Hey guys! Last weekend, while I watched The Lord of the Rings movies again and started re-reading the books, I became interested in possible allusions to Christianity that seemed to be contained in them. I had also remembered previously hearing that Tolkien himself was a devout Catholic. Deciding to investigate this further, I came across a website that had an article titled "20 Ways The Lord of the Rings is Both Christian and Catholic." Interestingly enough, this article claims that many aspects of The Lord of the Rings and its characters can have distinctly Christian interpretations. For example, "the One Ring illustrates how evil can entice and enslave," the main theme is that of a clear-cut good versus evil, and the whole idea of a King returning could be seen as parallel to the second coming of Jesus. And these are only a few references among many. Some interpretations that I've heard also claim that the characters of Sam, Aragorn, and Gandalf all embody some aspect of Christ himself. (Devotion, loyalty, sacrifice, and leadership, among others.) If this is the case, then Tolkien seems to have chosen to use his books to convey, not necessarily obviously, some of the aspects and meanings of his faith. I find this fascinating. I know Christianity is the most wide-spread religion in the world, but somehow it is still amazing to me how often it crops up. I mean, come on. Its presence is even felt in Middle-Earth! The messages of Christianity are truly ageless, timeless, and applicable to this day, which could go some way towards explaining why it has managed to stick around for a couple thousand years. I'm sure I could get into analyzing this further, but that might go on for awhile. So...here's the link if anyone wants to read the article! http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0160.
If anyone is actually reading this, I hope you enjoyed looking through it!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Science and Religion
Hi!
My name is Megan and this is my first time EVER blogging. Should be interesting!
I've chosen today to blog about the relationship between science and religion. I find the interaction between the two to be fascinating because, while they might initially appear to be contradictory, it seems possible that they could potentially work together to explain the world. Now, this is an extremely broad topic that could probably be talked about endlessly, so I am going to focus on an article written by Albert Einstein that deals in part on the relationship between religion and science. As I'm sure everyone knows, Albert Einstein was one of the best, if not the best, scientific mind of the twentieth century. However, far from thinking that the two were mutually exclusive, Einstein appeared to believe that they could complement each other. As he so eloquently puts it in the attached article, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Einstein seems to say here that neither can exist alone-to tell a complete story, they must work together. This is quite an interesting idea, one that many educated people today might scoff at, but one I think has the potential to fully understand the universe as a whole. I think I could probably discuss this for a while, but I'm not quite sure how long these blogs are supposed to be. Anyway, here's the link to the article if anyone wants to read it. Hopefully you guys find it as thought provoking as I did!
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm
My name is Megan and this is my first time EVER blogging. Should be interesting!
I've chosen today to blog about the relationship between science and religion. I find the interaction between the two to be fascinating because, while they might initially appear to be contradictory, it seems possible that they could potentially work together to explain the world. Now, this is an extremely broad topic that could probably be talked about endlessly, so I am going to focus on an article written by Albert Einstein that deals in part on the relationship between religion and science. As I'm sure everyone knows, Albert Einstein was one of the best, if not the best, scientific mind of the twentieth century. However, far from thinking that the two were mutually exclusive, Einstein appeared to believe that they could complement each other. As he so eloquently puts it in the attached article, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Einstein seems to say here that neither can exist alone-to tell a complete story, they must work together. This is quite an interesting idea, one that many educated people today might scoff at, but one I think has the potential to fully understand the universe as a whole. I think I could probably discuss this for a while, but I'm not quite sure how long these blogs are supposed to be. Anyway, here's the link to the article if anyone wants to read it. Hopefully you guys find it as thought provoking as I did!
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm
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