Monday, December 23, 2019

Deism and Changes in Religious Tolerance in America Essay

Deism and Changes in Religious Tolerance in America Religious conscience in America has evolved considerably since the first settlers emigrated here from Europe. Primary settlements were established by Puritans and Pilgrims who believed their errand into the wilderness [America] was above all else a religious errand, and all institutions - town meeting, school, church, family, law-must faithfully reflect that fact (Gaustad 61). However, as colonies grew, dissenters emerged to challenge Puritan authority; indeed, many of them left the church to join untraditional religious sects such as the Ranters, the Seekers, the Quakers, the Antinomians, and the Familists (Westbrook 26). Debates over softening the stance on tolerance in†¦show more content†¦Rejecting the assumption that God controls all actions on earth, most Deists believe that God created the universe, [. . .] and then disassociated himself from his creation (Robinson 3). This definition leads to the supposition that deistic thought was partly conceived out of scientific discovery: a Darwinian takeover theory. Perhaps the nuances of scientific knowledge manifested a directive in the argument for religious freedom. Certainly, Deists supported what Benjamin Franklin termed, spiritual Liberty, which asserted that no man ought to resign his Liberty, in mak[ing] Choice of his Minister as his Judgement and Conscience direct him (qtd. in Walters, Franklin 138). Thomas Paine, Deisms most notable advocate, maintains this line of thinking saying, I do not believe in the creed professed by [. . .] any church that I know of, but, I do not mean this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine (22). Religious tolerance would gain many formidable voices among Americas Founding Fathers, a development that poses a challenge to the harsh dogmatic attitude of early Puritan leaders. Intolerance for opposing views in religious matters was a renowned element in Puritanical practices during the seventeenth century. Few persons had the courage to speak against church doctrine, as it would certainly pronounce their expulsion. One such person, Roger Williams,Show MoreRelatedPuritan Verse Twenty Century Deist Thinking2525 Words   |  11 Pagesview of God has constantly evolved. During the formation of America this is made evident when the 17th century Puritan idealism is confronted with 18th century Enlightenment. This collision of religious ideas would spark a change, and a new age in America. My research will shows the original American settlers had concepts and, emerging different understanding of the biblical scripture and, needed to come to grips with social and religious freedom from being exclusive to being more inclusive. PuritansRead MoreJames C. Modern Christian Thought Volume 1 : The Enlightenment And The Nineteenth Century1808 Words   |  8 PagesMinneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997. ISBN-13: 978-0-8006-3795-8. 448. pp. (Kindle Edition: 10285 locations). By: TidSureyah Tach, ID# 339560 October 21st, 2014 Bibliographic data: James C. Livingston (died July 31st, 2011 at age 81) was a faculty member in Religious Studies and administration at the College of William and Mary from 1968 to 1998. Professor Livingston was the founding chair of the Department of Religion, when he earned a promotion to full professor in 1973. He became the Walter G. Mason ProfessorRead MoreJohn Locke And The Locke Of The United States5485 Words   |  22 Pages The writings of John Locke were basic in the idea that they focused on the natural rights of people, the rights given by God. Locke had theories when it came to religious tolerance. Locke believed that earthly judges, the state in particular, and human beings generally, cannot dependably evaluate the truth-claims of competing religious standpoints. InA Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke argues for freedom of religion, which became one of the bedrock principles which the country was founded on.Read MoreMy Son Christian By Mark Carrasco Essay11672 Words   |  47 PagesOne can be open minded and still obedient to their God and His word. Open-mindedness and obedience are two different ideas. While many a soldier may not agree with his superior’s orders, he still obeys them. My political stance often mirrors my religious stance. Very often I will have moments where I agree with a liberal on a position or two, yet I never agree with a militant liberal. While I have empathy for a woman who screams in my face, â€Å"My body; My choice,† she fails to understand that I do

Sunday, December 15, 2019

University Study Skills Free Essays

Students need to make a number of adjustments when starting university. Critically discuss some of these adjustments in terms of skills brought with them, and new skills that must be developed. Draw on relevant SSK12 material in your essay. We will write a custom essay sample on University Study Skills or any similar topic only for you Order Now ————————————————- In this essay it will be argued that even though students may bring with them such skills as competence in writing secondary school essays and reports, good comprehension and grammar and motivation to succeed with them to university, there are other skills they will need to develop as well as refine those they already possess. The main skills which any new student will need to develop in order to succeed at university are critical thinking, which also includes critical reading, reflective thinking, learning independently and adjusting to the concept of the university culture which has its own languages and behaviours. New students are likely to experience a cultural clash as university possesses its own culture, and sub-cultures. Adjustments will have to be made with students needing to develop bicultural habits. As Kolb asserts, students entering higher education will have to engage in ‘learning how to learn’ (Kolb 1981). The lead-up to the first study period, as well as the first study period itself, of a student’s beginning in university can be a massive culture shock. Some students may develop the feeling of uncertainty as to whether they have made the right choice about pursuing higher education and whether they are even likely to succeed. This can be observed by reading some of the student comments on the SSK12 Facebook page during the first weeks of the first study period. In other cases we may see students that take on a particular discipline and after a period of time find that they no longer have a desire to pursue that discipline. There may be few opportunities for students in these positions to change disciplines. This is primarily due to the fact each discipline has its own sub-culture within the greater university culture. As Kolb has discussed, there are many faculties within the university, each have their own conventions that are unique to themselves such as language, values, ideas and norms (Kolb 1981). This impending transition may be too much for a student who has already had to become acculturated and has potentially experienced a culture shock. The average individual can be affected by several cultures, for example and not necessarily restricted to, culture of family, culture of the workplace and culture of religion. The culture of university is but one of the cultures that can make a big impact on the individual. Students are faced with a new workload that may come with a pace of instruction that is probably faster and more intense than what they may be used to. There is a potential to feel overwhelmed at first and ways to overcome this may be to develop habits of early preparation, prioritising and time management. There is an expectation that students need to be self-motivated and independent. There will be some guidance available but the general expectation is that the individual should know their own deadlines and the amount of study that is required. This may take some adjustment for individuals as they may be reeling from the cultural demands that university has already begun to place upon them. If they are studying more than one subject in their first study period they will have already potentially experienced the distinction in sub-cultures. For example, Ballard and Clanchy have noted that each sub-culture will have its own language and values and the new student will have to navigate themselves through an unsteady transition between cultures (Ballard and Clanchy 1988). Individuals also need to develop critical thinking as it is a cornerstone of university studies. Warren contends that critical thinking is necessary to university studies as an individual cannot â€Å"process information, form reasoned opinions, evaluate beliefs, construct positions, or articulate a thesis without the use of critical thinking† (Warren 1995, 4). I can support this through my own experience as critical thinking has been an important component of my university studies to date. One may see, however, that some individuals may have difficulties bringing themselves around to this mode of thinking as critical thinking involves developing an impersonal approach and attempting to put aside any biases that the individual may possess about particular subjects. Critical thinking may also involve critical reading and this may also be a foreign concept to the new student. One needs to get into the habit of identifying theses in readings rather than just ‘reading’ – ‘sorting the wheat from the chaff’, as it were. Once the thesis has been identified the argument then needs to be analysed and criticised. Any evidence within the reading needs to be assessed. Any conclusions reached need to be examined as well as whether they are supported by evidence. Any other alternatives also need to be considered. In short, the individual will need to read more widely than what they may be used to and in a more analytical fashion. Reflective thinking is another skill that students must develop as it is a valuable tool. Reflection is integral to learning and assists in critical thinking as it starts with being self-critical in order to learn and improve. As Marshall and Rowland assert, ‘thinking about your own thinking, or metacognition, will give you insights into how you go about your learning, and is important if you want to change or adapt study behaviours’ (Marshall and Rowland 2006 9). Warren further asserts that ‘critical thinking is necessary to learning. One cannot process information, form reasoned opinions, evaluate beliefs, construct positions, or articulate a thesis without the use of critical thinking. As such, the critical self is integral to learning itself’ (Warren 1995). Reflective thinking makes the individual ask themselves what may be working, what is not working and what may require improvement. Some students may already bring a form of this skill with them to university. I can support this through my personal experience in this area. I served in the police force for thirty years and the procedure in the police force was to conduct ‘debriefs’ of incidents that we were involved in. The police debrief was always framed in the format of discussing what went well and what could be done better. Every individual involved in that particular incident was expected to contribute. The expectation was that this process would lead to constant improvement in performance. It is a very similar process to reflection within university learning. One method of reflective thinking that students may learn a great deal from is through the keeping of a reflective journal, also known as a learning log. Pavlovich asserts that reflective journals are an invaluable aid in the development of self-awareness and inner leadership (Pavlovich 2007). The use of a reflective journal aids in developing the individual as a critical thinker as the very nature of its use forces the user to be critical of themselves and lead to change and improvement. Students will also need to develop the skill of speaking and writing in academic English. This is part of the acculturation to the university culture of which language is a major part. Students will have to learn very quickly to become bicultural. In their written work they will have to learn to avoid contractions and develop the passive voice over the active voice. Academic English is specific whereas informal English, that the student may be used, to is rather vague. Academic English is also often structured in a cautious manner whereas informal English is often structured in a more definite manner. Using my own personal experience to add support to this, I thought I had a reasonable grasp of formal English having come from the police force where, for example, great care goes into compilation of files for the prosecutors to proceed with, but I have also had to make adjustments and become bicultural through working on my own understanding and application of academic English. The new student may bring skills with them to university but they will be confronted with the need to refine these skills and indeed develop new skills in order to survive at university. Skills that will need to be developed will include the need for critical and reflective thinking, critical reading and adjustment to independent learning. Students will also have to become acculturated to university which possesses its own culture and sub-cultures which are separate to what they may be used to. REFERENCES Avruch, Kevin. 2002. Culture and Conflict Resolution. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press. Ballard, Brigid, and John Clanchy. 1988. Literacy in the university: An ‘anthropological’ approach. In Literacy by Degrees, ed G. Taylor, et al. , 7-23. Milton Keynes: The Society for Research into Higher Education Open University Press. Beasley, Colin. 2012. Communicating at University. Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. Bizzell, Patricia. 1986. What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College? College Composition and Communication. 37(3). Grant, Barbara. 1997. Disciplining Students: the construction of student subjectivities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18(1): 101-114. Hobson, Julia. 1996. â€Å"Concepts of the self: Different ways of knowing about the self†. SSK12 lecture transcript. Ed. Lorraine Marshall. Perth: Murdoch University. Kolb, David A. 1981. â€Å"Learning styles and disciplinary differences. † In The Modern American College. Ed. A. W. Chickerine Associates, 232-235 and 251-252. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Marshall, Lorraine, and Frances Rowland. 2006. A guide to learning independently. th ed. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia. Pavlovich, Kathryn. 2007. The development of reflective practice through student journals. Higher Education Research and Development 26 (3): 281-295. Samovar, Larry A. , and Richard E. Porter. 2004. Communication Between Cultures. 5th ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Vivekananda, Kitty, and Penny Shores. 1996. Uni is Easier When You Know H ow: Success Stories, Study Secrets, Strategies. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger. Warren, Karen. 1995. ‘The critical self’. Perth: Murdoch University. How to cite University Study Skills, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Reaction to Beloved Essay Example For Students

Reaction to Beloved Essay Reaction To BelovedThe movie Beloved was a tale of a woman who is so devastated by the evil of slavery. Therefore she is willing to kill her toddler daughter rather than allow her to be taken back into the horror. This murderous act proves itself to be a choice, which only further enslaves her soul as her daughters ghost haunts her life. The movie was set in the 1800s. Sethe is a pregnant slave on a Kentucky plantation named Sweet Home. She was under control by a violent slave master. To me there is no reason or excuse for this kind of evil. The enslavement and brutal treatment of our fellow human beings is a spiritual scar. When Sethe gives birth to Beloved and is reunited with her children in Ohio. The happiness of this reunion is turn into a tragic event as she sees her former master riding up to the house with the local sheriff. Sethe knows that he is coming back to take her children back into slavery, she runs into the shed, cuts the throat of her two year old daughter, Beloved, and hits her sons heads with a shovel. Her sons didnt die but beloved did. Soon after the tragic event the spirit of Beloved haunts Sethes house. The scene of seeing Sethe kill Beloved is very disturbing to witness. The ghostly tantrum of Beloved comes back over and over again to disrupt Sethes home. Her two sons become very scared by the haunts of Beloved. Sethes younger daughter, Denver becomes calm with her mother and the ghost, and she never leaves the house and yard. Sethe also becomes ok with the ghost presence in the house. She keeps denying that she did anything wrong by killing Beloved. So she feels that she doesnt need any help.This is often the way evil take over our lives. Rather than having the courage to face the evil we suffer, as Sethe did she affected her own children with this violence. Sethe became in denial with her responsibility. She accepted the pain of her guilt and shame with a lie towards her dignity. She felt everything was right and didnt want to ask for forgiveness and victory over the evil. But soon a physical form of Beloved comes to Sethes house. The girl who act as Beloved is real and demanding like a spoiled child. She is a grown woman who has a toddlers tastes, emotional needs and self-centeredness. The girl destroys everything in her path, mainly because she is packed with evil.When Denver confesses to her grandmothers friend about her mother and what happen, this is where the healing begins to take place. A group of former slave women who are Christians come to Sethes home to sing, pray and hold up crosses. Sethe may have been destroyed by the evil she experienced, but the intervention of God helps her. Through his people they provide Sethe and her daughter a path for healing.In conclusion, the movie Beloved is a disturbing film about the impacts of the evil of slavery on multiple generations. From my perspective, Beloved was a spiritually harsh experience for Sethe. It left her enslaved in her obsessed pain for her daughter Beloved. But some people probably felt that the movie had a sense of hope. Thinking that Christ had entered into the deepest evil of slavery and freed its daughters with a faith that is deeply felt to this day.