Star Wars

we have been watching star wars in class these past few days as a part of our science fiction unit. One of the ideas in star wars that ties in with our earlier discussions is the concept of faith. This is represented in Star Wars using the Force. Luke cannot fully master the force yet because he doesnt beleive in himself or the force strongly enough. His faith in his ability to levitate objects is weak at first, but grows stronger as his experiences grow. Once he has lifted a rock several times, he knows that he can lift rocks, and he has faith that he can use the force to lift rocks now. In contrast, when he tries to raise up his X-Wing, he cannot, not because he is unable to, but because he doesnt have faith that he can, becuase the X-Wing is so big. What really matters is his faith in his ability to move ANY object, not the size of the object. This is an interesting matter and it happens in our society. People with self-confidence seem more sure of themselves, which makes others more sure of them. People with diseases are given sugar pills and told they are cures, and they heal. Mothers lift up freakin CARS to save their babies because they dont have any time for self-doubt. Doubt is a crippling emotion, and it is one that needs to be eliminated from yourself. The overall moral of the story; If you dream it, you can do it.

Faith.

Faith is a loaded word. Faith is a driving force in many peoples lives. People live by faith, make decisions by faith, act on faith, die for faith, kill for faith. A loose definiton of faith is belief in something that cannot be proven. This could range from Faith in God to faith that your husband will pick up the dry-cleaning. Faith can be lost, gained, weakened, strengthened, given, earned, and analyzed. When most people think of faith, they think of religion. at least i do. But faith differs. Faith in god is different from faith in, say, that your us will be on time. Faith in God is different in that we have no clue at all if god and his related conventions are true. You may have faith in the bus because its been on time every day for the past 5 years. You may have faith that your husband or wife won't cheat on you because you know their character. You may even have faith that Tom Cruise is really a nice guy, because someone has experienced hm and told you this. We cannot have the same faith in God. Our faith in God comes solely from the widespread beliefs of him. We have faith in God because millions of people do. We cannot hear God, see God. We dont have past experience of heaven or hell. We dont even know anybody who does. There is no physical precedent of God's rewards and punishments. Religious faith in the afterlife and of a heavenly but unproven omnicient diety is a communal faith rather than a personal faith. Oh ye of little faith, thine vanity is Logic.

The star : revisited.

today in my english class we discussed some of the deeper themes in The Star. The most interesting of them by far is the conflict between science and faith. In the story, a space pilot discovers the star of bethleham., a star in a distant galaxy which went supernova and guided the three wise men to baby jesus. He found that this supernova had wiped out an entire race. The basic dilemna boils down to this, did god sacrifice those people to send a signal to the wise men? if not, and it was merely coincidence, then does god even exist? This brought up the question of science vs faith, since the narrator happens to be an astrophysicist as well as a jesuit. I beleive that faith and science can coexist without paradox or conflict. Maybe our idea of "faith" must be held loosely for this to happen, but this can and has been done. For example, many biblical events and happenings, such as miracles, cannot be sufficiently explained by science. Many scientific theories and evidence, such as evolutionism or the big bang, can flumux theologists. Science is merely the rules of the game, not the player. Maybe choosing things to happen and allowing them to happen following the rules of our world is what god is really about.

The star

in class today we read short story called "the star"

the story centers on an exploring band of austronaughts that discover a record of a doomed race on a planet whos sun went nova. The people of the planet, knowing of their impending doom, preserved pictures , videos, pamphlets, and records of their language and culture. The acceptance of such a fate tells of a severe maturity and advancement of such a race, whom, instead of panicking, go about to preserve themselves, knowing they woulkdnt be doscovered for millenia. I dont think we of earth could do that. i think murder, rape, and crime in general would drasticly increase and that everyone would just panic. This story says to me that we of earth, while being technilogically advanced, have not advanced culturally as we should.