Three things that I truly learned from this course were that we are all naturally in the cave, that we are constantly influenced subliminally by society with messages that counter religion a lot of the time, and that it is possible to be a man of science and faith because they are beginning to work together now.
The main thing I remember hearing all the time during class is the fact that we are all inside of the cave because we are human and that is one of the affects of original sin. I remember constantly being bombarded with this fact day in and day out and I did not really pay much attention to it at first, but then I began to think about this fact. I began to slowly realize how blind I truly was to a lot of things. I began to realize that I really do not know a lot about current events, people I see everyday, and most importantly, myself. It got me thinking that I really need to try to be as aware as possible and not be so worried about everything in my life and just let it happen. I should not be stressing over something on Monday that is not happening until Friday night with my friends. I just need to stop and look back every once in a while at where I have been and where I am about to go. I am not saying you should do this every waking moment because then you are not really living at all, you are just constantly thinking about the past and the future. Everyone just needs to take a step back every once in a while and just breathe a little. That is why I throughly enjoy going on retreats because they give you the time and ability to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and you are given time to sit and reflect. I love this a lot because I never get much time to slow down and reflect upon my own life. This is why I try to go on as many retreats as I can. One thing I picked up from all of the retreats that I have been on is to journal about my own life experiences. This way I can look back on them. Due to this fact, I began to keep a journal that I write in and every once in a while I pull out the beige book and read what I wrote. It really helps me see how much I have truly grown as a person of faith and as a person of integrity. It lets me know that I am slowly working my way to freedom, but the empty pages beyond remind me that I still have a long road to go in order to complete this journey called life.
One thing that truly struck me was how much society truly does try and transform us into being people who we are not supposed to be. This strikes me as being very peculiar because we are all humans and we all have the exact same basic needs at heart, so why do some people realize that we simply cannot fill the voids in our lives with material goods when other people lead perfectly happy lives when they have next to nothing. Society pushes the values which should make us overjoyed but in the wrong ways. They push it with shoe ads, perfume, clothing, food, and many other things which will not make us truly happy. We will be happy with these things for a short while, but we get tired of them and move onto the next thing that society is pushing onto us. The video that we watched that Fr. Kavanaugh made really struck me because I knew society tried to influence us into thinking a certain lifestyle was good or a certain thing was the cool thing to have right now, but I had no idea that it literally surrounded us constantly. To bombard us with the qualities in life in which every person desires is a little too much. People know that they strive throughout their lifetime for some of these qualities and now you can buy it for three easy payments of $19.95 instead. It is a little ridiculous but I have learned to just laugh and smile whenever I see these little ads because I know that I can get the real thing and have it last so much longer than that little bottle of perfume or that pair of shoes.
Before I took this course, I used to think that science and religion had an opposing view on everything. I used to believe that I had to eventually pick sides and I would end up being right or wrong in the end for picking the side that I did. Now I have grown to realize that science and religion do come together. They are beginning to integrate with each other and support each other at certain times also. I had the understanding of how the church and science were back in the renaissance era where there was a big line in which you did not cross between science and religion. Now, we have begun to understand how closely related they are to each other. They validate one another in their own unique ways. Some of the greatest scientists were members of the Society of Jesus. Some of the other great scientists were also Catholics who believed that their love of science and the discovery that it brings about really proves their own personal faith. It is their own way of validating their faith. This is how I am. I truly do believe that science and a belief in all of the laws involved in science points to nothing else but God. Things like the Golden Ration which is an astounding discovery, really helps me validate my faith in God because there is no possible way that all of these things in the world throughout time just coincidentally applied to this number. There hast to be something much bigger than all of us behind something like that. Things like gravity also help. The biggest one for me though is the process of life because it is astounding how two people can make life. Two simple people can create a new life who can influence and change the world with endless potential. That just amazes me so much. There just hast to be a God.
Those are the three major things that I learned this semester and they are surely things that I do not want to ever forget.