Coming to Xavier isn\’t always what I wanted to do, but when I decided to major in Pharmacy, it was my first choice. Before I came here I thought Xavier University was a public school and had a variety of things that I could participate in. When I did some college research I found out otherwise. I also didn\’t know Xavier was a Catholic school until my godfather told about and also said that I would have to take a course called Theology. I didn\’t know that theology was a religion until he explained to me what Theology was. When I first entered this class I thought it was going to be ok, although the only reason why I\’m taking is because it\’s required or I don\’t graduate. I still thought that my experience here was going to be a good one.
After my first year at Xavier University I began to understand less and less why I had to take Theology besides the fact that I\’m attending a Catholic school. It has nothing to do with what I\’m majoring in nor does it really help me accomplish anything but understanding the Bible better. No offense but that\’s not one of my priorities at this time in my life. When class first started I thought that everything was going to be alright. As class went on the discussion that was going was kind of interesting. Until you said you expected us to write at least 2000 words every week. At first everybody including I thought you were out of your mind. What topped the cake was when you told us that this was the first time you\’ve ever done this with your class. It\’s bad enough we are forced to take this class, and then we felt like a science project. We probably would be more cooperative if this class wasn\’t a requirement to graduate, or if the goal of 2000 words per week were lowered a little. From what I\’ve learned when I was in JROTC, the Marching Band, and the bowling team in High School, is that if you tell the people that follow your instructions to do something that they\’re not accustomed to doing in order reach a goal they\’re going to feel as if you are asking too much. The majority will rebel and very few will try to meet the standard that you set. If you set steps working towards that goal they are often more willing to do what you ask? Trying to say to your students that this is what your going to do and this is how I want it done and this is the first time you\’ve ever did something like this seems to create tension. I also don\’t like the fact that you rely on blackboard so much. I don\’t really go into blackboard to often, and some people I know don\’t even have a computer at home. To have us looking at blackboard all the time isn\’t a bad thing its just that many of us have busy schedules and have other classes whose work is just as important or more important because it has something to do with our major. I have trouble finding time to get to the computer and look at what has been posted for any of my classes. But I will try to reach your goal no matter how much stress it puts on me.

The bible is an interesting book of stories about the journeys of very important people. When I first read the bible it was boring because I didn\’t want to read the bible nor did I understand its stories. After reading the bible again in years I somewhat understood the story. What helps is when you give a bible story to go with the bible stories that you assign us in class. Comparing and contrasting these stories to the bible is a little more entertaining because you are giving us a story that is related to many of the Biblical books in the bible. And a result is that we also learn about the bible too.

Honestly I think that Biblical studies are kind of worthless. Trying to understand the bible and trying to confirm the stories in it, is a waste if time. I don\’t find the part about worshiping god worthless; it\’s the part where everything else comes in. Why are we trying to understand what happen? Yet these biblical scholars criticize and they weren\’t even living in that time period. How can you do that? It\’s like saying that I would have to integrate Katherine Drexel\’s motives for founding the schools that she did. It would make no sense for me to because she why she did it and others knew why she did. Who am I to question that? The biblical scholars are going to these cities and looking for evidence that the stories in the bible actually happened. Why, it\’s like their contradicting their self by saying there biblical scholars. You are saying that you studied the bible and now you are coming back to find evidence of it because something in your head didn\’t make sense and cause you to go against your belief. I mean you believed it when you studied it so why now are you questioning its validness. Who are you to question the bible? Sense all of the scholars agree that the bible is a book of God, when you go back to prove if something is true or not. In a sense you would be going against the word of God. You have all the faith in the world about God a celestial body or a superior being, someone we don\’t even see. And you will argue someone down if they said that God didn\’t exist, but you go against his book and trying to prove that a city didn\’t exist or story couldn\’t have happened because your dates didn\’t match up. No one should have anything to say against the bibles stories because we were not there to witness them our self. The only thing we should be doing is reading the bible and follows its word and stop trying to make sense out of something that has not made sense to us when we started reading it. It is the mystery of it that makes people want to believe because they all want to see heaven. Like I heard in the movie Tomb Raider 2 that is very true is that I think goes for everything is that something’s are not supposed to be found and in others words something’s are not supposed to be understood.
A biblical example of something that is not going to be found is the Ark and the covenant. There even non biblical examples as well. An Example of something that is not meant to be understood is the bible. It makes me wonder why god created us to be so curious about everything. Our curiosity has caused a lot of trouble since we have existed on this planet. Another thing that is not meant to be understood or even known is the question, \”Are we alone in the universe?\” I think if we weren\’t we would have physical evidence. Not saying that people did not see U.F.O\’s, but it stands for Unidentified Flying Object. Meaning that yes U.F.O\’s can and may exist but it does not mean that there\’s an alien inside operating it. When the military receives a new aircraft design from Lockheed or Boeing, the plane is automatically given the name X-and a number. An example of this is in the new Air Force commercial. The new futuristic looking plane you saw is called the F -22 Raptor, its first name was the XF-22. It also had a sister called the YF-23A. Both can be seen in the In the second game of the Ace Combat series of video games for the Playstation and Playstation 2 game consoles. While you were using these planes in your video game, in reality they were battling for the top spot of the U.S. Air Forces new Air Superiority fighter. Which ever design won would replace the F-15 which is now currently holding that position. The F-22 won and all evidence of the YF-23A was erased. It even was taken out of the video game while the F-22 remained. This plane that you thought was brand new actually is a little over or under ten years old and that was just in the designing stage they did not build it until close to the turn of the millennium. Isn’t that ironic, this plane that you think is new has been featured in the Ace Combat series of video games since the very first one which was in 1997 or 1998 and its now 2004. The funniest thing about it is you won\’t see it in the skies until 2009. Bet you never thought that this new plane which was just recently put into public view was actually a military secret and was in your child\’s video game with out you even knowing that it really was becoming a reality. I am a military brat and I know from reading a lot of magazines and just living the military life that there are things that are being kept out of the public view. It makes you wonder what else the government could be keeping from the eye of the public.
Human beings are the most curios animal of God’s creation and also the most destructive and cruel. We seek answers to questions that we may never understand. We were given the gift of intelligence and look what we do with it. We question everything we don’t understand and what we don’t understand we fear. We cause mass destruction on a Global scale. We pollute, engage in wars of mass destruction and death killing each other because we are the only beings capable of so much hate. We even destroy other animal’s home’s causing some to go extinct. One would think that God really did not mean for us to abuse and destroy the planet that he created for us. I don’t think he meant for us to sin this much either. But I do wonder if god has any regrets about created a species so perilous that we are a danger to others and ourselves.
After reading the Course Commitments on your website, I can say that I agree with it. I admire the fact that you set your standards and expectations at a high point. I think that everybody should set high goals and standards in life. It helps a person work harder because they would have a goal in mind and they would want to achieve it. A bad thing about having high goals and staandards is when you don\’t meet them. You get a strong feeling of disappointment. You feel like you let yourself down and that there something you did wrong, even though you have did the best that you could. Overall it is good to have high standards, it makes every body work harded and acctually accomplish something and feel like yiu earned it.
Sometimes when you first take a class and you read their syllabus and there course commitments you can tell what type of teacher they are, whether they are lenient, nice, strict, fun, etc. When I read yours after the first class I really did not know what to expect from you. This is a good thing because us as students will not know what type of teaching method you use. Teaching method is like a teachers style of teaching or presenting information to a class. Your wanting us to be on time for class is also a good policy. Sometimes tardiness can be excused especially if we have a class at Xavier South, its not our fault that the science and business buildings were built far apart. But excessive tardiness is inexcusable. Everyone should be prepared for class becuse a lot of material can be covered in a one hour period so I know that a bunch of material will have been gone over in one class. Class participation varies on the types of students that you have in a class for example you have students that are enthusiastic about what they are doing and those who are not. Having a positive attitude is a big one because sometimes people who are negative most of the time make the people who are around them feel negatively and thats promotes for a poor learning enviroment. Last Academic Honesty is singal handed the most important of the policies. It goes back to your introduction about having high standards and if you are the type of person who cheats then your standards and morals are not as high as the person who does not cheat.

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