This first semester of Junior Theology: Faith, has taught me three key ideas that I would like to remember and incorporate throughout my life. One of the most important ideas that we covered in this first semester is the story of The Blind Men and the Elephant. I found this story to be very important because it explains why there are so many different views throughout the world such as religious views. There is one true God but the different religions find different ways to worship him and have different interpretations of who He was/is and who He was supposed to be. For example, many viewed Jesus, the Savior, as being a powerful king before He was sent down to Earth by God the Father. The story helped me to understand that while I am a Catholic, there is nothing wrong with how the other religions worship God because of their differing views from Catholicism.
Another key idea from this course that put a new perspective on my life is Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The man in the cave was freed from his life in bondage and allowed to enter into the light where he soon gained knowledge from the new world surrounding him. When he went to go back into the cave to share his new findings with the other people still trapped there, he was ridiculed by them. He wanted to show people the truth but the people "couldn't handle the truth" and laughed at him and ridiculed him. This is a good story to associate with my life because it shows me that I should try to "bring people into the light" and fill them with the truth, no matter what the consequences could be from telling them. Jesus is an example of this because He came down into the world to teach us about God and Heaven and the people ridiculed Him and eventually hung Him.
The final idea that I learned in this first semester of Junior Faith is the Right Speech Experiment. This experiment helped me to realize how many times during the day that I was lying by closely examining my words and reflecting on those at the end of the day. I guess I was so used to lying that I did not even notice how many times I was lying throughout the course of the day. Now, when I am having a conversation with somebody, I try to catch myself if I am about to lie to them and try to convince myself to tell them the truth, no matter how much I could get in trouble by from my parents. I have seen some progress in my speaking of the truth as I have gotten in trouble by my parents for telling them why I came home late one night or where I went the previous night that I should not have been at because they told me not to go.
