“Good ethics begins with lived human experience informed by the virtues of justice and equal regard, and by respect for better understandings of human embodiment that we’ve gained over time. Let’s begin here.”
I really like this idea, this is well thought out and I think many people today could benefit from keeping this idea in their minds. I think that it is important to respect other people and to try and consider where they are coming from.
This binary classification of sexual identity would impact nearly 1.4 million Americans who do not identify with the gender indicated on their birth certificates, prompting transgender and gender-queer persons (and those who stand with them) to characterize the proposal as transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+.
This opening passage really caught my attention because I was never aware of this proposed legislature by the Trump Administration. I feel that the 1.4 million people that the bill encapsulates is far too large of a number for the matter to be handled like this. In addition to this, I don't think it would be fair for the Tump administration to genetically test each of these people if they did not consent to it.
About a month later, I returned to confession again, this time to our monsignor, whose first words were, “God loves everyone.” I cried again. Monsignor did say, however, that while he understood what it meant for people to identify as gay, “the transgender subject is somewhat new.” He told me: “I’ll need you to help me learn.”I’ve been blessed. While I had a very positive reaction from my priests, I know others who have experienced the complete opposite.
I am really glad that this person received a positive reaction from her priests. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be openly rejected by the religious figures in her church. I also think it is neat that the Monsignor wants to learn with the person who was transitioning.
I am a lifelong Catholic. As part of my transition, I decided to speak to a priest during the sacrament of reconciliation. I obviously knew what our church taught with respect to being gay. At that point, however, the church was still silent regarding transgender persons.
This passage is interesting to me, because I am a baptized Catholic, and attended Catholic grade school, and have no idea how the Catholic Church feels about gender transition surgery, or most of our LGBTQ+ community as a whole. I would hope that this person's church would accept them either way.
The Honorable Harvest is a covenant of reciprocity between humans and the land. This simple list may seem like a quaint prescription for how to pick berries, but it is the root of a sophisticated ethical protocol that could guide us in a time when unbridled exploitation threatens the life that surrounds us.
Wow, I wish that everyone in today's world adopted this honorable harvest code. If we all followed these rules that Kimmerer describes, our Earth would be much better off, and we wouldn't hear about extinction, and exploitation of our resources. Kimmerer gives a lot of good insight about how we should treat our world, and about what our world would look like if people actually actually cared about it.
If we understand the Earth as just a collection of objects, then apples and the land that offers them fall outside our circle of moral consideration. We tell ourselves that we can use them however we please, because their lives don’t matter. But in a worldview that understands them as persons, their lives matter very much.
I have never thought about every living thing in the world as having a life with meaning. This apple example really resonated with me, because Kimmerer is absolutely right, I don't think about the life of the apple I am eating, I'm sure I just subconsciously tell myself that it is an apple and that it has no feelings or importance. What Kimmerer is proposing is a way of thinking that is nearly completely foreign In today's day and age.
So that, thus it is that natural men2 are held in the hand of God, over the pit ofhell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God isdreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actuallysuffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell;
This is another section of this paper that I do not agree with. While I enjoy reading Edwards's colorful language, I do not like to think about God as being so angry especially angry with Humans. I like to think of God as much more loving and forgiving.
We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; soit is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by; thus easyis it for God when he pleases to cast his enemies down to hell. . . .They1 are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God,
I don't like Edwards comparison of us crushing a worm to God's power. I understand that the Christian view of God does have all of this power, but I don't like Edwards comparing God deciding the fate of a human soul, to a human crushing an earth worm.
A wooly knit hat that you purchase at the store will keep you warm regardless of its origin, but if it was hand knit by your favorite auntie, then you are in relationship to that “thing” in a very different way: you are responsible for it, and your gratitude has motive force in the world. You’re likely to take much better care of the gift hat than the commodity hat, because it is knit of relationships. This is the power of gift thinking. I imagine if we acknowledged that everything we consume is the gift of Mother Earth, we would take better care of what we are given.
This is such a neat idea to think about for me. I really like Kimmer's analogy to the knit hat, and think that it would be super cool to see people act this idea out in a perfect world. It would be interesting to see what our world would look like.
When we speak of these not as things or products or commodities, but as gifts, the whole relationship changes. I can’t help but gaze at them, cupped like jewels in my hand, and breathe out my gratitude.
I think that it is really important to appreciate small things in life like this. It I also think its important to show gratitude for small things that make you happy, and to remind yourself of how lucky you are to have the things that you do.
We might ask whether or not we are ready for this crucial endeavour. Is the community of world religions, including the Church, ready to enter into a more thorough-going dialogue with the scientific community
I like this quote, because it really makes me think about the Church and the scientific community, and I do not know if I can really see the Church and the scientific community working together. I think that this would be really cool to see though.
But at the same time we see in large sectors of the human community a growing critical openness towards people of different cultures and backgrounds, different competencies and viewpoints. More and more frequently, people are seeking intellectual coherence and collaboration, and are discovering values and experiences they have in common even within their diversities.
I really like the idea highlighted in this passage. I think that this idea is interesting, and completely agree that Humans have grown increasingly accepting of other cultures and lifestyles over the generations.
There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you.
I really like the author using this passage right here to start out this paper. I think that these rules laid out by the author are good rules for people to live by, whether you are religious or not.
My child, flee from every evil thing, and from every likeness of it. Be not prone to anger, for anger leads to murder. Be neither jealous, nor quarrelsome, nor of hot temper, for out of all these murders are engendered. My child, be not a lustful one. for lust leads to fornication. Be neither a filthy talker, nor of lofty eye, for out of all these adulteries are engendered.
I like this section that I have highlighted, because the author is not just saying "Do not murder", or "Do not commit adultery", but they are instead saying not to be angry for anger leads to murder, and to not have lustful thoughts, because those lead to adultery.
“Look, it’s not like I don’t have actual reasons for not believing in God. It’s not like I haven’t ever experimented with the whole God and prayer thing. Just last month I got caught away from the camp in that terrible blizzard, and I was totally lost and I couldn’t see a thing, and it was 50 below, and so I tried it: I fell to my knees in the snow and cried out ‘Oh, God, if there is a God, I’m lost in this blizzard, and I’m gonna die if you don’t help me.’”
I find this passage about an atheists point of view to be fascinating, because even though this "Atheist" does not believe in God, he ultimately falls back on the hope that God would help them in trying times.
If your total freedom of choice regarding what to think about seems too obvious to waste time discussing, I’d ask you to think about fish and water, and to bracket for just a few minutes your scepticism about the value of the totally obvious.
I think that this passage is interesting, because the author uses a really creative comparison between the obviousness of a person's freedom to choose what they believe, with fish and water.