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"One of my friends has a question but wants to stay anonymous:
Why didn't He write the Bible in plain English instead of a bunch of stories and riddles that allow room for misinterpretation?"

Hey, thanks for the question! This is definitely a tough one, and Christians have been asking this question for millenia.

The question "What makes us human?" is so fundamental. In this short essay response to Frankenstein that I wrote for my Brit Lit II survey, I examine whether or not the "creature" is a human being. To do so, we have to think about what exactly the criteria for humanity is. Read on for short exploration of the topic:

Despite his hideous appearance, Viktor Frankenstein's creation isn't actually a monster, it is really a human being. We can see his human qualities shine through primarily in his complex emotions and his reasoning.

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"The best among men do not remember hostilities; they see the virtues, not the faults, and they do not stoop to enmity. It is the lowliest that hurl insults in a quarrel, Yudhisthira; the middling ones return the insults, but the best and the steady ones never babble about hostile insults, spoken or unspoken. The good only remember the good that was done, not the hostile deeds, acknowledging it because they have confidence in themselves." 

--Dhrtarastra in the Mahabharata

Many times, I feel like it is so ingrained in our nature to want to lash back at those who attack us. We may even have good reasons and good logic on our side, but as this quotation illustrates, that is still not the best course of action.

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Knowing truth--discovering truth--is a much more complicated concept/process than it appears to be at first glance. Different authors have different views on exactly how one should go about "knowing truth." These views influence what the authors write and publish, and from their works we can discern their individual views on the discovery and comprehension of truth.