Two Observations at College Park

There are two minor observations I had today that I wish to talk about.  I want to keep this post brief because, as I mentioned in the previous post, I have a test and a quiz (which was just cancelled by e-mail!)tomorrow.

I was walking to the Stamp Student Union in between my second and third classes to buy some lunch this afternoon when, as I was crossing the street, a firetruck with its horns and lights going was approaching.  I got onto the sidewalk walking in the direction the firetruck was coming from.  A girl walking towards me (the same way the firetruck was coming), turned over her shoulder when she heard the firetruck and watched as it passed.  I was listening to an atheistic podcast at the time (if I have earphones in when I am walking around campus I'm always listening to a podcast) and looked on as she performed the 'Sign of the Cross', then lifting something from her neck to kiss it.  It was obvious she was saying a prayer for those affected by the event the firetruck was attending to, however I have never seen it so casually done before.  She didn't break her stride and it was a very quick motion; like it was normal for her to do in that situation.  Does anyone know it those kinds of actions are common with certain denominations of Christianity?  I thought the Sign of the Cross was only performed during church, when blessing something, or for good luck.  I never knew that it was used to offer a prayer in those types of circumstances.

The second topic I would like to address is the stress certain types of Christian students must be going through when attending some of my classes.  In my GEOL120 class we talked about evolution today as fact (like it is) and in both ECON300 and GEOL120 we talked about global warming as fact (like it is).  I was pondering how a fundamentalist Christian would handle these classes.  The atmosphere in college seems like a Christian that believes in Creationism and the literal truth of the Bible would be completely lost in some academic fields.  The amount of compartmentalization a Christian has to undergo to accept the Bible, the sciences, and history at the same time is mind-boggling to me; the very definition of double-think.  Millions of Americans still don't accept evolutionary theory.  Luckily, there is a positive correlation between the number of years a person is formally educated and that person's tendency to accept evolutionary theory.

Anyway, off to study.  E-mail me at brbailey@umd.edu or leave a comment below!  Have a great friday!