Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Taoist Texts

After reading this article I learned how these texts can help deepen my understanding of Chinese history. In the article it talked about Taoism. Taoism is the only indigenous religion for China. For many people Taoism means to just go with the flow. Over the years this idea of going with the flow has changed for many people and by changed I mean that no one really follows it anymore. Historians have put together many ancient Chinese texts. The huge collection of these texts is called the Taoist canon. In ancient China, there was an emperor that ruled over everyone else. But the taoists weren't a fan of this, they thought that everyone be equal.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Is The World Actually Real?

After reading this article I will admit that it made me look at this whole world another way, but realistically I think that there isn't enough evidence to make this all seem true. Don't just look at what I think, You could have other opinions on this too. There are still other people who think this is a possibility. For example, the article states that there is a 50-50 chance our existence can be a program on someone else's hard drive. But isn't that taking things a little too far? In the article Randall admitted she did not quite understand why other scientists were even entertaining the notion that the universe is a simulation. In the article she also said, “I actually am very interested in why so many people think it’s an interesting question.” And I agree with what she thinks. Overall I think that maybe someone can prove this if there are more things happen and more facts but as of right now there aren't any factual evidence that 100% prove all of this. So yes I think the world is real. 

Friday, October 7, 2016

Comparing Another Story To Job

The story of Job has many similarities to this story about the Holocaust. I noticed a question that can relate to both of the stories and that's why do bad things happen to good people? Most of the Jews did everything right and they still got punsished. Except this time he wasn't really testing anyone's loyalty or faith God  just killed millions of completely innocent people. God also has a way of making everything violent. He makes it seem like violence is always the answer and it's starting to become a pattern throughout both of these stories. Another similarity in both stories is that in Job and in Mr. Menachem Daum both question everything God has done. For example, in the article the mother said, "if God did so many miracles during biblical times, then why hadn’t she seen any such miracles during the Holocaust?" Also in the story of Job, Job says, “Why is light [or life] given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures; who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?”


Thursday, October 6, 2016

Part I of Job

The story of Job has a connection to almost everything we already talked about in the Old Testement. In almost every story I noticed that it all goes back to one thing and that's God's characterization and who God really is and what he does to people. In the story of Job God is testing Job and his loyalty like other stories we have read. The same question came into my head from the past stories we read before. So what does this say about God? Why would he need to test people if he's known for knowing everything. For example in the story Adm and Eve he put a tree in the middle and just told them not to touch it but why though, what was the point of that tree. And if God really knows everything he would've known they would touch the tree so why did he want to set innocent people up for failure. Another story that relates to this is the story of Abraham. If God happens to know everything why did he need to make Abraham go through what he went through just to see what he already knew was true. Another similarity I noticed throughout all the stories is that God is demanding. I noticed he doesn't ask anything he just does it. If he needs something done he gets it done and always finds someone to do it. At the end of the day God is one bipolar man. He either treats you well and gives you what you deserve or becomes completely unpredictable and tries to make your life a lot harder. 

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

A Different Side of Noah's Ark

This article about Noah's Ark was different than the story. This is because in the article it said some facts and had more evidence about the Ark. In the article it was more specific and it was more about the ark than the actual story. However in the story of Noah's Ark it talked more about Noah and what he did with the ark and general information about the ark. Even though there were differences between this article and the stories we read in class about Noah's Ark I also found some similarities between them. In the article and in the story that we read god was giving the instructions to build the Ark step by step and specific. For example, in the article it says, " The God who told Atra-hasis to build this boat gave him precise directions," Finkel said.


Friday, September 30, 2016

The Beginning of 4 Years

There have been so many things that have already happened in high school. The worst thing about high school so far is the amount of work I have. It's a big step from middle school to high school. It has been hard but I get through it. Even though that's a bad part there are so many more positives. I already had so much fun this year. It's the one year that I actually started enjoying school. There is so much more freedom that makes everything so much better. Like you can leave for lunch, you can have free periods and you can do a lot. I think that so far high school has been pretty good but sometimes the work isn't that great. Overall I had a good first month of high school and I'm excited to finish this year and get through the next 3 years. 

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

God's Characterization


In the story of Genesis, God’s character was a lot different than I thought it would be. Growing up I always thought of God as a forgiving and kind man but in the story Genesis it made me look at God differently. While reading the story I realized how commanding God can be. He just commanded people to do things and expected everyone to follow his wishes. God shouldn't have expected everyone to be perfect and for everyone to be exactly who he needs them to be because he made the people who live on Earth today and he made everyone different so he shouldn't expect everyone to do everything the same. After doing this project I learned that there are many different ways people see God. I also learned that everyone is different in their own way and everyone believes what they think is right and no one should take that away. After reading Genesis 6-9, my views on God has changed a bit and it started getting me thinking about who God really is and what he can really do.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

I Blame...

I blame God for the eviction of Eden. Why? Because why would he put a tree in the middle of the garden and tell a woman and a man specifically not to touch it. What's the point of that? I don't think it was fair for the woman (Eve) and the man (Adam) because they were so tempted to just see what the big deal was about the tree. For example, in section 3 the woman saw the fruit on the tree and saw it looked good so she probably thought it looks good, so why not eat it. I understand why some people say it was the woman's (Eve) fault for getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden but you can't blame a person for wanting to try something. If someone puts something in front of you and says not to touch it. You want to touch it. You want to see what that thing is and what it does. Well that's like the tree. Also if the tree is such a big deal and he doesn't want anyone to touch it or take the fruit or do anything to that tree, why should it even be out there in the garden in the first place? Its God's fault for making Eve and Adam so tempted. And in the end it was God who was the one who set them up for their misery.

Comparing Both Flood Stories


Salinan Flood Story 
A difference between the story of the Salinan  flood and the story of the Sumerian flood was that in the Salinan flood a women had a basket that carried the sea and in the Sumerian flood story a God sent a flood. Even though a similarity in both stories was that both the floods were made out of hate, they both had different reasons. In the Salinan flood story the old women with the basket was jealous of the eagle so she decided to flood the land. But in the Sumerian flood story, the gods were angry at mankind so they decided to flood the land as well. Also in both of the stories there was a dove. In both stories the dove had done a similar thing, and that was to find land. In the Salinan story the dove made the world from what it had found which was mud. In the Sumerian story the dove had found land too. At the end of both stories, the people like the gods and the old women who landed on flooding land didn't work out at the end. Another difference in the story was that at the end of the Sumerian flood story the gods and mankind made up so that there wouldn't be anymore floods. Making a pledge to mankind wasn't exactly what the plan the gods were going for but at least everyone was ok at the end. In the Salinan story, the old women ended up dying so nothing good came out of what she did.

Source:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html


Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Pilot

My name is Noah Amar and I'm 14 years old. The only reason I'm doing this blog is for my Freshmen Humanities class. I'm not a really big writer so I'm probably not going to be writing a lot. I'm also not a big reader and I don't like reading big paragraphs so I'll try to keep it on the shorter side but also reach the minimum I need to reach for my projects. If you like shorter paragraphs and reading less, your welcome. English isn't really my best subject im better at Math and Spanish than English so I don't really know how well I'm going to be doing in this class with this blog. I think this is something good to try out to see if maybe I like it because I would probably never do this if it wasn't for this English class but it's really different so I'm excited to try it.