... everything that happens, why does he let such horrible things happen to us? Theodicy is the explanation. I have always had my own explanations for bad things that happen in my life, such as, "this is my punishment for something I've done in the past," "I don't pray as often as I should," or "It was their time," when someone I knew passed away. I believe ... Job's innocent suffering; both are evidence of chaos in the world"" (Carvalho 434). But just as he took away the chaos monsters, he can take away the suffering in Job's life. The world is far from perfect, but it is not out of contro...

• Word Count: 755
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Nine years ago, when I decided to choose cheerleading over basketball, I would have never expected how drastically cheer would change my life. The life lessons learned are uncountable but the season that rocked my world was my final one. My senior year we had to physical and ... mental ability to win a state cheerleading championship. It was always a dream that I never thought was possible but this season was the year to do it. This season presented experiences that will impact me for the rest of my life ... about was God's light that shined through us. Through all my years of cheerleading, I...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... simply be a choice of the deity, the way he thinks it ought to be. The concept of a greater being as a source of the meaning of life is flawed, because in talking about an actual point to absolutely everything, we are simply considering the goals of a being more powerful than ourselves who has ... that can not be agreed upon, it isn't even conceivable for that matter. The more you look for it the further away from life's purposes you get. Consider again lessons from the bible. We are given the title of pet and the instinct of worship while the creator waits for a companion in the ... to ...

• Word Count: 972
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... which they chose to follow. Religion is very important to people because it gives them a reason to continue on in life, or to strive to be the best person they can be. In the novel, "Life of Pi," author Yann Martel writes about Pi Patel, and his journey to Canada with his family when he was ... young. Pi Patel lived in Pondicherry, India, until his family sold the zoo and moved to Canada for a chance at better life. While at sea, the boat his family is on sinks, but Pi manages to board onto a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. He learns through his mishaps and ... Christian" (72) as well as a...

• Word Count: 644
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Although the society followed a patriarchal system, life in the time and place of Job was similar to our society in that unexpected calamities can fall upon anyone, however righteous or wicked. Often when tests of hardship visits ... the less fortunate and disabled members of the society. One reason this was encouraged, as it is today, is because at any moment a person from social status and walks of life can face those circumstances. We can attest to job's good character when he says "I was eyes to the blind and legs to the lame" (Job 29:15), and ... accomplish the impossible feats of catc...

• Word Count: 872
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... core center full of juicy, gummy, sweetness, and in reality, it takes a lifetime of licks to get to the Tootsie Roll in a Tootsie Roll Pop. Life is really like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get, you never know what you could have gotten. Only the creator of the box can ... know this. Just like that, every chocolate in a box of chocolate represents opportunity. Life is opportunity in itself, and within this opportunity we have other opportunities t make choices whether or not to take the opportunity to do good or take the opportunity ... not do anything at all about ...

• Word Count: 435
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... , money being everthing and money being important but not everything. It is Normal to think that money is not everything in life, although in the world we live in your not going to accomplish anything or get anywhere or even live a life that is considered normal to the world without money. So to many money is everything in the world. Even though ... die for money. Whatever can be done to get more of it always seems like a good idea in one way or another. It's going to cost you to live your life like you want to. Things that you want and or need in this world that actually seem like they ...

• Word Count: 755
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... a fresh new start in America. Which they did get their new start. The colonist also wanted a new start. They were free from England and were ready to begin their new life with their own culture, with no other culture to interrupt. They believed that to be a member of the Church of England desecrated the Holy rules for Christians. They also believed ... . The Puritan high class was allowed to wear their hair long, but was seen as vain for a commoner to wear her hair long. Prejudice is also not a way of Christian life. Acorrding to their view of a Utopian society based on Biblical views, w...

• Word Count: 1184
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Pi by Yan Martel, the main character discovers that in life there are many different types of religions and within each religion, there are unique sets of values and traditions. Throughout the book, we the readers, grow with Pi as he ... the thoughts possessed by those around him, Pi comes to find that there are three different types of religion that are appealing to him and have great significance in his life. Pi finds three religions intriguing. There are different aspects of Christianity. Islam and Hindu are religions that have great significance to him. He enjoys that with the Hind...

• Word Count: 482
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... we are to let Christ guide our lives. From this perspective, my faith is both nurtured and directed toward the way that Christ can change my life, helping me to develop a new way of thinking. As I let the thoughts of God replace my thoughts, I can know God's good and perfect will in my ... life. I feel strongly this passage occupies great wisdom for me as a Catholic and moreover, as a future elementary school teacher. It reminds me that I live in the ... world. It prompts me to live and teach by acting and thinking in a manner that is pleasing to God. By allowing Christ to work in and ...

• Word Count: 866
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... God, so it should not make any difference as to what religion you practice. His insight was well beyond his years and it was the mentors that were in his life that were responsible for expanding his young mind and teaching him what he wanted to learn. Pi had a good friendship with his teacher, Mr. Kumar. One day, he saw him ... to say. Pi's curiosity for knowledge lets him make his own opinions. It is obvious that he is very proud of these opinions by the way that he lives his life. He does not bother himself with worrying about what people think of him. He spends his time with his ment...

• Word Count: 668
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

A person in public life who I respect very highly is my best friend, advocate, and sister, Mahana Pierre. I have known Mahana since August of 2002 when I was a freshman in the Marching "100" band. At first, ... deceitful or spiteful, and her belief in God was strong. Mahana always gave me good advice when I needed a friend, and she helped me make it through a thought time in my life. I began to respect her for her wisdom, faith, and I love her dearly. To this day Mahana and I are still very close. Now, we don't always see eye to eye, but ... ...

• Word Count: 520
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

STUDIES IN RELIGION To me the statement "to serve is an option but should be a way of life" means that everyone should believe in the Lord and involve him in all aspects of their life. It also means you should do many things during your life. For example choosing to help people. It is an option. You are not forced into helping people, it ... God has created for us all. If there was no religion to follow who would we serve other than ourselves? I think that it would lead to a very selfish and unhappy life with not much purpose behind it. A good example of service from the Lord is while I was w...

• Word Count: 809
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... general, and there are many things that I would like to do. But since I have to write a one sentence philosophy on life, this is what I shall do. My one sentence philosophy on life is that we have to live our own lives, the way we like them, under no one's control except God's. Many teenagers feel controlled by their parents and fear to ... . What I am trying to say is that anyone should be able to express his or her own feelings any way he or she likes, do not let anyone control your life, live it the way you like it, as long as you do not exceed God's rules and people's rights. I will ...

• Word Count: 443
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... to us that religions can coexist peacefully and that no single religion is necessarily correct. Pi's three religions are also shown as an integrated practice in life when adult Pi prays before his meal, saying that 'Catholic Hindus' pray, and when he kneels and prays to Allah as a child. The ... take sides with one particular religion but points out that they can coexist. The film suggests that faith is so important because it creates meaning in life, despite the belief not being necessarily true. Pi found his purpose through religion, which is why he practiced his faiths as he grew ...

• Word Count: 1223
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... war, no more fight, everything takes place peacefully and silently. In silence, I feel as see myself, review and think about some events which happened in my daily life, but I have not appreciate them yet. Sometimes, I wonder about a question of choice of my approach to God in prayer. Have I gone to God in prayer ... I sat in silence. On the other hand, sometimes, I encounter in prayer a seemingly silent God. I sought Him in prayer for wisdom and power in my work and life. But I did not hear anything or receive none at all from God. So, how do I actually practice prayer? First, I often se...

• Word Count: 1088
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... 250 BC. The writer is anonymous other than referring to himself as a "teacher" and the son of King David. Throughout the book, the teacher explains how everything in life is meaningless. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless" (Eccles. 1:2). He also talks a lot about death, mentioning that those who are dead are living better than those ... the living have to go through or that better yet, is better to not be born at all. He has done it all in life and yet still concludes that life is meaningless. Regardless of all the great things that a person can do and the joys that a perso...

• Word Count: 932
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... lot of people use the term Christian very loosely these days. Some people think it just means simply a person who attempts to live a good life. But what is the good life? Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist, philosopher, and playwright. He had hundreds of peasants that lived and worked on his estate. They worked ... the lives of these peasants a spirituality that became a model for creating meaning and achieving happiness in this own life." Tolstoy viewed religion as the way to happiness and the good life. Living a good life could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different peopl...

• Word Count: 579
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... by obeying his father, Odysseus, and showing great bravery for his homeland, completing his journey from a child to a respectable prince. Although Telemachus had to worry about loosing his own life during this time, the fate of his mother laid heavy on his heart. During this age it seems that the women's role in the ... community was not descion makers. So Telemachus had the complex task of watching over his mother whom has hundreds of suitors calling ... hope for her great husbands" possible return. But the woman who had the most effect on the journey home of Odysseus and, the journey ...

• Word Count: 1174
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In the story, "A Lesson before Dying," by Earnest J. Gaines, the lessons Grant learned throughout the story would affect his life continually. Ironically, he learns lessons by teaching lessons. He teaches a man a lesson before dying. This story takes place when segregation was occurring in the late 1940s in Bayonne, Louisiana. At the beginning of the story, Grant is very ... tenacious and pessimistic, but he will later learn a lot from this experience. The lessons Grant learns will affect not only him, but the people around him too. Understanding life beyond education was very important to Re...

• Word Count: 648
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... teach a man and also change one to what he may become. I will give you some of my experiences that I went through that have thought me lessons. Some of my experiences are very painful and some are lessons taught to me at a cost. Flipping over my truck an example of one of my painful experiences. This experience could have been prevented if only ... and I believe it was to same me from mine. Also I had a couch that passed away this last week, It was a shocker. This man had taught me to never give up, life is there for you to take. He taught me how to stay in control, he was there for me ...

• Word Count: 665
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Sophie's World presents the history of philosophy in the form of a novel. A young girl learns about life and philosophy. One day a few weeks before her fifteenth birthday Norwegian schoolgirl Sophie Amundsen looks inside her mailbox and finds a mysterious letter ... fun really begins. The teenage girl, Sophie leans so much from the philosophy that is given about each philosopher from long ago with each of the lessons that she is given from her teacher/philosopher, Alberto. Sophie learns about medieval philosophy while being lectured by a monk in an ancient church, and ... the unknown Hilde's ...

• Word Count: 872
• Approx Pages: 3

... Guadalupe show how Antonio can try and make his decision to either follow the Luna or the Marez. The golden carp represents wisdom, comfort and moral guidance. Ulitma's owl represents life force and power of religious mysticism. Mysticism is the belief that God or spiritual truths can be known through individual insight, rather than by reasoning or study. The Virgin of ... Guadalupe represents forgiveness, understanding, and resolution of cultural conflict. The golden carp offers religious tradition, but has valid moral lessons with reasoning. It has magical, religious order which is no...

• Word Count: 603
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... with open arms as any loving parent would, even though the other son has difficulty accepting the fathers actions. The "Prodigal Son" offers well-defined life lessons from threee different points of view because of the authors use of characters and application of theme. First, there are three characters in this parable, ... ," according to Luke, is the younger sibling, and he seems to think, as many young people do, that he is ready to live the good life on his own. Luke is quick to tell, "He wasted his subtance with riotous living." Though he has a strong and rebellious personality, when...

• Word Count: 661
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... to become a member of Spirit of Faith upon entering college. Joining a virtuous church before entering college was my first priority. This was so important to me because I was starting a new life and entering adulthood. I felt that I needed proper religious guidance and knowledge in order to succeed and survive; and that's what I found at Spirit of Faith. Previous to becoming a member at ... believes and knows that there is a god, but doesn't demonstrate their love for god. I was also the same way prior to joining spirit of faith. One of the most valuable lessons that I have learned is ...

• Word Count: 907
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School