...Three strengths of contemporary Catholicism: review and reflection The University of the Incarnate Word April 11, 2014 Three strengths of contemporary Catholicism: review and reflection The Catholic religion, like with others, faces criticism and negative news to combat. As with many concepts, ideologies and theories, these often get the lashings first, before any good ideas are mentioned. The article written by Nussbaum reviews three strengths which the Catholic church has. These strengths are, more on levels of today’s world, which is a plus. Today's world seems to be changing more than ever before. Most of it falls within human rights, politics, and moral and ethic behavior, but the Church remains constant in their faith. The items discussed in the article have less to do with faith, and more to do with community. The first strength according to Nussbaum is their “openness to other religions”. The Catholic church does not criticize others for their views or beliefs. There are no notions of hatred or disrespect. The Catholic church, rather, is not there to convert others, but is now a presence to work with other religions. The second strength is the church's new openness to scientific research. Rather than dismissing ideas and science on our creation and evolution, the Catholic church has come to accept this. Items the church accepts according to Nussbaum are things like evolution, the creation of the universe and people, and new discoveries about...
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...THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS TRILOGY BOOK REVIEW SHADOWHUNTERS. The word that really caught my attention while walking down the hall of our local bookstore. The Mortal Instruments Trilogy is a young adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy, set in a colorful version of our reality where humans walk unaware of not just the vampires, werewolves, fey and warlocks, but also demons and their part-human enemies – the Shadowhunters. The author Judith Rumelt better known by her penname Cassandra Clare is a bestselling American author of young adult fiction. The books are inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, Cassandra’s favorite city. As I progress through, I found that the books are fast flowing with vivid characters, a lot of action, and interesting twists. The City of Bones, the first book of the trilogy, tells us about a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray, who live in New York City, discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a race of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother, Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures. As I read through the book I found each and every character such charming personalities, as if they where real. I become aware of there presence and starts to worry. The words used by Cassandra...
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...enlightened ones,” meaning these humans can do anything as long as their souls are above sin (Browne 133). In order words, through this secret organization, humans can do anything through sin and Satan. The Illuminati was founded in 1776 in Bavaria by a scholar named, Adam Weishaupt, who was a professor at Ingolstadt (“Illuminati,” Columbia). One of their means by achieving this goal exists through the mass media. Pop culture plays a tremendous role on depicting some of these instances, as many are said to mention the illuminati. How is the illuminati referenced in American pop culture and its function? Firstly, I will discuss what conspiracy theories are in general. Secondly I will talk about the references to the illuminati in movies, and books that correlate to those...
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...Chapter 8,9,& 10 1. Are Taoism and Confucianism truly religions argue both sides. Taoism and Confucianism are two very different religious traditions of ancient China. Both Taoism and Confucianism cannot clearly be explained as a religion with certain doctrines and rituals as other well –known religions. As religious and social forces, they have coexisted for centuries in China and have spread to other Asian regions. The name Taoism is taken from the title of the book called “Tao Te Ching, which translates to “the way of nature. Taoism is based on the ancient Chinese understanding of the universe. Historically, the origin of Taoist philosophy is unclear, but it is said that the founder of Taoism is Lao-tzu, who lived in the sixth century B.C.E. Taoism can be described in terms of its history and its effects on Chinese people, nut it cannot be clearly delineated as a religion with a certain body of doctrine and rituals of Chinese antiquity. Philosophically, for Taoism, the ideal life is one that is lived in harmony with the way of this shifting nature. By the early centuries of the Common Era, Taoism had been converted into a religion complete with gods, priests, temples and sacrifices. In the modern days, Taoism is mainly associated with charms, exorcisms and magical attempts to prolong life, in which there is a self-generating force called chi (rather than there being a Creator Deity). This force manifests two interplaying aspects: yin and yang. Yin is the dark...
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...The Mystery Behind the Spiritual Alien Agenda Beryl King 12 March 2012 The Search for Earth-like Planets December 5, 2011 must have been an exciting day for astronomers all over the world as NASA announced to the public the discovery of an Earth-like planet potentially able to support life. The planet, 2.4 times the size of the Earth, is six hundred light-years away in what astronomers call the “Goldilocks Zone”, an area in which a planet has an ideal temperature because of its distance from a star. It orbits around a star similar to the sun of the Earth, and the temperature of its surface is habitable at 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists are hopeful that this planet might possess water and land, but they are not sure as of the moment if the majority of it is made up of solid, liquid or gas (Bloxham). Kepler 22-b is just one of the extrasolar planets observed by NASA that has a probability to be inhabited by extraterrestrial life forms. Since 1960, NASA has funded different exobiology projects, including Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), in hopes that astronomers can find evidences of life in outer space. Thinking that extraterrestrials would likely leave something behind to signal other intelligent beings during their exploration, astronomers of SETI previously tried to detect interstellar probes to be able send messages back to them, but until now, none have been discovered. Despite this, scientists working on SETI have not given up, focusing more on...
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...told throughout the generations. When someone utters the word “vampire” most people’s mind jump to Dracula from the great love story written by Bram Stoker. Dracula was created because Stoker was inspired by a real live man, the infamous, Vlad Tepes from Romania. That story is where love and vampires were intertwined and a kind of admiration was born. Only till recently they have become these seductive beautiful men and women in movies like ‘Twilight’ and ‘The Lost Boys’. So we are going to embark on the journey of where vampires began and explore the different aspects and origins of vampires. How these creatures were created was recorded in European folklore, Greek Mythology, found in medical conditions, and even taken from an excluded book of the bible. What is a vampire? Where did they come from? Well to get some answers we must first start at the beginning. First we must look at the word vampire. It is also spelled “vampir” or “vampyre”. The origin of the word has a mysterious background, but most scholars can agree that it can be traced to the Slavic languages. But the debate over this will continue, since there are many numerous theories. The word may have come from the Lithuanian wempti, which literally means “to drink”, or from the root pi, which has a similar meaning with the prefix va or av. Other scholars would...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Research Paper Submit ion for The fall of Satan: A Historical Approach Submitted to Cky John Carrigan, in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the completion of the course Theo 525 D02 (Summer 2014) Systematic Theology I By Matthew Dumler (26110162) August 15th, 2014 Contents Introduction 1 Gap Theory 1:1 and 1:2 2 Gap Theory Chapters 2 and 3 5 Before Creation 8 Conclusion 10 Introduction Before Genesis 1:1 God created the heaven of heavens (Nehemiah 9:6) with angels so numerous no one could count (Revelation 5:11). One of God’s most cherished creations, Lucifer, was placed in charge of guarding his royal thrown (Ezekiel 28:12-16). One day Lucifer took pride in his own beauty and his heart was filled with pride (Ezekiel 28:17). He began to think highly of himself and began to think wrongly of God. He began to take what rightfully belonged to God and began to put himself in God’s place. For the first time in all creation, one of his own had sinned against him. God judged him accordingly and placed him in the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41). The sacred scriptures tell us that after the fall, Lucifer was thereafter known as the Devil or the accuser. One question that remains to be answered is this: when did this event occur? Some theologians claim that Satan’s fall occurred before Genesis 1:1. Others contend that there was a gap that took place between...
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...[pic] |Course Design Guide College of Humanities SOC/105 Version 5 Introduction to Popular American Culture | |Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This is an introductory course on modern American culture. The course focuses on the interactions between social forces such as advertising, media, and lifestyle and cultural trends in modern American society. Students are asked to cast a critical eye on current trends and changes in our culture. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Petracca, M., & Sorapure, M. (2007). Common culture: Reading and writing about American popular culture (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. All electronic materials are available on the student website. |Week One: Overview of Culture ...
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...Issue 2 30.4.10 Jyoti nivas college sagezza FINANCE INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Finance Marketing Human resource management 2 3 4,5 Reliance discovers more oil in Cambay basin Energy major Reliance Industries has discovered more oil on India's western coast, raising the potential of the exploratory blocks it has been drilling, India's biggest conglomerate whose businesses span petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas exploration and retail said the current flow was at 300 barrels of oil per day (bopd)at the onland exploratory block in the Cambay basin in Gujarat state. The potential commercial interest of the discovery is being evaluated through more data gathering and analysis, it said in a statement. "The discovery is significant as this play fairway is expected to open more oil pool areas leading to better hydrocarbon potential within the block," it said. Reliance holds 100 per cent participating interest in the block, and three earlier discoveries had a flow rate of 500 bopd. The company has so far drilled 14 exploratory wells in the block that covers an area of 635 square kilometres. Last year Reliance, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, started pumping gas from its block in the vast Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off India's east coast, where it made the country's largest gas find. environment technology Economy politics sports 6 7 8 9 10 entertainment medifacts Campus 11 12 13 RBI OK with teaser home loan rates Teaser home loan rates, which are in the...
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...Comparison and Contrast Paper Founder(s) of the religion There are five major religions of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism have a different origins. The founder of Christianity was Jesus Christ. He was born in Bethlehem around 6-4BC. He was the son of Joseph and the Virgin Mary and in his early years most like trained as a carpenter under his father. Around the age of 30 he was baptized by John the Baptist and at the moment it was said the heavens opened up and God proclaimed that Jesus was his son and resulted in the beginning of his ministry and established a group that he called the twelve apostles. It was around this time where Jesus spent forty days and nights wandering the desert avoiding three temptations from Satan; hunger, power and faith. On Passover, he shared the last supper with his disciples when Jesus was arrested and condemned to death. On the third day, he resurrected from the dead and on the fortieth day after his resurrection, Jesus appeared, told to spread His word and ascended into heaven. The founder of Islam is the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was born in 570 AD in Makah. In this early life, he was raised by his grandfather and after he died, his uncle. He later wed Khadija and lived a prosperous life. While making a retreat to a mountain cave, he was visited by a presence which left him in awe and was instructed to recite words which would be the foundation of the Qur’an. After a number of years, he...
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...Sympathy for the Devil Despite his morally reprehensible lifestyle and personal shortcomings, I like Tony Soprano. Through the entire run of the television show The Sopranos, even when his transgressions became too great for redemption to be an option any longer, I never wished the character ill will, never wanted him to get his comeuppance. It’s hard to pinpoint why I find Tony so endearing; James Gandolfini made the middle-aged Mafioso surprisingly relatable. He was the first and best in a line of male protagonists on television that have been given the title “antihero.” However, this moniker hasn’t stopped fans from viewing Tony and his successors as they would normal heroes, supporting their decisions and sympathizing rather than condemning. Although the idea of an antihero is relatively new to television, the protagonist of questionable morals and heroism has been on the stage for quite some time. In Christopher Marlowe’s play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, the titular doctor is not presented as a particularly heroic man. The aspects we associate with heroism, chiefly voluntary service to others at the cost of personal sacrifice and potential harm, are not displayed by Faustus. Yet if we examine the history of dramatic tragedy as well as morality plays, we can get a better understanding of why Faustus indeed fits into the categorization of hero. While not necessarily a character that gains our initial support, Dr. Faustus is nonetheless...
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...03-01-15, 05:57 AM#1 Prologue For years people have dreamed of Virtual reality ranging from video games to entire worlds. There have been numerous amounts of stories and speculation for as long as the idea has existed. But now with technologies growing and improving every day the dream of virtual reality has become a reality with the new release of a Virtual Reality game called Mythical Legends with many flocking to get their hands on it. With wild speculation, stories and dreams over the year people expecting great things. Mythical Legends has had great hype across all forms of media, and for good reasons. First the game is running on a new system that incorporates not just the Game Masters; GM’s for short, but also the creation of multiple advanced artificial intelligences that support’s the virtual world and create new events and areas as the game progresses. Besides that another amazing feat is that the NPCs and Mobs of the game cannot be easily told apart from any other players. The Beta testers where surprised and overwhelmed by the games realism and by its gameplay. They played throughout a number of regions on the continent of Tellus starting at one of the four kingdomsRedstone, Thorcyn, Thlyiss, and Andesit. Each kingdom home to the four core races of Humans, Elves, Halflings, and Dwarves. After the six month testing time the programmer of the game accelerated the game’s time over a 1000 years in game time adding more history and lore. With the games...
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...Islam, along with Christianity and Judaism is a major monotheistic religion of the world. It was founded by Prophet Muhammad in Arabia, in the 7th century CE. According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, “the Arabic term Islam, literally ‘surrender,’ illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer, called a Muslim, accepts surrender to the will of Allah (God)” (Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). In Islam, Allah is considered the only God, and it is believed that humans must submit to his will. The Prophet Muhammad is considered the last Islamic Prophet, and the one to whom Allah had revealed sacred scriptures known as Qur’an. Although Muhammad started with a small group of followers, they quickly grew in number and his teachings started spreading rapidly “through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula, and China”(Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). Today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world which makes it 2nd largest religion of the world. However, Islam is perceived to be radical and contradictory religion by many non-Muslims. Moreover, due to the terrorist attacks which had been associated with this “religion of peace,” Muslims call it, Islam had been viewed as a “bad” religion. Since America is the “melting pot” of different cultures and religions, non-Muslims should strive to learn about the Islamic religion, its teachings and interpretations, its differences and similarities with Christianity and Judaism, and how to...
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...Hide the Crazy Woman - The Figure of Bertha in Jane Eyre Introduction Over the time various famous and not so famous literary personalities have suffered from mental breakdowns. Very often writers themselves have written through their own “madness” and produced mad characters as a result. This is particularly true of many of the leading figures in Modernism, who all seem to have had some odd character traits. But even before Modernism the madman/woman was a very popular figure in literature. Just think of Shakespeare’s famous plays, where we encounter lunatics en masse. One of the most famous madwomen in English literature is Bertha, the locked up wife of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. In this paper I will look at Victorian madness in general and at the figure Bertha more closely. Furthermore I will also look, from a somewhat feminist perspective, at Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel in which Jean Rhys takes up the figure of Bertha again. I shall try to explain this rewriting of a canonical text in a postcolonial context. Historical Madness Early in the Victorian period the madness seems to be lurking in the shadows – especially in gothic fiction, but then madness was very much on everybody’s mind in those days. The Lunatics Act of 1845 required that all counties should have mental asylums, and this led to an enormous increase of mental patients admitted to public care.[1] Before that it was not unusual for husbands to “shut up” their madwomen behind...
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...Local Literature The Black Nazarene is a life-sized, dark-colored, wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ held to be miraculous by many people, especially its Filipino devotees. Its original carver is an anonymous Mexican carpenter, and the image was transported by galleon from Mexico. The image is currently enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila, Philippines where novena celebrations are held every Friday throughout the whole year. Roman Catholic tradition holds that the Black Nazarene came from a boat that caught fire, turning it from its original white into black or charred complexion. The Black Nazarene is carried into the streets for procession in a "Caroza" or carriage. Alisa Pierson (2011) quoted that Most Americans are aware that the Philippines is comprised of Catholics, but Catholicism and spirituality in the Philippines extends beyond just being Catholic. In fact the way religion is practiced in the Philippines is very unique in comparison to the form Christianity takes in the west or other areas of the globe. Filipino Catholicism is practiced alongside and influenced by pre-colonial indigenous religions and indigenous Filipino concepts that are found in other areas of Southeast Asia. To understand how Christianity is practiced in the Philippines it is important to look at the unique ways Filipinos manifest their spirituality, how gender...
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