Thoughts on Taoism

Learning about Taoism over the past few weeks has really made me realize how unappealing of a lifestyle it would be to have in the long run. If you were to not really look into it but just glance at the surface of it, it would seem like the perfect way to live. Always peaceful and never being in a rush or stressed out, but if you thought about it for longer like we did in class, Taoism would realistically be a hard lifestyle to live. Nothing would ever get done and it would probably get tiring and confusing always trying to find the good in things. I like how in Christianity everything is either good or evil, where as in Taoism it doesn't seem to really matter because everything is inner mixed. The no stress and peacefulness of Taoism would be nice but I don't think anything would ever get done which would be harder for me because I  like to have things scheduled out.  Reading the Pooh book made it a lot easier to understand and now that I think about it I completely agree with the author that Pooh does live a Taoistic life like many Chinese people do. There were a lot of aspects I didn't agree with the Taoists on. One of them being the whole incarnation thing, as Christians we know once you die you do not come back to life where the Taoists believe all life forms come back to life in some way. Also, their outlook on how they leave the world once they die. We believe that we should tell others about Christ where Taoists seem to be more focused on living their lives right so they do not get demoted to another life form when they die. All in all, I do not agree with all aspects of the Taoistic ways but it does seem like it would be a fun simple lifestyle to live at times. 

Koran

Though there are many similarities between the Bible and the koran i found the koran a lot harder to understand and follow. I also feel like the Bible is much more reliable for many reasons, such as when it was written and because it jumps around less. The Bible also it isn't based off of one person we have to trust who had no witnesses, unlike Jesus who had witnesses when He was resurrected and throughout his whole life.

I thought studying the koran was very beneficial, I realized how good and helpful it is to know what other religions believe. This is partly so I can understand them better and also so I don't get sucked into their religion or other religions because they are able to put up a better fight defending their god. By studying the koran I have learned that I really need to be prepared to fight back and find the truth in Christianity so I am fully on board. I felt like this study was also good so I understand why other people believe what they do and so I understand them better. I feel like now even with just reading a small portion of the koran if I was to have a conversation with an Islamic person I would be able to find the faults in their religion and what they were saying and compare them to similar things in Christianity that seem more correct and concrete. All in all I feel like the past week's studies have been extremely helpful and eye opening.

Camelot

I thought the Camelot movie was fairly good even though it was a bit old. Mostly, I appreciated the actors performances, and liked how much they got into their parts and showed their emotions. Because of the actors performances and the settings I could easily see how life probably was back then. I think this  movie is so appealing to people because of the love and forgiveness the actors and actresses showed towards each other. Guenevere and Lancelot's story was one that basically everyone desires to have, the human races' general longing is to fall in love and live happily ever after. Also, the forgiveness that King Arthur showed towards Guenevere and Lancelot is a characteristic that many people want as well. Having the heart to forgive someone after they have betrayed you is very hard and King Arthur's actions seemed to impress people a lot. King Arthur in a way is like God, he has a big heart, is very kind, and also very forgiving. Guenevere and Lancelot are a lot like all people, they give into temptations and turn there back on God or in this case King Arthur. All in all, this is a fairly good movie, the story line was easy to follow, and it got the point across very well.