The Most Difficult Part Of Any Story

I’m bound into a vicious cycle of obscurity so deep that the choice was luminous. I seem less than myself, but at the same time, I can feel relaxed- even self-righteous, believing that I, a mere mortal, am immanent within this existing plane… And, I ask, Why must we face reality and not become lost in the gray abyss of our mind when it returns to the dawn of darkness from whence it came? Truly, it is comforting there…

During his opening statement, one point that Hitchens brought up was the questioning of which god is the right one. He states, "HL Mencken lists the easiest to name three thousand gods that used to be worshipped and that no longer held to exist by anybody...he doesn't just know Dr. Turek that there is a God, he knows which one is the right one from a potentially infinite list." Another point that Hitchens brought up in his opening statement was if there is something that humans cannot understand, it is usually described as a work of God. He refers to this as our vocabulary still being in infancy. In his argument Hitchens addresses the concept of fine tuning and intelligent design. "Meanwhile look in the sky at night, and you can see the Andromeda galaxy headed straight for ours on a direct collision course. Who designed that?" Hitchens argues that if there is a God who designed the universe, why would He want to destroy the life He created. At the end of his opening statement Hitchens states, "It is a horrible idea that there is somebody who owns us, who makes us, who supervises us waking and sleeping, who knows our thoughts, who can convict us of thought crime...who can judge us while we sleep for things that might occur to us in our dreams, who can create us sick as apparently we are, and then order us on pain of eternal torture to be well again...is to wish to live as an abject slave."

A Universe Charged with The Grandeur of God (Christian Theism): Sire begins chapter one discussing

In the first discourse we learn about the excellence and singularity of the sacred mystery of the incarnation. The author states that the most important lesson that we are taught in the school of wisdom and salvation it the hole mystery of Incarnation. This mystery is so powerful that it exceeds even the highest thought of men

A person can also have a friendly debate without getting personal. When we are talking to people in alternate filter bubbles, we regularly respond through our emotions and start to make personal attacks. Harassing the other person would be considered a personal attack. The best way to have a friendly debate is to stay calm and listen to the other person’s argument. (Brenner) To understand the other person’s argument, you should carefully listen to him or her. Stephan Covey once said, “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” While it is true that friends are supposed to share a common interest, we must understand that friends will not agree on everything. When we are communicating with friends, we should be very considerate of the other person’s viewpoint. One way this step is described in my life is when my friends wanted to go to the club, but I did not. We discussed the pros and cons of being present in that type of environment; however, my friends convinced me into experiencing new things. If we just listen to the other person’s point of view, it could possibly alter our way of

Communication is vital in today's society. Language and culture are referred to regularly on a day to day basis. America is the melting pot of the world and being able to recognize the significance cross-cultural dialogue is imperative to our growth as a civilization and in world diplomacy. "Learning a language without the cultural framework in which it exists is like cooking ethnic food without the spices of the region. You simply will remove all of the flavor from the language" (The Importance of Culture Language). When comparing mankind's encounter with another species to the personal interactions of different ethnicities and cultures shows how easily discussions can be misinterpreted, potentially leading to hostile

Throughout Collins’s book he goes through many topics that have been a barrier between science and religion for a long time. I agree with many of Collins’s viewpoints when stuck in-between science and religion. This includes his view on the origins of the universe.

“Particular form of consciousness, out of which arise types of experience, akin to, but not to be confused or equated with, those labeled ‘religious’, and which results in a special sort of spirituality, giving that word a wide connotation, and predisposition to interrogate and interpret the universe in particular way. Further, I have regarded it as a tenable hypothesis that this ‘mystical consciousness’ is, of its nature, in some way a development and extension of rational consciousness, resulting in an enlargement and refining of perception, and consequently having a noetic quality, so that through it knowledge of the ‘real’ is gained which could not be gained through rational

The metaphysical world is not something to simply be dabbled with. It is not a path whose beginning should be inspired by something frivolous, plastic, or shallow. To some, it may seem enticing enough to simply use for whatever gain they wish to achieve and then throw it away. To others, it may be an opportunity to show off and prove that they are vastly superior to their peers. However, everything comes at a price, even if that price is not currently visible, realized, or paid. Highly unpleasant consequences will always propagate along the path of life as a result of metaphysics being used for purposes of feeding the insatiable adversary of spiritual growth—the

This indicates that there is a separation between the spiritual and material nature of mankind. According to the author it appears that a person is not able to have both.

It is the differentiation of people, which often attracts them to one another; however, without the proper tools and understanding of communication theory, distrust and bigotry will occur. There can be drawbacks to this intermingling; in fact, it can often be difficult for those who experience a language barrier or cultural disparities to communicate effectively (Wood, 2015). Learning to embrace differences between individuals can create lasting beneficial relationships. Furthermore, Tome (2014) stated “the most central feature of human interaction is that it requires mutual adaptation. A simple conversation cannot be carried on unless communicators use language that is understandable by both, take turns speaking, and use similar rates of

Beyond Opinion is challenging literature that pushes the reader intellectually. The book consists of writings from many world renowned scholars including Alister McGrath, John Lennox, Alison Thomas, Joe Boot, Sam Soloman, L.T. Jeyachandran, and more. In a chapter by John Lennox he spends time describing the challenges science gives Christianity. In the chapter he starts by talking about the term “Intelligent Design”. “Intelligent Design” is the hypothesis that the universe bears evidence of intelligent origin. The exposure to this idea provides the reader a window used to foreshadow what is to come in this chapter. Additionally, the book Beyond Opinion forces the reader to

We live in a world of people with different cultures, beliefs, and routines. In order for all these to co-exist we have something called being civil. Civility is a huge concept in the world of interaction.

Finke and Stark begin by explaining how religion was initially viewed as an “epiphenomenon” (Finke/Stark 96). In their words, it was thought of as “an elaborate reflection of more basic realities” (96). The pair reference early Berger’s imagery to explain how the “sacred canopy” notion meant that religious thought was viewed with “unquestioned authority and plausibility” (97).

ABSTRACT: Curiously, in the late twentieth century, even agnostic cosmologists like Stephen Hawking—who is often compared with Einstein—pose metascientific questions concerning a Creator and the cosmos, which science per se is unable to answer. Modern science of the brain, e.g. Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind (1994), is only beginning to explore the relationship between the brain and the mind-the physiological and the epistemic. Galileo thought that God's two books-Nature and the Word-cannot be in conflict, since both have a common author: God. This entails, inter alia, that science and faith are to two roads to the Creator-God. David Granby recalls that once upon a time,