It's hard for me to decide a topic for my closing post. So, I will ramble about a few things I feel that I've picked up through the term in this class.
First and foremost, I've gained a better respect for other religions. Honestly, I used to critize Catholics more than any others. Even though I don't exactly agree with a good portion of what the Catholic Church stands for, I respect them, and I understand how and why it is the way it is.
Secondly, this class has awakened a religious inquisitiveness within me. For the remainder of my life I will be taking a much closer look at religions and my surroundings, and how they are affected by religion.
Third, I feel like I have a whole new angle to take history from. Granted, I knew of the obvious religious movements and some of the denominations before this class, but now I can look at every aspect of history and ask myself how religion played a part in it.
Well, I think I could go on listing things for awhile. I'm going go eat breakfast before class, though. It's been real, it's been fun, just not real fun. Hah.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Post 20
With little previous knowledge of Wallace Stevens, I decided to search for some background information on wikipedia. The results I found were quite interesting.
In his poems that we read for class he discussed how happiness can be found without religion. He used examples in nature and so forth to prove his point that there doesn't need to be a "big guy" in the sky for it to provide happiness. However, 5 days before his death, Wallace Stevens was baptized by the chaplain of the St. Francis Hospital. I found this to be very strange because Mr. Stevens is not exactly living out his own creed.
However, it is possible that since he had time to cope with his cancer he grew scared of life after death and had nowhere else to turn but religion. He clearly knew that he was going to die. It is just a question of when. It's quite difficult to say whether or not he was religious before he discovered that he had a terminal illness. But, it does lead to some further thought about his poems. It is my conclusion that possibly writing those poems helped him realize how wrong he was, because happiness cannot be found in death with a comforting vision of the afterlife.
In his poems that we read for class he discussed how happiness can be found without religion. He used examples in nature and so forth to prove his point that there doesn't need to be a "big guy" in the sky for it to provide happiness. However, 5 days before his death, Wallace Stevens was baptized by the chaplain of the St. Francis Hospital. I found this to be very strange because Mr. Stevens is not exactly living out his own creed.
However, it is possible that since he had time to cope with his cancer he grew scared of life after death and had nowhere else to turn but religion. He clearly knew that he was going to die. It is just a question of when. It's quite difficult to say whether or not he was religious before he discovered that he had a terminal illness. But, it does lead to some further thought about his poems. It is my conclusion that possibly writing those poems helped him realize how wrong he was, because happiness cannot be found in death with a comforting vision of the afterlife.
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