Jefferson Post

In the Query XVIII entitled, Manners, Thomas Jefferson declares his concerns and apparently deep feelings toward slaves and the African American race. He tends to sympathize with them throughout this query, in my belief to “suck-up” to the secretary to the French legation in Philadelphia, to whom he is preparing the Notes on the State of Virginia.

He obviously comes off as a hypocrite in the sense that he is NOW all of a sudden defending the blacks and fighting to abolish slavery, where he is a man that has always owned slaves. This is the same great man that wrote the Declaration of Independence and a great American, however now days people are starting to view him as a racist and hypocrite. He tends to contradict all aspects of what he has lived his life for, prior to writing the Notes on the State of Virginia, in this respect. “Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal,” says Jefferson who clearly is just using his fancy and literate style to win over his readers by stating the obvious with statements such as these. Of course every man abides by the social behavior and familiar surroundings that he is raised up in majority wise. It seems to me that this man is full of it when it comes to his real beliefs on slavery. The somewhat troubling fact coming from this one issue in slavery is that it purposes the question, what else has he been not completely honest about in his writings? Did he use the same ploys in writing the Declaration of Independence?

Post 1: Jonathan Edwards-Divine Light

The sermon by Jonathan Edwards proposes the Bible verse, “ Matthew 16:17 - And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven,” then proceeds to discuss how exactly God demonstrates his Divine and Supernatural Light through instances such as this excerpt from the book of Matthew.

It is particularly interesting when Edwards goes into speaking about how such poor, illiterate fishermen were able to decipher God’s message, assure their faith, and pronounce that this man was the Son of God in this one simple instance, because it was God’s plan to reveal it to them. He makes it clear that it is not logical for men to reach Divine Wisdom or see the Divine Light by their own ways. He simply says that God has to reveal it to them, as demonstrated through this excerpt, “…but Peter had declared his assured faith, that he was the Son of God. Now it was natural to observe, how it was not flesh and blood that had revealed it to him.”

Introductions

Hi my name is Zach. I'm from Cary, NC. However I'm originally from The Woodlands, TX and Tampa, FL. My Dad's job moved us around quite a bit throughout the high school years, so I went to 3 different high schools.

I enjoy football, baseball, track and field, lifting weights, running, reading, country music, Texas BBQ, Mott and Hester Deli, spending time with my family and friends, and my jeep. Anything else you would like to know just ask!

I am taking this class because I've heard really good things about the course from friends and also I really enjoy english classes. I'm excited to see what this course has to offer.