Reconstructing Taoism’s Transformation in China

Today in class we read an article about how Taoism can help us to understand ancient Chinese history. Taoist texts can help us to deepen our understanding on ancient China because we can understand the political system and the controversy over it. In ancient China, there was one leader called an emperor that ruled over everyone. A group of people called confucianists believed in this political structure. However, taoists believed in everyone being equal and treated equally. This shows that there was some controversy in ancient China. Also, we know that Taoism reflects on how each person should follow there own path and do whatever they want to do in order to be truly successful and happy. This contradicts the ancient government because the government controlled everything and what people did, so people couldn't follow their own path.

Is life just a video game?

In class today Mr. Reiff had us read an article on whether our universe and all humankind is all one big computer simulation. It gives a detailed and logical description on why that statement is possible. The article talks about how there's a possibility that there is a universe above our universe with beings that are much smarter than our society. This is similar to how much smarter we are compared to the characters we create in our video games. To me, this statement seems logical, but I just don't believe in it. I can't imagine a living creature that is smart and creative enough to make our universe. It's too complicated. These "beings" would have to create, all the emotions we as humans feel, all of nature, everyone's future and what people will invent, outer space, and many other aspects of our universe. I don't believe in it. I can see how some people might believe in it because we as humans only know for sure that our own selves exist. We have no way of knowing for sure if anyone else exists because we aren't them. This might make others believe in this computer simulation theory because they have no way of thinking that anything or anyone exists.

Compare and constrasting the holocaust and the book of job

Today in class, we read an article about two people, Moshe Yosef Daum and Fela Nussbaum. Daum and Nussbaum are a married couple who survived the holocaust and had a son named Menachem Daum. This article is both similar and different to the Book of Job. This article is similar to the Book of Job because they both had God punishing and torturing innocent people. In this article, the Jews were being tortured and killed in the holocaust. The Jews were innocent people. They hadn't done anything horrible to make God punish them this severely. In fact, the Jews worshipped and were loyal to God. Same thing in the book of Job. Job didn't do anything bad at all to upset or anger God to make him be punished. Job worshipped God always and was loyal to him as well. Job was punished by being tortured as well. Both the was in the holocaust and Job were loyal people to God. One difference that I found between the two pieces of writing is their way of being tortured was differently. In the book of Job, Job was being tortured by God, Himself. God burned his sheep and cattle and slaughtered his family. This was all done directly from God. For the Jews, God wasn't the one that actually killed them directly or tortured them directly. It was the German nazis that inflicted this onto the jews. Even though God let the nazis and Hitler get away with slaughtering the Jews, he didn't actually kill them with his own hands. Another difference that I found between the two inches of writing is that some of the Jews lost faith in God while Job never stopped believing in God. For example, one of the Jewish survivors, Dora Lefkowitz says "I cannot see a God who will allow a little baby to be killed for no reason at all. And I really lost my belief then, right there and then." This shows that Lefkowitz lost faith in God. However, Job never lost faith and even shaved his head and took of his clothes to pray for God.

Book of Job part one

Hey guys so for tonight's homework, Mr. Reiff assigned us to read from Genesis, The Book of Job part one and compare and contrast this story to the other stories that we read in Genesis. When I read the Book of Job, I noticed a couple some differences and a similarity. One difference that I found in this story compared to the other stories that we read (like the Tower of Babel, Noah's arc, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, etc) was that this story used a different type of language in it. I noticed it used the words "thy" and "thou" and other words like that. The other Genesis stories didn't use older English like that. They used language that we speak today. A quote from this story that shows that it used different words for language is “Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face.” One similarity that I found between the all the stories is that it always involves God punishing people. In Adam and Eve, God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. In Noah's arc, God killed all humans with an enormous flood. In the Tower of Babel, God scattered the people with different languages. In Abraham, God made Abraham live his life knowing that he almost killed his son Issac. In the book of job, God tortured job and ruined his life. Another difference between this story and all the other Genesis stories was that it used repetition. In the story, repeated times an angel would go up to Job and tell him something tragic that God inflicted on Job's life and ended with the the phrase, "and I alone have escaped to tell you."

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