Amanda Cheng, Period 8, 12/9/21

 Amanda Cheng

Period 8

12/9/2021

• Literacy & Learning

• Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

• From the Book of Job to the Book of Revelation,     the biblical texts fascinated me more than I thought they would. Although the texts themselves were tough reads, I watched a video afterward to make sure I didn’t misunderstand the context. I found the Book of Job to be unsettling as the greater message was that God knows everything and we can’t comprehend it. We have to learn to accept that there are plans and we will never know why bad things happen to good people. Personally, I am not religious so the thought that back then, people were so dedicated to a divine power amazes me with their line of thought. I felt like it allowed them to make peace that whatever happens, it is because of God so trying to figure out why is pointless. This gives them the ability to trust God and believe things happen in the way they should be. Mr. Misciagna’s Book of Revelation presentation was intriguing about the apocalypse, which we have never touched upon in class yet. The Book of Revelation was crafted to match other passages in the Bible, as well as present 3 perspectives of the same story: Seven Trumpets, Seven Vials, and Seven Seals. Overall, it interests me to understand the perspective of those who do believe in God and how it influences their actions. 

• Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

• The Egyptian’s Book of the Dead documentary left me asking myself what my idea of death is. It has always shocked me how motivated the Egyptians were to achieve eternal paradise even though there was no way they would have known if it works. From the extensive mummifying process to the detailed Book of the Dead to elaborate tombs, the Egyptians were putting in a lot of time, effort, and money to prepare for death. While watching the documentary, the question that keeps stirring in my mind was how do they know all this would work? What especially confuses me is how they would rate the spells, but they would not have known if the spells were useful. It made me wonder if they did know further than what we know right now. The Book of the Dead also allowed me to understand Egyptian culture more, as my group did the Egyptians for our Creation Story Project. 

• The Book of the Dead documentary mentioned that at first, the ability to prepare extravagantly for death was something only the Pharaohs were able to do but became accessible to the wealthy elites and whoever was willing to pay for it. It reminded me of indulgence, where the Catholic church allowed the people to pay money in order to forgive their sins. The wealthy elites were able to benefit from their religion due to money, which I think religion fuels classism to an extent. In addition, indulgence also makes me wonder how we can really trust what the Church says, since people believed them due to their ethos with God but it was not right of them to utilize religion to make monetary profit.    

• How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

• This unit of biblical texts allowed me to view religion through a literary lens.  I never really understood why people worshipped for their deities and crafted architecture, sacrificed, or gave time to their beliefs. But reading these texts made me understand that when people were informed about religion, it made them more open to following God. Since religion is still prevalent in today’s world, I am encouraged to understand their perspectives instead of being skeptical and questioning if there’s really a point to it.