Question B

Confucious said that there needed to be a balance between li, respect for ritual and custom and jen, good will and benevolence. He said that we can't just love each other and therefore all the problems disappear. The social stability can't be purely based on love. There needs to be some discipline and someone to lead us. If there is a leader then some people are bound to hate him/her because of the choices that leader must make for the good of the public. It is not possible to make everyone happy, someone is bound to disagree. Although the world would be a better place if everyone just loved each other. I suppose there would be no wars or fights and everyone would be happy because everyone was loved. Although this sounds nice, it can only be imagined because people are bound to hate. Not because they are bad people but because their strong opinions can result in hating those with different opinions. So civil and social stability cannot only be based on love. You need a leader as well and you need acceptance. People should accept other cultures and traditions. But overall I think that there cannot be a society based on love. Someone is bound to hate because of different opinions. There are so many people in the world with so many different opinions and cultures that it is impossible to agree with everyone on everything.

Blog Post 3: Eastern Wisdom

For this post, you may choose to respond to Question A or Question B below; make it clear in the title of your post what question you're responding to.

Question A: Is the kind of self-sacrifice is promoted by the Eastern religions and philosophies we’ve studied healthy? Is it wise to willingly give up our consciousness in search of a “higher” one?

OR

Question B: The Beatles sang that “All we need is love.” However, Confucious held that, even if it were possible, treating everyone lovingly would not create a harmonious social order. He posited that li, respect for ritual and custom, was an important and necessary counterforce to pure jen, or good will and benevolence. Do you agree that a civil and social stability cannot be based merely on being kind and loving to everyone? If not, what else is needed? Explain your answer.

POST DUE: Thursday, November 12 by start of class.

2 RESPONSES TO POSTS DUE: Monday, November 16 by the start of class.

NOTE: Remember to create your own post for your main response (your teacher modeled this in class). That way, people will be able to click on the word “comment” below your post to respond to what you said.

POSTING FOR QUESTION 2 HAS ENDED

SINCE GRADING FOR BLOG QUESTION 2 (CREATION MYTHS) HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE, PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY MORE REPONSES TO QUESTION 2 OR COMMENTS ON POSTS ON THE BLOG ITSELF.

IF YOU WANT LATE CREDIT, JUST TYPE UP YOUR POSTS AND RESPONSES TO POSTS, PRINT THIS OUT, AND TURN THEM IN DIRECTLY TO ME.

IF YOU POST THEM HERE A THIS POINT, I WILL NOT KNOW TO GIVE YOU LATE CREDIT.

THANKS,

Mr. B

creation story

It's hard for me to understand the navajos story coming from a catholic family. I'v been taught the book of Genesis when I was a kid so trying to understand this story is a little hard. Keeping an open mind, I thought this story is not true compared to the book of Genesis. I find the book of the Genesis more realistic due to the fact that it involved god bring people onto earth. "The Navajo fled, climbing through a hole in the sky to an above world," made the story seem false to me. I cant imagine people leaving earth through a hole in the sky. Everything seemed peaceful when the "first man filled the world." If this were true, it would have some effects in todays society. The book of Genesis involved the garden of Eve. Which showed the true nature of humans which makes me believe the story more easily.

Creation Stories

Its very difficult to believe the story of Genesis or the Navajo creation story. In both stories, many unbelievable things happen such as Adam and Eve talking to a snake or people living beneath the world. If I had to believe one then it would probably be the Genesis story because it has more plausible things in it. The Navajo story really doesn't make much sense.

Creation Stories

From a modern day perspective, I cannot see how either the Navajo creation story or the story of Genesis could be true. In both stories, there are many supernatural things that occur. In the Navajo story, the people are able to crawl through holes in the sky and people can create mountains and animals out of random things. In the story of Genesis, Adam and Eve have a conversation with a talking snake. These aspects of the story are very hard to believe because in the modern world, we know that no one can crawl through the sky and no one can talk to snakes. Because of this, both stories seem unbelievable. There is also no evidence to back up these stories, adding to its incredibility.
If I had to decide whether one was more believable, I would choose the story of Genesis. The characters in Genesis, Adam and Eve, originated on earth, not within the earth. Also, Adam and Eve learned about life, whereas the Navajo’s somehow just had that knowledge in their brain. The Navajo’s would flee from every world when it became too violent and overrun with lust and envy. However, when Adam and Eve were placed on Earth, they did not know what lust or envy or violence was, they had to learn first hand about it. For example, they learned about desire when the snake told them about the forbidden fruit and how they were not supposed to eat it. This makes Adam and Eve seem more like humans, therefore more believable to humans of today.

Creation Stories!!

I find it very difficult to believe that the Navajo story or the book of Genesis could possibly true. Science of today has provided completely different possibilities that are much more reasonable and realistic. However, I do believe that if you have to choose, the story told in the book of Genesis is more believable than the creation story told by the Navajo Native Americans.
Genesis answers more questions than does the Navajo creation story. The Navajo story doesn’t go into any detail as to where humans really came from. It simply tells us that we started out in worlds deep within the one we reside in today. But how did we get to that first world? Also it gives humans the power to create everything from mountains to colors and hours. If we had this power then, why do we not have it now? The book of Genesis answers these questions. It attributes all of these things to a greater power beyond all of us the put us on this earth along with everything else. This just seems so much more realistic than humans having the power to create everything at one point in time but not anymore.
The Navajo story also doesn’t really explain why humans stopped moving foreword in the cycle and stayed in this world. It says that the reason they always fled from the worlds was because lust and envy took hold and made people violent. No one can deny that lust and envy are very present in our world and people are violent. So why didn’t we continue to move on when lust and envy took hold of this world?
There are simply too many holes in the Navajo creation story for it to be very believable. Unlike the book of Genesis it leaves many questions unanswered.