Original research

death and preached these ideas. God was at the top in a place known as paradise or heaven, in between lie Earth, and beneath a fearful place of existence known as hell. In contrast, the modern worldview is shaped by human intellect and nature. Original sin was a concept imbedded in medieval minds and in modern times is a concept left only to believers. With religion at its foundation, medieval worldview was sculpted by the teachings of Christianity, whereas the modern worldview focuses on…

Alexander Pope once said, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” (PhraseFinder). An adage many are familiar with, Alexander Pope’s thoughts on forgiveness reveal that everyone makes mistakes. We all sin. And eventually, we seek redemption to find peace. Khaled Hosseini delves deeper into this aspect of human nature in his novel The Kite Runner. A story about two inseparable friends, Amir and Hassan, growing up in pre-revolutionary Kabul, and experiencing a harrowing journey in the midst of…

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley are two novels in which the themes of equality and inequality are explored extensively. The texts are both written by women in 1847 and 1818 respectively and both deal with gender inequality. Jane Eyre is also a social commentary on the injustices and inequalities of the classist Victorian hierarchy whereas Shelley’s novel focuses on the human rejection of unconventionality and the inequalities faced by societies ‘outcasts. The…

Once again, Salinger wasn’t oblivious to the meanings behind each character’s name. In fact, symbolism plays a part in the character Sybil Carpenter. “Sybil, bright with innocence but already tarnishing, symbolizes for Seymour the human condition: like the sibyls of old, she is the unconscious oracle through whom the prophecy is revealed, the instrument of truth” (Lane). A sibyl is defined as “a woman in ancient times supposed to utter the oracles and prophecies of a god” (“sibyl”). It is…

After watching some gameplay videos for the new ps4 game Until Dawn, I was reminded of a strange term I had once heard, the butterfly effect. Upon seeing this, I decided to do some research to find out more about it. The Chaos theory more commonly called the butterfly effect summarized by Edward Lorenz is a branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behaviour is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great…

‘social contract’ theory in which there is a hypothetical original scenario in which all rational parties would agree to a set of conditions and terms that would form a just society, this is referred to as the argument from ‘the original position’ and is an integral…

Furthermore, Rawls describes his project as “intuitionist,” as intuitively balancing equality and distribution. Synthesized, I think the kind of objective distance Rawls requires from his arbiters in the original position is what could ultimate help to cultivate empathy and foster connection in social and political engagement. And empathic connection is the first movement toward human flourishing I propose as a method for social engagement, which I shall…

Original sin comes from the first sin, which was the punishment for disobedience, when Adam and Eve were put into temptation and ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Sin is believed to bring us further apart from God. Original sin is a part of the human condition and the human tendency towards evil. For Augustine, original sin is an attempt to explain the corruption of our good, being that humans…

1The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the Lord God had made (Bible Gateway, 1995). One day it came to the woman and asked, “Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?” 2 The woman answered, “God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 3 except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die.” 4 “No, you won’t!” the snake replied (Bible Gateway, 1995). From the above, it is…

In works based on the Christian religion God is often portrayed as all-knowing and all-powerful. This is how God is portrayed throughout Paradise Lost, he is always able to stop Satan because he always has a plan. One plan by God that is seen in the text is the creation of humankind. He wants a new species, one with free will, not a creation that will follow God because they are programmed to, but because they believe it is the right thing to do. However, God seems upset at some of mankind’s…