Religion and Sports part 2

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In sports news this week, Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP. That's awesome because he is really good at baseball. This adds another chapter to his amazing story. If you don't know what I'm talking about Google it. During his press conference he started thanking God for all his accomplishments and that got me thinking where does religion fit in the world of sports? For example, we pray before football game and it doesn't really seems to have an effect, we still lose. What I've noticed that really bothers me is that once athlete's religion is known, we put them on a really high pedestal. Josh Hamilton is one example of this but I think Tim Tebow is a better one. I remember during the national title game a couple years ago where they couldn't talking about how awesome Tim Tebow was because he was good at football and he exercised demons from children in his spare time or something like that. I think it's dangerous for athletes to come out and proclaim their faith in a public way. Due to the environment that athletes are part of, they're more likely to slip up. Then when they slip up, they're going to hear about it.    

Religion and the law

If you haven't figured it out, I'm fascinated by the fact that religion causes people to do crazy things. These include kidnapping, murder, and blowing themselves up just to name a few. Naturally, I'm interested in the Elizabeth Smart case. I found this article explaining what difficulties can happen when religion and the law come together. (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/on-trial-faith-delusion-or-an-excuse-for-criminal-action/) There have been cases or murder in the name of the devil that have resulted in both jail time and an insanity pleas. How does the jury go about making a decision. The article discusses the problem by saying " "One man's vision is another man's delusion. One person's cult is another person's spiritual path". To me this means that there are many forms of religion out there, they can have positive or negative effects depending on the person. I think trials involving crime and religion and difficult to handle because I'm sure everyone has a different opinion of what's acceptable. I'm sure there are some people who approve of Brian David Mitchell acting on his vision from God. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

Consumerism part 2

The most interesting thing I learned about consumerism came from the story of stuff video. I learned that consumerism really was a cycle of companies telling you how much you need a product and then going out and buying that product. I guess Christmas is the climax of that cycle where people go out and spend on all the products they think they need. Then i found this article which talks about how not only are we obsessed with consumerism but, we consume huge things. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101108/us_time/08599202989900). Our houses, cars, and food portions are all so much bigger than were 20 years ago. The article mentions that even the benefits of going big such as the low prices at Walmart have flaws as well. The question I have is how do we respond to being bigger? Is it possible to change our perception of size. More importantly is this gluttony or science? Do we really need all these bigger things.  

Religion and your major

I found this interesting article which says that your major in college has an impact on your religious view and attendance. (http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/145652-do-certain-college-majors-shape-religiosity.html). To sum it up, education majors experience the greatest increase in religious influence while science majors experience the greatest decrease. The science majors make since but, I don't understand education. Maybe they need to learn how to pray when handling difficult children. The article mentions that business majors attendance increases. Obviously mine hasn't. But, my teachers have been bringing in speakers that talk about the importance of the bible and business ethics. It makes me think there's some secret I'm missing out on. I think church is something that could be very important to someone's college life as a support network. I can also see it as something that gets neglected due to time constraints. I think that religion is something that can be explored and evolved like the rest of college life. However, I think the baptist label Baylor and the size of Waco limit my exploration. I may be a Buddhist but then I'd have to go to Killeen.

Mission Trips

I was watching TV the other day and stumbled upon Locked Up Abroad. It's a great show everyone should watch it. Anyway this episode was about two missionaries who were Kidnapped by pirates near Indonesia. The husband ended up dying it was sad. Then I found this article about how missionaries are becoming better equipped to serve the areas they work in. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101020/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today). I may not like much about religion but, I do have respect for missionaries. These people put their faith and even life on the line for a cause. The TV show said that these Islamic pirates were interested in the missionaries teaching while in captivity. I thought that was strange but when along with it. I've always wondered how the people being served react to the teachings. If I was struggling though life would I really want to hear about how god created life?

Open House

If I've learned anything in class, it's that religion is full of misunderstanding. Since religion is preached in so many different ways, everyone interprets the bible differently. The questions brought up in class have shown me that not everyone's understanding is correct. This recent article talks about how Muslims are out to correct this misunderstandings regarding Islam by having an open house. (http://www.ocregister.com/news/mosque-271564-open-muslims.html). Being BIC members, we've attended similar events at the Hindu temple and mosque, even a synagogue. However, I've never seen a Christian church advertise such an event. I guess my question is why? Every religion has stereotypes both positive and negative. This open house gives Muslims the chance to eliminate stereotypes. I would be open to attending a Christian open house. I'm sure someone will say well you can just go to church one Sunday. To me that's intimidating, I'd rather show up with a bunch of people who would look as confused as I would.

Sports and Religion

Unless you live under a rock you know I love the Texas Rangers. If you pay any attention to sports. you know the Rangers have a playoff game tomorrow. It's an elimination game that can end in two ways. 1. Rangers win and advance in the playoffs for the first time ever or 2. Rangers lose and become the second team ever to lose a series after having a 2-0 leading. Both options are amazing achievements with opposite rewards. The game is in 27 hours yet I can't sit still and can't stop thinking about it. This really does have a religious point, I promise. People have often said sports is like a religion. I decided to investigate this further. It's true. Both sports and religion have faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration. My experience as Rangers fan involves lots of dedication, commitment, occasional prayer, and a hell of a lot suffering. I even believe on occasion that there are such things as Baseball Gods. My lack of religious upbringing has been well documented in previous posts. After putting everything together I have to ask myself the obvious question: Did I swap religion for the Texas Rangers? That's a scary thought. I'm sure God is not amused. But what am I going to do, it's hard to break a 21 year habit? I do believe everything happens for a reason. If the Rangers lose tomorrow, maybe it's a sign from God that I need to re-organize my priorities a little but. Maybe switching my religious views from the Texas Rangers to something more tangible would be a good start.

(I hope this post does not anger the Baseball Gods) :D

Conversions

Today in class, we discussed the story of Paul. Paul was a Christian persecutor before his conversion. This reminded me of a recent story where a neo-nazi in Poland recently found out he was Jewish. Story here (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/23/poland.jewish/index.html). This interested me because I am from Poland and know that the Polish neo-nazi gangs are incredibly ruthless. In the article, the convert mentions he doesn't hold a grudge against himself for his previous actions. This makes me wonder about how Paul felt about his previous actions. The issue I wanted to talk about was guilt. It's important to feel guilty in some situations but, it's also important not to let guilt linger forever. I seem to have a problem with letting guilt linger. I feel guilty about thing that happened 5-10 years ago. So what's the proper way to deal with guilt? People often tell me religion helps people deal with guilt because you can settle things with God. This is something I'd like to investigate further.

Post for the week

I found this article mentioning how atheists are seeking a sense of community. (http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2009/0628/p22s01-ussc.html). I found this interesting because I distinctly remember someone putting up a flyer for the Baylor Atheist society in Morrison Hall. He seemed terrified that anyone would see him. There's another recent article that says religious people are healthier because they associate in groups. As this article says, these atheists are looking to benefit the community through service projects such as creek cleanups. I think it's interesting that people are using their lack of a religion to preform community service. You can join almost organization and do community service. It's interesting to me that some groups would support meeting because meeting to talk about things could seem like going to church. I just think that people can do the same thing these atheists groups can do what they're doing through another group. It saves the members less controversy when they are discovered.

Time for a story

The other day I was at an SI for class. I sat next to this kid I'd never seen before and he was a nice guy. Because of that I didn't think anything of it when he asked me if I wanted to come eat with him. He said he was bringing some friends. That was fine with me. After eating, I thought we were going to go study at his apartment with the other people. I was wrong. These were a group of Antioch members. Instead, they wanted to show me a video of some televangelist that claimed to heal some child's legs. Of course they then thought I should go and pay this evangelist a visit. I was stunned. Were these people serious? This sort of thing happens to me a lot and I hate it. I know people have good intentions when they ask to pray for me but standing in the middle of campus having people pray for my legs is a little too much. I wonder why people have difficulty accepting my condition is a permanent one? No amount prayer is going to solve it. I certainly don't need to be "saved" from my condition as someone put it. The world is welcome to pray for me, just do it in a private place.   

9/11 and religion

This past Saturday was the anniversary of the attacks. Obviously everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing at that time. In addition to shaking my sense of security, the attacks also destroyed my idea of religion. I lived in the bubble of North Dallas. That's about five times worse than the Baylor Bubble. So honestly, I had never seen anything really evil until that day. I didn't understand that people could willingly do such an evil thing as crash a plane into a building on purpose. The thing I had even more trouble understanding was when Osama Bin Laden came on TV and said that these attacks were in the name of God. What God was this? The God I knew about from Sunday school was a nice one. When I brought this up, the response I got was that God makes everything happen for a reason. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. In my 12 year old brain, I took this to mean that God supported both good and evil. I didn't want to be friends with this kind of God. I realize now what a dumb rationalization this was but, I stood by it for years. It also didn't help that bad things just kept happening to me for years until I hit rock bottom in spring 2007. In spring 2007, I decided to give up on God because i decided he was behind all the bad things that were happening. I haven't willingly set foot in a church sense. I want to change that but aren't sure how. Now, religion is pitched to me as something that will fill the missing pieces in my life. Well, I don't feel like I'm missing much of anything right now. So, 9/11 not only shook the world but, my religious foundation as well.  

The bible and tattoos

While looking for information on my research paper topic (cosmetic surgery) I found that another highly debated topic between Christians was tattoos. I found this interesting because I know two people that recently got religious tattoos. Both of these guys are extremely proud of their tattoos and are sure to take off their shirt and show it off whenever possible. When I asked them why they got these tattoos, their response was that they were a reminder of their faith. To me that seems a little silly. Does a good Christian really need to spend money and endure some pain to be reminded of their faith? Also, the bible has specific versus against tattoos such as Leviticus 19:28 which says that a person shouldn't put any marks on their body. When I asked one of the guys about this, their response was basically that the meaning of tattoos have changed over time and thus the bible is outdated on the issue. This had me very confused. How come some rules of the Bible such as thou shall kill have stood the test of time while the rule on tattoos was outdated. It seemed like my friend was manipulating religion to fit his situation.  

Watching the National Geographic Channel

I'll admit that I'm a little bit of a nerd. Therefore, I watch the National Geographic Channel a lot. Over the summer, I saw several shows on various cults. These include the Branch Davidians, Heavens Gate, and Jonestown. This lead me to wonder why people join cults. Obviously, these people are missing something in their lives. I'm not why they think that someone such as Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite have the answer. It seems like cults are just one giant form of manipulation. The leaders exert total control over the followers and in some cases lead to followers to death I think it's interesting how people can people use religion to justify death. It happened in the U.S. with Heavens Gate and is one of the reasons behind suicide bombings in the Middle East. There's plenty of good works that have been justified by religion too. Sadly, most of those don't make the national news.   

My first post

Today marked the end of the first week of Biblical Heritage. I'll admit I feel somewhat out of place in class. To be honest, World Cultures 1 was the first time I seriously looked at a Bible. My parents never forced religion on me and I have never felt compelled enough to explore religion by myself. I'm very skeptical of religion. I've seen it work wonders for some people and others who have gone through life happy without religion. I'm not sure I can pinpoint why I'm so skeptical. I think it's a matter of trust. I don't feel comfortable exposing my insecurities/ fears in prayer to a God I'm not sure exists. Then there's the age old question of why do bad things happen to good people? I've never gotten a good answer form a priest on this but, that's an issue for another time. I will do my best over the course of the semester to absorb the information from class and translate it to my life in some form or fashion.