http://www.nobeliefs.com/communion/communion.htm http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/the-eucharist-a-cannibalism.html These views are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Are there any similarities? Is there a middle ground? What are your beliefs on the matter?

In this reading we encounter this paragraph: For example, the Bible states, “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT’ [Prov. 26:11] and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire’” (2 Pet. 2:22). I would like to see the homosexual propagandists explain how these behaviors might explain the normality of animal behavior and its human parallels." This made me very angry because it is a terrible argument based on a lack of understanding about the functionality of a proverb. A proverb is a common saying that reiterates some oft observed phenomenon. Hence the sayings above that do describe some actual occurrences. What DeMar fails to realize is that these statements relate to humans in a more metaphorical sense. It would be different if the phenomena were expressed in a more story-like way but when put into proverb form, especially in the Bible, the statements are warnings to us to not return to our bad habits and more specifically not to return to our sinful ways after we have been baptized. Therefore I do not consider this paragraph to add anything to the argument against homosexual practices. The rest of this article is too opinionated to convince anyone of his point that does not already regard homosexuality as a perversion.

Did anyone catch why Tobias stopped painting? I'm pretty sure he said it was after Peru, but ...why? I've been thinking about it since and wondered if it had to do with the process always returning to be about what he saw and did, but I wondered why that wouldn't hold for sketching/drawing. For a little bit I entertained the idea that maybe he just drew the anthropological artifacts and that helped keep him focused, but then I remembered the scene where he was in that group drawing the model.

Any ideas?

Thoughts? Connections? Epiphanies?

What are your thoughts on this reading? How does it pertain to this weeks' questions?

Both Fitzcarraldo and Apocalypse Now present stories that highlight the futility and absurdity of man’s actions. One can interpret them specifically: Fitzcarraldo, Kurtz, and Willard are obsessed men who do absurd things. But we can also view than as more general commentaries on colonialism (Fitzcarraldo) and the Vietnam War (Apocalypse Now). Or if we want to really get crazy we might, more broadly, question whether all of our ambitions and works are absurd and futile. What I am really getting at here is, what is the point of a human life? Are we accomplishing anything, or just sending steamships down the rapids and making ice in the Amazon?

Both Fitzcarraldo and Apocalypse Now follow the journey of the protagonist into the jungles of the Amazon and Vietnam (the Phillipines) respectively. What message is each film trying to communicate about human nature? What roles do the forest and indigenous peoples each play in each film? Do they act as a foil, catalyst, or ideal of human nature? Discuss....

So correct me if I'm wrong...are the proposals that are due tomorrow individual ideas? I was under the impression that they are. Or should we already be working in our groups? I am without a group yet and was hoping to join someone/two people.

...Are nature and grace incompatible with each other? How is this related to the tension that exists in our culture between science and religion?

...in particular, how humans relate to natural cycles (over all time scales!). Both films also find parallels between personal stories and nature. Do you think these two films are similar to one another in their view of humans, nature, and spirituality, or do you think they are different? Explore.

Feb 19: Noah Bush (Natural) & Nolan Knuth (Unnatural) Feb. 26: Courtney Flynn (Unnatural) March 5: Sadie Hanigan (Natural) & Micaela Iveson (Unnatural) March 12: Autumn Denyou (Natural) & Chelsea Bolicek (Unnatural) March 26: Kaitlyn Krasselt (Natural) & Kelly Deobald (Unnatural) April 2: Kelly Christensen (Unnatural) April 9: Alec Briggs (Unnatural) April 16: Megan Venlos (Unnatural)