The Antebellum Debate over Slavery, a questionable topic, split the nation and the church into separate entities. Whether Christians believed slavery was morally correct cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. It may have been a surprise that some religious traditions have not always been opposed to what today is clearly judged as a “heinous social evil: slavery.” It has been historically argued that the role of Christianity played parts in both the promotion and abolition of slavery. Note that this is not a judgment or self-righteous criticism to those who came before, but an understanding of their lives during that time that affected their beliefs.…
At some point in their lives, most people have heard their parents utter a variation of the phrase, "Life's not fair". This phrase about the injustice of life is a common theme that has shown up within many literary works throughout time. For example, we can find this theme in "The Odyssey", "Oedipus Rex", and even "The Book of Job". "The Odyssey" is a story about a King named Odysseus, who is fated by the gods to make a perilous from Troy to his home in Ithaca. The only reason for this journey is that the gods' wanted the pleasure of seeing Odysseus suffer.…
In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, there are many of Motifs in the story in the community, the different races and racism, and lastly in folklore and religion. In this prompt I will be going over the motifs in the communities. For example, in the beginning of the story, it starts as Janie in her childhood living with her grandmother (nanny) and living with her cousins. One day Janie realizes she is a colored person and she is treated differently, even in her childhood because all the other colored kids dress differently then her.…
Reform, especially in present day politics, is always moderate at best; this logically follows from the internal clash of ideologies in any bureaucracy, especially a bipartisan one like that of the U.S. Even on a more micro scale, it seems that generally, decisions are now always as drastic as they are intended to be as a consequence of external and usually communal influence. This is evident in Zora Neale Hurston 's “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, as Janie Crawford reflects on what she truly desires and attempts to follow her own non conformist path. The novel begins with Janie explaining how in her relationship with her grandmother, she is forced to marry Logan Killiks, as her grandmother believed he could provide her a life of financial…
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a book written in 1845, a time when slavery still existed. It was written by Douglass to argue for the abolishment of slavery. Abolishment means to put an end to something, in this case to end slavery. Frederick Douglass was a former slave who gained his freedom through reading and writing. In the book Frederick writes about his experience as a slave.…
The Exposition of the Problem of Evil In my paper, I will present the argument Weirob gives on the Problem of Evil, and explain Miller’s response to the Problem of Evil. I will explain why the character of Weirob argues it is impossible for an omniscient, omnipotent, and totally good God to exist simultaneously with evil in the world and go into detail about how Weirob believes that if God has these traits, He should be able to eliminate all evils in the world before they occur. Then I will give Miller’s defense to this argument which includes how God and evil can both exist in the world.…
Passages in the Bible has accepted and affirmed the regulation of slavery, ranging from first Peter 2:18, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust” to Colossians 3:22, “Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eyeservice, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord”. However, slave owners were highly selective on what scriptures were applicable to their circumstances. In the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the author tends to criticize in tangents on the dissimulation of slave owner rhetoric that revered Biblical texts, yet perpetuate the obscenities in slavery from physical abuse to severe punishments with the inclusion of certain characters such as Thomas Auld, whom cruelty exacerbated after Methodist camp training, and the infamous antagonist Edward Covey. Specifically, in Chapter 10, Douglass reprimanded his overseer at the time, Edward Covey, “I do verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the solemn belief, that he was a sincere worshipper of the most high God”. Covey garnered the notorious reputation of breaking young negroes, harshly whipping for surface reasons (e.g. discomfiture), while praying instantly in the morning and taking time to construct a well-thought…
This paper will talk about a theory known as Divine Command and the problem that hampers it which is known as the Euthypro Problem. To start off the paper, I will explain what the Divine Command Theory is and the main idea behind it. Next, I will talk about why this theory is so enticing to many people. After, I will reveal the problem with the theory called the Euthypro Problem, why it is titled Euthypro, and why it causes a problem within the theory. Later in the paper, I will discuss how the first part of the theory makes morality trivial and how it makes the concept of God always being good unimportant.…
Euthyphro Dilemma The Euthyphro dilemma is an argument that was brought about by a question asked by Socrates during Plato’s Euthyphro. The question is seen to object the Divine Command Theory. Socrates asked, “is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?” or in other words, “Are morally good acts willed by God because they are morally good, or are they morally good because they are willed by God?”…
Racism is “the unfair treatment of people who belong to a different race” (Hornby 1248). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston comments on race relations. “The novel seems to ask if race is not, after all, socially constructed—that is to say, categories not based on biology but on concepts thought up by humans” (Sharon 189). Hurston focuses on the loss of the Blacks’ identity in society. A significant example that sheds the light of the history of blacks in America is the character Nanny.…
The civilization of the ancient Hebrews is one of the most fascinating to study, if only due to its longevity in the face of countless trials faced throughout history. Their imagined community, formulated by their religious practices and their devotion to scripture as the center of their beliefs, kept their culture mostly separate from others, allowing them to retain many customs and practices to which they still adhere to this day. The Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible, written circa 580-400 BC, is an excellent indicator of the importance of religious text in their society. It tells the story of a man named Job, the godliest man on earth, of whom God boasts and protects, though Satan, referred to as “the Adversary,” challenges Job’s righteousness,…
Where the beginning of Morality came from has been a huge debate among people for hundreds of years now. Morality can also be called the goodness in people or the desire to be good. Theists believe morality comes from God. Atheists believe that morality comes from our own conscience or reason. In this essay we are going to focus on proving that morality could not have come from God in view of the following reasons, 1: You can be good without God, 2: The Bible is not a clear guide for direction on morality, 3: There are many things that religious people do not agree with, and 4: The problem of evil.…
To make a distinction between races and socio-economic status is not to be a faithful follower of the Bible. He questions the white man, inquiring as to why God, if he liked white people as much as they say, went on to create other races. Apess reminds the reader that neither Jesus nor his disciples were white skinned, and that out of all races of the earth, the whites have been those who have committed the greatest crimes. Apess goes further and questions the right of the white man to control others, especially the Native American people. He asks his audience to examine the prejudices and errors that plague society, and to find an affinity between such actions and their beliefs.…
He implores that there is no human on earth who is willing to become a slave themselves. Douglass also attacked at churches, ministers, and those who considered the idea of slavery to be a part of God’s divine plan. He compared the people who did not speak out against the existence of slavery in churches to the philosophers who spoke out against the churches of their time like Thomas Pain or…
Gods and goddesses are often pictured as greater, higher, and a perfect image of man. They are responsible for everything seen and experienced all around the world. They give life and meaning to everything humanity does and they believe in their gods’ influence on the world. Gods help humans understand their environment and their significance in the world as conscious beings in a world full of possibilities. Although the Olympians were gods, they had very human flaws and frailties such as jealousy, cunning, and manipulation.…