Critically assess Thomas Aquinas’ approach to the problem of evil The WritePass Journal

Critically assess Thomas Aquinas’ approach to the problem of evil Bibliography Critically assess Thomas Aquinas’ approach to the problem of evil IntroductionBibliographyRelated Introduction St Thomas Aquinas was one of the most influential theologians to date and his influence on the Catholic faith and understanding of ethics is both vast and undeniable. As a theologian he took great influence from the work of St. Augustine who in turn took influence from the Greek philosopher Aristotle. To understand Aquinas’ approach to the problem of evil it is important to first examine the influence he took St. Augustine. I will also look at another approach to the problem of evil given by the modern British theologian John Hick. I will see if this accounts for anything which Aquinas’ account does not. St. Augustine’s work on the problem of evil came as a reaction to the Manicheans’ who believed in a type of ‘cosmic dualism’. Their belief was that there were two opposed forces in the universe; the force of good and the force of evil. The force of evil was responsible for all evil that occurred in the world; be it the death of a relative or a very poor yield of crops. These forces, according to the Manicheans’, were in a constant cosmic battle against each other. This view of the forces of good and evil can be seen in modern literature and film and a good example of this is the book Lord of the rings. In the lord of the rings Frodo and the other members of fellowship can be seen to represent the force of good and Sauron and his dark army can be seen to represent the forces of evil. The Manicheans supported their dualist claim that there were both evil and good forces in the world through quotations found in the book of revelations which state that S t Michael and some angels went into   battle with the devil and his angels (the similarity between this and the battles in the lord of the rings is very apparent). St Augustine did not accept the Manicheans account as he did not believe it was a Christian position; believing that there was a separate force of evil was not a defensible position for a devout Christian. Many religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam, state that there is only one God and that one God created the universe and everything within it. From this we can take the position that there can be absolutely no independent or separate power of evil due to the fact that everything that exists was created by an all powerful and completely good God. But how then does one account for evil being present in some form within the world? Surely one must either accept that evil does not exist at all or that the God of which we speak is not utterly good or that god is not omnipotent. Cleverly St. Augustine managed to avoid this problem by introducing some of the philosophy of Aristotle; namely that of his work on absence. Aristotle believed that many things we could view as being a negative force or thing could actually be explained in terms of the absence of something good. Where we may view sickness as being the introduction of a virus or a parasite into somebody’s previously healthy body Aristotle would have viewed it as a ‘lack of health’. So where health is not present there is sickness. Another good example is ‘where there is darkness there is an absence of light’. So, for Aristotle, many negative things can be seen as an absence of something positive. To further illustrate this point Aristotle gave the example of a ship being wrecked. If the pilot of a ship is not on the bridge and the ship crashes into rocks and becomes wrecked it is due to the absence of a pilot. The pilot himself did no wrong; he was not inattentive or inebriated during duty; he merely was not there. It was the absence of the pilot which caused the ship to crash. This illustrates that negativ e things occur when there is an absence of some good which should have been there. St. Augustine took Aristotle’s work on absence and applied it to his own work on the problem of evil, and the idea that something negative was the absence of something positive became a central theme in his theology. Augustine did make some changes to the idea of evil being an absence of good as he believed that not every single absence is an evil; he did this by stating the difference between a privation and an absence. The distinction he made is this; an absence exists when some good is not present that should not be present in the first place whereas a privation (privatio bonni (a privation of good)) exists when some good is not present that should have been there in the first place. To illustrate this a few examples are useful. If a stone does not have eyes then there is an absence of some good but the stone is not intended to have eyes so this seen as an absence not a privation. If a person does not have wings then there is an absence of some good, but the person is not i ntended to have wings so this is seen as an absence and not a privation. Now if we look at privation then the difference should be clear. If a person does not have eyes then this is a privation and not an absence as a person is intended to have eyes, there is something missing which should be there. If a giraffe does not have a neck then this is seen as a privation and not an absence as there is something missing which should be there. In other words; if something falls short of what it is supposed to be then it has suffered a privation. Who decides the way something is supposed to be is God. It is God who created everything to have a certain nature and if something falls short of this God given nature then it is suffering a privation. Furthermore; if something falls short of its God given nature then it is not as God intended it to be, thus, it is to an extent evil. So the person without eyes is suffering, to a certain extent, from an evil (a privation of good). It is important to note here that these privations do not occur from free choice; they are existent because of some ‘natural evil’ which occurred; for example a birth defect. No choice was made by the person to have no eyes; it was not because of a choice they made. So if these types of privation are seen as natural evil then what is moral evil? How does moral evil occur? St. Augustine believed that human beings and angels were different to the rest of God’s creations. What they had, which God’s other creations did not, was free will. Where all of God’s other creations were susceptible only to natural evil (they had no choice over the privations which they may have suffered) humans and angels had the ability to choose whether or not they wanted to fall short of God’s intended nature for them. A human being has the choice to be good, to help those who need help or to act in a godly manner and the choice to not be good, the choice to fall short of God’s intended nature. They have freedom; the freedom to act in the right way or in the wrong way. They can choose to act in a manner that makes them fall short of God’s intended nature (as in the story of Adam and Eve). So in other words; moral evil occurs when humans use their freedom to fall short of God’s intended plans for them. Because humans have this fre e choice where all of God’s other creations do not it is humans which are responsible for all moral evil. Augustine also believed that there was a mysterious connection between human’s free choice to fall short of Gods intentions and the occurrence of natural evil; he thought there was a link between choosing to act in the wrong way and the occurrence of natural disasters. He took the biblical account of creation totally literally and from that he assumed that God created the world without any ‘natural evil’ whatsoever. There would have been no earthquakes, there would have been no tsunamis and there would have been no volcanic explosions (in fact there would have been no volcanos at all). He believed that all of these features of the world were brought about by humans and angels using their free choice to rebel against God.   So now the background to Aquinas’ theology has been established we can look at Aquinas’ work in some detail. St. Thomas Aquinas’ approach to the problem of evil took much from Aristotle and Augustine. Like Aristotle he saw that many negative things can be seen to be an absence of something else, i.e. darkness being an absence of light. He also saw the need to make a distinction between absence and privation, for he too believed that it was not evil for a stone to not have eyes. He took these ideas and expanded on them to create a much more detailed view of what evil can be seen to be. He states ‘For evil is the absence of the good, which is natural and due to a thing’. He stated that pure evil is totally impossible and this is due to two reasons. If pure evil was possible then it would imply that there was a separate force of evil, opposed to that of good. If this were the case then it would mean that God was either not utterly good, or it would mean that God was not omnipotent. It would also negate the idea that evil is an absence of good. The other reason that Aquinas stated that pure evil was impossible is that for something to be purely evil, by definition, it would have to fall short of its God given nature by 100%. As God created everything that exists then something that fell short of its God given nature by 100% would not exist. Even Satan, according to Aquinas, cannot be seen to be totally evil. Satan was created by God and is evil because he chose to rebel against his God given nature but he is good in the fact that he exists and is one of Gods creations. Another example would be that of Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao was good to the extent that he existed but was bad because he failed to live up to God’s intended nature for him (because he killed around 10 million people). So, for Aquinas as for Augustine, pure evil does not exist. Another feature that Aquinas added to Augustine’s work was the differentiation between evil suffered and evil done. It is evil done that creates moral evil. It is not evil to have a thief steal your wallet; there is evil in the crime and the person who has been robbed has suffered from evil but they have committed no evil themselves, they have done nothing morally wrong and they have created no moral evil. It is the thief who has done something wrong; he has committed an evil act and has created some moral evil. So far it appears that Aquinas’ and Augustine’s approach to the problem of evil are the same (if not for a few revised definitions and differentiations). Where Aquinas really made a difference was with his work on the idea of natural evil. Unlike Augustine Aquinas effectively denied that natural evil exists. He did not believe that volcanoes and tsunamis were brought about by the free choices of angels and humans. Furthermore he did not believe that the world was created without things such as volcanoes and tsunamis, flesh eating tigers and fatal illnesses. He believed that all of things have always existed from the moment of creation and all of these things were created by God for a reason. The things which we may view as evil are only evil from a homocentric perspective; we only see tsunami’s as being evil because they kill other humans. We only see flesh eating tigers as evil because they are a threat to us. These things which we view as evil are only seen as evil from our perspective. Aquinas’s approach does not look at the world from a homocentric perspective; instead he looks at the world from the perspective of god (a theocentric perspective). When the world is looked at from God’s perspective what is seen as evil changes vastly. When a tiger eats a human or even a baby this not evil. The tiger is fulfilling its God given nature perfectly when it kills other beings to eat them. God designed the tiger to eat meat to sustain its own life; if it did not eat meat to sustain its own life then it would not be fulfilling its God given nature and then it would be succumbing to evil (it would be falling short of God’s intentions for it). Even the recent tsunami in Japan, according to Aquinas, cannot be seen as a natural evil. He would say that the tsunami was good in that it was fulfilling its God given nature to the fullest extent. The tsunami did what it was intended to do. It was being a good Tsunami. All of God’s creations are seen to be good if they fulfil their God given nature, if they do what God intended them to do. A volcano that erupts is a good volcano, a sheep that eats grass is a good sheep, and a fox which eats chickens is a good fox and so on.   Obviously from the chicken’s perspective it is a bad thing that the fox eats it but from God’s perspective the fox is being a good fox because it is acting as God intended it to act. If the chickens were not killed by foxes or any other animal there could be a situation where there were too many chickens and this could lead to other problems such as chickens eating all the food and leaving none for other animals. In the same way if there were no disasters such as tsunamis then there could be too many humans in the world and this would leave no food for God’s other creatures. The same applies to things such as the AIDS virus. Although we see it is a very bad thing, in God’s eyes it may be seen as necessary to keep the population at a certain level without overcrowding. Because the AIDS virus was created by God it is not evil if it fulfils its God given nature. It is only from a human perspective that th e AIDS virus is seen as a bad thing. This is a philosophically interesting and attractive position to take on the problem of evil. Aquinas’ approach not only deals with moral evil in an effective manner but also explains what Augustine would call ‘natural evil’ in a much more logical way. Aquinas’ decision to look at the world from a theocentric perspective allowed him to explain things such as tsunami’s and AIDS without turning to mysterious effects of moral evils. In effect Aquinas took Aristotle’s conception of a ‘good man’ or a ‘good carpenter’ and extended it to encompass all of God’s creations and in doing so created a much more philosophically sound approach to the problem of evil. One problem with Aquinas’ approach to the problem of evil is that he does not explain what use evil has. Why is evil allowed to be prevalent in the world? Why does God allow so much suffering to occur? Although Aquinas states that evil is not ‘something’, it is an absence of good he does not explain why God allows man to fall so short of our intended nature and thus allow evil to exist (even if its existence can only be explained in terms of a lack of good). One theologian who does manage to explain why evil exists is John Hick. Hick rejects much of the traditional Christian approach to the problem of evil and states that the ideas which underlie much of traditional Christian theology are false and effectively outdated. It is now useful to look at Hick’s approach to the problem of evil to see how it differs from Aquinas’ approach and to see whether it manages to successfully account for why evil is allowed to exist in the world. John Hick is a British philosopher and theologian who effectively denies much of traditional Christian beliefs. For example he denies that the humans were ever perfect and in doing so he denies the story of ‘the fall’. He does this by looking at scientific research and using this to show that it is very improbable that humans were ever perfect, improbable that the Garden of Eden existed. This is radically opposed to Aquinas’ view as Aquinas was a firm believer in the story of ‘the fall’, from which stemmed all evil. Hick took much inspiration from St Ireneus who believed that human kind was created in God’s image. We were created to look like God but it was our responsibility to become like God. It is our responsibility to grow morally through our own free choices. We must choose to live a way of life that reflects the ‘divine’ way of life, we must choose to act in the way that God would. But how can we do this? How can we grow to become more like God? Hick believes that we can grow to become like God through our own free choices. Through our choice to act in the right way and not commit evil acts or give in to our weaknesses we can grow morally and spiritually to become more like God. Hick goes on to state that the evil which exists in the world is part of God’s creation. The evil which we find all too easy to give into was created by God as a gift. It is through this evil that we can grow into God’s likeness. We can choose not to give in to our base desires an d do the wrong thing. We can choose not to remain in our animal state and accept that ‘we are only human’. We can choose to adopt the features of God such as kindness, compassion and love and if we do we grow spiritually and grow away from our animal state. So Hick believed that evil was put into the world to allow us to make free choices; choices between right and wrong, good and evil. He developed this line of reasoning in an attempt to prove that a belief in an all powerful, all good and all loving God was not an irrational belief. But this still begs the question; if God wants us to believe in him and act in the right way why does he not prove his existence to us? Why doesn’t he show himself to us? It would seem like the sensible thing to do, it would stop all speculation over whether God exists or not and it would be very likely that people would stop acting in an evil way. Hick claims that God does not show himself to us in order to protect human free will. God chooses to remain hidden to preserve our freedom. This allows us the make our own choices and to choose to act how we want. It is this freedom, according to Hick, which allows us to grow morally and spiritually and thus grow into God’s likeness. If God did sho w himself then this would destroy our free choices and thus stunt our moral and spiritual development. So; God cannot show himself as it would destroy human freedom, it would destroy our freedom to act in whichever way we please. Without this freedom we would not be able to grow into God’s likeness. So it is evil which allows us to become more like God. It is evil which makes us more moral beings. This approach to the problem of evil does overcome some of the objections faced by Aquinas’ approach as it manages to explain why God permits evil to exist in the world. The approach devised by Hick’s manages to justify why belief in an all powerful, all good and all loving God is not irrational in the face of great evil. This is something which Aquinas fails to do. Aquinas does manage to explain how there is evil in the world but not why. To conclude I have found that Aquinas’ approach, despite it underpinning much of Catholic belief, fails to account for why God permits evil to exist in the world. Aquinas does manage to explain how it exists and blames this on the bad choices of humans but he fails to explain why it exists. He fails to give evil any purpose unlike Hick who explains why and how evil exists in the world. Hick states that God gave us evil as a gift which will bring about the highest good and he explains this point well. So, although Aquinas does give a fairly good account of how evil exists and makes a good point in stating that natural evil does not exist, he fails to justify or explain why evil is permitted in this world. Because of this I am inclined to reject Aquinas’ pre-scientific theory in favour of the better explained, more scientific and more plausible theory devised by Hick. Bibliography Herbert McCabe. God and Evil: in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. Continuum international publishing group. 2010 aquinasonline.com/Topics/probevil.html Peter Vardy. A thinker’s guide to evil. John Hunt Publishing. 2003 Peter Vardy. A thinkers guide to god. John Hunt publishing. 2003

How to Write the University of Pittsburgh Essays 2018-2019

The University of Pittsburgh (colloquially known as Pitt) is a large research university established in 1787. Located in the industrial city of Pittsburgh, Pitt is home to 17 schools and over 19,000 undergraduate students. With an acceptance rate of 60%, Pitt was ranked 26th out of all public universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 2018. The university has a thriving academic community, over 350 student clubs and organizations, and is known for its positive campus atmosphere; in 2010, it was rated as having one of the top 10 happiest student bodies in the country. The University of Pittsburgh strongly encourages applicants to write three short essays, granting potential students a great opportunity to showcase multiple facets of their personality, experiences, and interests. Read on for tips to help you master these essays and boost your chances of acceptance into one of the happiest and highest-ranking public schools in the country! This prompt provides you the space to demonstrate your   passions ,   initiative , and   desire to help others . Whether the impact you have made is large or small, the essay should show how you possess each of these qualities. Some good example topics for this essay: While the first example is on a â€Å"macro† scale, the second, more â€Å"micro† example can be equally as powerful if told well. If you decide to go with a smaller-scale impact, make sure it is written as a   story ; use descriptive details that really make the reader feel as though they were also there. While you should be descriptive and   show instead of tell   no matter what you are writing about (see guide to the prompt below for more details on showing vs. telling), it is especially important when writing about an experience that could seem trivial if it is not well-described. Be sure to also illustrate the impact; for instance, for the second example above, the writer could incorporate dialogue between herself and the student when he expresses his gratitude for her reaching out to him. Submit your essay and we’ll get back to you with helpful edits. As briefly discussed in our guide   How to Write the Common Application Essays 2018-2019 , the best response to this question should demonstrate how the intersection of your personality, interests, skills, and analytical-thinking abilities creates a distinctive combination — one that would allow you to contribute in an idiosyncratic way to the college to which you are applying. Taking it one step farther, UPitt is also looking for your ability to reflect. What evidence do you have of your uniqueness? What experiences can you point to that showcase your individuality? You will likely be doing some storytelling here, so it’s extremely important to   show and not tell. Here’s an example of the difference between the two: Note that the â€Å"showing† example also   avoids using any overused adages or clichà ©s , as such sayings can diminish the strength of the experience or emotion you are trying to convey. For example, when explaining the difficulties that come with growing up, writing â€Å"the inevitable blemishes of adolescence† is more distinct and illustrative than saying something like â€Å"the rollercoaster that is high school.† For some of you, this essay will be easy to start – maybe you’ve got an odd family tradition, an uncommon identity, a niche hobby, or even a peculiar birthmark that you could write about. In that case, be sure to point to specific experiences; you could focus on just one moment and tell the story with rich detail, or skillfully connect a few experiences together into one cohesive narrative. The key is to demonstrate your uniqueness through real-life examples and show how this uniqueness will translate into helping you excel at UPitt. But what if you don’t have some extraordinarily special aspect of life to point to? Don’t worry – most of the world doesn’t. The key is to remember that you are still unique! Your specific life experiences, background, personality, interests, and a million other things form a special combination that really cannot be found in anyone else. Try writing out all of your interests, skills, and passions, and then lift out a few from the list. Next, think about how these things come together and make you special. Are there any experiences that show how you, having your distinctive mixture of these separate identities or interests or abilities, were able to meet a challenge, relate to a stranger, help a peer, or learn something new about yourself? Really dig deeply into what you believe is truly unique about you, weave a story that features an experience or two demonstrating that uniqueness, and then show how this will help you contribute something distinctive to UPitt that nobody else can. With this prompt, UPitt wants to see your creativity and problem-solving skills. In other words, you should show the admissions office how you think . The key is to think small when answering this question: what’s a problem you see, and how would you fix it? We suggest you stay away from big national or global issues like â€Å"zero hunger† or â€Å"world poverty.† However, you may be able to concentrate on smaller, more specific issues within these broad zones, and most likely, the problem you’re interested in solving will be somehow related to family or interests or specific life experiences. (Bonus points if you can combine multiple areas of specialty together, drawing on your skills and experiences from two or more different academic or extracurricular areas!) The key takeaway here is that this prompt does not require a well-tested research project that’s been presented at multiple conferences — just pick any problem you see in your daily life and come up with a creative solution for it! As a word of caution, the only constraint is the word limit. While you have 750 words, the UPitt admissions office likely prefers the 200 to 300 range that they’ve suggested. In your answer, you should aim to have a brief background of what inspired your idea, an explanation of your idea, and the potential impact you’d like to see it cause. If you present something that requires a great deal of highly technical explanations, try your best to simplify it down so that any person walking down the street can understand your proposal. And worse comes to worst, pick something else! Remember: your actual product, process, business, or organization doesn’t matter so much as your inspiration and process – the story of your creativity, problem-solving, and compassion. Want help on your Pitt application or essays? Learn about our   College Apps Program. Want us to quickly edit your college essay? Submit it to our   Rapid Review program , and we’ll get it back to you quickly with comments from our expert team.

Life in the Antebellum U.S Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Life in the Antebellum U.S - Essay Example The Native Americans were the initial occupants of land in America. They hunted and gathered to sustain their nutritional requirements. President Thomas Jefferson saw the institution of a policy which allowed Native Americans to retain their ancestral lands east of the Mississippi. The only condition attached to this was that the native population was to assimilate themselves with the rest of the population. They were to supplement their hunting and gathering practices with agriculture. As time elapsed, it became impossible for the government retain their policy. The rapid population increase among the immigrants and Whites in America made it improbable for the government to retain this policy. They, therefore, resorted in the displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral land. The president Andrew Jackson signed 'the Indian Removal Act’ on May 26, 1830 (Keegan 72). The acquired land was to be used to set up plantations. These would ensure large-scale production of cro ps that would be used for food and other industries. It would also provide the immigrants with a place to settle in; where they could begin building their lives. Time ensued, and the Whites encroached on Native American’s land outnumbering the native population. They assumed total ownership of the land and established their own institutions and systems. The Natives signed treaties that guaranteed them equal land West of Mississippi in exchange for their original parcels of land. Tribes that did not co-operate faced forceful eviction from their lands by government officials who abused their power. For example, the Cherokee people experienced forceful eviction from their land. This was after signing the ‘Treaty of New Echota’ by a small part of the entire tribe. The tribal leaders missed out of the entire treaty signing process. This led to the death of estimated 4,000 tribe members in 1835. The march came to be known as the ‘Trail of Tears’ (Keegan 27 ). The government justified their actions by claiming that the natives’ presence disrupts the harmony in the region. They also claimed that the land would benefit the American population. However, this was not entirely true. Many of the government officials were greedy and simply desired sole ownership of the land. This led them to act in inhumane ways that led to the death of many Natives. These officials also did not honor the terms of the treaties in which they coerced the natives to sign. The Antebellum period saw increased manufacturing of products in America. Most manufacturers were, therefore, in need of cheap labor to meet their manufacturing demands. This could only be provided by immigrant workers. There were two categories of immigrant workers in the antebellum period. The first lot is the workers who migrated to America left their homes to search for a means to sustain their livelihood without coercion. The others underwent forceful eviction from their countries w ithout their approval. The zeitgeist of that time supported the expansive use of slave labor. The thriving slave market profited from the sale of slaves acquired from conquered states in the African continent (Keegan 33). A variety of factors worked together to contribute to widespread colonialism; and in turn to slavery all around the world. The superior states were always in constant disagreement as they all rushed to acquire colonial territories overseas. The Berlin conference 1885-1886 came up with guidelines of

Naiku, ise shine the great japanese joinery architecture Research Paper

Naiku, ise shine the great japanese joinery architecture - Research Paper Example The shrines’ public status has not always been gentle. In the years leading to the World War II, Ise becomes inextricably bound with the imperialistic and nationalism conquest. Even after the war modernists and their allies seized the symbol of the antiquity of Japanese culture as the touchstone for their own design. Close to 120 shrines are contained in the site but the main ones are Geku which is the outer shrine and Naiku which is the inner shrine though Naiku stands out of the rest with its magnificent architectural buildings and religious capacity to the pilgrims (Saka, pp 1). The inner shrine of Naiku that is dedicated to one of the Sun Goddess is one of the Japan most famous architectural and cultural sites bustling with worshippers from the ancient days to present times. Naiku Shrine is at the center of sightseeing in Ise, Mie Prefecture. The locals refer the place to as Jingu meaning the Shrine as an legitimate name, and the Sun Goddess Amaterasu O-mikami is preserved there. Yearly, an overwhelming seven million worshippers flocks the shrine for cultural services. When it comes to Japan’s indigenous religion, Naiku scores the highest as it is the most revered shrine complex of all that exists in Naiku. Established in the 5th century, it was built in honor of the sun of the goddess, Amaterasu-omikami, whose Japanese imperial family is believed to have descended. The grounds are ancient, but there has been a concerted effort to rebuild the structures every twenty years in a process called shikinen sengu that is done ingeniously using the timber and glue. According to Shoki Nihon, close to 2000 years ago the daughter of Emperor Suinin, devine Yamatohime mikoto set out from Mt. Miwa in search for a place to set up a lasting location for the worship of the goddess Amaterasu-omikami (Hardacre & Helen, pp 2). Wondering for twenty years through the region of Mino and Ohmi, her search finally led her to Ise, the

Concepts of Communication in Parent Child Relationships Essay -- Commu

â€Å"Communication is the key† is a quote that is often repeated. In every single relationship communication is essential. Especially among parents and children. Communication between parent and child has always been important. Today, however, there is an even greater focus, especially in light of all the things children face at school and in everyday life. Without a parent knowing what is going on in the life and mind of their child, it is hard to really understand what they are going through. Communication is the starting point of understanding. Children learn communication from their parents. Communication is not something that can be studied; it is something that people have to learn by doing. As a parent, good communication needs to be emphasized as they are talking and listening to the child. A child can tell when a parent is not really listening to them, and this can create a big problem in the relationship. Children who feel misunderstood or feel like they aren’t being listened to will start to hold their feelings inside. This is the exact opposite of what good communication should be. Good communication is not merely talking; it is being with someone and relating that nothing else is more important at that time. So many times parents are doing three or four tasks while their child is trying to communicate something to them. They may not even look up from the recipe or newspaper they are trying to read, as the child is desperately trying to get their attention. This displays a lack of interest in the child or what they are trying to convey to the parent. Lack of interest is one thing that will keep families from communicating. When someone doesn’t feel worthy enough of attention, they will stop sharing all together. When children stop sharing with their parents, they go to places and people that will show them attention. This can lead to trouble. The child may look for other avenues of acceptance, which could be negative influences. This could easily be avoided if only the parent had shown an interest in the child’s life. Part of effective commun ication with your children is being aware of their whereabouts. A child who is unsupervised or who has a parent that doesn’t show an interest in her activities, is likely to shut down and internalize her feelings (Beers, 1987). Parents also need to be aware of what is going on in a child’s life. Th... ...hout their lives. in order to have a society of good communicators, it needs to start in the home. Parents need to start communicating with their children and need to show them how to communicate with others. This is a skill that will be valued all throughout life and is something that shouldn’t be ignored. The skill of communication will be valued in every relationship throughout life. It is a necessity. References Beers, V.G. (1987). Parents and Children: Increasing Family Communication. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. Cushman, D.P. & Cahn, D.D. (1985). Communication in Interpersonal Relationships. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Foxhall, K. (2000). Parent and Child Communication. Monitor on Psychology. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on February 18, 2005: http://www.apa.org/monitor/may00/communication.html Gurman, A. & Kniskern, D. (1991). Handbook of Family Therapy Vol. II. Bristol PA: Brunner/Mazel. Author's name omitted by request. (2001). Parent child communication: how to communicate effectively. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on February 19, 2005: http://www.allsands.com/Kids/Teenagers/parentchildco_stj_gn.htm

The Barriers to Effective Communication

â€Å"A barrier to communication is something that keeps meanings from meeting. Meaning barriers exist between all people, making communication much more difficult than most people seem to realize. It is false to assume that if one can talk he can communicate† (Windle & Warren, nd). Communication is a process by which information is transmitted from one person (sender) to another (receiver).Before the message reaches the receiver, errors in transmission occur. It is estimated by psychologists that in every communication, there is approximately 40-60% meaning loss (Jenkins, 2007).It is therefore essential to know the various barriers that cause communication breakdown and possibly try to minimize these errors if we are to make our communication more meaningful. The core barriers The greatest barrier towards communicating effectively is stereotyping. This preconception on another person makes one view the other’s communication with a lot of prejudice. There is a tendency to wrongly hold a person’s views. There are stereotypes in all walks of life such as religion, gender and race.In racial stereotyping for example, a person’s believe to be more knowledgeable than the other because of skin color makes him or her disregard the other’s communication. This eventually breaks down the communication (OPPapers, 2010). There are a number of people who tend to assume that the people they are talking to know their thoughts. Such misjudgments are very dangerous to communication. An article by Effective-communicating, The importance of effective communication states that, â€Å"When you assume, you make an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’ (Effective Communicating, 2008).Insufficient knowledge on the specific subject of communication can lead to errors on communication. If the person sending the message falls short of words in the information to be transmitted, the receiver is exposed to an unclear message tha t is mixed-up. On the other hand, the receiver may fail to understand information that is beyond his or her knowledge. It may be very hard for a teacher to understand scientific terms used by a scientist in any form of communication (College of Marin, nd). In relation to knowledge, language can pose a great danger to communication.There are many languages as people are from different backgrounds. Use of a language that the recipient does not understand will not pass the message. The different dialects and accents also create barriers. There may exist semantic gaps where words have same pronunciation but with a multiple of meanings. Some people tend to use inappropriate words in specific contexts and difficult vocabularies. The receiver will not be mesmerized but will be left in total confusion (Jain, 2010). Information overload is another barrier towards effective communication. A message that is too crowded with words tends to be misunderstood.Receivers tend to create barriers unde r these circumstances. A lecturer from collage of Marine on Barriers to effective communication advises that, â€Å"If you are selling an item with twenty five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver (ho-hum) with an information avalanche. † (College of Marin, nd). Emotional interference leads to misunderstandings in communication. A person who is overexcited, angry, fearful, hostile, or resentful may be very much emotionally preoccupied to give or receive the right message.In case of dislike, ‘hearing’ will be a great problem. Emotional distractions create interference with creation, transmission and reception (College of Marin, nd). Emotions if given a chance will show up always and they become a barrier when they make people get overwhelmed (People Communicating, 2009). Physical distractions occur amidst communication. A noisy environment or a bad telephone line disrupts the receiver of the mes sage from hearing. Distractions are also possible with written messages especially when it is poorly formatted, has spelling errors and grammatical deficits.The physical appearance of the message will be too unprofessional and sloppy. The receiver’s concentration to such messages will be put off. Bright lights especially when one is using a computer can distract the receiver in getting the correct message (College of Marin, nd). Physical barriers can also be created by the geographical location. For example, at a workplace, employees in different quarters will have difficulty in communicating effectively (Margaritasmith, 2009). The sender may lack the basic communication skills.The receiver will greatly be affected in the interpretation of the intended message when the sender is faced with a problem in choosing the words needed and arranging them in a comprehensive manner. Others tend to rehearse on what they will say especially after scrutinizing who the speaker is. For inst ance, many students who lack good communication skills will first rehearse on what to say before meeting a teacher. On the other side of the coin, there are a great deal of receivers who have poor listening and reading skills. They have trouble in hearing and in the interpretation of messages (College of Marin, nd).Personal lack of interest can pose a great threat to communication. A person who is disinterested will carelessly listen or hurriedly read the sent message, misinterpreting the intentions of the sender. Failure of the sender to recognize the needs and the status of the receiver affects communication also. The sender should therefore prepare a message with the trait of the receiver in mind. The medicine of an angry customer is listening to his complains for some time (College of Marin, nd). Inappropriate channel also leads to breakdown in communication.For example, giving detailed procedures over the phone may be quite frustrating on the side of the decoder. A patient for instance, may choose to call a doctor to seek treatment. It would be illogical for the doctor to prescribe any treatment without a face to face encounter with the patient. The chain of communication may also affect the message; the greater the chain of communication, the higher the probability of its misinterpretation. For instance, if a sender uses a ten people chain to rely the message to the receiver, there is no doubt that the recipient will get a completely distorted message (College of Marin, nd).A very long communication chain and a poor medium selected can break up the communication (Jain, 2010). Communication is two way. The sender must get feedback from the recipient. In conversations for instance, there must be turn-taking. If the sender does not give the recipient time to respond or ask questions, he or she may pretend to understand what the sender is saying. It is also important for the sender to interpret the receiver’s non-verbal cues as they carry a lot of mea ning in any given communication. Failure to do so may cause ineffectiveness in communication (College of Marin, nd).Effective communicators, as Boulden spells out in his book, communicating for success: The seven keys of effective communication â€Å"†¦work into building relationships by asking questions and listening to the answers to gain information and use this process to reach consensus† (Boulden, 2009) Other barriers that affect communication include socio-cultural diversities such as age, gender, social status, educational level, economic status, cultural background, and religion.They as well affect communication (Jain, 2010). In different cultures for instance certain gestures are interpreted differently and therefore communication can be misunderstood (Ueeka, 2009). Conclusion Barriers of communication seem to be part of our lives. However careful we are in our communications errors in communication will always be felt. Some barriers are complex to deal with and may be beyond our capabilities.All that we need to do to alleviate this problem is to try and minimize our faults in communication.References Boulden, G. (2009). Communication for success: The seven keys of effective communication.London: Ala International Publishing College of Marin. (nd).Lecture: barriers to effective communication. Retrieved from http://www. marin. edu/buscom/index_files/Page565. htm Effective Communicating. (2008). The importance of effective communication. Retrieved from http://www. effective-communicating. com/importance-of-effective-communication. html.Jain, R. (2010). The barriers to effective communication. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles. com/? The-Barriers-to-Effective-Communication&id=1210011 Jenkins, M. (2007). Barriers to effective communication at work. Retrieved from http://www. alliancetac. com/? PAGE_ID=265 OPPapers. (2010).Barriers to effective communication. Retrieved from http://www. oppapers. com/essays/Barriers-Effective-Communication/778 41? topic People Communicating. (2009). Barriers to effective communication. Retrieved from http://www. people-communicating. com/barriers-to-effective-communication. html.Margaritasmith. (2009). Barriers to effective communication- Effective communication- Document transcript. Retrieved from http://www. slideshare. net/margaritasmith/barriers-to-effective-communication-effective- communications Ueeka. (2009).Overcoming potential barriers in effective communication. Retrieved from http://www. ueeka. com/docs/overcoming-potential-barriers-effective-communication. html Windle, R. & Warren, S. (nd). Communication skills. Retrieved from http://www. directionservice. org/cadre/section4. cfm.

Drug Abuse in the Next Generation - 620 Words

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