1. The main idea we focused on in class this week was human condition, and that is the situation in which every human person, regardless of time period, sex, or race, experiences in the course of their life. Some key parts we studied in order to understand this condition were Buddha's First Noble Truth that life is suffering, Fromm's theory that man's deepest need is to overcome their separatedness and aloneness they have throughout their life, and Marcus Aurelius' belief that a man's life is ultimaltely wholey insignificant. As Christians we believe that the reason for why our life is mainly suffering is because of Original Sin and its three effects of concupiscence, a wounded intellect, and the human physical death. Another reason our lives aren't good all the time is because of the evil that exists in our world. Even though God is all powerful and only wants good, there is still evil because He gave us the gift of good will and we basically created evil, I think. Finally, the last part of our condition is that humans spend their whole lives trying to find true happiness and overcome our loneliness by using our gift of reason and our faith.
2 A.) First I'd like to remember Fromm's theory of humans' need to overcome their separatedness and to not be alone because it offers a great explanation to the questions i had earlier of why people have such a desire for company and hate being alone.
2 B.) Second, the word and meaning behind concupiscence because that taught me why others and myself sin even when we know its wrong.
2 C.)Third, Marcus Aurelius pointing out that no matter how great you live your life, you will die and most of us will not be remembered, even by our ancestors eventually.
5.) I think I should always keep the Five Foundational Lessons in mind whenever I am going somewhere where I will have to make decisions that could really affect me like at parties. Also, I think I should start to use my reason more in all aspects my life and just become more accepting of the fact and be more aware of my human condition that my life is going to be full of suffering. Hopefully, acknowledgment of the problem will make it easier to overcome.