One Paragraph Summary
     In this chapter, we discussed the most common challenges ot faith in society today.  Those 
challenges are atheism, science, and dehumanization.  In the section about atheism, we discussed 
Nietszche's, Hobbes', and Ignatius's views on morality, the meaning of life, and religion.  Nietzche 
believed in relative morality and the desire of people to aquire things that appeal to their emotions.  
Nietzsche also said that people desire power and that occasionally there is a "Superman" that has an 
awesome will to power and his morality wins over everyone elses.  Hobbes was a materialit who beieved 
that there was nothing beyond the physical world and that people will always act with their animal 
instinct.  Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order, said that we should use the objects on the planet to 
help us attain our end, but, aside from that, we should be indifferent to all created things.  In the 
section about scientism, we discussed how science is often used again Faith by saying it isn't 
neccessary.  We said that, although science is neccessary in life, it should not be used in replacement of 
Faith and should instead be used with Faith to gain a greater understanding.  We also stated some 
limitations of the scientific method, which are it presupposes the uniformity of nature, it emphasizes 
empirical knowledge, it doesn't give certitude, and its solves the how and not the why.  At the end, we 
duscussed the dehumanization of popular culture and how society attempts to replace the natural 
things in life with its products by convincing us that they can bring us happiness, love, hope, etc.

3 Important Ideas

     I think that the group project at the beginning of this chapter was very importat to my 
understanding of the challenges to my faith.  We were able to discus together and come up with our 
own ideas instead of our book telling us what everyone else says are the challenges to faith.  I was 
lucky enough to get a very good group for this project that really discussed the applications of these 
challenges on our daily lives.  

     Another important part of this section was the video "The Merchants of Cool".  It helped me to see 
how much that society is formed by the corporations and popular groups around us.  It showed that, 
even though it may seem like there isn't someone higher up controlling society, there often is.  This 
made me look at my own life and see where I am affected by society and how much it controls the ways 
that I think.  After this movie, there were many people in our class who said that they are controlled by 
what society said.  Even though everyone agreed on this,  I began to notice that many of them just 
weren't noticing the subtle influences of society that are all around us.  They said they didn't do what 
the movie said, and then began doign some of those things almost immediately after they left the 
classroom.

     Although it wasn't directly from the book, the discussion about scientism lead me to think about 
how science really does prove the existence of God.  I started to see how much unity was shown 
throughout society by the findings of many scientists throughout the ages.  People try to say that if we 
can see all these things through science, how can you be sure that any of it was even created by some 
sort of spiritual being.  I think that all the equations and phenominons show that there must be a God 
instead of denying Its existence.  There is an unbelievably slim chance that all these things would work 
out so perfectly through all of chemistry and physics without someone intending it to be that way.  And 
so, therefore, I think God must exist.

Greatest challenge to faith

     I think my greatest challenge to faith is doubt.  With conflicting ideas between religion, society, 
family, and friends I begin to doubt those that I thought I agreed with.  I don't know which friends to 
put faith in because I don't know if I can trust them or if they'll harm me in some way.