Modern Day Plato

Modern Day Version of Plato's Cave Allegory-

Recently, I've been reading a lot of philosophy and worldview resources for school. As I was reading Plato's Cave Allegory, it hit me that this is confusing stuff. No wonder most people don't want to study philosophy, it's hard to understand! When I first read this allegory a few years ago, I had no idea what I had just read. After reading it for a second time, I feel like I grasp it a little better. So I decided to write a modern day version just in case there are some other confused people out there.

Imagine you're in a cave and you're all chained up and all you can see is this wall.

And the jerks who chained you up are using a fire to create shadow puppets on the wall, just to mess

with your mind. After a while of being chained up and looking at this wall, you get used to how the shadow puppets perform, and you form your understanding of reality on these shadows. These shadow puppets are all you've ever known, so you don't know that there is an entirely different world out there.

So eventually someone comes along and unchains and takes you out into the real world and you're super confused. At first you can't see anything; the sun is blinding you. Then you realize that actually you couldn't see anything if there wasn't a sun! Then you see a tree, except you don't know its a tree, because you've only ever seen a shadow of a tree, so you ask the person who unchained you what it is. When he tells you it’s a tree, you laugh and tell him it's not a tree, you know what a tree looks like, and this ain’t it...

Finally after a while you'd realize that nothing you saw on the wall was real...it was only a shadow of what was real. So you run back to the cave to tell the others who are still chained up. 'Cept when you get back and start explaining stuff to them, they all think you're stupid. You describing what a tree looks like. You'd tell them a tree is green and brown. They look with empty eyes and ask “Dude...what’s green? What’s brown?” They point to the wall and say, “That's a tree.” You look at the wall, but now you can't see at all because the sun has been messing with your eyes. So they all laugh at you and call you stupid, and won’t leave the wall.

This is what Philosophy is like, according to Plato. The soul ascends and apprehends the forms and the idea that “the idea of good” gives light to everything else. Then the philosopher has to go back to the world of forms – the wall – and try to explain to people what 'the good' is...but these idiots don't even know what 'brown' is so they don't understand something as complex as ' the good'.

Plato's point is that 'the good' is out there, and everyone has to find it for themselves. You can't force knowledge on an idiot...he has to find it on his own.

“True knowledge must be obtained the hard way, and some people just don't want to see the light”

Defense of Theism
Mary-Faith Pittman
Theology Module
March 18, 2012

In February 1968, renowned atheist H.J McCloskey remarked in his article titled, On Being an Atheist, that “Atheism is a much more comfortable belief than theism, and theists should be miserable just because they are theists.” McCloskey lays out three main reasons for his belief that atheism should be more widely accepted than theism. In the next few pages I plan to discuss why McCloskey is seriously mistaken in his opinion that the atheist worldview is more conducive physiologically than other worldviews. 

 
His first argument touches on the cosmological argument - an argument for the existence of God that claims that all things in nature depend on something else for their existence. McCloskey argues, “If we use the causal argument at all, all we are entitled to infer is the existence of a cause commensurate with the effect to be explained, the universe, and this does not entitle us to postulate an all-powerful, all-perfect uncaused cause. The most it would entitle one to conclude is that the cause is powerful enough and imperfect enough to have created the sort of world we know.” McCloskey assumes that our Creator cannot make anything that is not like Him. Since man is evil McCloskey says God is evil. Although we are made in God's image we do not have the same attributes as God, nor the same nature. Man has a sinful nature, while God does not. Even though Adam originally had a sinless nature, his sin caused him to fall away from his holiness.The Bible clearly stresses the fact that God is good “For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” Psalm 100.5. Mark 10:18 is another text which supports God's goodness and refutes McCloskey: “No one is good except for God alone.” God is omnipotent and if He wanted evil to triumph, it would have. McCloskey is stating his opinion as fact, and in doing so, misleads his readers. Additionally, his lack of clear evidence for his proposed “facts” and “reasons” to discredit theism are very weak.

In his second argument, McCloskey denounces design and purpose in the universe, commonly referred to as the teleological argument. He mocks, “To get the proof going, genuine indisputable examples of design or purpose are needed. There are no such examples, so the proof does not get going at all”. To McCloskey, the fact that there is no evidence of a creator provides a “very conclusive objection”. On the contrary, however, there is so much evidence for a designer, not just in the Bible but also in nature itself. Take the human body, for example. I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to say that the human body is not an amazing machine, yet people are foolish enough to believe that this intricate, precise machine came into existence out of nothing, without a designer. The doubters further their ludicrous claims by accusing theists of having no evidence for a Designer, when they themselves have no sound evidence that there is not one. Hypothetically, let us assume there was indisputable, 100% proof for evolution; it still would not disprove God as a designer. An omnipotent God could work through macroevolution if He willed to do so, but He did not.

McCloskey goes on to argue that the universe is just a machine, but he fails to acknowledge that every working machine requires a focused designer. For example, if you were to walk into a room and see an iPhone laying on a table you would probably wonder how it got there and who was behind it. What if I told you that no one was behind it? What if I told you that it had been there for a very long time, as long as anyone could remember. Would this be a satisfactory answer? Not at all. I’m sure it would leave you with more questions, one of which might be how I could be so ignorant. However, if I were to explain to you that someone took the time to intelligently create this phone, precisely place it in this room, for a specific reason, and then went on to show you the owner’s manual describing the creation, you would be more satisfied, as well as be in awe of the creator as well as the creation.

 
McCloskey also imprudently and inaccurately defines faith as “the state of being ultimately concerned, as claiming truth for its concern; and as involving commitment, courage, and the taking of a risk.” His misunderstanding of faith is the basis of his very weak argument. He compares God to mankind by comparing the faith of mankind to a faith in God. McCloskey gives an example of having faith in a good friend who is accused of being a criminal because of knowledge of their past actions. He claim “it's reasonable to have faith in one's friend on the basis of past knowledge...to have faith in his (God's) existence and perfection in the face of the existence of evil is to be irrational and foolish.”According to Hebrews 11:1,2 faith is “ the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” To put it simply, faith is a demonstrated confidence in the integrity of God. Again, God is not like man. We cannot compare our faith in fellow human beings to our faith in God. Even the best man is undeserving of unconditional faith. McCloskey's argument against Christian faith leads to his argument about the existence of evil.

McCloskey primarily bases his atheism on the existence of evil. He even goes so far as to remark,“It is because evil exists that we believe God does not exist.”Jamie Woodham, a student of philosophy at Liberty University stated in his article, A reflection on H.J McCloskey's 'On Being an Atheist', “the problem of evil proves to be a greater problem for atheism than it does for theism. In the first place, recognizing the existence of evil requires the existence of objective moral good. If there is no good in the universe, how can we recognize or classify anything as evil? Yet we do recognize evil, and the atheist cannot raise the problem of evil without also raising the recognition of the objective moral good which he is attempting to deny.” By disproving the point that evil only results in more evil, the very core of McCloskey's argument is proved false. The fact that evil exists actually aids the argument for the existence of God. There is an objective standard for good; that is the Supreme Good, who is God. Suffering is not necessarily bad. Man's suffering can be for a greater, sometimes invisible, higher purpose.“Pain and suffering are frequently the means by which we become more motivated to finally surrender to God and to seek the cure of Christ”, surmised Peter Kreeft. A loving, just God does not make mankind suffer unnecessarily. Furthermore, without evil we would not have free will. God knows what He is doing at all times even when He ordains suffering for His people. Just as it pains a human father to see his child hurting, whether from an accident or needful surgery, God the Father suffers alongside His children. God is acquainted with suffering; He suffered extreme pain when He sent His son Jesus Christ to die the painful and shameful death of the cross. 

The problem of the existence of evil co-existing with a good God never fails to lead to the topic of free-will, which is the next argument McCloskey brings to the table. “If we have free will is it so valuable as to justify all the evil caused by men's morally evil acts, i.e. would it really be a worse state of affairs for us to be rational automata?”By stating that he would rather be a robot than have free will that might lead to evil he shows that he misunderstands the free-will theodicy. What he fails to comprehend is that God wants us to be able to freely give our love to Him. God doesn't want us to be machines that can only obey Him mechanically, with no heart or allegiance. Man's purpose on earth is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Man is to love God by choice, not by automatic means. In his article Genesis in Time and Space, Francis Schaeffer put it nicely when he said, “In the flow of history, man is brought face to face with that for which he has been made—face to face in a loving relationship to the God who is there.” Man's ability to choose between good and evil is what makes him distinct from animals. We cannot have free will without being able to choose evil, because it wouldn't be free will without that option. McCloskey makes a mistake that Ravi Zacharias points out in Jesus among Other Gods: “Not one proponent of evolutionary ethics has explained how an impersonal, amoral first cause through nonmoral processes has produced a moral basis for life, while at the same time denying any objective moral basis for good and evil.”

McCloskey closes his article by discussing mankind's purpose in life, or the lack thereof. He argues that “victims can find comfort in knowing that no god caused them to suffer, and seek and receive comfort and strength from their friends and men of goodwill instead.” Men of goodwill are poor substitutes for a merciful, gracious, powerful God. Without God, man is doomed and life is pointless. The universe and all human beings are fated to die, and when they do, their existence will have been temporary and eternally meaningless. How does McCloskey find comfort in meaningless life? How is having no purpose in life a comfort to atheists? There is no reason for existence if the end result is eternal death. What meaning can be given to one's life? Does it even matter how one lives? I can hardly fathom the idea of my life ending at the grave. Death would become the scariest thing. William Lane Craig in The Absurdity of Life without God says,“So if God does not exist, that means that man and the universe exist to no purpose—since the end of everything is death—and that they came to be for no purpose, since they are only the blind products of chance. In short, life is utterly without reason.” Again I ask, how is this any comfort at all to an atheists and why would McCloskey set out to convince others of his dismal view of life?

In conclusion, H.J McCloskey's arguments against theism are full of logical fallacies, baseless facts contrary to evidence, illogical statements, and ill-defined definitions for the concepts of theism. In Psalm 14:1 David cries, “The fool says in his heart, 'there is no God.'” H.J McCloskey's arguments are foolish and poorly constructed. I echo Mr. T when he stated, “I pity the fool”. I think that Proverbs 18:1 accurately describes McCloskey- “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion”,because Mr. McCloskey’s article was simply the musings from the pen of a sad, misinformed, pagan. He failed to disprove theistic beliefs. Ecclesiastes 4.5 says “a fool folds his hands and eats his flesh”. Sadly, God will hold Mr. McCloskey accountable for everything he has done and written during his lifetime, just as all humanity is accountable for every thought, word, and deed. And with that truth in mind,  I find no reason to reject the arguments for God's existence. I find no reason to reject the idea that evil and a good God can co-exist. I find no reason to believe that atheistic beliefs are more comfortable than theistic ones. I find no reason to believe that there is no meaning or purpose to life on earth.

The Problem of Evil

Greetings fellow earthlings!
This week in class I have been learning about the problem of evil. We had to write a paper in response to the problem. This is my response: (I added little pictures to make it more interesting. The pictures were not in my actual paper)

The Goodness of God and Human Suffering

"The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith”,stated theologian John Stott. Indeed I have been guilty of asking myself the questions;If there is a God, why do good people suffer; Why do innocent children starve while the wicked prosper; and would a loving creator allow heart-wenching suffering? For centuries skeptics and believers alike have wondered if the presence of suffering could co-exist with a wise and loving God. The presence of evil and suffering can actually be proof of a good and caring God, because it presupposes an objective standard for good and evil.

God is the objective standard for good and evil. C.S. Lewis has called God “The Supreme Good”. Lewis also said,“If the universe is so bad...how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?” Lewis believes the very concept of evil and goodness calls for a standard of goodness which begs to be accounted for. If there is no God, where did the standard by which we define evil originate? Skeptics may ask, “Where was God when the hurricane hit Haiti?; why didn't God stop the disaster?;does God care? If God is all-loving, all-powerful and all-good shouldn't suffering be non-existent?” However, the over-arching response to those questions should be “By what standard are you judging “good” versus “bad” circumstances? Every society has a standard by which they determine “good” from “evil” yet most of the time they don't realize the organization of their standard.

Regardless of their religious beliefs most people would unwaveringly agree that putting young children into the back of a pick-up truck, driving them to the edge of a cliff, then shoving them off the cliff, would be morbidly evil. But why? Why does the image of purposely shoving babies off a cliff make people cringe? Because, everyone knows this is wrong. When and where did they learn this moral code of right and wrong. No one has to teach to man. It's part of the Natural Law that God instilled into His image-bearing creation.

Natural Law is an objective norm to which people strive for and which expect other people to abide by. It is a law that informs and convicts men of what they should and should not do. It is universally known and universally broken. Unfortunately, although the law is written on human hearts it is not automatically obeyed. We all break this natural law, and disobey the law's author.

God, the author of good and evil is Himself acquainted with suffering. Romans 8 says “What then shall we say to these things?If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?” (Romans 8:32-33, 35)

Good cannot exist without evil, therefore the two do not contradict each other. Evil is a necessary counterpart to good. This can easily be shown through the contrast between great and small. For something to be great it must naturally have a counterpart in something less great. While the concepts of great and small can be viewed as opposites, they need each other in order to be clearly understood.

An example of this: When I was six years old I went on a missions trip to a housing project built on top of a dump in Mexico. While there I visited an extremely poor family who had received a new bed and wanted to show “the Americans”. As I entered their humble abode I noticed the mother had put a lot of effort into preparing her home for us. The dirt floor was swept smooth, the table was cleared and decorated with a jar of flowers. To any poor Mexican this little house would appear clean as a whistle. However, to an American eye, the house was anything but clean, in fact it was dirty. It was dirty to me and my family because of our American understanding of clean.Similarly evil presupposes good. Just as clean is the absence of dirt, so evil is the absence of good. This is significant proof that evil and good do not contradict each other

God is the ultimate good, righteous in all His ways. Even in circumstances that would cause the most faithful follower to question God's goodness. In Genesis 18 Abraham asked God confidently “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” There is no good apart from God. Evil cannot exist apart from a Holy God, since God's goodness and justice are the hallmarks of everything that is opposite of evil.

Peter Kreeft, author of “The Case for Faith” says“God is not the author of suffering, but He is the provider”. God created free will. Mankind's free will is the source of evil. God could not create a world without the potentiality for sin and evil. If was were no potentiality for sin, there would be no freedom. The idea of a world with free will yet without potentiality for sin is a self-contradiction. What would be the point in having free will if we didn't really get to make a choice? As Kreeft asserted “A world without suffering would be more like hell than heaven”, Because when evil is removed, free is abolished. Kreeft also said “A world without suffering would be a world without love, which is the highest value in the universe. That highest good could never have been experienced. Real love- our love of God and our love of each other- must involve a choice. But with the granting of that choice comes the possibility that people would choose instead to hate.” God gave us Free Will, and we chose to sin and now suffer the consequences.

An omnipotent God can and will use suffering, pain and evil in our lives.

 Romans 8:28- “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Allowing evil enables God to defeat the ultimate evil, Satan, with His righteous justice.

When God allows suffering it may be His way of pushing us in the direction of unexpected blessing. Sometimes the presence of pain in my life brings the practical benefit of sanctifying me. God works in me through affliction. R.C Sproul puts it nicely ”As uncomfortable as pain may be, we do know that the scriptures tell us again and again that tribulation is a means by which we are purified and driven to a deeper dependence on God. There is a long-range benefit to us that we would presumably lose were it not for the pain we are called to 'endure for a season.' The scriptures tell us to endure for a season because the pain we experience now cant even be compared with the glories stored up for us in the future.” It's going to hurt and we don't know why we're going through that hurt, but God knows. And when we overcome that suffering we partake in a tiny piece of what Christ did on the cross. Sproul also says “It's good to remember that the very baptism we receive is, among other things, a sign of our willingness to participate in the sufferings of Christ.” We may not know why we're suffering but we can take comfort in suffering honorably in trusting God with the results.

In conclusion, the fact that evil exists aids the argument for the existence of God. There is an objective standard for good; that is the Supreme Good, who is God. Suffering is not necessarily bad. Man's suffering can be for a greater, sometimes invisible, purpose.“Pain and suffering are frequently the means by which we become more motivated to finally surrender to God and to seek the cure of Christ” surmised Peter Kreeft. God does not make mankind suffer unnecessarily. Without evil we would not have free will. God knows what He is doing at all times even when He ordains suffering for His people. Just as it pains a human father to see his child hurting, whether from an accident or needful surgery, God the Father suffers alongside His children. God suffered extreme pain when He sent His son Jesus Christ to die the painful and shameful death of the cross.

Perhaps the real question that should be asked is not “If God is good, why do bad things happen?”, but rather, “Why is God so merciful and gracious towards us and what have we done to deserve this?”. The only truthful answer is that we don't deserve it. But God has made a way for us to be eternally free from all pain and suffering- in glory, with Him. This is the truth that should make us stand in awe.

Childhood Question Answered!

This is going to be a quick post.

When I was kid my parents would tell me that God created everything, and I would ask them "well then who created God?" I have never been satisfied with any answer given, until today.

This is a cool picture I found online when I was researching cosmology!
I have no idea what it means.

I'm reading "Cosmological Argument" by William Lane Craig where he argues that God exists. In the beginning of the article Craig  used a syllogism to explain his reasoning

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
The universe began to exist.
Therefore, the universe has a cause.

  At the end of the article he rebuts some objections to his claim, one of them happened to be "But if the universe must have a cause, then what is God's cause?" As soon as I read this, I was reminded of my childhood questioning of the existence of God, and where He came from. And Craig finally answered my question!
" The first premise does not state Whatever exists has a cause, but rather Whatever begins to exist has a cause."

God never began to exist...so He doesn't require a cause, because He never came into being. God is not restricted to time and space like we are, so it is difficult for us to comprehend something like that. I get headaches when I wrestle the very thought of something...SOMEONE existing outside of time and space. I'm not comfortable with something I can't fully understand...which is where "faith" comes to into play.

I plan on continuing to post about things I learn/get out of my readings.

Dear Mom, I wanted to do something you on Valentines day, even though I'm 1,354 miles away. I thought I'd write you a note via blog, that way the whole world can know how amazing you are (yes the whole world reads my blog). I'm sorry I'm too poor to send you flowers, or a package with chocolate, which I'm pretty sure you'd appreciate more than flowers. But where I'm poor when it comes to money, I'm rich when it comes to love and appreciation for you. Wow that was cheesy.

 Not just any woman could take on the challenge of raising 11 children, and do so spectacularly. Kate (from Jon and Kate plus  couldn't even handle 8!. Yes, Michelle Dugger is a mother to 20, but I doubt she does as good of a job as you do with your 11.

 You're the most organized woman I've ever met. You have such an amazing knack for home decorating and keep our house in pristine order (any of y'all who have ever been to the Pittman house can attest to that). Not only do you keep the house and all of our belongings in great shape, you also keep all your kids in great shape, mentally and physically! I don't know any other woman who could say the same.

 Thank you for teaching me to be respectful and well mannered. Everything you taught me when I was younger made more of an impact than I ever thought it would. Even those hours of catechism that I hated and pitched so many fits about have really benefited me in the long run.

Thank you for never giving up on me even when it took eight years for me to finally learn how to read.  I'm so grateful that I have a mother like you, willing to support me even when I decide to move across the country. You still do an amazing job at being my mother even when I'm miles and miles away. 

 I know we've had our ups and downs, mom. Even through those terrible fights during my high school years you still loved me and supported me unconditionally. Thank you for being there for me and supporting me when I was rowing. Thank you for encouraging me when I was feeling down.

  Thank you for teaching me God's Word, and for showing me the importance of living in it. Thank you for modeling for me what a godly woman looks like.  You push me when I need pushing, comfort me when I need comfort, and reprimand me when I need reprimanding. You spanked me when I needed to be punished, and I’m glad you did. You encourage me, motivate me, and continue to inspire me. I know I can always go to you and ask you anything.  Thank you for being the best mother a girl could ask for. I love you and can't wait to see you in May!

 Happy Valentines Day, Mama

Minnesotan Adventures and Rivendell Exploits

I have been at Rivendell for a month now and so-far I've really enjoyed it. I've been kept busy from the moment I stepped unto campus! Every Monday-Thursday we have morning and afternoon class. On Friday we just have morning class. The first six weeks we study “Critical Thinking” and “Logic”. I've studied logic before, but not in the same way I'm studying it now. We've discussed subjective and objective truth, apologetics, fallacies, some philosophy, socratic logic, some theology, and metaphysics. We've read articles from authors such as: Bertrand Russel, Thomas Aquinas, Peter Kreeft, Norman Geisler, Thomas Keats, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Aristotle, Plato, J.P Moreland, and a few more that I can't remember.

We've read through Genesis during our inductive Bible study, and had our Genesis test this week. We've had a lot of homework every night, so I have definitely been kept busy.

During the weekends I've had time to do fun stuff. I went to the Mall of America, which is truly daunting. I spent 3 hours there, and didn't even get through all the stores in the East Wing... Fun fact:

the Mall of America is the size of 78 football fields!

We had a birthday party at Rivdendell for all the December-January birthdays, and the theme was “Pajama Party”. My class wanted to make a dramatic entrance so we all went out and spent hours searching for adult sized footie pajamas. It was quite entertaining to listen to Alexandra (one of my classmates) call six different stores and ask if they had 14 adult sized footie pajamas. The people on the other line usually asked her to repeat her question, and then had to transfer her to someone else. The hours spent driving around Bloomington and Minneapolis payed off when we entered the party and saw everyone's expressions at our outfits.

I'm sure all my fellow Floridians are wondering how I've been faring with the drastic weather change which I experienced when moving from Florida to Minnesota. Well, I've fared pretty well so far. There have been moments when the temperature has dropped to 12 below with the wind chill making it feel like 21 below...I remember one morning the temperature was -15 and I had to walk out of my dorm to the Administration building, as soon as I stepped outside the coldness just steeped through my layers of clothing and just chilled my bones! However, this is the warmest winter Minnesota has had in a very long time, so I'm not complaining too much. It hasn't snowed that much either, which is fine by me because I'm not a huge fan of snow. The stuff is just wet, mushy and creates a mess. I can't wear normal shoes when it snows...I prefer my Sperrys to snow-boots anyday.

You all who know me well, know that I love food. I love good home-cooked southern meals. I love meat. I love bread. I just love food in general. But, I'm not a huge fan of the cafeteria food here. The meals here don't sit well with me...literally. I'm not sure if its because they're cooked for a lot of people or if I'm just not used to not getting fresh meals...I just don't know. I do know this, the food here is not amazing. I miss all the food my family cooked back home. I also really miss Chick-fil-a. Can you believe that there is not one Chick-fila-a in all of Minnesota?! What kind of place doesn't have a Chick-fil-a?! The closest one to my location is in Omaha NB...6 ½ hours away. One word: REDICULOUS!!!!

I have been eating lot of cereal, cheezits, granola bars and bananas. I have around 3-4 bananas everyday. I think my finger-nails have really benefited from all the bananas, because they've been looking really good lately.

Some things I've noticed about the North and Northerners:

• It's so dry here. Not only does the dryness effect my skin, but also my hair... I never knew that a dry climate could effect one's hair!
• The street lights here (red, yellow, green) are on the side of the road on little poles, instead of above the street.
• It's below freezing in the Winter and super hot and humid in the summer...worst of both worlds.
• The people up here all sound different, and arent as polite as us Southerners ;)
• Boots are to Minnesotans as flip-flops are to Floridians. Try to say Minnesotans without a Minnesotan accent!
• Maybe its' because of the winter season, but a lot of the buildings here are really ugly.
• The lakes here are beautiful...even when they're covered in ice.
• There are no Krispy Kremes or Dunkin' Doughnuts here.
• The sidewalks look perfectly normal while in all actuality they are icy and slippery.

Thats all for now folks. I don't want to make my post too long...Mama P always gets on my case if it's too long.

 Vicodin, Minnesota and not much more

I have a lot of catching up to do...

I came home from Semester and had an amazing Christmas with my whole family. I got my wisdom teeth out, and spent a week watching my nephew and niece while on Vicodin.Which was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed my time with them.

This is my 18 month old niece Sophie :)

Im going to expound on the wisdom teeth surgery, only because it was such an awful experience. December 28^th I went to the oral surgeon, signed in, went to the back room, sat in the chair, got my arms strapped down (kind of scary...) and then they put the laughing gas mask on me. I was supposed to count backwards from 10, so I did....and I was still very awake and was aptly listening to the nurses talk about where they got their white tennis shoes (big sale at Shoe Station in Market Square!). They finally noticed I was still awake and very aware and gave me an IV, after that I don't remember anything until I was trying to get in my 12 passenger van which has very high-steps... I spent the next week looking like as swollen as a pregnant whale and in a lot of pain. Apparently, drugs don't work on me...the Vicodin helped a tiny bit...but I didn't have any weird side effects, and acted completely normal. Long story short, I had two dry sockets which made for a very slow recovery.

Yes...I'm adding this because it depicts how painful it was pretty well, and also because I can't remember  anyone ever taking this so it was quite funny to come across it on my camera. 

Ok, next big event that happened since Semester's end- I decided to attend Rivendell, a small Christian Liberal Arts 2 year college that I will complete in 18 months. As I write this, I'm sitting in the common room of my dorm in Bloomington Minnesota. Why did I exchange 75 degree Florida weather for 20 degree Minnesota weather...It's kind of like exchanging a burger and fries for a spinach salad and whole wheat bread; I'll benefit better in the end/better outcome. I was planning on attending in the Fall but it worked out better for me to attend in January...so 1 week before classes started I decided to come...it was a hectic week of packing, popping vicodin, rushing around looking for winter clothes, and saying good-bye to as many people as I could.

I've only been at Rivendell for 2.5 days, but I love it. I have a super small class of 14 students, 8 girls 6 boys. We have 2 teachers B.J and Donald. At Rivendell we take a course for 6 weeks and then we're done with it. T he first 6 week course is “Critical Thinking” which is a lot of logic, apologetics and reading. Usually we discuss essays we had to read the night before. However, today and tomorrow we're watching a video series on Discipleship by Landa Cope. Landa is totally hilarious...or at least think she is which is funny. Everytime she says something she thinks is funny she pauses and opens her mouth and just laughs at her own joke... and since words cannot explain this well enough, I went to all the trouble of looking up a video of her, and then finding a part where she's sort of laughing....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oRaAm2rb_Q

7:37 is the time you can skip to.

I hope to continue to blog a lot more while I'm here... this post is really short. Be thankful that I'm able to summarize big events in less than one page (I definitely did not get that skill from my mama).

Until next time folks!

Blog for week 10

Sadness has started to creep up on us during week 10. At family meeting, Dustin reminded us that we had 18 days left until graduation...I feel like I've been here for awhile, but it also feels like time has just gone by so quickly!

It's been a good week though. Monday, a bunch of students went skiing. I stayed back and wrote papers and finished “When Character was King” ( Ronald Reagan's biography). I also went to town and spent time with Matthew and Marcie at a cute little coffee shop downtown. I've really come to enjoy spending time in coffee shops. Not only my mind, body and soul have matured, but so have my taste buds ;) My love for coffee has definitely grown while being here. The caffeine doesn't effect me...unfortunately, so it doesn't help me stay awake during morning and evening classes. But I really love a good cup of black coffee...no cream, no sugar! I do like flavored coffee when I go to Starbucks though...only because they usually burn their coffee... I think they do it on purpose so that costumers will go for the more expensive fancy flavored drinks, since their regular coffee is so crappy. Anyway, I sat by the window facing the river, eating a cinnamon roll and drink a vanilla latte, reading C.S Lewis. What a glorious way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Tuesday was even better than Monday! It was “Ladies Appreciation Day”! A few weeks ago we put on a “Guy Appreciation Day” where we made and served them breakfast and dinner, covered their dish crews, wrote them each a letter (so each guy got 19 letters!) and line danced after dinner. It was a great evening! But the guys...the guys went above and beyond on their day. They made us parfaits with fresh fruit and granola, and scones for breakfast. They did our dish crews too, which is always nice...since we do so many dishes here! For lunch they made us orange chicken, special Asian rice (made by our very own Asian/Mexican/Hawaiian boy) and vegetables...it was so delicious! In the afternoon we had work-crews. I was on the crew that chopped up trees, carried the logs to the barn, and then chopped the logs into fire-wood. I spent the first hour and half throwing the logs down the mountain to Peter, who loaded them into the wheel-barrow and took them to the truck. Before we did any of that though, I had to shovel a path from the mountain to the drive-way so that we could push the laden wheel-barrow through the snow, which was about 8-10 inches on the mountain. After we had finished that, we drove the truck down to the barn, unloaded and began swinging our axes and chopping that wood! It was my first time chopping fire wood and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I thought I would be super sore the next day, but I wasn't...probably because swinging an axe works the same muscles as rowing does. After work crews we were told we couldn't enter the main lodge until 5:30 and that we needed to dress up. So of course all the girls freaked out and ran to their rooms to go shower and dress up. It was really fun...we were all borrowing each others dresses, doing each others hair, etc... At 5:30(ish) one of the guys came over here to escort the ladies to the main lodge. When we got to the door, each girl got escorted to the tables, were we each had a name-placement card. The tables were covered in red table clothes and set for a 5 course meal, which is what we were served! The guys didn't even sit down to eat...they served us each course! It was so cute how they were all dressed up, and polite. They cooked each course themselves, since the cooks were girls they too got the day off. We had amazing freshly baked french bread, followed by Tomato Basil soup....

Ok so I wrote all of the above about 2 weeks ago...so I don't remember what we had after Tomato Basil Soup...sorry to leave you hanging. Im sorry for not posting anything last week. I must admit I've been a little lazy in bloging lately due to the fact that I only have a week left at Semester.

Lots of stuff happened this week, Thanksgiving, Baumans final class, and of course Christmas parties. Thanksgiving was lot of fun, I ate too much as usual... I ate 3 full plates of food. Everything looked so good, that I just had to try some of everything... duh! After napping off my food baby, I went for a run, which was extremely painful. Food baby was definitely kicking during my run! It was really nice to see everyone's families who came to celebrate TG with us. Although, it made me miss my family even more... Spending TG without my family was a weird feeling, but luckily I had my summit family to celebrate it with.

On Friday we went to go chop down our tree...and by we I mean everyone who remembered to wake up early and go walk to miles to cut it down...and yes, I slept in by accident. I did want to go help get the tree though :( The rest of the day was spent listening to Christmas music, playing Settlers of Catan and making ornaments!

Unfortunately I have to leave civilization so this is the end of this post! Sorry folks

Blog Post for week 8-9

It's been too long since I've last sat down to jot down the exciting events of my life for y'all. I'm not even sure where to begin since so much has happened in the past two weeks! I guess if God began at the beginning, I should follow in His example and begin at the beginning.

Last week, Monday October 31^st, we had celebrated Halloween the Christian way with a Fall Festival. Except here at Snow Wolf Lodge we call it “Farvest Hall”. Originally it was “Harvest Fall” but the past director kept accidentally referring to it as Farvest Hall, so thats what we call it now. Anyway, its our Halloween celebration and we do all sorts of fun things. Our day started off with a 5k, which I did not participate in. One of my closest friends, Sarah Donely, won for the girls, and Steven Forrester won for the guys. After that we had a photo-savanger hunt! My team definitely did not win...but we had fun. And I did actually take some pictures, so here are a few of them:

Farvest Hall Finish line!

New friends!

Silhouette 

Hold the sun

Defy Gravity/ Horrible picture of me, but its cool so I posted it

Where's Waldo?

Anyway those are some of the pictures we took. After our hunt, we had a wonderful lunch of some weird pumpkin squash soup in a bread bowl. Then we had shoot competition (No I did not win), carved pumpkins, and made candy apples. My first pumpkin carving was a disaster! We tried to cave Jacob wrestling an angel into a pumpkin...yeah not my idea, and it didn't look anything like an angel. HAH!

After that we got into our costumes!!! Anna, Amy and I decided to dress up like the three guy mentors. I was actually able to borrow some of Jeremy's clothes, which was nice and made it easier for me to look like him. It was so fun to see everyone in their costumes! There was an award for best costume, and I won for the girls, and Jon won for the guys. The ironic thing was that we had both dressed up as somebody of the opposite gender! Then we had an EPIC dance party! I used to think I sucked at dancing...and I found out that I don't! It just takes a lot of practice to get good at it. We do a lot of line-dancing, swing, and freestylin' here. With the occasional dubstepin'. When our wonderful day was over, we all plopped into bed exhausted. The mentors had decorated our classroom and turned it into a really pretty room with a bunch of finger foods and stuff, it was quite lovely.

Some of our more artistic students painted this and put it on our ceiling.

Add caption

Tuesday we went back to normal routine... I honestly cant remember anything special that happened that day...

Wednesday classes with Bauman started again... same with Thursday and Friday and Saturday... Although it did start snowing again on Thursday. And it didn't stop until Sunday!!! We got about a foot total. It's covering everything! Its crazy!!!! We had another huge snowball fight on Satuday...we had so much more snow this time that we got to erect a giant snowman, and a fort...I also had adequate gloves and snow pants this time, so it wasn't miserable. Sarah and I really enjoy throwing snowballs at Koert's (one of the guy mentors here) window and then hiding...Im not sure why we hide though, since he totally knows it us. Sometimes he throws pennies at us...I'm not sure if it's supposed to be payback, but I like getting paid to throw snowballs! It's so weird going from living in Florida, where it gets really cold because of the humidity but doesn't snow, to living in Colorado where it snows a whole foot before Thanksgiving! I'm not sure that I like Colorado better than Florida. It might be because I live in the middle of no-where in the mountains here...I think that if I lived in the city, I might like it better here. But I also really miss Florida.

Sunday 21 students and 4 staff took a road trip to the Grand Canyon! The roads were covered in snow! The driveway from SWL to the main road was pretty icy, and we left at 6AM so it was dark, which made it all the more scary! It took us 8 hours to get to the Grand Canyon, 5 of them were spent driving through Arizona desserts...SO BORING!

I did get some pretty cool pictures with my iPod though.

Arizona

We got to the GC at about 3PM and set up camp...yep, I just said set up camp. It was under 30 degrees when we arrived and by the time we were ready to go to sleep it had dropped to below 20. After setting up camp we went on a 1 1/5 mile hike to see the canyon. Koert got us lost though, so what should have taken us 20 min, took us an hour and a half. Almost immediately Sarah drops one of her precious mittens into the canyon. Luckily, it didn't fall more than 20 feet before it landed on a little ledge. She started freaking out about how she needed her mitten and how much they had cost. So a bunch of the guys decide to use a rope and a little hook thing to try to grab it. After about 20 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to grab the dad-gum mitten with the rope, Koert gets the bright idea of climbing down to the ledge to get it. So he climbs down there and throws the mitten up. Then the problem arises...how to get back up. He tried rock climbing for a few minutes but to no avail. Then the boys throw him the thin little rope and tell him to tie it around his waist. Picture a 6 foot 5 tall dutch-man, tying a little bity rope around his waist and having 4 normal teenage boys pull him up! It's quite a comical picture. While all this was going on, many foreigners passing by, stop and watch the whole ordeal. I think I counted at least 4 Asians who muttered “stupid Americans” and a few Mexicans who said “Stupid Americanos”...it was ridiculous! I was thoroughly embarrassed, not to mention surprised that no park ranger showed up to kick us out! So Sarah got her mitten, Koert felt like a true hero, and I felt like an embarrassed American. But for real...I saw SOOOO many foreigners...I think there were more of them than there were Americans.

So we got the mitten...PTL! While all of this was going on, my blood sugar had started to drop rapidly! It had been dropping on the hike to the canyon, but I had eaten three apples and it had been better. But apples only last so long...ya know? When my blood sugar gets low, I start getting really grumpy and tired. We start hiking back, and guess who gets us lost again?? If you guessed Koert, you're correct. This time it took us about an hour to get back...and the whole time we could have taken a shuttle...(we didn't find that out until we were 5 minutes away from our campsite, when we got on a shuttle and the driver told us it'd be faster to walk now...ugh). It was getting cold, it was snowing, my blood sugar was low and we had to hike for an hour. I was so close to passing out...it was really embarrassing. Thankfully, Andy bought me some peanut Mms which lasted me like...5 minutes. All the way back to the campsite I kept thinking about how much I looked forward to getting back to our campsite, and then I would remember all I had to look forward to was a tent in 20 degree weather...but I still looked forward to it.

We got back to the campsite and I ate 2 packets of Gatorade powder...talk about nasty. But it did help. I ate a lot of granola bars during the next few hours...some of the boys made us a really nice fire and all 25 of us huddled around the little fire trying to stay warm. My biggest complaint about the whole trip was that the snow kept putting out our fire. Being from Florida, snow has always been somewhat of a novelty to me. I've always enjoyed snow, up until that point. I cursed every flake that fell down anywhere near me. After singing songs, telling scary stories and of course making sh'mores, we all went to our tents because the snow was getting us really wet and cold. I was in a tent with Marcie, Teiter, and Caitlin. We all stayed super warm all night because a) Caitlin brought at least 12 blankets with her, b) 4 girls in a three man tent is pretty tight so our body heat kept each other warm and c) I had on 2 pairs of socks, short spandex, long spandex pants, ski pants, a tank-top, under-armor, a t-shirt and my super warm jacket. Not to mention my body heat...I'm always warmer than other people because of my metabolism. Marcie an Caitlin stayed warm all night partly due to my body heat.

I slept like a baby!! I as so warm and toasty all cuddled up in my mummy bag! I woke up the next morning, looked outside and saw everything covered in 6 inches of snow! I also got out and ran to the car to get the water boiler so we could make hot chocolate :)

The trip was a lot of fun...even if I did almost die. We didn't get the best view of the actual canyon because of all the fog and snow clouds...that was a tad bit disappointing, but we had a totes epic adventure!

J.P Moreland is our lecturer this week. The topic: Philosophy. I've been getting a headache during most classes, just mulling over things he's telling us. So far we've covered: epistemology, the problem of evil and where it came from, evidence for God's existence, how to choose a religion, do animals have souls, and free will.

We've also discussed modern day miracles, which is the thing I struggled the most with. This week has reallllly made me aware to my ignorance of many topics. I'm going to read up on all this stuff when I get home. I'd read about it here, but I seriously have no time to read anything other than required reading.

Saturday we get a day off...which will be really nice. We get to go into town and use the INTERNET, whoo hoo!!!! NOT that I NEED it or anything, but I want to check up on all my peeps on FB, and post this on my blog, and maybs skype my family.

Sunday, the church we attend here is having a big thanksgiving dinner after the service. So we're going to attend that, which should be fun and totes delish!

Thank you to all my loving, adoring fans who have sent me mail while I've been here... it's been really nice and encouraging to get mail. Debs, Shep, Dad, and Molly, special thanks to you for writing me every week!

As some of y'all already know, but I get to stay an extra 5 days in Colorado with a good friend here! So I wont be flying back until December 8^th.

Toodles!!!!

ps. I couldnt add all my pics because the internet is too slow. my apologies :(

Blog post for weeks 6 and 7

This week has been really packed...we had absolutely no free time, which didn't actually bother me that much. I got a lot done this week! And I've learned quite a bit.

Dr. Donald T. Williams was our speaker this week. His lectures included “literature, humanities, theology through literature, worldviews through literature, poetry, and the philosophy of Satan.”

I must confess, that I never fully appreciated poetry until hearing Williams discuss the topic with us, and read us some of his own works of poetry. In the past I have made a futile attempt at composing poetry...all to no avail. All my past attempts have been rubbish, but I feel inspired to try again. If I do actually try again, and if it's presentable...I shall post it, but don't get your hopes up, because I sincerely doubt any “poem” I ever write will be available to the public.

We've had a lot of reading to do this week! “Mere Humanity” by Donald Williams was one of our required readings for this week. Many of my fellow students found it to be boring...but I found it very interesting! Williams is writing about what man is. He uses Chesterton's “Everlasting Man”, Lewis' “Space Trilogy” and “Chronicles of Narnia”, and “Abolition of Man” and Tolkien's “ Lord of the Rings Trilogy” to aid him in describing what man is. I highly recommend that you read it... if you happen to be a member of my family (which probably about 60% of my readers are...) you can borrow it from me. If you're not... well then buy it! I've also had to read “Romeo and Juliet”. I've been reading it with my buddies, Natalie, Sarah and Erik...we fight over the role of Juliet (except Erik, he gets Romeo whether he likes it or not). When I was a sophomore at CCA, we read a lot of plays, one of which was R and J. So I know how to read Shakespeare's language...which turned out to be very helpful when fighting for the role of Juliet ;) Some other books I've read this week; Church History- Shelley, Historians of the Christian Faith-Bauman, and “A Grief Observed” C.S Lewis. The Lewis book I read on my own, and it was sooooo good! Lewis is one of my favorite authors, second only to J.K Rowling!

Its been 6 weeks...Semester is half-way over! I'm not sure whether I'm happy or sad about that... While I really enjoy being here, I miss home, family and friends, so I'm excited to come home, but sad to leave my friends here. I've learned so much in the past 6 weeks, and changed a lot (for the better). The first weeks I was here I was focused more on building relationships with others and on having fun. But this week my attitude toward Semester changed. I was having my devotions one evening (because I never wake up early enough to have it before breakfast) and realized that I need to focus more on learning and studying. All week I focused more on my studies. I spent much more time reading and studying...which in the end actually gave me more time to spend with people! I found that I have a true love for reading and learning! It took 19 years, Mom, but I think I finally realized the importance of reading good books! Not JUST reading them, but receiving them, and digesting the content! I wish I had learned this sooner, but I'm glad I finally came to the realization!

Alrighty, on to the events of this week! As I previously stated, we didn't have much free time this week. Sunday I learned how to butcher an elk!!! It was rather disgusting, but very interesting!!! My hands were covered in blood...as I chopped up part of the rump! After cutting all the silver and fascia and fat off of the meat, I chopped the rump up into small pieces. Then I put them in the grinder, and turned chunks into ground elk! It was actually pretty fun, once you got over the fact that it was raw, bloody meat... Monday, which is usually our day off we had class, Tuesday we had class, and work crews. Yes, I sanded, again...but this time it wasn't that bad. We've moved to the west wall of the lodge, which for some reason is a lot easier to sand. I feel like I need to write about sanding, because I spend a lot of my time here, doing it! At first I hated it... it sucked...my nasal passages get filled with sawdust, sawdust gets in my eyes, I have to listen to my music turned up all the way, to sound out the loud whining of the sanders. Sawdust gets everywhere...in my hair, on my arms, on my arm hair, all over my clothes... its just a pain in the butt! After spending a total of 18 hours in 6 weeks of sanding, I finally began to appreciate it. It's so good for one's character! It's also nice because you get to see right away the results of your labor! Sanding is not my favorite thing to do... it probably never will be, but I do appreciate the character it helps build, not to mention a good work ethic... Wednesday...nothing exciting happened.... we had class...

Thursday I woke up 15 minutes after breakfast started, so I got my first late mark, which was depressing since I haven't gotten one late mark yet. It was also embarrassing since I had to walk into the dinning hall 15 minutes late, with sleepy eyes, and wild woman hair...when you walk in the dinning hall the door squeaks, so of course everyone turned to look to see who was coming in... totes embarrassing! A lot of students went to Opal Lake...but I stayed behind to study. I also cleaned my room and bathroom, did my roomates and my own laundry, made my bed (for the first time in about a week!!) and wrote some letters...all in all I had a very productive day! At the end of the day some of the more talented students put on a play that Dr. Williams had written : “Revenge of the DWEMS (dead white European Males). After the play we had a reception of sorts... basically it was just an excuse for us to have desserts...Desserts are about as rare as getting enough cell service to make a phone call, around here.... Then we had an impromptu dance party! At first I was hesitant to attend, homeschool kids don't tend to have the best dance party, BUT it was actually super fun, and we didn't just play hymns... we danced to dubstep, Party in the USA, Spice girls, Cha Cha Slide, Electic slide, like 5 other various slides...we learned the Virgina Reel...which was super fun, and we basically just danced. I busted out some moves I had no idea I was capable of. Steven, Jon, and Matt S. even did the worm... it was a pretty legit dance party!

Saturday we went to the sand dunes. It was like going out in the middle of the desert. Everywhere I looked it was just sand everywhere. Most of the students climbed to the top of the mountain of sand. It took us two hours to get to the top...I wish I had pictures, but I didn't want to get sand all over my camera.

Sunday we got split up into groups of 2, 4, and 6 and families from the church we attend here, took us back to their homes to provide lunch for us. I was in a group of four, and we had a blast. Granted, we didn't get Internet, because we sat talking at Gary and Jane's dinning room table for 3 hours...but we did get to shoot guns and hangout in the man cave. I also had the most amazing hamburger...We eat a lot of chicken at Semester, so it was realllllly nice to get some beef!! Gary and Jane pelted us with questions. I cant remember all of them, but one of them was “ where do you see yourself in 10 years, in detail”. So I had to explain in detail what I wanted my future husband to be like, characteristics, etc... and even what kind of dog and car(s) I wanted. It was pretty intense. Sunday night a few students braved the freezing cold and went camping by a river a few miles off campus. It was really fun....for the first few hours while we sat by the fire and talked...but when it came time to go to sleep... it was rather difficult because of how cold it was. I slept in a tent with two other girls, and apparently they didn't sleep too well...but after I fell asleep, I slept for most of the night. I maybe woke up twice, just to make sure no bears where trying to go through my backpack or anything. Again I apologize for not taking pictures, although this time I don't really have an excuse. I just really hate taking pictures. I hate being “that girl” that has to take pictures of everything and everybody all the time. And I'm just lazy....

Monday John Stonestreet came, and we had class monday afternoon and evening. This week is going to be our longest week yet, John stayed until Thursday morning, Bauman is teaching us Thursday-Saturday... so we didn't get a day off this week OR last week.

Monday morning we got to shoot a bunch of different guns! I did get some pictures, but...they're not that good. Most of my friends here take pictures and put them on Facebook, so if you are my friend on FB, you can see them :)

This weekend is alumni weekend. So a bunch of past Semester students are coming up here to visit and stay for a few days. So we are having to clean a lot this week. We already have two students families here, and a few extra guest. Dish crew... is starting to take forever, because of how many dishes we are having to use. You're probably not interested in hearing about how many dishes I'm having to do here, so I'll cease writing about it. Next week we have “Farvest Hall” on monday... and then I think/hope we have a normal week. Next Sunday I'm going with a few students to the Grand Canyon! I'm pretty excited, although its about an 8hr drive there, and 8hrs back. So we are camping....and its going to be freezing...But hey...I get to camp at the Grand Canyon, which is something I've never done before. So it will be two weeks before I can post again :(