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crispyincolumbus
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Name: Charles
Gender: Male
Interests: any sport or competition
Expertise: 4th grade
Occupation: formely teacher-currently phil
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/22/2006
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| in the past few months things have gone very well. I am tentative to write about all the things that have been going on because they are all about me, and i am trying to become less self-centered. But with great joy i wish to tell you all about the recent conversion that has occured within me. It has not manifested in my works yet, but i have been ever conscience of it in my mind. It is an intellectual conversion. I guess i finally got all the philosophy stuff i have been studying. With the joy of having a conversion, it has also produced an side-effect. Skepticism. I am a borderline cynic right now and i don't like it. It stems from the fact that if i don't understand something rationally then i doubt it if it ask for me to put faith into it. For example, i was reading the thrify nickel (alexandria's free classified newspaper, and i read a sermon by Bishop _____) i can't help but chew into his errors (which they are legitment errors in thought,) but am wrapped up with trying to understand everything rationally to the elimination of faith. I have not explained myself very well above, but intend to do so shortly. I will be praying for everyone a lot over the next month, i have made a list well over 300 names and look forward to this time of intercessory prayer. God bless charlie | | |
| Tuesday afternoons are devoted to non-academic stuff that priest need to know, like how to run a million dollar non-profit entity, or how to brush our teeth properly, or which fork to use when eating lobster. Well today these conferences were canceled. Well I decided to do something that i haven't done for 8 months, go play golf. I tried to wrestle up a game from the other golfers in the house but, no one would brave the 35 mph winds and low forty temperature. I learned some things about myself today at the golf course. The first is that i enjoy playing golf by myself or with others equally, but when i play by myself it is a totally different experience. I do my deep thinking and contemplating in the chapel, while on the golf course i talk to myself, orally, i ask myself questions like, what is your favorite fast food place or what will it be like when i am 70 years old or how far can you hit this ball with a 4-iron, or what is the meaning happiness. I like playing golf with mark and dad, but i just think about golf when i with them, and sometimes thinking about golf is the best thing for a person. I know many of you are curious to know if my game has suffered because of my layoff, (thats a joke, i know only mark really cares) after shooting a 49 on the front (my highest score in 3 or 4 years) i blew up the back 9 with an amazing 38 in tough conditions, on the front side i was thinking too metaphysically and once i realized my score i started to ask myself the best questions, how do i get this little ball in that hole way over yonder? My easter break was nice. Me and big T went to chicago. We stayed in the north suburbs and took the commuter train into downtown each morning, which was a hidden suprize, for the sake that it showed me how millions of americans go about there daily lives. No major highlights. I went back the old rundown neighborhood where i spent the summer of 05 and had a good meal and spent some time in the beautiful church that got me where i am today. It was a calm trip and me and big T make a good pair, both of us go with the flow pretty well and just as long as we eat something good everyone and awhile we are happy, so thats what we did. We did more people watching than anything else. The people watching excels in places outside Alexandria Louisiana, I would still say las vegas is my favorite place to people watch but i think it could be challenged. ( I thing the retirement community in florida called the villages would be up there) We have six more weeks of school plus some finals and this week, i will pull through, i got to make my mind up if i just want to coast in and make the same grades i always make, or push it and go to the next level; i have came to some realization that i need to do better in grades, (i honestly believe they want make me more competent when someone wants to know if there is a god out there, but i need to do better so that i will be a good steward of the church's money.) anyway, like always, i am looking forward to summer and all that comes with it. You are all in my daily prayers, God bless Can someone tell my sister happy birthday, i got a postcard in chicago for her but it is easier for me to find a cinnamon ice cream than a stupid stamp. charlie | | |
| I am in chicago with big T and we are passing a good time. Although its probably not your typical holy week observance, we have been well behaved. Today we are going to my old nieghborhood in pilson, we are visiting three places, the taco stand which i think is great, the church (st. Paul's) where this whole priest thing got rolling, and then a little dive that i think has the best wings around. Tonight we are going to a bull's game, my first ever ebay purchase, I got 2 $60 tickets for eleven dollars total. I hope everyone is well and happy charlie | | |
| Mid-terms are over (and they were longer and took more out of me than i thought they would) so now i am back on a nice daily balanced schedule. Besides studing i haven't been doing to much else, no stories or other things to tell yal about, Everything is going very well, even the snow melted and yesterday's high was 54! God bless charlie | | |
| I am preparing for my last midterm, I am very happy this is the last one, and decided to share some of the JOYS of phlosophy with yal, these are summaries the classmates and I put together, just a few excerts: Give em a little thought, you can actually figure em out: Analyze the Plotinian notion of the divine in light of its importance in Christian theology, highlighting both its positive and problematic dimensions. Plotinus - Plotinus developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three hypostases: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul. It is from the productive unity of these three Beings that all existence emanates Plotinus demands that the highest principle or existent (The One) be supremely self-sufficient, disinterested, impassive, etc. However, this highest principle must still, somehow, have a part in the generation of the Cosmos. It is this tension between Plotinus' somewhat religious demand that pure unity and self-presence be the highest form of existence in his cosmology, and the philosophical necessity of accounting for the multiplicity among existents, that animates and lends an excessive complexity and determined rigor to his thought. The form or generative or productive principle of all beings, establishes its presence in the physical or sensible realm not through any act, but by virtue of the expressive contemplation of the Demiurge, who is to be identified with the Intelligence or Mind (Nous) in Plotinus' system. Yet this Intelligence cannot be referred to as the primordial source of all existents (although it does hold the place, in Plotinus' cosmology, of first principle), for it, itself, subsists only insofar as it contemplates a prior -- this supreme prior is, according to Plotinus, the One, which is neither being nor essence, but the source, or rather, the possibility of all existence. For Plotinus, the Soul is the 'We', that is, the separated yet communicable likeness of existents to the Mind or Intelligence that contemplates the One. This highest level of contemplation -- the Intelligence contemplating the One -- gives birth to the forms, which serve as the referential, contemplative basis of all further existents. The simultaneous inexhaustibility of the One as a generative power, coupled with its elusive and disinterested transcendence, makes the positing of any determinate source or point of origin of existence, in the context of Plotinus' thought, impossible. So the transgression of metaphysical thought, in Plotinus' system, owes its achievement to his grand concept of the One. or a little easier one (this one is very important to Christian thought; even as many Christians fidiest try to sweep these crucial truths under the rug)
What is the essential difference between the pagan notions of the divine and the properly Christian conception of God? What is the significance of this distinction? The key to answering this question is in the Judaeo-Christian notion of ex nihilo. This comes to the Hebrews and Christians through Divine Revelation alone. The Pagan thinkers were never able to access this particular aspect of truth through the use of reason alone. Ex Nihilo necessarily requires that God be a being that is outside of created existence. Being outside creation, or outside the finite, God becomes infinite. The infinite then becomes identified with that which is “other.” In pagan thought, however, the infinite is considered as part of created existence. Plotinus saw God as that which is the greatest of all things in creation. Anselm, on the other hand, states that God is Greater than all that which can be conceived. Because God is Infinite and outside creation, created existence itself does not need to be. It adds nothing to God, for nothing can improve that which is infinite. God, therefore, must have loved creation in order for it to exist, and without this love, creation would cease to be. Ex Nihilo also signifies the key difference of essentialism and existentialism between pagan and Christian thought (respectively). God, for pagan thought, is defined by “what” he is, namely, the prime mover (or Clock-maker for modern thought). God for Christian thought, however, is defined simply by “that” he is: “I Am Who Am.” Therefore, all things “that” exist, exist as a participation of the Divine Existence of God. Sorry for the post, but i just needed a quick little diversion, God bless have a great day charlie | | |
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