As time progressed, many pagans had drifted away from polytheism to monotheism. Witnessing the willingness of the martyrs to accept death with enthusiasm, rather than renounce their faith provided the pagans with a religion that people were willing to die for . The act of martyrdom signified a devotion to a higher power that the pagans had never before experienced. In their view, martyrdom did not make sense, why would somebody willingly die for their God? Although…
The church in America is a part of our culture and has been since the beginning. The mindset of our country is changing and this is where the followers of Christ come from. I remember a scandal from the Clinton administration. Hilary Clinton had worn a cross, and the debate was should a government leader, such as a first lady, wear a sign of faith in public. My position back then was if, for her, the cross was a sign of faith then she had a right to wear the symbol, like a Muslim woman should be…
captured similarities and differences of the development of societies. Therefore, the interesting point I would like to discuss is the Olmec civilization in comparing to the Ubaid period chiefdom of Mesopotamia in terms of rulership, political power, religion, and economy, based on the information from the archaeological records. The Ubaid period of Mesopotamia began early 5000 B.C. to 3500 B.C. in the southern Mesopotamia. Sumerians developed the first complex societies of the Mesopotamia. The…
In the book, Damned Women: Witches and Sinners in Puritan New England, Elizabeth Reis examines the relationship among women, evil, and Puritanism in the seventeenth century New England. Reis not only explains why women were more likely viewed as witches or followers of the Devil but she also explains how men would sin in Puritan New England. In her book, she discusses why even puritans themselves, came to think that they forged a pact with the devil. Elizabeth begins stating that she believed…
As evolutionary theory was finding its voice in the mid nineteenth century, art and literature grappled with religious skepticism. Perhaps most tellingly, Tennyson, through his trance-like process of unconscious mining, accessed and worked toward the source of his doubt in the verses of “In Memoriam.” Prompted by the untimely death of companion Arthur Hallam, questions of justice, morality of God and natural law became more obscure and complicated. The often quoted line, "nature, red in tooth…
In this essay, I will contend that Brock’s argument in favor of the moral permissibility of voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) is sound and that Brock offers persuasive responses to the objection that (A) VAE is an act which involves the deliberate killing of an innocent person and (B) the deliberate killing of an innocent person is always morally wrong. To achieve this, I will begin by summarizing Brock’s argument for the moral permissibility of VAE. Then, I will synthesize the objection to…
itself does not omit poverty from its pages. Messages of the vulnerable and poor are interwoven to express how pervasive their plight has been and will be in society. Religion assumes a righteous and perfect image outlined by preachers and painted by its followers. However, Grace Lumpkin’s To Make my Bread, exposes how easily religion can be transformed from a virtue to a vice. As characters address the conflict of the unknown and come face to face with existential questions which stem from…
6. The Conception of Human Nature in Mencius and Xunzi Human nature describes an innate ability that human beings go through their lives with, shaping their world and interactions with each other. According to Mencius, human nature is, for the most part positive; that is, humans tend to be good. Humans are fundamentally different from other animals in that they are rational, social, and as a result, good. It is important to understand, though, that they are not all moral. Human beings are born…
have never heard of it before or maybe you indeed have, but Bektashism is the religion that I once belonged to when I was growing up in Tirana, Albania. It is a sect of the Islamic religion that derived from the Ottoman Empire,…
Introduction I. In this paper, I will be arguing for the following claim that we, human beings are not predetermined beings, but rather we have free will. It has long been argued that people are not free and do not have free will; that rather than having free will we live in a world that is predetermined. That our choices and actions are reflections of and happen because of a long line of other choices and action that caused the present, and thus we have a fixed future. This is just not the…