Mathers

Son of Increase Mather, Cotton became the youngest student accepted into Harvard at the age of twelve. Five years after graduating he was ordained at the Second Church of Boston to join his father. Cotton held this position until his death.
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Both Cotton and Increase were a big part of the Salem withcraft trials held in 1692. Cotton was voice heard when the court choose to listen to specter evidence. Spector evidence is a witness' testimony that the shape or spirit of the accused was seen doing harm rather than their physical bodies. There were twenty seven suspects for practicing witchcraft and the nineteen of them who refused to confess were executed.Increase wrote a book titled, Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits in 1693 about the trials. He wrote against the use of "spectral evidence." Increase thought that it was better for ten guilty witches to escape than for one innocent person to die. This helped end the trials. Near the end of his life, Cotton Mather became more tolerant of other religions and deism. Deism conveys scientific reason for things rather than superstition and mysticism. It originated from ideas of Isaac Newton and John Locke. These men showed that the world was operated in an orderly and rational way. Cotton wrote more than 450 books, many of which were about science. From these books, he showed his thoughts about the natural world. Cotton also explained that he didn't see a conflict between his religious beliefs and science because nature was the best cure for atheism.

I feel as though Cotton Mather was a man who was once open to the possibilities of the devil and pure evil, but then was introduced to the scientific side of things. It looks as if he had changed his mind very drastically from the Salem witchcraft trials to writing books discussing a more natural way of how things have come to be. In my opinion, the way Cotton supported deism near the end of his life reveals his true colors. Cotton came to realize that a lot of the superstitions he believed in, such as witches, wasn't authentic. I might believe in karma, but I don't think that there are such things as witches and magic. Maybe there is such thing as fate but science explains a lot and shows the interpretation of why things are the way they are.

McGuire, William, and Leslie Wheeler. "Cotton Mather." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 10 Feb. 2010. .

joseph smith

So I have been reading up on this influential man named Joseph Smith. He experienced "visions" during the end of the Second Great Awakening. These "visions" were of an angel coming to Smith and telling him not to join any of the sects because God's will wasn't represented by any. Because of these "visions," he wrote the book titled, Book of Mormon. In this book, Smith wrote about the ancient, primitive Christianity of the Hebrews in America. This religion he thought of as that sect the angel spoke about. Smith then founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At first, only Smith's friends and family members were a part of it. But then, people heard of his so called, great powers of being able who is allowed into heaven. Smith moved his community around a little bit but then was able to stick in one place; Illinois. Nauvoo was where they settled and here in Illinois (my home sweet home!) was where Smith was given the spot in government as the mayor. It was apparent that Joseph Smith enjoyed leadership because he loved to dress in fancy uniforms and call his followers the Mormon militia. Once Smith publicized that he wanted to run for president, his luck had run out. This announcement's timing wasn't of the best because there was already chaos between the Mormon Church and those from outside the Church as well. These were because Smith had added polygamy to Mormonism. The media talked badly about Smith and his religion. Smith's reaction was to have those in charge of the media destroyed and because of that, he was thrown in jail. A few days later, a few non-Mormon's shot Joseph Smith. 1805-1844. Joseph Smith's influence on those in the Mormon religion were appreciated greatly. Without him, the religion wouldn't be in existence. Those followers of the Mormon religion then went to Brigham Young to lead them

"Joseph Smith." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

From learning about Joseph Smith's life, I have taken away how much one person can do in such a short time. Smith still affects those in Mormonism even though he has passed. This makes me think about what I will be able to do in my lifetime. I doubt I will be able to make as big of a difference as Smith but I want to be able to say I improved and influence at least one person's life during the opportunity I was given on earth.

Native American Church

I have been up for an hour because I fell asleep so early tonight; eleven oclock PM. Yeah, that is actually considered very early for me. Well, because I am up, I figured that I should do my American Studies homework knowing its due later today. I was looking up articles that I could write about in this here blog of mine and I found one named, Native American Church. It talks mostly about a cult that has been turned into a religion. Do you know what peyote means? If you dont, click it. There is a small definition of it for you. I found out what it is just moments ago while reading the article. Knowing what peyote means is important towards understanding why the religion was banned in multiple states. Peyote is a small cactus ingested by the Native Americans to harmlessly bring the church members closer to God during ceremonies, social gatherings, marriages, and funerals. The Congress finally acknowledged that and made the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in order for the religion to use peyote. That was the result after several successful court cases arguing that peyote use is integral to the religious freedom of Native Americans. I chose this article to write about in my blog because for my research project, I wanted to learn more about other religions. This article taught me that the Native American Church share similarities between both Christianity and Indian rituals. These rituals weren't accepted by the Americans until 1918 although members were still practicing the religion behind closed doors. This interests me because I have never had to hide my religion through out my life. I have always been able to let people know the religion I am and be proud of it. I can't imagine those who believe and are faithful to something such as religion, without voicing their ideas.


This is my citation:
"Native American Church." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. .

religion

I have become interested in religion because I am very faithful towards my own. I go to my congregation during the high holidays and even got confirmed last year with a handful of other classmates. Normally, Jewish people don't get confirmed to Judaism but in my synagogue, you have the option of visiting with the Rabbi every Sunday for two hours with a group of other sixteen year olds. The year prior to confirmation in Hebrew school, we did nothing but study other religions and visit other spiritual places. I missed a majority of that year because of travel soccer so I want to find out what I have missed. I want to know more things about christianity and the different types and levels there are of it. Or things such as how dependant people can become on God depending on what religion they are. How do the muslims believe we all got here on earth? Do they have a different version of the way God made the world in seven days or do they think that the world was made by the big boom?

Obama's State of the Union Speech

So who watched Obama's speech last night? I did. I am always so captured by his skills at presenting speeches. He spoke about how he has many ideasthat will help the United States get back to where it once was. "I do not accept second place for the U.S." I really like the passion he conveys about the United States and the way he believes that we can get out of our slump. The many goals he has were brought up through out the speech. One that stood out to me was the one about exporting as many good as possible. Obama wants to double the amount of exports in the next five years so that it can require two million Americans to get a job helping do so. Also, he spoke about the scientific evidence of a climate change. He believes that clean energy will lead global economy. Barak Obama wants to creat jobs by building infostructures of the future. There will also be rebates for homes that are made to be more energy efficient which supports energy efficient jobs. This will keep employees in the U.S. and make it better for the economy at the same time. Education is a very high priotiy to Obama, too. He thinks that, "no one should become broke because they chose to go to collgeg." He mentioned the best anti-poverty plan. That plan includes world class education.

Obama will do what it takes to make for a more hopeful future.
If you didn't see him last night, here is a link of a few minutes of it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp26YZvK1f0

cheez.it

I love cheez.its and im going to talk about them because this is my first ever blog post and I am not sure what else to write about. But okay, I won't actually go on talking about cheez.its although Kenny would love me to do that. FoFo, AKA Kathleen is writing about me in her blog saying I will keep blogging in exchange for something to eat and it is pretty true. Class is about to be over so I am gonna wrap it up now..


go see a movie though, maybe you will see me working at the movie theatre.
http://www.moviefone.com/theater/amc-theatres-northbrook-court-cinema/2569/showtimes