The DesCarte reading totally blew my mind! It reminded me of a question my theatre teacher once put before my class in high school. Playing the devil’s advocate, he asked us if it was possible that we were a part of the world, and everything physical we know is real, but the people we know, our family, friends, teachers, classmates, and even those we dislike were only actors in a reality TV show. All the relationships we thought we had were fake and every moment of our lives was actually just being recorded for the entertainment of the rest of the world.

Things like this or the notion that everything we think is real doesn’t exist is very difficult for me to except. For example, I know that my parents are my parents because I have pictures, videos, and documents to prove that they are my real parents. However, even more importantly I love my parents and trust them, so it is nearly impossible for me to believe for even a moment that I am not actually their child. Also, I cannot think that my hand is not my hand. When I look at my hand I don’t think that it is someone else’s hand or even some kind of robotic extension of my body. When I cut my hand it bleeds and I feel it. I’m a very trusting person, so I believe everything that is around me, and even if everything around me wasn’t what it appears, I would rather be ignorant to the truth, because I am happy the way things are now.

I definitely liked reading “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” much more. I can understand the reading much easier and I love the description in the text and how in your face it is. The sermon makes me want to go read my Bible and pray for hours in order to avoid the horrible eternal agony that awaits many in hell. The emotion and desperation on Edward’s wording makes that reading much more interesting to me. For example, the passage on page 96 where Edwards says “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose”. Or again on page 102 when he says “It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity: There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery: when you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul . . .” I think that those words speak volumes, and mean a lots to anyone who reads them, even if they are not religious.

-Susan

P.S. I commented on Meghan Johnston