Oh, Hell No

Hell. What is Hell? Hell is a place for the bad people of the world right? Well not exactly. In the first book of The Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno, Hell is described as a place not for just bad people, but also for people who don’t believe in God or Jesus. But how was Hell important to the martyr’s?

Well, when compared to Heaven, Hell is just sucky. The martyrs were martyrs because they knew they would reach Heaven. They could only go through their trials and tortures because of this promise. Hell acted as a thing you didn’t want, so the martyrs stayed true to their beliefs. This fear of Hell and of God’s wrath made the martyrs stay true to their goals. Heaven is supposedly only for people who serve God, so they did just that.
But, on the topic of Hell again. This is one reason why I am not a huge fan of Christianity. They want you to worship and praise God all the time, be a true follower of Christ. This will get you into Heaven no doubt. But even if you live the most perfect and amazing life as possible, without being Christian, you will go to Hell. This is a large problem, but it does promote the idea that fear is a driving force for being Christian. But what about the good people, the really good ones, who aren’t religious in any way?
They still go to Hell! It’s a pretty bad set up, no matter how you look at it. Of course when a Christian talks about this, it makes it seem like they are saying “I am Christian, I am good, I will go to Heaven. You are not Christian so you are evil, sinful and greedy. You will go to Hell.” This, in my opinion, is a big problem. Yes, the bad people, the murderers, the immoral, they deserve to burn for their actions.
But what about that nice, non-Christian man across the street with a smile on his face, handing money out because that’s how nice he is? Well, he isn’t Christian, guess he deserves to burn as well. This whole problem is why Hell is so important to the martyrs. They didn’t want to sacrifice themselves for being good and go to Hell, so they praised their God. They served him with their flesh and souls and willingly were tortured and hurt to become martyrs and gain God’s favor. It’s an inspiring story, but the rules between Heaven and Hell are still messed up.

What do you believe? With all the different view points in the world, you have undoubtedly created your own view of things. My personally, I don’t believe in a Hell or really a Heaven. Just an ascended dimension you go to when you have reached true enlightenment. I know this is an unpopular opinion and view of things and you Christians out there probably think that I am gonna burn in Hell but I don’t care much. That’s your belief on life. This is mine.
I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a good day.

Cru-cedes

The Crusades. A series of mostly failing attempts that seemed unprovoked, random and fueled by greed.
Well sorry to burst any bubble you thought you had about how evil these were. Sure they weren’t nice but they weren’t fueled by greed, random or unprovoked. So what were The Crusades really?

The Crusades were a series of attempts to reclaim Holy Land from the Muslims, not attempts to convert them. Muslims don’t even remember the Crusades and if you asked one about them back during those Dark Ages, they would have no idea what in the heck you are even talking about. These Crusades weren’t fueled by hatred, a want to convert or greed either. It was simply the Church wanting to reclaim its lands.
So like, if you dislike the Church and stuff because of the Crusades, actually do some research to see what those Crusades were all about. They weren’t pretty, but they were not as horrible as we all were led to believe. Another big misconception is that the Crusades cause modern-day terrorism. This is false. In the 600’s, the Middle East was primarily Christian, but by the 700’s it was mostly Muslim. This change was not peaceful as it was done by the Muslims trying to take over five of the seven Holy See’s.
Now, the Crusaders definitely didn’t want fame or riches, as the fatality rate was between 33% and 75%. In WWII the American fatality rate was between 6.5% and 11%. That puts things in perspective doesn’t it? Further more, the Crusaders that survived through some miracle, mostly went bankrupt. They knew they weren’t going to rule over the lands they reclaimed. They volunteered for the Crusades because they had faith and trust in their God.

Through time, things change. Stories get twisted and they double back on themselves, creating an incorrect and poisonous view of major historical events. This can greatly effect the modern day person’s view of things, which is understandable. Sometimes though, you have to go deeper and actually look up what you believe to make sure it is true. Because chances are, it isn’t. And that’s not your fault, but the fault of the people who are supposed to be reliable and give you good information.
Sometimes, faith doesn’t get you glory. Actually, it usually allows the world to forget you or they start to resent you. The Crusaders were fighting for their faith and we condemn them for it, even without all the information. We blame our current and future problems on any past event we can, in order to make the real culprits seem like victims. The Muslims during the Crusades were not the ones being oppressed, sure the Crusaders may have killed a few but the Dark Ages were a horrible and bloody time to live in. Muslims would deal as much, if not even more damage, to the Christians in that time then what the Christians would be doing to them.
I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a nice day.

Paul and Justin

There were many beliefs about God, his sovereignty and basically Christianity in general. Many people depicted things in different ways, but the two ways we remember most (and mixed together in some cases) were was Paul believed and what Justin believed.

But who was Justin? Justin was the author of The First Apology and he believed that God did not hold total sovereignty over humanity. This goes right into our topic Paul vs Justin.
We will start with Paul. Paul believed that God was 100% sovereign over man. He believed that God created us all for a single purpose and path, and that he knew everything we did and all of that. This means that good people were supposed to be good and that bad people were supposed to be bad and that’s that. Paul used the Old Testament and ideas of prophecy to prove his idea in any way he could.
Justin combated this with the idea that God is not 100% sovereign over man. Why would he say this? Well let me tell you gosh. He said that God gave us free will and doesn’t quite know what we will do with this power. This allows humans to be evil and be punished, as Justin believed that if you are created for good or evil means specifically, then you should not be praised or condemned because that’s just how you were made. This also brings forth the question of “can you be good if you’re evil?” As in Paul’s view the answer to that would basically be “No,” as the evil were created to be evil.

Now in present day Christianity, you have the belief that God knows all and he has set paths for us, but he gives us the choice to follow the path and in turn, Him. This makes the most sense as it depicts God as the timeless God we all know, yet it also explains free will and the ability for humanity to change it’s ways. Paul’s view seemed right at the time, but the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. The same goes for Justin’s as it could imply a God who is not totally timeless, as he does not know what will happen with his creations, us. Humans. So the question is, what do you believe is true? Do you think God made the evil to be evil ultimately, and that they can never change? Do you believe that God does not know our future but hopes for the best? Or do you believe that God gave us free will and has a path for us, but want’s us to take the responsibility to find it and eventually, follow it?

I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a nice day.

Those Things

History is full of religious things, from the beginning of religion to the end and all the stuff in between. Well, the 11th century was a time of the in between. That was the beginning of the Great Schism, a separation between the Eastern and Western versions of Christianity.

This Schism was caused due to minor differences between East and West Christianity in England. The West had developed different hand gestures and sequence of happenings during mass and the Eat didn’t like that. The language barrier was also a problem, with one side speaking Latin and the other Greek. It was a mess. But the biggest problem with it was that the East wanted Constantinople to be the “New Rome” as they believed that it had the same power as Rome before it.
Other differences where apparent as well, with the West believing that the eastern emperor had too much religious power and the East believing that the pope in the West had enough power to name emperors.

The effects of the Schism were massive and I believe they still keep the different versions of Christianity separate. Man, why can’t people agree on anything? Guess they all need their own ways of control. I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a good day.

Chordate

Some animals, such as the more fishy ones, are known as chordates, which is like a subspecies of a vertebrate. What makes a chordate different? Well actually, what is a chordate?

A chordate is something with a notochord, which is a cartilaginous skeletal rod supporting the body in all embryonic and some adult chordate animals. Chordates also have a dorsal nerve chord, pharyngeal slits, which are filter-feeding organs present in Invertebrate chordates such as lancelets and tunicates, along with endostyle and a muscular tail. Now what is the difference between a chordate and a vertebrate?

Well, all vertebrates are chordates, but not all chordates are vertebrates, similar to how all oceans are seas but not all seas are oceans. Some chordates are invertebrates, or they don’t have jaws or so forth. And while pairing and symmetry is present in vertebrates, it’s not always present in chordates, unfortunately cause symmetry is great. Some examples of chordates beyond lancelets and tunicates, are creatures like Lampreys and Hagfish. All vertebrates have spinal cords as well, while not all chordates do. This is obvious as I have mentioned invertebrate chordates twice already.

In the end, all vertebrates are chordates, but not all chordates are vertebrates. I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a good day.

Zeus and Jesus

I have been waiting for this. Comparing these two historical figures is something I knew I’d be doing ever since my first essay on Greek Religion. It’s like my school was preparing me for this moment of truth. Will my ethical, moral and theological knowledge be enough? Let’s hope so.
So let’s start with Zeus. There are not a lot of pros with him, if any. He has a set of things humans must do, but he never follows his own ethical rules. Then you can go as far as to say that him creating us out of clay is akin to a child building a doll out of clay, which means we are but play things to the Olympian Gods, especially Zeus. He openly cheated on his wife constantly as well and dolled out seemingly random negative sanctions. This led to people like Hector to believe that sanctions so not exist and that the gods do whatever they want.
That was one of the problems with those gods. They did whatever they wanted because they could, what did they care?
Now Jesus was different. God created man as a part of himself, that should tell you right off the bat how much He cares about our well being. Jesus followed a set of guidelines that he set and that’s important. A good leader follows the laws they place. That’s just common sense. Jesus openly helped people and rewarded them for their faith, repentance and good deeds. He’d stay with the sick, lonely, poor and the other riff-raff, helping them be better. Zeus never did this. Zeus was pride full and he would never sacrifice himself for humanity. He didn’t. He sacrificed others to get what he wanted and that’s no way to be godly.
Jesus was a genuinely good person and viewed other people as valuable members of the world. Zeus didn’t, as I have said. We were but dolls to him and that sucks. God was actually saddened by man’s betrayal and Zeus would’ve tempted us to betray him just to see what would happen, as is obvious with Pandora’s Box.

In the end, we all know that Jesus is a far greater religious symbol, compared to the random and unethical behavior of Zeus. He was moral, kind and sacrificed himself to cure us of whatever sin we may have. He forgave those who killed him too, which Zeus would never do, as we can see with that dude who keeps getting his guts pulled by eagles. The Olympian Gods were vengeful and generally not nice. Jesus was. That’s all there is to it.

Thank you for reading, have a nice day.

Gegorian Things and Stuff

The Gregorian Reform is a very big point in history. Everybody’s gotta know about it. It’s like with Jaws. If you wanna be a real person, you gotta watch Jaws and know the Gregorian Reform. Apparently. Can’t I just watch Jaws? No? Okay.
Well, anyways, the Gregorian Reform was a series of Reforms enacted by, wait for it, Pope Gregory VIII. I guarantee you never saw that coming. Anyways, he did this because of problems surfacing in the tenth and eleventh centuries. These problems affected the church negatively, allowing monarchs to pick and chose who would be Pope. This allowed for the church and basic government to become one. Moderate Reform happened with Pope Leo IX, when he was elected. He said that the “people were electing bad people into power and needed to start electing good ones.” How intellectual.
Now Pope Gregory VIII mostly fought with King Henry IV. He wanted the king to stop picking all the Popes, because it removed an important freedom. They ended up writing nasty letters to each other, threatening excommunication. Eventually Greg one, removing Henry from power. But that weasel got back up and sat on the German throne, tossing Gregory out of power and replacing him with Hildebrand, another monk.
It’s a good thing that neither side fully won, as then our comfy western world would look different. The church may instead be the government (i know a few people who would love that) or perhaps the government would run the churches (oh wait that’s what they want to do).
But finally, Christendom. What is it? Well it is best known for it’s international society. Monks would often use this to send people to other nations. It also marks a period that is more spiritual than political.
With all the politics floating around these days, maybe we need a little spirit. I hope you enjoy this essay, have a good day.

Paul and adoption (and inheritance)

Paul thought often of adoption and inheritance, but not in a normal way. He thought of it in a GODLY way. Now what does this mean?

God offers us, everyone, a new life through adoption by him and the gift of inheritance with Jesus. This is only achievable if you live by the rules he sets. No longer did you have to live by strict rituals or things, all you had to do was believe fully in him, the resurrection of Jesus and Jesus. This would lead you along a good and full life where you had a better change of getting the inheritance promised.
But is it hard to follow what God teaches? Well it depends on what part you are talking about. You can go your whole life doing good and seemingly Godly things, helping others and sacrificing yourself, and that’s not too difficult, but you won’t get into Heaven. From what I’ve learned from the Bible and church, that’s only half of it. You gotta praise God, and be devoted to him. An Atheist can be a perfect human being and be loyal, truthful and amazing, but go to Hell because he doesn’t believe in God.
In my opinion, that’s a large downfall of the system. It makes sense, but seems a little elitist, which also makes sense for some more old school Christians and admittedly a few modern ones. They believe that, even if you are a good person, that’s only half of it. You cannot repent any sins because you don’t believe in God, or you do but haven’t declared it or devoted yourself fully. Then your sins are repented and as long as you continue to be good, you’ll get into Heaven.
I had always believed that just being a good person was enough, but that’s not the case. Doing good things can be hard, but according to a friend the hardest part is devoting yourself. That’s a large step to take and once it’s done you can’t really go back. It’s like a permanent life-style change. But if you do this then you will have a higher chance of being accepted into the Kingdom of God and you will get the inheritance promised.

Doing all of this can be difficult, but that’s the point. Nothing worth doing is easy. But it can be made that way by doing it and seeing that it isn’t as bad as you thought it was. More often than not, the hard things are the most beneficial. For me, driving was very difficult, but after I got past those mental roadblocks it actually became something I have come to enjoy. And I know driving will be highly useful in the future.
Difficult things are always worth doing, because you gain knowledge and understanding from it and doing it again won’t be as hard. Taking the easy road is never the right way to go.

I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a good day.

So That Happened

The Medieval Times were days of art, invasion, death and religious extremism. But we are going to ignore most of that and instead focus on the ninth- and tenth-century invasions that were going on.
What happened during that age? What changes were put in place because of these invasions, who was invading who? And besides the physical destruction, what did it do to average life in the West?
When the Carolingian Empire was divided, England was bombarded by invasions from barbarians outside the country. They pillaged and destroyed England as they moved through the land and it because clear to the people that the king was not powerful enough to protect them. This caused them to look outwards for help from these attacks. The king continued to lose power and coon the last line in the Carolingian family died.
The crown passed on to Otto, who became Otto the First. Eventually the Pope named him emperor, a term that had not been used for centuries. After that he was named “Holy Roman Emperor.” His rise to power led to the system of Feudalism.
What is feudalism? Feudalism, at it’s core, is the relationship between the King and his Lords. Feudalism then led to Manorialism, the relationship between Lord and peasant. These systems co-existed, with feudalism being more political and manorialism being more social. These systems were a response to what happened during the invasions. They gave people a sense of security as they displayed more power than the previous system did.
Manorialism was mostly land focused, with a lord owning a manor and the land around it. He’d then offer land in payment to tenets for specific jobs, such as food gathering, shopping or protecting the land. The tenets would either be free or unfree – in the latter case they would not be allowed to leave the land. The tenets were treated fairly, like people. Both systems shared a common link; payment through land. This was useful as they were in a day and age where money was scarce.

I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a nice day.

Soiled Science (See What I Did There?)

When someone says “Soil is just dirt to hold the plant up” what do you think?

Some may argue that dirt and soil is simply there to provide support for plants, and that their source of life is the sun and occasional rainfall. This is obviously half correct and it would be easy to see why some people would see it this way. But dirt also does so much more for plants than just provide support for the root systems. Why do you think the roots are there, other for simple support?
The roots work alongside the soil and dirt to help plants absorb water deep in the earth or simply just absorbed into the soil. The soil also provides nutrients for the plants. Cacti have large root systems to help them absorb every bit of water around them, due to the lack of the stuff in the deserts they occupy. In the soil there are minerals and those minerals are also of help to the plants. They do what fertilizer does and allow the plants to grow. The root systems of plants absorb these minerals to survive.
Along with the sun and rain water, soil is also something that keeps plants alive, and believing that all it does is support the plant is only a half truth. You can probably go your whole life believing that though. People don’t often get in arguments about what dirt does for plants and their root systems. Support is still a big thing that soil does for plants, and when that soil is compromised, say when it turns to mud, the plant will lose that support, move and probably die. This is why mudslides in forested areas can be so dangerous, as the plants are dislodged and tend to move down the mountain.

Soil is just as important to plants as the sun and water. I hope you enjoyed this essay, have a good day.