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After completing tonight’s reading, I’d like to know what other people think of similarities between Galileo’s world and our own. I don’t believe this is something we’ve talked about in class with detail thus far but it probably will come up in the near future. The Catholic Church in the play is depicted, in my opinion, as “the evil system” or “the man” in pop culture. The church is made up of those who would vanquish change to represent their personal agendas. Perhaps the major question presented by Brecht is, to what extent can we allow doubt to rule our lives? Should we eliminate doubt altogether and live within a bubble of complacency or should we sacrifice faith and risk the crumbling of society itself? Every time I turn on the news I see these same issues raised in our modern world. What information should be withheld from the public? The images we see in the paper or on TV of our wars overseas or of our disasters at home only tell one side of the story, but perhaps the other side could have disastrous consequences if it were revealed. I don’t want to seem like a conspiracy theorist but I’d like to see what you guys think about issues between doubt and faith in our modern world. Do you think that truth is, “the daughter of time” and will eventually surface?
I have to agree with you. While reading the play, I thought that the Church was a dominating, controlling system. Instead I should have been more open- minded about the religious leaders' points of views. They were trying to protect their people from radical thoughts that threatened to destroy their entire belief system.
ReplyDeleteIn the modern world, I believe that doubt is very much a part of our lives due to media. Some news stations are biased, and government leaders do not publicize information. There is certainly always another side to the argument. However, yes, I do believe that truth is "the daughter of time".
I also agree with the both of you,in the play the Catholic Church is portrayed as the ruling system and almost a dictator in a sense. I feel that as far as the church goes there are two sides of the story. The church could have a selfish hidden agenda, and may refuse radical change because it may change the system of order and they may lose their authoritative staus. Although this could be the case, I never really thought of them doing such in the name of protecting society and its people until you guys brought it up. I guess you cold see them as trying to preserve the natural balance and avoid the chaos that can potentially arise in a world plagued by doubt. The sad thing about it however is that we will never know and therefore will always have to speculate and pick a side. However, I do not completely believe that truth is the daughter of time, but rather the daughter of exploration, which could reveal truths both good and bad.
ReplyDeleteI think that the church is controlling, but it is because they want to preserve the "world" they have. By this i mean that the church does not want people to question the bible (like Galileo did when he said the earth was not the center of the universe, and it revolved around the sun). This is a direct challenge to the church because Galileo had proved something that anyone could see with there eyes if they just looked through the telescope. In the bible, it states that the earth is the center. Therefore, I think that we can allow doubt to rule our lives, because doubt is very important. Some people think that if something sounds profound enough, it doesn't matter whether or not it's true. But doubt is the beginning of wisdom & knowledge. When we doubt, we strive to find the truth, and the truth leads to knowledge. We should never live in a bubble of complacency, i would rather sacrifice faith and risk the crumbling of society itself. I don't think information should be withheld from the public, because the truth always comes out, and when it does society will become more chaotic.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do believe that church had a dictating control over society during this time period, and that doubt is important to make scientific advances, faith plays a big part in the success of a community. The church's many attempts to shut down Galileo's logic comes from the fear of losing authority and order. With faith and trust in the church, people are more easily willing to follow and cooperate. This in turn creates organization and collaboration which leads to a happy, fulfilled community. In this sense we realize that although advances in the scientific world may have positive results, change is not always the answer. When the people doubt the church's authority, revolutions, rebellions, and chaos are a result. Perhaps this is the second side to the church's logic that us as readers do not grasp immediately (due to the tone of Brecht's play).
ReplyDeleteAs with all the comments above, I also believe that the church was controlling. However, I can't blame them for being controlling, for, in order to hold their power, the church needed to confine people to believing the teachings of the bible. If the church allowed scientists to experiment and disprove what the bible said, the population would most certainly start to shift away from its teachings.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to faith being necessary in a modern world, I feel that it is not essential. Often, faith has been the cause for conflict. Take, for example, the Crusades or the Jihad being waged upon America right now by radical Islamic extremists.