Lots to Learn

WOW! I had an amazing conversation with one of the women I work with today. She's Muslim and I'm Christian and we were just going at it back and forth about what we believe and justifying what we believe and everything. We weren't angry at one another or anything. There was a bit of yelling and passion in our conversation, but it was great! We talked about everything such as Jesus, heaven/hell, the resurrection, the Old Testament/New Testament, baptism, man I can't remember everything. It was so cool though because I learned a lot about myself and what I believe versus what others believe, even different sects of Chrsitianity.

One thing I did learn though is that I know so little about my faith. At times I was having such a hard time defending myself because I just don't know enough. But the thing is, I want to start to study about it more because before I just read the Bible, but I never take it in and piece things together and really take it to heart. It's more of a dutiful act. I also want to learn more about other religions and what they believe so that I have a deeper understanding of where they come from, such as Christadelphians because one of the other girls I work with is Christadelphian and they are coming from a completely different background if you really look at the fundamentals. It's the same with Catholocism. Everyone says Christianity and Catholocism are one in the same, but I really don't believe that because there are fundamental differences that make a huge difference between Christianity and Catholocism.

Anyways, I just thought it was such an eye opening experience for me and my faith and I really need to know where I stand on everything and take it seriously because it is serious and I can't just go around believing what everyone tells me and not being able to back it up. I believe the Bible to be 100% true, but I need to be able to justify why, and telling people "just because" doesn't suffice. So yeah, that was my revelation for the day.

"But what if.....?"

You know what I think is genius? Even if it is mean and cruel and manipulative? Any guesses? Nope, you're wrong. It's the media. Man, those people are so smart! You may be thinking exactly what my professor would speak about in my SJP class, how the media is terrible and all that fun stuff. But if you really think about, they're smart! Sure, they manipulate people and everything, but they accomplish their goals quite effectively. I think the media's biggest tactic used is playing on peoples' fears. I was watching TV the other day (surprise surprise) and there was this Tylenol commercial on. They had this woman talking about how she was taking Advil and how it was bad for your stomach and that she was having stomach problems because of it, and then at the end they're like, "Tylenol works without the stomach pain" or something like that. I am no medical doctor by any means, maybe Advil really is bad for your stomach, I don't know. But I thought it was funny how they were using the strategy of making people afraid to continue using Advil. It may be a low blow to the Advil company, or not a very honest advertisement, but you have to give them credit because I bet there will be so many people switching to Tylenol because they start thinking, "hmmmm....I have a stomach ache. *gasp* I took Advil today! The commercial must be right!" Maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but still. You'd be surprised how many people get sucked into these things.

I have no energy right now (work is killin' me!) to even try to make this post "intellectual" or anything like that because I know this is such a huge topic, but I figured I'd just write that down while I was thinking about it. So hey, if you people want to make it into a big thing, go right ahead! I'm always interested in hearing everyone's opinion on the media.