A CONFESSION by Leo Tolstoy

The way Leo Tolstoy's confession came to be was somewhat of a surprise. How he went through the Russian Orthodox Church and ended up not believing in everything they taught him was very shocking. It was kind of weird that he did that because when you are taught something for so long and you grew up knowing it and all of a sudden not believing any of it was a shock. Now I know that Vladimir Milyutin had a major influence on his conversion because he was the reason why he stopped believing in what the church had taught him. Vladimir even made Leo's brothers change their minds on what they believe in. The way he went about his life was strange because of what he was going through with his mental side and dealing with attempts for suicide.

His new philosophy was very interesting because he asks the question what is the meaning of life? and him or us not knowing the answer to the question was very interesting. I say this because a lot people will not speak of things they do not know the answer to and bravely speak of it was amazing. How he taught things he knew nothing about and taking a step to see if anyone would question his teaching is intriguing. After living abroad and coming back to work with peasants and change his ways of teaching was very challenging because he was always trying to teach the way he wanted but when working with the peasant children he taught the way they wanted to be taught.

Nicholas of Cusa

In Nicholas of Cusa's On learned Ignorance, it was kind of confusing at first just they way he was expressing himself and getting his point across. After a little bit I think I got what he was trying to say. He feels that what we have been taught is somewhat not true but we are to ignorant to know the difference of what is true and what is not true. As children we believe pretty much anything that we are being taught simply because we trust what they teacher is teaching us is true. Although as we get older, we are still somewhat like children because at times we believe anything our teachers in High School say or even our professors. At times when we grow older we do become a little more aware of what we are being told and are less likely to believe what is not true. There are some people out there who still believe the earth is flat and there is no other universe out there.

I believe what Nicholas was saying is true. We are oblivious what we are being taught in school. Most of the time what we are being taught is not even true or we know more than the person who is teaching us the subject at hand. There are some people who teach but know nothing about what they are saying and we sometimes believe they are higher then we are because they have a degree and we don't. That still doesn't mean we don't know more then them because I have had a couple of teachers who seem to know nothing about a subject and I feel like I can teach the class better but I can't since I don't have a degree like they do.

Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence

I have always thought of Gandhi's story to be fascinating. Ever since the first time I ever heard about him or even learned. His story is so amazing and what he went through to help save his country was out of this world. The way he stuck up for non-violence was pretty heroic because now a days people would never think of doing the things Gandhi did. By him fasting and standing up for what he believed in, helped his country and his fellow followers to come to an agreement and get along unlike they were. It took a lot of courage to do what he did and even before he did the fasting, he was not very proud of his life and the way he was living it. He felt like a man who had a lust mindset and never knew how to get rid of it. When his father married him off to his future wife he didn't feel like it was the right thing to do because he was a young man and all he wanted was lust and he didn't like it.

To go through the things Gandhi had to go through would have been very challenging and no one in this day an age would even think about doing something like that. With the way our world and society is going Gandhi today would probably feel like his work meant nothing. Even though his story was famous and many believed to help out his nation, today many people don't even know who he is. I asked my cousin who is in high school if he knew who Gandhi was and what was his purpose and all my cousin told me was, "Was he that guy who was bald?" and I was dumbfounded by his answer because I learned about Gandhi in the fifth grade. I just find it hard to believe that a man with such impact has been forgotten.

Myth of Eternal Recurrence

While watching the film on Nietzche's gay science, it was very interesting to hear how they would put the myth of eternal recurrence. The example they gave was very interesting because I had never thought of something like to come to my mind. The idea of having that done to me would probably be very weird and I wouldn't want it. Nietzche's way of philosophy is very out of the ordinary because I would have never thought of a philosopher to see things the way he did. He was a homosexual who many disproved of simply because he was gay but many loved his way of looking at things and his philosophies. If he were to be living of this time I think he would be even more looked upon as great because of all the gay rights trying to be passed and more are trying to stand up for what they believe in.

I feel that Nietzche's way of looking at things or seeing things the way he did was amazing. I think it was bold to do what he did in sense to where here this man is a homosexual especially during the time he lived because I'm sure like today many disapprove of it and still do what he did is certainly astonishing. 

Flame on

I was so excited when I saw "Western education was formed by some philosophers who believed that homosexuality was a higher calling," on the website page. Even thought I'm not lesbian, I have bunch of friends are homosexual. The film illustrated there are so many famous and talent people from the Greek ancient time to now are homosexual. I know many religions, government, or people can't tolerate homosexuality. One of the reasons is they thought homosexuality will break down the reproduction. Another reason is they thought this is not follow God's rule. There are still many reasons, but in my opinion, it's not the excuse to give them the elbow. Being gay or lesbian doesn't mean they are wrong or bad person. For example, if we push M1 to love F1, but they don't love each other, what will happen? They won't get together in the end. It's the same idea about homosexuality. 
In addition, in my case, most of my gay friends are genius. I believe God loves everybody. All human beings are God's sons and daughters. God gives the talented gifts to my gay friends. To be honest, I really want to see people can live peacefully one day. I wish homosexuality would be treat totally fair one day. 

Why Turn Vegetarian?

After I watched the video, I was thinking if I'm "Wrong." I got sharked when I saw many disgusting pictures in the video. It talked about many reasons why people can't eat meat. One of the impressive reason is every package of chicken, there's a little poop. The first scene in my mind is lots of poop in my stomach. Second one is it's not fair to animals. Seriously, I used to concern about why people eat meat. I knew it's cruel but just for example, if we not kill a lion in Africa prairie, it must kill me. It's natural cycle. Third, they do not want to die and see their family be killed. I agree with animals have thought. They know what is going to happen, and they feel pain when they get hurt.
I'm not really sure if being a vegetarian is right or wrong because be or not to be will cause many problems. In my opinion, over or less is not good for the environment. The world needs balance.

Ｗhy I don't Eat Faces

In continuing my response to the podcast about vegetarianism there is more I'd like to discuss. As I stated in the previous post about this we eat things that we feel aren't like pets such as we wouldn't eat a dog because he's a part of our family and we sure wouldn't eat other humans simply because we don't see each other in that way. For example, you wouldn't go over your cousins house and say man uncle tony looks mighty tasty to eat right now. You wouldn't find it very appetizing to do that because as humans we know pain so we don't want to inflict each other with it. We eat animals that we feel don't feel pain and we love the taste of it. What most people don't realize is cows, chickens, ducks,etc, can be a pet to a child that grew up on a farm and they become vegetarians because they have pets like cows and other types of animals everyone else eats.