How a Man Should Live.

Blog 2 - What personal principles did you adhere to before entering this course and where did they come from? Were they taught to you? Did you develop them on your own? How have our readings and discussions impacted those principles? Of the principles covered which are you drawn to the most and why?

            I have more or less lived my life by the “golden rule” that we hear so much about in elementary school— “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I judge all of my actions based on how I would view the situation if I was a third party. If I would think that my actions were mean, rude, or simply careless, than I most likely will not do them. This changed slightly when I became a Christian in seventh grade, and my actions were soon filtered through a new lens, based on what I thought the Bible would say about a certain situation and how to act. This is not to say that being a Christian is defined by being a good person, if fact it is quite the opposite. You do good deeds because you are a Christian, not to become one. I will be the first to admit that I still make mistakes more often than I am proud of- Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.

 I learned to act like this from the people in my life: my sister, my pastor, and my parents. By following their examples and by judging their actions in the same way that I judge mine, I was able to develop my moral compass.  

As for which of our readings I have been drawn the most to, I would have to say our lesson on Aristotle. His beliefs that you must put the state of the public before your own self has strongly impacted my beliefs. Because of this, I strive to always consider what is best for the majority before worrying about myself. In my opinion, we need a political leader who can do this for us; one who stops giving the people what they want, and instead gives them what they need! Although this might not be a popular decision, in the long run, our nation would be better for it.




I'm commenting this week on  Luke DeMuro's blog at http://lukedemuro.blogspot.com/.