differs from ours instead of just saying its wrong. I think this week was very benifical and opened my eyes a ton.

Camelot

I liked the fact that this movie wasnt portrayed as a fairytale where as other movies with kings, knights, queens ect. are usually protrayed as fairtales. For example Guinevere is struggling with who to love. She loves King Arthur but she also loves Sir Lancelot, which makes the movie more realistic. The christian significance i saw in this movie was that everyone sins no matter who they are and that everyone makes mistakes. This shows through the characters actions in the movie. Since we have not seen the ending of the movie i do not know the outcome but i think that forgiveness will be shown towards the end of the movie. Some universal archetypes in this movie that i saw were the maiden, wise old man and sidekick. Guinevere is the maiden in distress because she does not want to marry King Arthur but then suprisingly runs into him in the forest and falls in love with him. Merlin in the wise old man who gives King Arthur advise. The sidekick would be Sir Lancelot. Sir Lancelot becomes King Arthurs new friend and helps King Arthur set up the round table. I found the movie Camelot very interesting. I am not used to watching musical movies and i probably would not have watched this movie on my own. In a way it reminded me of High School Musical because they would sing about how they felt. But in a way i think that this movie had too much singing and would have been better if they cut down on the singing alittle bit.