RELIGION... AND SCIENCE?! (Week 3)

The relevance of a story such as The Pilgrims Progress is an easy one to see. The story is about a man pushing himself through the efforts of being a good Christian. Our group in class focused on the scene where Christian and Pliable are forced to confront the Slough of Despond. We took away several different messages. For example, Pliable sees something like the Slough as an early indicator for a difficult journey and decides to turn back. But Christian sees this as something he must go through if he is to become a better person and a better man of God. "...but still he endeavored to struggle to that side of the slough that was further from his own house" (2273). It is important for Christian to see that he must endure such a task. For at its completion, he will emerge stronger and enlightened. Only in enduring did Help make itself known. "But why did you not look for the steps?" (2273), Help asks. This conveys the idea that there is sometimes a way around difficulty, but sometimes man is blind to this alternative paths. In still accepting the challenge and wading through it, we are still admirable and strong. The messages here are powerful, and even if the reader does not consider him or herself religious, the message is clear: endure (learn from experience) and go on to be something better.

"A Letter of Mr. Issac Newton" reinforces this idea of the Enlightenment of going forward in your own pursuit of knowledge. On page 2286 Newton writes of the "origin of colors", something that had no prior answer. He continues on to break down his experiments, what he sees, and so forth. He comes to the conclusion of "whiteness" on page 2287. This is an equal combination of the colors or as Newton phrases it: "the usual color of light".The piece is dull, and it is truly amazing I made it through an entire excerpt on the refraction of light through prisms and the inevitable production of color. But this does not take away from the importance of the piece.

Religion and religious experience were providing moral lessons. Morals were a firm ground in which to establish a universal system of beliefs among men. Do the right thing.
Advancements in science were now allowing men to look at their world and attempt to grasp the universal systems around them for which there had been no prior experimentation. Religion and science may differ, but in these times advancements on both fields were helping man more than hindering him.