Reivew of Shelby's Paper

Shelby does a great job of explaining how culture and and the individual have on how religion is viewed and followed in society. She notes in the introduction of her paper how humankind began to realize that life contains many hardships and downturns. Many people question their connections to God or the existence of a god all together. I like the idea of the "mist or vapor" that was discussed in class and how people can be left with a void. Searching for this "inherent truth" does seem to be one of the biggest goals and obstacles of people living on this earth now.

There is also is a fear that some people choose to accept and others remove, that we should not question the actions of the divine. There are people that place their fate and religion along the same line. Those people that don't look beyond the incident or circumstance to find a meaning, just want to accept that wisdom above theirs has taken place and no further investigation is needed. People "choose the path of ritual, law and habit. He gives the question of suffering no more thought than a cursory glance, afraid of what he might find, and returns instead to the known path of." I think this line really sums up the a traditional way of viewing the Bible and the path a lot of people choose to take.

I also like the idea of a "mental apocalypse" and am awaiting mine. She goes on to explain the power of words and I would agree that faith has a lot to do with to what degree we take words seriously. For some of us that still don't have answer or have found a concrete place to look for it, I like the day to day realizations that its just a good day to be alive.