...I know this church is true: Deconstructing the falsehood of the LDS Establishment. “I know this church is true.” These words echo through every chapel of the 29,253 Wards and Branches (churches) in the LDS faith every first Sunday. Anyone sharing their testimony mechanically recites this followed by its companion phrases “I know the Book of Mormon is true” and “I know Joseph Smith was a prophet.” After obligatorily reciting these lines every congregant old enough to talk and brave enough to stand behind the pulpit shares their testimony of how the church affected their lives since the last time they bore their testimony. This profession of belief in the church serves a dual purpose in the eyes of many LDS members. They are taught from an early age that bearing one’s testimony wipes clean any sin leaving them spotless and without fault. (Smith 1835) This is one of the many fallacies heaped onto members and converts of the LDS faith commonly referred to as Mormons. This trinity of mantras is a short version of the church’s foundation and its belief system. The fast Sunday recitation is the cornerstone by which all temple-worthy members live their lives. It is also the stumbling block by which the façade of godliness within the Mormon faith can be deconstructed. By using the words of the Book of Mormon and other holy texts, as well as the words of their leaders, one can reveal a works-based system that is neither effective nor Biblical. The trinity of Falsehood LDS apologetics...
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...Eric Quetschke HST 480 Research Paper During the nineteenth century the United States was growing its empire through economics, politics, and military actions. The first step in growing their empire was to limit the actions of European countries. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 asserted the United State’s position by warning European powers against any further attempts to colonize lands in the Western Hemisphere. The American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power. With the economic growth of Latin America and the Pacific the United States began to see the need for a more efficient and secure route to the east coast. The Isthmus of Panama was identified as that route and...
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...Soc. 403 May, 8, 2012 Shock Doctrine Through history wars and natural disasters have been part of the adversities humanity has suffered. Mankind has managed to get ahead with theses adversities but it becomes hard to believe where blood, and pain takes place others can get benefits from death. Where some fight for a better equal society others are expecting to spend a disgrace to make money from it. In the book “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein, critiques how free market is dominating the world through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. America has become a corporatist state using the element of shock treatment among citizens. The term “disaster capitalism” first pointed out in the book by economist Milton Friedman claims that “whenever government have imposed sweeping free-market programs, the all-at-once shock treatment or shock therapy has been the method of choice” (8). Friedman observed only a crisis actual or perceived produces real change and the new fundamental change was a permanent reform. The reason is simple capitalism has always needed disasters to advance and the prefer method to achieve goals from corporations utilizing a collective trauma engage in radical social and economic engineering. The shock therapy has helped America to become a corporative state where free market makes everything, it is the ultimate goal but hand with hand privatizing is what leads to corporations to a better success without of these disasters...
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... The concept of globalization is said to have been spawned out of the Cold War as a result of the increase in specialization and the need for trade. As a result of globalization many economists, businesspeople, and politicians have found that they needed to change their policies and adopt what is called “the Golden Straightjacket”, which is a set of guidelines that governments and businesses must follow to be successful in a unified market. Many economists, politicians, authors, and businesspeople have differing views on the costs and benefits of putting on the Golden Straightjacket. Tom Friedman, an economist and author, argues that the Golden Straightjacket is a good thing for the world economy, while Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, argues that free trade is a technique used to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Other ideas that have been argued are the effect globalization has on the spread of democracy. Tom Friedman argues that globalization is used to revolutionize governments to conform to democracy while Dani Rodrik, author of The Globalization Paradox, says that globalization actually hinders the spread of democracy. Klein, Rodrik, and Friedman offer differing views that reveal the various costs and benefits of globalization. Globalization usually refers to the global distribution of goods and services though reduction of barriers to trade. Globalization has existed for as long as there has been international trade. Our ancestors used trade routes such...
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...With the implementation of fair trade policies and the straining policies that the WTO (World Trade Organization) initiates, globalization will become a threat to the current status of power around the world. Globalization is the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of politics through communication, transportation, and trade. Globalization will create a one world economy, where big global corporations make a fortune exploiting slave labor on the other side of the world. With the treat of these global corporations taking control of the world economy because of fair trade policies, Naomi Klein’s argument about disaster capitalism that is discussed in her book The Shock Doctrine, can be directly related. Globalization helps develop third world countries in response to the outsourcing of jobs that multinational corporations carry out. As more capital is poured in to developing countries, those countries will acquire economic stability and increase their standard of living. In return the economy that those individuals belong to will also begin to grow. As stated in Forbes Magazine, “Per-person income in China has climbed from $16 a year in 1978 to $2,000 now. Wages in factory boomtowns in southern China can run $4 a day--scandalously low in the eyes of the protesters, yet up from pennies a day a generation ago and far ahead of increases in living costs” (Robyn Meredith and Suzanne Hoppough). China’s economy is...
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...On the 24th August 2012, Apple won more than US $1 billion in a massive US court victory over Samsung, one of the biggest patent cases in decades – a verdict that could have huge market repercussions. A jury in San Jose, California awarded US $1.049 billion to the US tech giant, according to court documents. But analysts said the damages could be tripled because jurors found Samsung “willfully” infringed on patents. The decision was appeared to be an overwhelming victory for Apple but it was not immediately clear whether it would halt sales of Samsung devices or affect newer models released since the case was filed. Apple, the world’s most valuable company now gets richer. On one hand, I believe in the rule of law and Samsung was violating some Apple design patents. They should pay. On the other hand, I can’t help but feel something is wrong with the system. Samsung was trying to take a good design and duplicate or improve upon it. That is what competition is all about. Innovation today is the process of finding a way around a patent or beat it with an even better design. Who knows whether Samsung knew they were copy or not. In any case, they got caught. And the outcome has to be higher phone prices for everyone. Luckily, the hot new Galaxy SIII smart phone was not affected by the ruling. Nowadays, designing a smart phone is difficult. They all look alike, essentially work alike. All have big screens, touch control, icons for the functions and apps. How do the designers...
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...1. Using examples, explain the difference between obscene and indecent materials. Obscene and indecent both have different meanings but are similar in many ways. Obscene material is described as disgusting or repulsive but indecent material is described as being offensive to the public. Both obscene and indecent can be view differently by the public; however, the Constitution plays a role with indecent material. Obscene material "is not protected by the First Amendment,” (The Dynamics of Mass Communication Tenth Edition, page 377) and broadcast stations cannot air obscene material at anytime. The problem with this is that no one had come up with a set standard of what obscene material is. Due to the difference in beliefs between families and individuals, no two people have the same beliefs and will not agree to a set standard of what obscene material really is. Since obscene material is can not be banned completely and therefore can be view during nighttime broadcasting. A good example of this is the adult swim channel. During the day children can view cartoons like Spongebob and Rugrats; but when 10 o’clock p.m. hit, the channel switches to adult swim when there are show with naked women and sex scenes. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, to be obscene, material must meet a three-prong test, "(1) an average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest (i.e., material having a tendency to excite...
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...Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Introduction Nature is God’s physician. God wants his children to be safe always. That is the reason why He had given us nature, his physician. Every person should have knowledge of nature’s remedial agencies and how to apply them, not only for their own sake but also for their loved ones. Necessity drives researchers to discover new things. Our country has a low economic condition and majority of the Filipino families have a small income so they cannot afford expensive or branded medicine. The researcher believed in the saying “Prevention is better than cure”, that is why she took the initiative of studying the acceptability of Malunggay, Bignay, Ashitaba and Guyabano leaves into herbal tea. Herbs are everywhere. They are available in a variety of forms; including fresh, dried, in tablets or capsules or in liquid form such as juice or tea. The leaves of Malunggay, Bignay, Ashitaba and Guyabano are abundantly found in the Philippines. The use of medicinal plants or herbs has been gaining popularity these past few years in the Philippines and worldwide as more clinical proof emerges that validates many of the age-old alternative medicines used by Filipino folks that have been passed on. The curative effects of the herbs were tested by traditional healers on their patient. The knowledge and skills on the curative application of any given herbal medicine has been handed down from generation to generation. In this study the...
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...Book Review: This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein, published: Sept. 2014 Summarize the book. What is being discussed? Rob Nixon of the New York Times called Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate” “a book of such ambition and consequence that it is almost unreviewable.[1]” Naomi Klein researches the impact of Climate change and its relationship with free market capitalism. She discusses capitalism as failed economic system. She goes into great depth on the subject of resource extraction, pollution and the events of surrounding the affected communities in these regions across the world. However, rather than concluding that things are hopeless Naomi Klein argues that: We can build something better and reclaim our economic system. She argues that the market cannot save us. We have the tools/technology to get off of fossil fuels, but it requires leaving free market capitalism behind. We need to rebuild local economies, reign in corporate power and reclaim democracy. She argues that we aren’t all the all powerful saviours of the planet, but that as visitors on the earth we have to save ourselves from an earth that is rocking, burning and driving humanity into extinction because of our actions. Describe the three most important arguments or claims made in the book. The first argument Naomi Klein makes is that world leaders and climate scientists agree if we are going to avoid truly catastrophic consequences of climate change; we need to...
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...Monroe Response Monroe’s written statement included mostly opinion based information that lined up with the neutrality that was planned for America. This statement was created to keep the European nations from not settling on America’s land and colonizing it. His main points behind this reasoning were to make European nations fully settle their land first and stay away from political sides. Monroe pulls the ‘we didn’t touch your stuff, so you shouldn’t touch ours’. In a way it could count as convincing, however it does not have much ground for support to back up why he chose this policy. Monroe also uses a reason stating, “The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their...
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...Klein neoliberalism is the rule of the market and corporations over the state therefore, meaning over the people. In her novel, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism she gathers together decades of economic catastrophes made by the United States, the IMF and the World bank. In this novel Klein is pushing to expose capitalism’s true nature,“ a policy the breeds poverty and crime” (Georgi Arbatov). Klein’s basic thesis and main point is that neoliberalism is dominating the world by using public disorientation such as wars, terrorist attacks and natural disasters to push through reforms that are not accepted. The introduction of the book Klein talks about the disaster in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, one of the many examples she uses to support her thesis, and how the Louisiana State Legislature in Baton Rouge were using this tragedy as an opportunity to change New Orleans. They spoke about building condos now that public housing was finally gone. One congressman said, “ We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did”(page 4). Klein recalls what some of the victims commented on when they heard what the Legislature was planning after this occurrence and how when these victims saw this as tragedy, they saw it as an opportunity, coming about with “The Shock Doctrine”, which is when governments use these disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, to pass reforms that change the nations economy. In this novel...
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...The Venezuelan Crisis The Venezuelan Crisis of 1895 happened over a longstanding territory dispute with Great Britain. The territory that was being fought over was Guayana Esequiba, Britain claimed that the territory belonged to them and was part of British Guiana and Venezuela considered it to be property of Venezuela. The dispute would become a crisis in 1895 when William L. Scruggs who was Venezuela’s lobbyist argued that Britain’s behavior over the issue was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine and was able to get Washington D.C. to pursue the matter. This issue over the territory of Guayana Esequiba had been brewing for a long time between Great Britain and Venezuela. The territory in dispute was once property of the Spanish Empire which was inherited by Venezuela after it gained independence in 1830 and the Dutch Empire which was inherited by Great Britain in 1814 along with the Dutch territories of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. Britain wanted to use the Schomburgk Line to divide the territory and was drawn up by Robert Schomburgk during his four-year expedition for the Royal Geographical Society from 1835-1839. Venezuela did not agree with the Schomburgk Line and in 1844 declared the Essequibo River the dividing line. The British did offer to make changes to the line but Venezuela never responded. They finally decided in 1850 that both countries would not enter into the disputed territory, and everything was good until around 1876 when diplomatic exchanges started...
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...Interview of a Mormon… By: Amy Stone Hum/130 Due: 8/16/15 Instructor: Michael Merez In my study of the Mormon religion I found out they feel that some of the scriptures of the Bible are written incorrectly. They also believe that Adam was not made of the dust of the earth that he was God and the father of Jesus Christ. Their belief also believes there are “different levels in the afterlife”. They are as followed: A. The Celestial Kingdom B. The Terrestrial Kingdom C. The Telestial Kingdom D. The Outer Darkness… They also believe that Jesus was born of Mary, but as a virgin. They are taught that God and Mary had a “physical relationship. Also believe and are taught “Salvation can be earned by faith and good works”. This is not true in order to be saved you need to ask forgiveness for your sins. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did on the Cross for your sins, and confess your sins. A brief history of the founder Joseph Smith Jr. in 1820 claimed he had a “vision from God telling him all Christianity was an abomination in their site and he was not to join any”. When he told others about his vision they “persecuted him”. He was 15 at this time. In 1823 when he was 18 he met “the angel Moroni “the glorified son of one Mormon”. Moroni came to Joseph “three times” and said to him to look for Gold-Plates on a hill in Palmyra, but to wait four years before he took them and not to show the tablets to...
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...Back when my mother was my age, the only media source they had was newspapers, radio, and television. Back then phones only had one function which was to communicate by voice and then came text. Now days our phone is a one stop shop for all media. All together though we do have: TV, phone, newspapers, radio, and the internet for our source media source. I personally don’t have cable anymore because of the dreaded news on each channel you turn to these days. I normally get my news from yahoo in whom I get an update in the morning and again in the evening. While serving in the Military, they told us that the only news we can really trust to be accurate was CNN and the Military News Network, that everyone else was exaggerated for higher program ratings. Should I be held accountable for their information? No. They should be, because the public values the truth and sometime the severity of it. According to Spark notes (http://www.sparknotes.com/us-government-and-politics/american-government/the-media/section3.rhtml) Printed media and Internet are unregulated. They can print whatever they want as long as they don’t slander anyone’s name. Broadcast Media is under strict regulations by the government. The FCC acts as a police agency over the airwaves. “Since the 1980s the government has loosened restrictions on media ownership, and Congress passed the Telecommunications Act in 1996 to allow companies to own even more media outlets. Due to the loosening of ownership restrictions, more...
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...The Mormon Religion As I previously stated, I visited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Temple located at 9900 Stoneybrook Drive Kensington, Maryland 20895. The website for the church is http://lds.org/church/temples/washington-dc?lang=eng. I was unable get in contact with a specific point of contact before I visited the church for the first time, so I attempted to attend on a Sunday, not realizing they’re not open on Sundays. I later learned that the church was not a church at all. It was a temple. On my next visit I was denied entrance because I was not Mormon. After realizing there were rules to being permitted entrance to a temple, I contacted my friend who is a Mormon and was also my inspiration for the religion I chose for this assignment and she went to the temple with me in order for me to get an up close and personal experience at the church. The people at the temple were very friendly. When I first drove up to the temple I noticed that the building did not look the way I was used to church’s looking. I grew up in the south and I am used to somewhat small churches, often constructed by the members themselves. The size of this temple was very intimidating from the outside. It was the largest church I had ever visited or even seen in person. There was beautiful landscaping leading up to and surrounding the temple. The structure of the building was exquisite! The temple was all white and several stories tall. The outside looked to be made of stone...
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