| SevenPillars |
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SevenPillars This site is something I have planned to do for a long time. There always seemed to be another priority (Just a minute, I've got to go grill dinner for Labor Day.) The goal is to create a place for knowledge about key areas of the world today to be shared. I personally come from a Christian background, and I want to be open to all ideas. We all must basically believe we are right, but that shouldn't prevent us from learning from each other ohow to understand each other and how to live on this bigg ball together. If anyone wants to ask me any questions relating specifically to my faith, feel free to email me. I'd love to share it, but not to impose it. Enough said. Jim Brooks I grew up in Georgia, as a Southern Baptist. My parents were not Bible thumpers, but people who believed in God and faith. We moved to California when I was fourteen years old, because my father was going to seminary to become a missionary. When he was taking his classes I got to know a little bit about the New Testament in Greek. I was also into philosophy, favoring Socrates and Plato, and became aware of Hiroclitus. The early Greeks believed that there was a "logos," a force or way, to the universe. The gospel of John ties Jesus in with this "Logos." At the same time, the "Word" of John, which is how most english versions translate the "Logos", reminded me very much of the Tao in the "Tao te Ching." It was with this in mind that I went into the University of California at Berkeley Rhetoric program. At Berkeley, my conservative background and the progressive atmosphere melded to a degree. I came to understand that individual rights are only the foundation for creative living in a modern, or post-modern, world. We need to live in society, whatever that "in" may be. The groups we are "in" depend on the scope we are looking at. If we are looking around the classroom, or the office, we may be men and women or minorities and majority. Around the country we may be Californians or Southerners, or Yankees. We may be Americans or Turks or... In its largest known scope, it is the whole earth. I now think that we need to look at these differences to try to accept them, or at least understand them well enough not to be frightened by them. Then perhaps we can learn to settle our differences without the rage and fear that leads to genecide and war. Then we can live together, not without conflict, but at least live together. |
