Freedom
Freedom seemed to be the running theme today.
In Philosophy we discussed the Philosophy of Freedom (which I must admit I got quite confused by more than once). The question is if we are determined, if we are free, or even if we can be both or neither. My thoughts on this would be that we do indeed have freedom (nah, I don't have extreme justification for this, yet it is a belief I strongly hold on to) and that I have no clue if we are determined or not (God knows, I don't, end of story).
Also in Fine Arts we talked about Voltaire and his concept that our "reason and conscience" should be enough to govern human behavior. We took this a step farther by trying to imagine what SBU would be like if all rules vanished and students were told just to follow their "reason and conscience" for 24 hours. Taking freedom to a whole new extreme. Yikes...the fiasco that would follow. We even touched on the point that as Christians we are indeed free and our actions are to be dictated by the love for God that we have, so wouldn't that be enough?
Then, this evening I watched "Gattaca." There are tons of themes that could be pulled from that movie, but the one stood out to me...the necessity of freedom in the human life. The main character is an "invalid" (or a genetically imperfect human) who tries to make it through the "valid" society he lives in by disguising himself as a genetically perfect human. His dream is to fly in space, but only the genetically superior humans are allowed to accomplish such feats. He struggles against "genoism" (discrimination based on genetic background) and strives to be free to live out his dream as impossible as it may seem.
Hmm...freedom. I believe we are meant to be free, specifically to be free in Christ.
Later!
P.S.-I'm getting to bed early tonight! :)
In Philosophy we discussed the Philosophy of Freedom (which I must admit I got quite confused by more than once). The question is if we are determined, if we are free, or even if we can be both or neither. My thoughts on this would be that we do indeed have freedom (nah, I don't have extreme justification for this, yet it is a belief I strongly hold on to) and that I have no clue if we are determined or not (God knows, I don't, end of story).
Also in Fine Arts we talked about Voltaire and his concept that our "reason and conscience" should be enough to govern human behavior. We took this a step farther by trying to imagine what SBU would be like if all rules vanished and students were told just to follow their "reason and conscience" for 24 hours. Taking freedom to a whole new extreme. Yikes...the fiasco that would follow. We even touched on the point that as Christians we are indeed free and our actions are to be dictated by the love for God that we have, so wouldn't that be enough?
Then, this evening I watched "Gattaca." There are tons of themes that could be pulled from that movie, but the one stood out to me...the necessity of freedom in the human life. The main character is an "invalid" (or a genetically imperfect human) who tries to make it through the "valid" society he lives in by disguising himself as a genetically perfect human. His dream is to fly in space, but only the genetically superior humans are allowed to accomplish such feats. He struggles against "genoism" (discrimination based on genetic background) and strives to be free to live out his dream as impossible as it may seem.
Hmm...freedom. I believe we are meant to be free, specifically to be free in Christ.
Later!
P.S.-I'm getting to bed early tonight! :)