Bibliography

Minges, P. (1909). Bl. John Duns Scotus. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved November 11, 2010 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05194a.htm


John Duns Scotus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (n.d.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/


Honnefelder, L. (2008). FRANCISCAN SPIRIT AND ARISTOTELIAN RATIONALITY: JOHN DUNS SCOTUS'S NEW APPROACH TO THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY. (pp. 465-478). Franciscan Institute. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Jersey Shore

I have seen the horrors that they call Jersey Shore. How in the name of the Holy Father did this show get to a second season? It is full of vulgar images, with sexual remarks that should not be permitted for others to see or hear. It is every religious mans nightmare to have to see one of these shows on air. It displays the shallowness of the human mind and disturbs many people who watch it. This type of show is what religious figures, like me, try to stop the public from seeing.

            The way they exploit the cast of Jersey Shore is horrendous. It gives too much information about the cast and shows how greatly they want to be on TV and what they’ll do to stay on. They have fights, get into trouble with the law and drink all the time. It isn’t appropriate for young, old and middle-aged people to watch. If someone is this needy to get onto the television, why wouldn’t they do something extraordinary instead of appalling? It shows how little character they have wasting their time partying instead of helping out the weak and the poor.

            The element of Jersey Shore Season 2 that worries me the most is Snooki. She is a bad image for young girls, thinking that it’s ok to engage in sexual intercourse when they want, to drink and cuss all the time and to think you’re allowed to always “do what you want.” If everybody was doing what they really wanted to, some maniac would have killed everyone by now. Snooki is teaching adolescent girls to act in obscene ways, which is more than enough reason to cancel the show now before it gets into a season 3. I can’t even imagine what that will have in it.

            Season two features the Italian-Americans in beautiful, warm Miami. They way they portray the characters in the show becomes the stereotype of Italian-Americans. This is not the way it really is. All Italian-Americans do not act this way, not even a majority of them do. This dreadful show instructs children to have stereotypes against certain people, categorizing them by their ethnicity. It is an awful habit to get into, judging people before you get to know them. If the whole world was like this, who would know if anyone would have even listened to Jesus in the first place.   

            I don’t have much more to say about this show. If you’ve seen it, you must agree with everything said about it. Try not to watch it and maybe the producers will cancel it soon. If all of God’s followers protested against this show, like they should, it wouldn’t have been an issue because it would have never aired. Stay clear of the devil’s temptations, instead go to church and pray.

Election Results

I was shocked to see the results of the elections in the paper this morning. Why do people believe that others can rule their lives? God is our judge, not some human man or woman who chooses whether it is right to kill someone or not. He is our saving father and if he were to be elected into office, I guarantee that he would pay off our debts to China, not make it grow and grow. 

I cannot believe that the U.S has elected those who support the right to bear arms. This law kills many people everyday and needs to be illegal. The U.S is also voting people to say if it is wrong or right to kill unborn children. There is only one answer. Every child is a gift from God and must be loved. The ones elected don’t have jurisdiction to say if it is right or wrong, only God can say so.

                                                  

            The church should be elected to run the country. The citizens need a man of God to lead them through their tough choices in life, not a rich, corrupt government official. The country needs a priest or a monk to run the country fairly. They have the good of the lord in their hearts, not fame and fortune. The Republicans were the ones who came up on top this go-around and they contradict many of God’s laws. They support the death penalty to kill criminals and others who do heinous crimes. Is it really better to kill one person who killed another? In God’s eyes, it is two dead followers of him instead of just one.

            Maybe I should run for office in the upcoming years. I have the Holy Father on my side so I would not astray from the mission. The results of this election tell me that the citizens of the country don’t know what they are doing. As a leader, I would preach the word of the God and convert followers in the name of Jesus. The country bound by one faith is stronger than one bounded by many faiths.

            I guess that it is for the best that the Republicans won the majority seats in the office because they best reflect the views of the church. Followers of faith, no matter how weak their faith is, are always better than non-believers. If they have any piece of faith in God, they will succeed and prosper in helping our country. If you’re going to vote, vote for somebody that has God’s best interests at heart.

Free Will

It seems that people today believe that they have no say in anything when it comes to their lives. They believe that God has divine knowledge and has each and every one of our lives planned. Whether we die and go to the glory that is heaven or the torment and pain of hell, it's all up to God. These people presume that they do not decide what their actions will be, but rather blame God for their actions. This is a misconception on their part.

God gave people free will to decide their own lives, He wants people to love and believe in Him by themselves and not because He told them to. God doesn't want to force people to love Him, so He gave us the power of free will. My esteemed colleague, Thomas Aquinas, stated that freedom to guide our lives is obtained through intellectual appetite. I admire him, but he isn’t always right.

Intellectual appetite is the craving to think and act for your own will. God gave us this gift to decide things on our own. He knows of the results of our actions, yet leaves the free will to decide our path. He doesn't decide for us whether we pray to him, or do not, but he knows the outcomes of both roads. We would lead totally different lives if God lead them for us, we wouldn’t have sin, but then we wouldn’t truly love him.

            I see intellectual appetite as an aim for only happiness. Just because God created us with the nature to disobey does not mean that he will command us to do those actions. The actions that He forbids do not determine happiness. I think that Aquinas is incorrect in saying that will, or the freedom to guide our lives, is obtained solely through intellectual appetite. There is another part to free will that we must decide for ourselves, because it deals with what we will do with things that are not aimed towards happiness. When these two are combined, we obtain free will to aim for happiness and to act differently towards those things that hinder us from that happiness.

            We were given life through God and He allowed us to make our own decisions. That way, we can truly love him, not just because He wants us to, but also because we want to. Intellectual appetite is a part of the free will that God gave us, but there is also another part that is based upon what our reactions to situations that may hinder us from achieving happiness. Overall, those who say that we have no say in life are incorrect and should reconsider their way of thinking.

Trinity

            I heard a woman talking about this yesterday. Many people these days seem to wonder how it’s possible for there to be 3 “persons” in God. They can’t seem to believe that there can be 3 things in 1. The Blessed Trinity is the truth that only Christians believe in. There is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s by faith that we believe that there is a Trinity, but it’s truth.

            The Father is the one who commands people and sends people to do things for Him. He loves everyone and everything the same and He also is slow to anger. He hates those who sin, but loves them again after they have repented. He is the one that most people think of when they hear “God”.

            The Son is the one who came to earth into a human body. He was sent by the Father to die on the cross and wash the sins of the people on earth away. He was the only “person” of God to socially interact with humans and be persecuted by them. He is known to most people as Jesus, the son of God.

            The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. It is the “person” that the Father sends to allow prophets and people who do His work to perform miracles. It also gives supernatural powers to those people as well, including the ability to speak many languages and wisdom. It is usually the “person” that is not thought of to be God, it’s mostly thought of as being just a spirit or power, but this is wrong.

            They are all different persons, but they all are the same God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have many different attributes, but they are all God. There are many examples in the Bible that help to prove this. For example, there is a verse near the beginning of the Bible that has God saying, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26) which implies that there is more than one “person”, but only one God.

            There is much proof that God exists in both the singular and triad forms. Reading some parts of the Bible is one way, but there are other ways as well. Another example is the fact that each “person” of the Trinity has His own distinctive characteristics. Those people who don’t think it’s possible for there to be 3 “persons” in one God are incorrect in their thinking.