Ha Huy Anh Pham
Daria Oprean
Pham:
"Faith is another term that varies widely from person to person. That's what I tried to show in my photo for this week. I interpret the small altar on the ground as the diminishing faith people have in religion. Instead of that, many turn to power, money, lust or even food. Companies are now considered things to worship, as people spend countless hours and dollars for products that they absolutely don't need and values of which consist entirely of labels and marketing. If you did something unacceptable, just consume this bar of chocolate and your spouse, kids, friends and boss will love you again. We'll take good care of you when you're down, as long as you buy our newest 4 layers marshmallow frappucchino.
Personally I don't have much faith for anything. I do believe that living for a reason is much more meaningful, though I find it hard to convince myself.
So how about you? What motivates you to wake up everyday? Do you have any strong conviction?"
"Faith is another term that varies widely from person to person. That's what I tried to show in my photo for this week. I interpret the small altar on the ground as the diminishing faith people have in religion. Instead of that, many turn to power, money, lust or even food. Companies are now considered things to worship, as people spend countless hours and dollars for products that they absolutely don't need and values of which consist entirely of labels and marketing. If you did something unacceptable, just consume this bar of chocolate and your spouse, kids, friends and boss will love you again. We'll take good care of you when you're down, as long as you buy our newest 4 layers marshmallow frappucchino.
Personally I don't have much faith for anything. I do believe that living for a reason is much more meaningful, though I find it hard to convince myself.
So how about you? What motivates you to wake up everyday? Do you have any strong conviction?"
Daria:
"I like your chocolate bar analogy. You're right. Faith now focuses on consumption, on bread and entertainment, and on money. You know..the spectacle. When it comes to religion I've always viewed it as that. I remember my dad sitting on the balcony smoking a cigarette Sunday morning , yelling at my sister and I how we could not eat or drink anything before going to church. So when I saw the hypocrisy in that, and how church made my dad this really ugly person (probably due to the closeted homosexuality he had going on), I got a sense of how fake everything is. In Romania, in the poorest cities you have churches made out of gold, and priests with Maseratis. It always seemed really excessive and show-offy. There's only a few priests I actually liked. I remember one of them went to prison during communism, and you could really feel he had a connection with God from the way he spoke. He wedded and baptized my whole family, unfortunately he's dead now. But I remember there was also another one who made me sit on my knees for 1 hour and a half as tell him my confessions. It went on for so long, and my knees hurt so bad, until I eventually started making stuff up just to finish faster. I hated those moments. Thank God after my parent's divorce we stopped going to church.
I do believe there's something bigger than me out there, or I really wish there is , and sometimes I pray to it at night, though I have to admit, mostly when I'm down or I need something. I tend to forget about God when I'm feeling good."
"I like your chocolate bar analogy. You're right. Faith now focuses on consumption, on bread and entertainment, and on money. You know..the spectacle. When it comes to religion I've always viewed it as that. I remember my dad sitting on the balcony smoking a cigarette Sunday morning , yelling at my sister and I how we could not eat or drink anything before going to church. So when I saw the hypocrisy in that, and how church made my dad this really ugly person (probably due to the closeted homosexuality he had going on), I got a sense of how fake everything is. In Romania, in the poorest cities you have churches made out of gold, and priests with Maseratis. It always seemed really excessive and show-offy. There's only a few priests I actually liked. I remember one of them went to prison during communism, and you could really feel he had a connection with God from the way he spoke. He wedded and baptized my whole family, unfortunately he's dead now. But I remember there was also another one who made me sit on my knees for 1 hour and a half as tell him my confessions. It went on for so long, and my knees hurt so bad, until I eventually started making stuff up just to finish faster. I hated those moments. Thank God after my parent's divorce we stopped going to church.
I do believe there's something bigger than me out there, or I really wish there is , and sometimes I pray to it at night, though I have to admit, mostly when I'm down or I need something. I tend to forget about God when I'm feeling good."