JL and DS said..

Dignity for ALL

Our class had some very strong feelings towards chapter two in the section of “On Moral Grounds.” From our class discussions it seems that the class enjoyed chapter two more then chapter one. One student said that this chapter seemed to be a lot less black and white and gave the readers a chance to think and develop an opinion. The next big thing that was talked about in our class discussion was morals. What are they, who influenced them, how they came to be, and when did we start to practice and use them? Most of the class agreed that relatives and friends were the ones that shaped most of our morals and that we started really living by our serious morals in middle school and high school. Faith was an aspect that was brought up in our class discussion. Many say that their faith is the cornerstone of their morals.

From the e-discussions there was also a lot of talk about faith. The majority of our class seems to believe that their strongest of morals tend to happen because of their religion or particular faith in something. These days faith is being tested by just about everything. It is being tested in technology with the stem cell research, in politics, even in some churches.

In our online discussions there were three quotes that were brought up time and time again. These quotes are:

“Not only can they perceive what is and respond to that; they can imagine what could be and bring it about. They can find and create beauty. They can love. They can speak and sing and dance and laugh. They can be merciful and compassionate. They can and sometimes do transcend everything, even their own lives, in the phenomenon of supreme sacrifice.”

"Faith is a normal and basic way of knowing. Believing is knowing what you cannot see or prove, but what you still accept and hold with firmness.”

This is another quote that sums up our whole class discussion: "Can we know truth, but
also by the heart, for the heart has reasons that the mind cannot comprehend. Feeling is
a way of knowing. We often feel and sense more than we can see or explain"

All of these quotes really stuck out to a lot of our classmates and for obvious reasons. One thing that all of these quotes have in common in they talk about us, humans. They all talk about what we can believe, love, imagine, what we can know or see or explain. We think that is why everyone loved them so much, because they helped us to understand ourselves better.

So, our class discussions and e-discussions lead us to one final thought. Should our decisions be made from our hearts or from our minds?