Assessment on "Life There Are Many Great"

Assessment 6 pages (2189 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

An African-American accused of a crime was automatically guilty and an African-American who accused a white person of a crime was automatically dismissed. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought to end this iniquity through protests, demonstrations, and boycotts. During his lifetime, he was arrested and assaulted and even monitored by the FBI. Finally, he was felled by an assassin's bullet. He achieved the title of secular saint because he refused to be silent. King felt the pain of the African-American community, being a member of it himself. He understood that the myriad threats against his life and family were not idle ones and that he would likely die for his actions. Yet, he refused to stay quiet, refused to stop protesting, and refused to comply with the unfair treatment of his fellow African-Americans by the white majority. Inspired by the great Indian philosopher Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King demanded that the African-Americans who worked with him and followed him meet the horrors of racially-biased laws, including segregation, with non-violent resistance. Rather than fight back with their fists, he encouraged people to fight with their words and a resilient attitude. His way of speaking and his principles led to invitations for him to speak with the most powerful men in the country at the time, including members of Congress and both President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. King declared that he would be satisfied with nothing less than complete equality for all people of the United States of America, regardless of the color of their skin. In his most famous speech, he expressed the desire that men be treated by the content of their characters. King became a martyr when he was mu

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rdered in 1968, his death cementing him as an icon of peace in a violent, angry world. There is a tendency nowadays to think of King as a being of pure goodness, but that oversimplifies him. Like all human beings, King was imperfect, struggling with depression and feelings for women other than his wife. This is another difference between secular and religious saints. A secular saint is allowed to be human, indeed he or she must be.

A secular saint should be a person who inspires other humans to do what they can for their fellow men, even if that reaches no further than their own neighborhood. A secular saint sees the bad in the world and works to make things a little better. They do good in the world. That is not to say that they are ever perfect like the divine saints of the Bible. No one is really perfect and not everyone will do the right thing all the time. In order to be a secular saint, a person needs only to try. If what you do makes the world even a little better than it was when you arrived upon the earth, then you too can be a secular saint, like the four people here discussed. They also need to question the status quo, question the accepted answers, and open themselves up to the possibility of a duality between religion and science, between what we believe and what we know.

Works Cited

Ambrosio, F.J. (2011, Oct. 5). The agony and the ecstasy of Michelangelo. Thomas Edison State

College. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioK-NxISgM8

Ambrosio, F.J. (2011, Oct. 5). Hero and saint -- mapping the cultural genome. Thomas Edison

State College. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf-PcduK1sg

Ambrosio, F.J. (2011, Oct. 5). Identifying the secular saint. Thomas Edison State College.

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53bMbKv2_1A

Ambrosio, F.J. (2011, Oct. 5). Meaning -- a question and a commitment. Thomas Edison State

College. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwByTV4_s08

Ambrosio, F.J. (2011, Oct. 5). Nietzsche -- the return of the tragic hero. Thomas Edison State

College. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WH2xdEKB8

Ambrosio, F.J. (2011, Oct. 5). The secular saint -- learning to walk upright. Thomas Edison State

College. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0sFQndcgc READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Life There Are Many Great" Assignment:

“

Everyone tried to search the meaning of life in terms of central themes and personages in the history of philosophy and religion. Dr. Ambrosio's lectures have emphasized two generic lines, that of the hero and that of the saint, concluding along the way that these are incommensurable and yet complementary. The ideal if the secular saint has arisen as a person who lives the question of meaning in human existence fully open to its mystery and fully committed to searching along the paths of both hero and saint. The secular saint does not live human questions in terms of their truth or falsehood, but in terms of the way his or her participation in the dialogue shapes that one human identity for which he or she alone is responsible. Does that describe you? Do you see yourself in the image of the secular saint? Whether you do or do not, how do you move forward from here? How do you view a meaningful life, and how do you come to understand that meaning?

You should consider what each figure's key teachings were as they contribute, whether positively or negatively, to your own understanding of a meaningful life. Begin by summarizing your own understanding of what it means to live in a meaningful life in your opening paragraph, and then proceed to flesh out this introductory statement through interaction with and analysis of at least one key figure discussed in each module.

- Use as the paper's thesis your personal understandings about life's meaning and purpose and what it means to live a meaningful life

- Demonstrate comprehension of leading ideas and themes presented in the lectures and readings through discussion of the figures chosen.

- Analyze the prod and cons of the ideas discussed.

- Demonstrate the relevance of these ideas to your stated thesis.

- Conclude with a summary of your own points and a final statement and validation of your thesis.

Figures I chose are Michelangelo, St. Francis of Assisi, Friedrich Nietzsche, and ***** Luther King

30. Min lecture videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGJaCt1WhM8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53bMbKv2_1A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0sFQndcgc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwByTV4_s08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf-PcduK1sg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jal6dcuc9lc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioK-NxISgM8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WH2xdEKB8

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