What I Really Learned
One of the most important things that I really learned this year is that no one really knows the truth. We are all in the cave. While we know that it is nearly impossible to find the full truth and make it out of the cave, which should be our goal in life. We need to try to get as close as we can to the light and there are man ways of getting there: knowledge, wisdom, ect. But this course has taught an alternative path to enlightenment that can get us a lot closer to the truth: Christianity. I learned that for me, following the teachings of Jesus has led me even closer to the truth than anything else has. And while it may not get me out of the cave it could get me closer to the light, and closer to finding the truth.
Another of the greatest things learned this year in Theology is the importance of right speech, or speaking the truth. I learned not to lie, but even more essentially, why it is so important to tell the truth. I used to lie all the time to my parents and I would get away with it most of the time. But sometimes I would get caught. And every time I got caught my parents would lose more and more trust in me. What I did not realize is that I could not have a very deep relationship with my parents if I could not tell them the truth, because the basis of any relationship is trust. And if I was lying to my parents a lot then there was very little trust on both sides. The reason parents are there is to help us make the right decisions so that we can learn from their mistakes. If I choose to lie to them, then I am essentially tearing down that positive, helpful foundation in my life. If I tell the truth to my parents then I will be more compelled to do the right thing so what I tell them will be good. Even if I do make a mistake or do something wrong, if I tell the truth, it will still be so much better than my parents finding out later from some other source. It will be better because even if my parents are upset with me, at least they still trust me. And I could never trade a lifelong relationship with my parents for escaping punishment a few times in high school.
The last and possibly the most important thing I learned because of this class is the idea that everything is connected. Our actions have consequences, and the way we act positively or negatively influences everything around us. I first came to realize this when we watched the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know” in class. But the more I applied this to things in my life, the more I realized that it is true for everything. It seems to me that we are all connected by our positive (good) and negative (evil) thoughts, words, and actions. Obviously the goal would be to create a positive influence on the world as apposed to a negative one. This might be a stretch, but when we learned about the Anthropic Principle in class, it made me think that maybe God created all of this positive energy, and it was this positive energy that compelled and helped the Earth along each step in its creation, the chances of which are extremely slim, that is, without some help. I think that with Original Sin, maybe humans created the negative energy and it grew in time. Now through our personal decisions, we have the choice to create a positive or a negative influence. And because everything is connected, like a chain reaction, positive energy can cause the creation of even more positive energy, which eventually, in a perfect world, would pass through all things. Unfortunately there is a lot of negative energy, which works in the same way. We have to learn to be stewards of goodness (positive energy) in the world, so we can convince others to act with goodness as well.