Agnosticism

Empowering Character Development Cassy is one of few characters within Uncle Tom’s Cabin to lack any real type of religious identity. This is because of a variety of reasons which will be explained below, but what is more important than Cassy’s agnosticism is the statement that Cassy’s will to survive and escape captivity despite a religious figure makes. Cassy has one of very few happy endings among characters in the novel, and it should not be overlooked that this is perhaps because she has…

Thomas Hardy’s poetry is known for its philosophical pessimism and its autobiographical nature. Because Hardy struggled with faith and the possibility of God in his life, he struggled with the same in poetry. However, due to his mental battle with life’s meaning, he was able to express his doubts and become a critically acclaimed poet. With a total of nine hundred and forty-seven poems, Hardy is one prolific poets of the twentieth century. In 1898, Hardy wrote the three-stanza iambic…

War and religion. While in many cases, churches and other holy sites are often used as a way for people to avoid the violence of warfare, in cases such as the Crusades, religion can be the cause of warfare. The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, does not explicitly focus on themes relating to the nature of the relationship between religion and war, rather it focuses mainly on other large ideas such as burdens and subjective truths. However, several symbols presented in some of the many…

were not turned away (Larson). This allows for a wide spectrum of beliefs in the church. However, many of the believers’ views tend to be more liberal (Religion Facts). For example, there are many beliefs about God including theism, atheism, or agnosticism. Most tend to not believe in God, but as a whole they believe that it is “better to be together and celebrate what binds us to each other” (Existence of a Higher Power… Universalism). The same principle applies to the afterlife. One is able to…

Hospitality To begin the project on Hospitality, I read a couple of articles. The first, Hospitality – a Very Christian Virtue by Gill Robins, talked about the Biblical sense of hospitality and how we are to accept and include others. She gave some examples of how a lack of hospitality can lead to conflict between people. Robins’ article did not emphasize what to do to be hospitable, as much as why we are to be hospitable. Drawing from 1 Timothy 5:10, she says, “Hospitality is about perceiving…

In Yann Martel’s fiction novel Life of Pi, Pi’s survival story includes living on a lifeboat for 227 days while accompanied by a 450 pound Bengal tiger. He claims that through his faith and prayers, Pi was able to survive on a rigorous journey in which no human has accomplished before. During the time of his struggle, Pi had been practicing four faiths, one of them including atheism. Pi’s encounters throughout his surreal story contradict the beliefs of atheists. Through the lens of an atheist,…

when the satirical book, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson that personifies the main beliefs of the parody religion of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, modern society leans away from religion. Atheist and agnosticism has become more common in society today. To ignore these students, and families, the schools are simply stating that, their beliefs are not important to the school and that the religion being taught is far more important than the subject of…

In William James', “The Will to Believe, James provides a defensive response to religious faith regarding W. T. Clifford's position in his essay, "The Ethics of Belief" (James, 2001). Within his stance, James suggests that his views have a somewhat broader scope that Clifford’s (Princeton University, n.d.). Moreover, that in certain cases, it is not only permissible but inevitable that a person’s passional, non-rational nature will determine that person’s belief (Princeton University, n.d.).…

own lack of knowledge and ceasing to search at all. This tendency towards indiscrimination pervades many aspects of millennial life, from our penchant for moderate views to our opinions about gender-neutrality. Personally, it has brought about my agnosticism. As these Millennial values began to take root and develop, so did my internal compass. Although my parents were still a big part of my environment, they became auxiliary influences as my personal principles began to divert further from…

god or not a God (Roots of Wisdom Pg. 167). The belief that there is a god is called theism. Conversely, the belief that there is not a god is called atheism. The fact that no conclusion can be made on whether there is a god or not is defined as agnosticism. Firstly, there are many traditional views of God, in Western religion and philosophy. God in Western religion and philosophy is seen as…