Research Exploratory Blog 2: Research Prospectus

The topic I have picked to write about is how Catholicism motivates people using fear through bible passage interpretations, sacraments, a sense of "community," traditions, and practices to try to attempt to gain their own salvation while ignoring the overall message of the religion. I will discuss how Catholicism has become dealt with in fear and lost focus from it’s true purpose and examine how one is able to live a good, faithful life by placing this fear behind them and opening themselves up to something that is greater and bigger than themselves: life itself. As a Christian man leaning towards Catholicism, I am very passionate about this issue and have witnessed many people fall into the same trap of blindly accepting things they do not fully understand out of fear of going to hell. In this paper I wish to not only express my thoughts about living a life without having to accept fearful ambiguity but explain how one can grasp life for what it is and accept the lack of knowledge humans have for many of the Catholic teachings and practices- and for every religion in that case- and use religion to grow both on a personal and spiritual level in the absence of any sort of encouraged fear that stems from the focused “higher power” one chooses to invest his beliefs in. I am not against Catholicism as I do label myself as “Catholic,” but I believe that Catholicism, like all religions, must be dealt with in a specific manner to ensure maximum potential for growth, hope, and moderate faith-based understanding without being afraid of what could happen if you do not follow as deliberately and literally as possible.

My thesis question is the following: how does Catholicism encourage people to faithfully follow the religion by using methods of fear in its bible passage interpretations, sacraments, ideas about community, traditions, and practices? To answer my thesis question I will first begin with explaining how humans acquired the concept of religion then offer what Catholicism has managed to do well as a religion itself. I will then move on to break down separate components of the Catholic faith that have become approached with through fear of the consequences of not accepting entirely the teachings enforced by Catholicism. I will explain how certain bible readings at the Catholic mass use fear to encourage people to essentially “do good” to avoid going to hell. I will explain how some of the sacraments have encouraged people to use religion as a sort of security from their fear and place their worries and mistakes on the Church in the hopes that it will be able to fix all their problems and give them a certain level of comfort going forward in life. The idea of the Catholic “community” will also be a point I attempt to break down by explaining how the true purpose of Catholicism (a “universal” religion based on love) has diverged from its original path and narrowed itself off from the initial intention of universality through the receiving off the Eucharist at daily Catholic mass. Lastly, I will explain how certain Catholic teachings and traditions have induced fear in the Catholic community of believers by causing people to blindly accept ideas they may not fully understand just to avoid the consequences of sin (aka going to hell).

A counterargument to my thesis question could be that religion has encouraged people to do amazing things all throughout history. The idea of “charity” will come into play because religion has, without a doubt, been a positive thing for the development of humanity as it has brought people to do things for others they may never have taken part in if religion did not exist. Also, the notion that Catholicism uses fear to motivate people to follow can be broken down by explaining how the only people that fear are those who are not adequately educated on the main message of Catholicism and only follow the religion to gain their own salvation when they die. These people are the ones that fear because their knowledge on Catholicism has not been expanded to the point that they actually understand what they are following. A counterargument against my argument for the sacraments could be that the sacraments do not offer people a “blanket of security” but an opportunity for spiritual growth in the attaining of God’s grace.  Another counterargument for my points about the traditions and practices of Catholicism could be that these things are not meant to be taken literally but serve to remind people of the history of religion and how it has managed to stay strong and exist in such a long period of time. Finally, a counterargument for my points on Catholic bible interpretations could be that the bible passages read at daily mass are not suppose to be taken literally but only motivate people to do good as opposed to using fear to scare people into serving others.

For my research I will use an up to date version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a Bible. I will use also use a two and a half hour debate between famous atheist author Christopher Hitchens and former British Prime Minister and Catholic convert Tony Blair on “Is Religion a Force for Good in the World?” I will cite the book A Soul of the Man under Socialism written by Oscar Wilde and I will search for scholarly articles using Google scholar or the online database for the UF Education Library. The book Awareness by Anthony de Mello will also be used in my research in explaining how Catholicism works in the modern world. After my research I hope to acquire new insight on how a deeper understanding and knowledge of one’s religion (specifically Catholicism) can open up a world of personal growth and a strong faith-based spiritual foundation. I also wish to discover how people who have not been exposed to religion (aka do not follow a religion) can still lead faith-filled lives centered around spirituality and a deep understanding that life after death is not only for those who have a religious label.

My three credible sources are as follows: 1) the “Biblical Interpretation” academic journal published by Brill Academic Publishers, 2) “The Fear of God and Human Respect” article published by the Catholic Tract Society of Baltimore based on doctrinal and controversial works in the Catholic Church, and 3) a book by Philalethes centered on the exposition of the principles of the Roman Catholic Church religion with remarks on how it has affected the United States. I will use the first source to help explain how some interpretations of the Bible can be seen as a scare tactic to motivate people to do good deeds. The second source will help me explain how some Catholic teachings and doctrines can be scene as controversial and confusing which cause people to accept them anyways out of fear of not accepting them. The third source will help me describe how religion has affected people in society as a whole and how the absence of religion is not necessarily a bad thing.

By exploring the thesis question I have given in this research prospectus I hope to inspire people to rethink why exactly they are a part of a religion. In doing so I also hope to motivate people to dig beneath the surface of their religious beliefs and try to understand fully the ideals of how their religion works in their everyday lives to better themselves so they may have a more fulfilled spiritual life experience.

Blog 3: The Achievement of Desire

     The main concern for Richard Rodriguez in writing the essay "The Achievement of Desire" is undoubtedly  the notion that education has managed to pull him away from his family because his family was culturally separated from the knowledge he became so passionate for in his schooling throughout his youth. As a "scholarship boy," Rodriguez was always overly anxious about his schoolwork (516). He became so engulfed by his books that he started to draw himself apart from his family and outside activities. The successes Rodriguez acquired in the classroom as a young boy went hand and hand with the loss of a true, intimate relationship with that of the home. In the essay, the idea that school emphasizes the values of reflectiveness and rational thinking while the home teaches one to "trust spontaneity and nonrational ways of thinking" is presented by Rodriguez to draw the conclusion that "good schooling requires that any student alter early childhood habits" (517). This is where I, the reader, disagree the writer...to a certain extent. I find that, with the age Rodriguez reflects back on is his essay (elementary school), the average child in this age group does not fall under the tag of "rational" or "reflective" as did Rodriguez in those years. This idea makes Rodriguez argument too narrow to be applied universally to the majority of all children going through the schooling process today. In opposition to the writer's beliefs, I find that schooling is a place where children take part in nonrational thinking and the home is a place of self-reflectional and rationality. At school -especially elementary school- children are nearly mimicking  and memorizing what the teacher tells them in order to do well on the quiz or test for that material. The child, or student in this case, retrieves information taught by the teacher but may not fully understand what he has retrieved; moreover, by copying the techniques and actions of the teacher he is able to get away with this because he only needs to know how to pass the test and not fully comprehend the knowledge being taught to him. The student does this because getting good grades is what drives him to do well in school and the person that best understands the achievement of good grades is the teacher so he follows him/her.  In the home children are left to their own interpretation of the surroundings because there is no system that grades them based on their interpretation so the thoughts they possess on an idea are completely left to their own discrimination with minimal intervention from the parents. What a child decides to physically do at the house is something he must decide rationally on his own because there is no system forcing or pushing him to do something he may not fully comprehend. Children are not forced to imitate their parents' actions, they choose to do so; however, they are forced to try to do well on a quiz or test because they must suffer the consequences of a bad grade if they don't. This becomes an issue of prioritizing: how important are we making elementary school education (and therefore all levels of education) today? Students are pressured to fall into the trap of the "scholarship boy." WIth thousands of college applications being sent in to one university the option of getting an "A" in a class becomes mandatory even at the expense of the family. One could acquire all the knowledge in the world but if he shuts out those who love them what does he gain?

The Power to Let Go

As many may see it as a treatise of his own egotism, the song “Power” by Kanye West stands as a statement of the artist’s own struggle to find happiness after he has gained a distinct power over himself in the pursuit of his dreams. Kanye has fulfilled his goal of becoming a successful artist in the 21^st century but he feels that this fulfillment has made him monstrous due to his overwhelming insecurity in trying to maintain his self-power brought about by his new image in society. In analyzing the lyrics Kanye seems to have deceived himself with power by claiming not to care about control but at the same time trying to achieve it. As Kanye counts the hours until his death he is steadily losing control over himself and, at the end of the song, he commits suicide reinforcing the point that his insecurity has caused him to lose his sense of power over himself and jump out the window to let all the control go. The music video serves to back up Kanye’s power struggle as it presents Kanye in the middle of a moving portrait in front of columns with surrounding images and symbols of timeless power. Together the lyrics and the music video use unique visual literacy to portray a message of inner-turmoil within the artist’s mind to conserve control over himself as he continues to grow older in a cruel world that drives him to be self-conscious of his own control.

In analyzing the lyrics one can find multiple examples of Kanye’s desire to overcome his power struggle and move past his aggression towards the current world and find true happiness. Kanye acknowledges his fame in the opening lines of the song when he brings up how his popularity has increased in the 21^st century and he’s “doing it better than anyone ever seen do it” (l.2).  The artist knows he holds some sort of power in music industry because of the successes he has gained throughout his career but he still questions whether or not it is good for one man to possess this power. In becoming a successful artist, Kanye has managed to place himself in a position where he must choose to grasp the power he has acquired and try to control it or let the power go and maybe be happy with himself by not having to deal with the struggle of keeping it. Power is blinding Kanye with what it means to be truly happy because he continues to stay “tripping off the power” (l.7).  His life has changed because the fame has built him up into someone who is arrogant and with this new self-image Kanye feels that he “has nothing to lose” in the cruel world because he is so far ahead of everyone else already. (l.9) With this attitude he is essentially able to say “goodnight” to the cruel world and separate himself from its ideals because he feels that his power is above those in the “white man world” (l.12). Kanye is overwhelmed with this feeling of power and at the end of verse he admits to himself, “This is way too much, I need a moment” (l.15). As the song moves on the listener continues to find lines of how Kanye has seized power over himself but he is still insecure and unhappy. Kanye is scared to lose control and he is taking his anger out on society (other n***gas) which drives him to be more mad and start to “count the hours” till his death. That fact that he is growing older and losing his “child-like creativity” only makes it worse because he feels his gifts that allowed him to acquire his power are growing old which makes him question himself even more. In a realization of self-deception Kanye claims not to have a power trip in the third verse but still asks the supposed girl he is talking to who she is going home with (l.46).  Kanye has deceived himself, claiming not to care about control yet he acts in a way where he needs to know what she is doing. This idea can be applied to Kanye himself because he lives a self-centered life unconcerned for how people view him (“I don’t need your p***y b***h I’m on my own d**k) but he still wants to know what people think of him. The deception has created a struggle within the mind of the artist because it causes him to question the power he has over himself and become insecure about his fame and image in today’s society.

After studying the lyrics one can connect the music of “Power” and see how the moving portrait supports the idea of Kanye’s power struggle within himself and further backs up the point by using images and symbols of historical power. The video starts with a close up shot on Kanye’s face and one can see into the power-driven eyes of the artist as he stares directly at the viewer. The face is dark and the video turns into one continuous shot away from the artist almost like it’s slowly revealing a moving painting. As the screen gradually widens more and more, Kanye comes to be in the middle of a portrait standing surrounded by visual images of sexuality, power, and struggle. Once the screen is at its full shot and is no longer moving back, Kanye’s power struggle is brought to a climax after a string of zoom-ins on the different parts of the portrait when the artist is shown standing alone about to be killed by what looks to be a historical painting-like man and woman with swords. The symbols of the video come to explain and elaborate many of the problems Kanye expressed in his lyrics and serve to back up and express his inner struggle for control in a more visual and tangible way. The beginning of the video portrays Kanye in front of two rows of pillars that seem to be in the sky or a heaven-like place in the clouds. Kanye, who claims to have to set himself above the cruel world with his own power, depicts this notion by putting himself in front of pillars (pillars serving as a symbol of strength and power in architecture) in the clouds separate from the world below. The guards (girls with horns) serve to symbolize Kanye’s insecurity by showing the Kanye is scared to lose his power and he feels that he needs to protect himself and maintain it. The attractive woman sitting in front of Kanye in the music video represents the sexual aspects that surround his new life of fame that blinds Kanye from true happiness and keeps him “tripping off the power”(l.7).  Power has brought Kanye into a separate world surrounded by struggle and sexuality and these images are pictured throughout the moving painting. As Kanye stands in the middle of the video a crown with a sword through it comes to picture right above his head as the camera moves back. This depiction represents that even though Kanye claims to be struggling to keep power over himself in his new life he has already lost his crown (lost his power) and it’s too late. Shortly after the viewer sees the whole image of the sword the video begins a line of close ups showing different images of sexuality surrounding Kanye that have been making it difficult for him to manage his powerful life and the video finally ends with the supposed death of the artist by the two figures with swords. Kanye’s struggle is over and he can now once and for all separate himself from the cruel world through death.

The music video and lyrics work well together in describing Kanye’s desire to overcome the self-power battle he finds himself fighting in his celebrity lifestyle. Kanye has lost this battle as the ideas surrounding the “cruel world” have overwhelmed him and made his insecurity get the best of him. Through his own self- deception Kanye managed to convince himself that he doesn’t need to control his power that drove him into a state of arrogance and aggression at those around him and eventually caused him to lose any sense of ascendancy he had over himself. At the end of the song Kanye is ultimately left without power and he decides to jump out the window (suicide) and let all his struggles go. After all, we do “have the power to let power go”(l.53). 

Blog 2: The Pain Scale

     It is known that one of the major beliefs in Christianity (and especially Catholicism) is the concept that Christ died for the sins of humanity when he was crucified on the cross. Many Christians seem to base their beliefs on the idea that Christ came down as fully man and fully divine to offer salvation for His people by putting their sins on His back and sacrificing himself so that they may be able to enter the gates of Heaven one day. Through this Christian teaching that Christ actually "died for our sins" we acknowledge the sacrifice that He made which allows all people to be forgiven for the sinful actions (i.e. killing their savior) they have committed and it gives Christians a hope that their is something greater for them to take part in as they venture into their life after death with Christ. While reading "The Pain Scale" by Eula Biss, the line "Zero is a number in the way that Christ was a man"sticks out to me because it leads me to question how Christ really "saved" His people by dying on the cross (171). Eula Biss relates the number 0 to Christ because she finds that, in both cases, humans cannot completely understand and explain how each are brought about to be uniquely what we make of them in real life. Zero is and is not a number; Christ is and is not a man. Biss is bothered by the fact that humans have tried to over-analyze and simplify the concepts of Christ and zero when, in reality, we are attempting to explain things that do not quite make sense. In class it was brought up by one of my fellow students that if "we multiple Christ by zero we get zero." I found this statement comical yet surprisingly revealing as Biss is connecting the two in her essay. Christ is like zero: hard to comprehend. How did Christ "save" us? What did Christ physically do that magically made us relieved from all our sins?  Sure, Christ may have saved us from our sins but we still sin. People still make the same stupid and wrong decisions every single day. So, did Christ really save us from our sins or were our sins just "zeroed" in the first place. Maybe "All our sins are for zero" and we just wanted to connect them to something to try to inspire ourselves to be better people so we made up a big long story about how we should feel bad for some dude named Jesus because He had to die for our sins and if we sin less we get to hang out with Him and have eternal life after we die (171). Cool story right? Who knows.
     Through reading "The Pain Scale" I think I've come to an interesting conclusion: people are obnoxiously self-conscious at times. We, as people, feel the need to be "measured." Everyone wants to know where they stand on the "life-scale" compared to everyone else. Biss writes in her essay, "To be normal is to be okay in a fundamental way- to be chosen numerically by God" (177).  In this line Biss is referring to the standard condition of humanity which God has intended and the need to be felt as "normal." Of course in the essay Biss is referring to the pain she feels when she is hurting as compared to how she feels when she is normal  but I believe the line applies to idea much greater than this. When given the option to rate one's pain from 1-10 many people lean more towards the 5 mark because they want to be given the label as "not normal." Bottom line humans are afraid of being different and the way this is combated is through actions that make one feel comforted and secure. I believe this is what Eula Biss feels about why people partake in religion (specifically Christianity). Biss states, "Christianity is not mine. I do not know it and I can not claim it. But I've seen the sacred heart ringed with thorns, the gaping wound in Christ's side, the weeping virgin, the blood, the nails, the cross to bear...Pain is holy, I understand. Suffering is divine" (181). The idea that pain can be viewed as something elegant or beautiful is something foreign to Biss and she disagrees with the techniques Christianity has used to make pain look desirable. Biss then goes onto say, "But in my worst pain, I've also found myself secretly cherishing the phrase, 'This to shall pass'"(181). Christianity has the unique ability to use concepts such as "the weeping virgin" and "the sacred heart ringed with thorns" to offer people a form of hope and security that their pain will one day be relieved after they die and go to Heaven. For Biss, merely believing that the suffering will pass gets her through the actual suffering. Here lies the connection with how religion deals with pain (or fear) and how Biss logically deals with her pain. Both are formed based on an underlying need for comfort and the desire to feel "normal' in one's own skin. That's why we need the pain scale: to express our need to others (doctors) about what's making us "not normal" so we can get back to "normal." That's why we need to be measured: to know how abnormal we truly we truly are. People are self-conscious....that's what Eula taught me.

Summary of "Why Bother?"

     In Michael Pollan's 2008 New York Times Magazine article "Why Bother?" he makes the argument for why any individual should bother to "change their light bulbs"(88) when it comes to going green and doing one's part to save the earth from rapid climate change that has arrived well ahead of schedule. Pollan gives multiple ideas regarding how one can actually "bother" and take control of their "personal environmental responsibility"(89) to help reduce global warming and slow down the rapid "warming and melting"(90) that is occurring much faster than what scientists' projections read a decade ago. Unfortunately, Pollan asserts, many individuals feel it is too late to do something on a personal level that makes a big enough difference to actually slow this warming and melting. Many people, no matter how virtuous they are in their pursuit to slow the rapid climate change due to global warming, feel as if "laws and money"(90) are also needed to make profound changes in how we live to solve this climate-change crisis. Pollan breaks down this notion by claiming that laws and money are not adequate enough on their own to solve the problem at hand; instead, solving the problem concerns the "sum total of countless little everyday choices" made by the people to change the way we live and think about the environment. Pollan wants people to take it upon themselves to make an effort and transform their lifestyle into one that supports the reduction of the rapid climate change placed before us. Pollan urges people to take this environmental problem upon themselves and act on it despite the growing carbon emissions from other nations and those clueless people who squander valuable fossil fuels in their own lives every day. Specialization, brought about through the use of cheap energy, has obscured the "lines of connection" (91) in our everyday lives and allowed people to overlook their everyday acts that bring about many-times severe consequences that foster the rapid climate change and hinder our efforts to solve the environmental problem we face today. As specialists, Pollan finds that we rely too much on the "experts" to solve our own problems when the answer is right in front of us. Regardless of all the excuses and reasons we have to not bother when it comes to the environment, Pollan still encourages his readers to go green and he starts his reasoning by stating that "you will set an example for other people"(92). Pollan feels that a process of "viral social change"(92) is needed when it comes to reducing the climate change at an individual level. Even if one does not feel he is going to make a different he still needs to do his part anyways in the hopes that others will catch on and do their part as well. When it comes to reducing one's carbon footprint in their own everyday lives, Pollan describes how refusing to develop a cheap-energy mind by finding one thing to do that can help the environment that is "real and particular"(93) has the ability to "offer its own rewards"(93). One of the examples Pollan gives in the article is the ability to produce our own food through the use of vegetable gardens. By doing this we could not only reduce the amount of original solar technology we use, but learn to not be so dependent on specialists to provide for ourselves. Perhaps the most important reason to grow a garden, however, is the idea that "you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen"(94). Pollan is looking to restore the relationship between people and the earth, one small vegetable garden at a time.

                                                Work Cited

Pollan, Michael. "Why Bother?" New York Times Magazine 20 Apr. 2008:

    

     19+.Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. John D.

    

     Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 6th ed. New York:

  

     Pearson, 2012. 88-94. Print.

Research Exploration Blog 1

As a devout Christian and Catholic-raised male, I tend to question my religious beliefs from time to time and ask myself why humans really accept the "truths" that some religions- to be specific, Catholicism- have to offer for those who participate in it. Ever since I began high school in 2007 I was always curious about "Why people are Catholic?" and I attempted to poke holes in their religious beliefs and traditions (which wasn't out of the ordinary for the little snobby, ignorant freshman that I was back in the day). I went to an all-boy Catholic private school in Tampa so I was coming in contact with the religion quite often and I started to learn more and more about it through the classes we were required (or, forced) to take. As I matured I started to develop my own beliefs and ideas about Catholicism and whether I wanted to take part in such a massive community of faith-based believers. Here are some of my developed and drawn-out thoughts regarding my ideas about Catholicism as it relates to what I wish to write my research paper on in the future: 

I've come to find that Catholicism only "works" for people who are not afraid to die. When a religion "works" for someone I find that it helps them grow on both a personal level and a spiritual level while inspiring them to keep a sense of faith in a higher power and live a more filled life in the hope that their is something greater to come after death. What I mean by this statement is the idea that the most essential belief of Catholicism (gaining "salvation" to one day find ourselves with a community of believers in what humans have named "Heaven") is partly based off fear because nobody wants to find themselves in a hot fiery pit hanging out with Satan after their life comes to an end. This thought leads me to an interesting question: Are Catholics good (ambiguous term, I know) people or are they just doing good deeds so they don't end up in Hell? Now, I'm not saying all Catholics are bad people that would be absurd; instead, the motivation for a Catholic to perform a "good" deed is skewed because he/she could only be doing it to save themselves...which goes against the Catholic message of being "universal" because your only serving yourself in reality. The idea that Catholicism draws people in through a sense of fear is found in many aspects of the religion such as communion, bible readings, sacraments, etc... Bottom line people are scared. People need something to fall back on. People want security. Nobody wants to die but everyone wants to go to Heaven. As Kenny Chesney puts it in one of his many hit songs, "Everybody wanna go to Heaven but nobody wanna go now." Don't really know why I just wrote that but it is free writing so what the heck. Catholicism seems to give people a feeling of comfort that reassures them that even if this life ends you got another one ahead of you....you just gotta be a good person to get there. Well what if you do bad things? It's okay because there is a man dressed in all black that can make your sins go away after he waves his hand in a cross formation so you can still get into Heaven. These are just random thoughts that pop into my head as I sit and stare at my Mac but what I want to base my research paper on (in a more organized, factual, and understandable fashion) is how Catholicism motivates people using fear through bible passage interpretations, sacraments, a sense of "community," traditions, and practices to try attempt to gain their own salvation while ignoring the overall message of the religion. I received Holy Communion as I Catholic boy in second grade. Did I know what I was really doing when I received it? No. I had no idea. The priest gave me a piece of unleavened bread so I ate it. Did I know that it was suppose to symbolize the body of Christ? To a certain extent, yes, but why was I taking it? Now I know that accepting the Eucharist is a symbol of remembrance for what Jesus did for his people in dying for our sins. What does that mean? How did he die for our sins? Did we sacrifice Jesus or did he sacrifice for us? I feel Catholicism has so much questions that are answered with our own fear of the possibility that their may be no life after death. Religion is tough stuff. Nobody knows the exact answer of where we are going once we die and nobody knows the exact answer of how we got here. What we do know is that we are here, and we should be thankful for that. Life, in that manner, is a gift. We didn't do anything prior to our own life that allowed us to be able to live. Nothing. We are all the same in that sense and the fact that we all did nothing to deserve what we have - life, the greatest gift on earth- is enough for me to treat everyone as equals. Everyone as taking part in something we don't deserve and enjoying this temporary period for what its made of: family, friends, love... things that move us to feel a greater good. When we look at some in a wheelchair we feel bad...unless your just some terrible person who hates wheel chair kids. But aside form those people we feel bad. Why? Because we find ourselves more fortunate than the kid in the wheelchair and we want him to have what we have. We have an immediate love for this kid because he is not "equal" (on a physical level) to us. This feeling of care and affection and the unconscious movement towards an innate good in our emotions leads me to believe that there is a higher power. We arent trying to feel bad for this child, we just do. But what is driving us to feel bad and desire a better life for this child? Humans cant be the "supreme" life form. Excuse my language but people are shitty. We lie, we cheat, we steal, we are selfish, and we hate when things dont always go our way. It cant end with us, the shitty people. There has to be something greater. Something that is driving us to that innate feeling of good that is worth going through a temporary stage of personal growth and purification (aka life) and joining into that greater community after life. How do we grow? How do we develop into a more full human being? Religion can help...if used correctly and not out of fear or lack of knowledge. But why not think of life as a religion. We are all already celebrating it just in our own way. We have our own traditions and practices. And we are not encouraged or forced to do anything we dont understand or because we are scared of what might happen if we dont do it.

I'm ranting, I know.

For my paper, in order to keep it from sounding like empty preaching, I wish to begin by explaining how humans acquired religion then offer what Catholicism does well. I will then go on to state the problem is that Catholicism has become dealt with in fear so it has lost focus and then move on to explain how to live a good life without fear. 

Im not biased against Catholicism at all...it has helped me immensely to grow as a person through its many teachings and ideals and I without a doubt agree with its overall message of love and universalism.  Im Christian. I believe there was a dude named Jesus and he lived a full life filled with friends, family, sacrifice, etc... and he serves as a great model for us to be and act like while he also gives us a hope that their is something greater to live for that lies in our future. Thats my gig. Hope to write more in the future.