Alexandra Mann- Outside Reading
1.30.17

I have been reading through a book titled, Any Media Necessary. This book describes how the youth (teens and twenties) in America are getting involved in politics through social media outlets.

Let's rewind a couple of years. Do you remember KONY 2012? Everyone was sharing a video on Facebook. This video was made by a small non-profit, Invisible Children. Invisible Children had no idea how much publicity this video would receive, but it sky rocketed. Hundreds of thousands of the youth in America were watching a video about a warlord named Joseph Kony. He was the leader of the LRA and thousands of children were under his control. Cue Invisible Children. They simplified this very intense story into a few minute video clip. It was brilliant. People all around the world were sharing this video. A problem occurred. They began to receive lots of criticism. These criticisms were based off of the fact that the video was just being shared and there was no way to get involved and stop Kony. So, they had to create a way for followers of the movement to donate and get involved. Then, they made a full length documentary and held donor parties. Many celebrities made appearances, but in the end, they realized there was no real way to stop Kony through this movement.

You might ask,"What is the point of this story?"
The point is that when trying to create a social media movement, you must have content that is sustainable. There must be a tangible end goal. Facebook fame alone cannot change anything.

Alexandra Mann
1.30.17
Modernity v. Christianity

As I have been reading through From Nature to Creation, I have begun to understand the definition of modernity. Modernity refers to the absence of the authority of God, within nature. This is the idea that man can create and determine what nature should be used for with no regard to it being "God's creation". This view is very different than the Christian view of nature. According to Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (NIV). When God says “subdue it,” He is telling us to do what we want with it, as we are invited to partner with God. This is his invitation to us to take care of the land.  He gives us permission to use it for our benefit in regard to being fed.  This is not an invitation to destroy God's creation. 

Outside Reading - From Diversity to Pluralism

In another religious class I am taking, we read about pluralism and how it is "the engagement that creates a common society from... diversity" (Diana Eck).  During this class, we were on the topic of habitat and habitus.  Habitat is the place of dwelling and habitus is the way we dwell in a particular place/ how we live there.  I found this to be interesting because in a habitat with many people, everyone has to work together despite the diversity in order to grow with one another.  The interactions between people allow for a closer habitus and can determine if the environment is good.  This is just like the habitat of animals in a forest because they have to help one another and use each other to have a good place of dwelling in order to thrive in their ecosystem.  If some animals or humans aren't willing to cooperate then the habitat is faulty and could affect the other beings living there negatively.

My question for this post is this: How is our comfort related to the nature we're surrounded by?

For example... Virginians who go out West might feel strange because out there they do not have trees, so a Virginian may feel exposed.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, there is a difference between the untamed wilderness and the humanized garden. Landscape is as much a human construct as many other humanized things. In other words, LANDSCAPES are CULTURE before the are NATURE. .... as discussed in class, the natural world frames what we tell.
... On this note it interests me the close connection that landscape and nature have to a story. This sort of reminds me of my linguistic class that teaches us that language must have ORDER in order to be a language and communicate meaning. The meaning of COSMOS is order, so am starting to see more of a connection here.
Related to all of this is physics. Physics, or nature to Aristotle, is different than the nature of other philosophers... at least those from the Enlightenment era. How do you believe this physics applies to us today in our ecology and religious places?

Another quick note for this blog... I was absolutely fascinated by the idea of Helen Keller and her "wordless sensation". Again, since I am in a linguistics class I was particularly interested in what life would be like without the ability to use language. Simple knowledge of objects may have been helpful to her, but it was by no means language. This is clearly why she was so upset when she had no understanding when she was being communicated to by her teacher.
But afterwards.... She saw everything when she had language. This allowed her to feel compassion and emotion.

Perhaps this connection of language and emotion is similar to the ecological story... as we understand nature we will better have compassion for it.

Web of Ecology and how it affects Human Beings

Here's what I understand the sum of the class to be so far: Humans must embrace both our biotic and religious capacity in order to understand environment and ourselves. In addition to this, religious symbols are dependent on the environment, farthing this connection... a parallel relationship between the environment and religion is the ability for religion to communicate messages about the environment. I immediately think about the rhetoric around the desert as a dry wasteland in Biblical text. For a long time the desert was very hard to traverse and many strayed from it. In addition, we talked some about small movements that connect the community with the environment. Something like guerrilla gardening that encourages people to take on gardening for themselves.

I was entranced by the question that was brought up in class... "What is the place of human beings in the natural world?" Immediately I think about the philosophical terms of cosmos and chaos... how the wilderness may be seen as a chaos and the structured garden as a cosmos. But, which was the human made for? Perhaps both. I believe as we explore the "web of ecology" we will open up to the ideas that connect the human with the wilderness and teach us how to value ecology as a whole.

Love and Belonging Without Creation (from "From Nature to Creation")

Chapter 1 in From Nature to Creation made me reflect on a lot of things.  The views expressed did not necessarily challenge me because I am a Christian and already hold the beliefs it expresses in terms of creation and human beings being more than just an accidental perfect colliding and evolution of cells.  What it does get me thinking of is how atheists or people who do not believe in a creator can value the world.  Along with this are the earlier points in the chapter, such as the point of being lost.  We are lost in the world if we don’t know who we are or where we are.  Cut off from a creator, we are no longer creation, and we are not dwelling in a place that was created lovingly.  The fact that all life is sacred rests upon the fact that they had to be created with a purpose and with love.  If not, then we are all just causal accidents, and we owe nothing to anyone or anything.  The question that I begin to wonder here is how are there atheists or other people who do not believe in a creator or creation that say they value the natural world and value other people?  Why would any form of life mean anything to them if they are all just random things with no order or meaning?  I have met a number of people who are very nice and aren’t going around polluting the world and saying that its all trash even though they don’t believe in a god or value the world as creation.  What’s their motive? And if they can respect other creations, whether they realize or not that that is what we all are, then how are people who claim to be Christians and understand that we are creation from a loving creator disrespect the world as we too often do?

                On a final note, I like how emotions and love were talked about being inherent to the creation view.  The chapter says that “Love is finally silly because it is but the effluence of random chemical perturbations.” (Smith) Again, we probably all know atheists who love, but taking away the element of sanctity and creation seem to undermine any premise for love.  Not that everyone must be Christian and believe in love as we do, but I think that there needs to be some recognition of something beyond ourselves and a loving force in order for one to truly understand the concept of love.  

Introduction

Make sure to start the blog with your name and the subject of the entry in the post title area; just as I have done in this post. Blog entries will be considered informal writing assignments and as such will be graded more in relation to content than style. Blog entries will contain questions and answers to questions, as well as reflections that relate to daily classroom discussions, completion of exercises, and reading assignments. Any questions you have while reading or completing assignments should be written in your blog. Reflections may relate to connections that you make between discussions in this class and those in other classes, between arguments raised in the readings in this class and those raised in other classes or from informal conversations. You are encouraged to apply the ideas learned in this class to activities that take place outside of the class. These applications make great reflections. You should bring questions from the blog to class and ask those questions that were raised in specific blog entries. As those questions are addressed and answered in the classroom discussions, you should make note of the discussion and answers within subsequent blog entries. This class blog will reflect the quality of your daily classroom participation and completion of homework assignments and will be graded with this in mind. You may submit the blog for grading at several times during the course of the semester. The blog is not the same thing as a compilation of class lecture notes; it is the product of written personal reflection related to the class. A good journal will contain at least 15 entries.  5 of the entries must relate to assigned class books or journal articles. 5 of the entries must be reflections on outside readings, something not assigned as part of the class requirements.  Finally, 5 of the entries will be centered on a topic of the student’s choosing.