One of the first things that we as a class looked at was a work by the famous Greek philosopher Plato. He entitled this work the cave, and essentially it talks about how we don’t understand anything going on outside of our own view. Kinda like the matrix, but a lot older. Now, I love this idea, and it reminds me of another theory that I read about. The theory says that if we were to truly understand everything in the universe, we would die almost instantly. this is due to the fact that our brains just aren’t meant to know everything. And maybe there’s a reason for this. What if what lies beyond Plato’s cave is truly horrible, something that will corrupt and destroy humanity forever. And here’s where we run into a paradox. Due to the fact that our brains are hard-wired to try to find the answer, we’re going to try to see what’s behind that cave no matter what.

If you were to ask me what the most important thing I learned in religions and revolutions was, I would probably tell you it was not to judge a book by its cover. Every single time we learned about a new culture or religious tradition, it honestly didn’t feel that different. there are so many parallels between every culture, and the differences seem to only fall in the specifics. For example, all the Abrahamic religions are directly connected, Buddha was originally a Hindu, and the three Chinese schools of thought were more or less created due to the same event. So, when we view religions or spiritual practices as different or weird, we’re really saying the same thing about our beliefs and practices too.

After, what feels like ages, I feel the real revolution has begun. Action has finally started, and our enslaved brothers have finally started to fight back against the tyranny and oppression that we have been subjected to. I can still smell the burnt sugar, and it makes me want to fight. I will support the revolution until the day I die. My days of running are over, and now it is time for me to fight. I may be too old now to wage war with my fists, but by God, I will fight.

One of the many reasons (and the most important) I fundamentally disagree with Robespierre’s reign of terror is stripping away the individual rights of people. I belive that the most important of all human rights is that of liberty, and Robespierre stripping it away for the sake of preserving a revolution is one of the main reasons I have a problem with the French Revolution.

As far as I can tell, the four main causes of the french revolution were as follows: a social divide between the classes, the third estate being underrepresented in the Estate General, the national debt rising, and a large increase in tax rates. These examples and the actions that proceeded them satisfy four of the five causes of a revolution. The first is economic strain. We see this mainly in the national debt increasing and also the taxation of only the third estate. Next is alienation and opposition among the elites. This is shown through Abbe Sieyes’s clear disdain for the second estate. Widespread popular anger at injustice is seen in the third estate’s extremely negative reaction to being given only one vote.

One of the reasons I believe the scientific revolution was as influential as it was is the theory that nerds have an innate desire to correct each other. This theory states that everyone with a certain level of intelligence on any given topic will go out of their way to correct other experts. This is the same theory that makes Wikipedia so successful. I believe that this was the case during the scientific revolution. Most of the great thinkers at that time (eg. Galileo, Newton, Bacon) went out of their way to prove Aristotle wrong about all manner of scientific observations. Galileo went so far as to publicly denounce one of the primary sources of information at the time: the Church. In a letter, he stated, “I would beg the wise and learned fathers [of the church] to consider with all diligence the difference which exists between matters of mere opinion and matters of demonstration.” Harsh.

The modern scientific method was started by two thinkers, Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes. Both rejected using observations made by thinkers of the past (mainly Aristotle) in favor of making their own observations. While both believed that the world could be better by scientists learning and observing more, each had their own ideas on how to do this. Bacon took a view centered on experimentation, while Descartes believed that knowledge could be better obtained via mathematics. I tend to agree with Descartes, because I believe that mathematics is a universal constant, but experiments have too many variables to be certain of their outcome. Regardless, both of these principles are used by scientists even today, and will most likely still be used in years to come.

The renaissance that most think of is the great Italian renaissance, with great thinkers and artisans alike, however, an equally important cultural renaissance was the Harlem renaissance. generally considered an  “intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship”, the results of the Harlem renaissance still impact our culture today. These impacts include Jazz, rock and roll, blues, and early hip-hop culture just to name a few. Another often overlooked part of the renaissance is its impact on modern politics, particularly in the redefining of the republican party.

One of the most well-known parts of the life of Jesus Christ is his death by crucifixion. Like many Christians after him would be, he was crucified for acts of treason. This was mainly because Christians adamantly refuted the notion that there was more than one god. In letters between Pliny and Emperor Trajan,  Pliny repeatedly told Emperor Trajan ways in which Christians were killed by the roman empire.

Judaism was the first major world religion to widely accept monotheism, and even then, it wasn’t the first thought in Judaism. Originally, Jews thought that there were multiple gods, but their god was the one that they should worship. However, over time that belief evolved into pure monotheism.