I am a theist- I wholly and completely accept that a diety exists: a force greater than myself, a being responsible for the creation of the cosmos, an entity satisfying the criteria of omnipotence, omnibenevolence, and omniscience. However, I strongly feel the famous historical arguments used to prove God's existence are all founded on shaky grounds, many have troublesome implications and they directly contradict the idea of "belief" and "faith"- something so destitute in the contemporary human condition. Pascal's wager forces the rational person to choose a belief in god over non-belief. This is because given the worst case scenario, a person is better believing in a diety that does not exist (neutral outcome) than not believing in a diety
The Hero with a Masked Face According to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a hero is someone who has given his life over to someone or something bigger than himself. Even in novels and films, a hero is someone who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience. Dark Knight Rises is a spectacularly satisfying example that closely follows the steps of Joseph Campbell’s archetypal monomyth theory. The first phase of a hero’s journey is called the departure. For the hero to begin his or her journeys, he or she must be called away from the ordinary world as Campbell states, “This first stage of the mythological journey which we have designated the "call to adventure" signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown”(54).
Abduction - A form of nondeductive inference, also known as inference to the best explanation. The Surprise Principle and the Only Game in Town Fallacy are relevant to deciding how strong an abductive inference is. Analogy argument – a nondeductive inference in which one infers that a target object T has some characteristic on the ground that T is similar to some other object A the analog), and A is known to possess that characteristic. (e.g. Other galaxies probably contain life, since they are quite similar to our own galaxy and our own galaxy contains life.)
“The Great Gatsby” Teddy Gomes 5th Period A famous American science fiction writer once said: “For me, fantasy must be about something, otherwise it's foolishness... ultimately it must be about human beings, it must be about the human condition, it must be another look at infinity, it must be another way of seeing the paradox of existence.” (Johnson, George Clayton). F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the book “The Great Gatsby”, uses his writing to create another look at “infinity” and specifically in this excerpt he uses diction and figurative language to create that magical tone, and generate a sense of fantasy, characterizing in full depth how Gatsby’s parties were like. In this paragraph, Fitzgerald uses diction in a fantastical
The Maturation of Odysseus: The True Odyssey A hero often undertakes the most difficult tasks and places himself in mortal danger in order to bring back both knowledge and treasure. Their stories follow what Joseph Campbell calls the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey has six phases: leaving home for a quest, encountering battles and temptations, an all-out struggle that gives the hero a physical or mental wound, and returning home to share the wisdom the hero gained on his quest. One of the most famous tales of all time, The Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem depicting the return home of the hero Odysseus, follows the cycle of the Hero’s Journey. The saga begins with the intervention of Athena on behalf of Odysseus, who has been trapped on the island of the Titaness Calypso for the past seven years.
1 “It (science fiction) is, in fact, a literature of anarchy, a convincing way of describing possible worlds previously unknown to us, that puts the tyranny of ordinary reality and the claustrophobia of our limited perceptions in doubt” (Nodelman 38). Science fiction is a form of literature that allows humans to express views of the world as they see it by way of exaggeration, allegory, and unencumbered creativity. This creativity is exhibited with such precision in the graphic depictions of the post-apocalyptic world of Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road that when reading it, it is easy to get lost in what the mind’s eye is seeing. The humanity of the father and his boy and the inhumanity of the rest of “society” set against this dark and ominous antagonist of a dead, ashen world is an example of what makes this genre so dynamic. So what is Mccarthy’s opinion of the world as he sees it?
Mythology reflects the cultural and belief elements. By examination of the heroes, tricksters, the creation and the afterlife of the myths of different mythologies, some similarity can be detected. By comparing the Ancient Greek, the native African, the Mesopotamian and the Biblical mythologies, many common belief symbols can be summarized: the human challenge to the God, the human’s reflection of their sinful behaviors, the desire to perform over the human limit, the fear for the almighty power, the desire to explain the world origination and the different destinations for the faithful and unfaithful. Firstly, the fear for the almighty power is one of the original motivations for the existence of all the mythologies, which can be found in different mythologies. All the Gods own the almighty power over human beings and other creatures on earth.
CHAPTER 3 THE STATE AT ITS CIVILITY AND THE HOBBESIAN GROUNDS OF POLITICAL OBLIGATION INTRODUCTION Without mincing words, previous chapters have preoccupied themselves with and launched us extensively into a consideration of the conceptualization of political obligation and sovereignty, and an overview of the nature of the pre-civil state characterized by unbearable miserableness and tomblike war. As a panacea to man’s natural condition, “Hobbes sees a way out of this unhappy predicament, a way which employs the passions and the reason of the natural condition as the basis of an artificial structure, the Commonwealth.” Thus, this escape of man from this natural state is neither non-haphazard nor illegitimate in the sense that the transition is unscientific or/and unhealthy for man. It is rather a law-bound, contract-sanctioned and consent-willed transition. Thus, Collison succinctly describes and recounts Hobbes’ description of the necessity for the transition from the warring state, thus: ‘that the only way to secure perpetual peace is for people to covenant together to place themselves under so powerful a sovereign authority that rebellion against its command is virtually impossible.’ The implication of this is that the sovereign is empowered and authorized by and for the people’s life insurance. However, Hobbes maintains that the sovereign is not party to the initial contract or covenant made by men, but bound by natural law which enjoins men to seek peace, stability and justice.
Creation of Pandora Creation myths explain the origins of things. This myth, Creation of Pandora, is a natural myth that explains the origin of evil. This paper shall identify each character and discuss the recreation of earth; the betrayal and reaction; creation of Pandora and the results of her defiance; and discuss Pandora from the perspective of society relating to today's similar myth. Main characters The main characters involved were Zeus, Epimetheus, Prometheus, Hephaestus, and Pandora. Zeus is the Greek version of the Indo-European chief sky god.
Because of the faithfulness and obedience he has shown, God delegated him with this incredible mission. In Genesis 12: 1 – 3, Abraham was told to leave his family, his country and to go to the place where God would show him and made of him nations. In chapter 15, Abraham has had an encouraging vision and was told,' do not be afraid'. Again in chapter 17, God told Abraham to walk before him faithfully since he would make his covenant with him. God promised that Abraham will be the father of great nations and an everlasting covenant will establish with his descendant and Kings will come from him.