Essay On The Tomb Of The Unknowns - 1025 Words

I: History of Arlington George Washington, who was the 1st president of the United States, was the step-grandfather of George Washington Parke Custis. In 1759 George Washington married Martha Dandridge. After the death of Martha’s first husband Daniel, she gained the Arlington House. The Arlington House later became ownership of General Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary Randolph Custis. Lee left the house in order to fight in the Civil War. Mary was unable to pay the taxes she needed to, so she had to leave the house, and the area where the house was got turned into a military cemetery for the Civil War. The Arlington House was on high ground so it was the perfect place for a cemetery. Montgomery Meig was a Union soldier and one of the main†¦show more content†¦An inscription was then added to the tomb that said, â€Å"Honoring and Keeping Faith with America s Missing Servicemen.† III: Old Guard (3rd Infantry) The 3rd Infantry is oldest active duty regiment in the United States Army, serving our nation since 1784. The Old Guard is responsible for conducting military ceremonies, serving at national memorials and being an escort to the president. In order to be in the 3rd Infantry you must meet certain fitness, education, and character requirements along with certain army requirements. One of the main jobs of the Old Guard is to maintain a 24 hour vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown according to oldguard.mdw.army.mil. On Arlington National Cemetery it states, â€Å"The Tomb Guard marches 21 steps down the black mat behind the Tomb, turns, faces east for 21 seconds, turns and faces north for 21 seconds, then takes 21 steps down the mat and repeats the process.† The 21 symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed -- the 21-gun salute. The Sentinel’s Creed is the Tomb Guard standard and captures the true meaning of their duty according to t ombguard.org. IV: Qualifications to be Buried in Arlington There are many different ways someone can be qualified to be buried at Arlington. In order to be qualified you must have been an active service member of the Armed Forces, a retired Veteran of the Armed Forces, a former member of the Armed Forces who was awarded a distinctShow MoreRelatedThe Discovery Of Ancient Egyptian Art1285 Words   |  6 Pageswe know a little bit about Nebamun, by what I perceived from the paintings or frescoes found in his tomb is that, Nebamun was a nobleman during the new kingdom. And to understand Ancient Egyptian art it must be viewed from the point of Ancient Egyptians noblemen. My goal of this essay is to tell my readers what mean the frescoes in the Tomb of Nebamun and how two of the frescoes found in the Tomb of Nebamun: â€Å"hunting birds† and â€Å"Female musicians and dancers entertaining guests at a meal† tell usRead MoreEssay655 Words   |  3 PagesEssay Loralye Reed Alicia Plant HUM 111 1/29/13 Tutankhamun (Tutankhamen) was born in Egypt in 1341 B.C. In 1323 B.C. Tutankhamun died of an unknown death; he was only 17 or 18 years old. Before he died he got to live a short time as a ruler. After his body was exhumed, there have been signs that Tutankhamus could have been murdered, or died from an infection from an injury. â€Å"Historians generally agree that he was the twelfth ruler of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty, who assumed the throneRead More Comparing the Beauty of Poe and Emerson Essay1269 Words   |  6 Pagesreader to truly experience his concept of beauty. Although also a believer in portraying beauty through poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson found beauty to be eminent in nature and all things created by the Oversoul. Beauty for Emerson is not an idea or unknown, it is visible all around him.    To Poe beauty can only arise from excitement of the soul, and such emotion can only be brought upon by feelings of melancholy.    He reiterates the importance of melancholy in The Philosophy of Composition--NowRead MoreEssay on King Tutankhamun and His Treasures1385 Words   |  6 Pagesinto wanting to learn more. 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Comparative Stylistic Analysis of a Poem - 3580 Words

Comparative Stylistic Analysis of a Poem Submitted to: Mrs. Daisy O. Casipit Submitted by: Lovely Anne B. Unquida (BSEd3-3) October 2013 Easter Wings by George Herbert Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poore: With thee Oh let me rise As larks, harmoniously, And sing this day thy victories: Then shall the fall further the flight in me. My tender age in sorrow did beginne : And still with sicknesses and shame Thou didst so punish sinne, That I became Most thinne. With thee Let me†¦show more content†¦Herbert s poems are characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits that was favored by the metaphysical school of poets.3 They include almost every known form of song and poem, but they also reflect Herbert s concern with speech--conversational, persuasive, proverbial. Carefully arranged in related sequences, the poems explore and celebrate the ways of God s love as Herbert discovered them within the fluctuations of his own experience.2 Because Herbert is as much an ecclesiastical as a religious poet, one would not expect him to make much appeal to an age as secular as our own; but it has not proved so. All sorts of readers have responded to his quiet intensity; and the opinion has even been voiced that he has, for readers of the late twentieth century, displaced Donne as the supreme Metaphysical poet. Easter Wings â€Å"Easter Wings† is the work of a poet who accepted the truths of the Christian religion with piety, reverence, and humility. Often in Herbert’s work this attitude of quiet acceptance finds expression in poetry that is at once simple in theme and subtly inventive in poetic style and form. 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According to American professor Stanley Fish, Stylistics aims to give an objective account of how language is used in literature (p.4, Niazi, Nozar, 2010, How To Study Literature: Stylistic And Pragmatic Approaches) In this article, I conduct a stylistic analysis on a poem, ‘Sonnet 18’, whichRead MoreA Comparative Analysis of Tenses in Newspapers Headlines and Reports3368 Words   |  14 PagesA Comparative Analysis of Tenses in Newspapers Headlines and Reports Introduction. The aim of this course paper is to compare tenses used in newspapers headlines and reports on the analytical basis, and to find out for what particular reasons the usage of tenses in headlines and newspaper articles differ. First, I am going to focus on the characteristics of different functional styles found in the English language. 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This is particularly visible between the Colonial Period, specifically Puritan literature, and the Romantic and Transcendental time. Specifically, the overlap of the Puritan and Transcendental styles is evident in the poem â€Å"Contemplations† by Anne Bradstreet. In order to fully understand how Bradstreet foreshadowed later themesRead MoreCranes: Poetry and William Cullen Bryant1924 Words   |  8 PagesPlease read the Paper 1 Sample Texts before you read this post. Then try to write your own analysis and compare it to the following HL samples. Paper 1 HL Sample 1.1 (birds) In this comparative commentary, Cranes by Jennifer Ackerman and To a Waterfowl by William Cullen Bryant will be compared and contrasted. Even though one is a scientific, informative article, and the other one is a descriptive poem, they still have a common theme, cranes and their migration. As mentioned, the theme ofRead MoreCohesion in English2590 Words   |  11 Pagesacross sentences. Bloor and Bloor note that â€Å"a characteristic of cohesive reference is that, on second and subsequent mention, instead of being named, the person or thing being referred to may be indicated by means of a pronoun, demonstrative or a comparative† (93). In other words, the referring item must be co-referential to its referent. Reference can point within a text (endophoric) or outside the text (exophoric). The following passage displays the use of personal reference to achieve cohesion: Read MoreLiterary Devices in Pride and Prejudice8198 Words   |  33 Pagesof the Lexical Stylistic devices (Metaphor, metonymy, irony, simile, epithet) in the novel â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† by Jane Austen† DIPLOMA PAPER Scientific Supervisor: E. B. Jumakeeva Done by: Satarova Rahat, group: A08-2 Contents: Pages: Introduction Chapter I. 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Stylistic resources of grammatical units on the basis of the English Noun -6 1.1 Functions of the language and connotative meanings -7 1.2 Grammatical Stylistics and Stylistic Grammar -9 1.3 The meaning of the grammatical form -10 1.4 Noun in different functional styles -10 1.5 Stylistic potential of the English noun -11 1.5.1 Stylistic

Self Reflective Report and Learning Portfolio †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Self Reflective Report Learning Portfolio. Answer: Introduction In the current report I will discuss what I have learnt as a student of accounting and financing. I will also address my core strengths and weaknesses as well as skill sets which I have acquired throughout my entire life as a student. The aim of this learning portfolio is to collect my work which exhibits my efforts, achievements, progress and competencies gained during financing and accounting classes. It allows me to reflect on my learning and provides a better picture of learning to dynamic, efficient and integrated process. The learning portfolio also helps me to highlight my academic development as it shows my accomplishment and growth within the unit. The learning portfolio also helps me to evaluate my learning, reflect as well as act on the result accordingly. The learning portfolio basically contains the summary of the major learning, accomplishment that substantiates my learning. Accounting and financing I was inspired to study accounting and finance as number of successful businessman from various sectors of the industry is primarily from finance and accounting study background. Getting acquainted with accounting and financing on career trips made me choose accounting and finance as my subject of choice. Accounting and finance is a challenging degree that helped me to learn complicated situation analysis and application of theories to real life situations and scenarios. Having a good grasp of calculations and mathematics, accounting and financing provides me the opportunity to perform lots of complicated calculations. I have chosen accounting and financing as my subject since it provides an excellent career development opportunity for the graduates. As long as the world is concerned, money rules the world and hence the world requires accountants and finance professionals as well as accountants needs to be updated for controlling the money and its related calculations. Accounting and finance also provides me numerous opportunities as an accountant for recording, summarizing, classifying, interpreting and communicating financial information regarding the business. Accounting and financing in degrees also provided me practical approach with simulated as well as real life opportunities for business account management. The job opportunity which is related directly to the accounting and finance are accounting, technicians, actuarial analyst, chartered accountant and company secretary. Financials, account, stockbroker etc. forms such huge employment opportunity. In different sectors accounting and financial analyses before courses in helps me to perform the background analysis of accounting and finance which helped me to determine that almost 25% of the accounting and financing graduates are working as chartered accountant approximately after 6 months from graduation. Among all the accounting and finance contributes to students in the world 16%, 3% unemp loyed 8% are going for the study 12.2% or studying as well as working 6.9% and unemployed in 3.6 percent belongs to other categories I have learnt the primary difference between accounting and financing is that accounting has a narrow focus while finance is related to the wide focus covering specialization arrays regarding world businesses, banking and economics. Accounting focuses on the management of day to day life regarding financial reports and records that is present across the business world. However finance utilizes the same results in projecting the future growth as well as analyzing the expenditure. The provided strategies to maintain the finances of the company accounting typically involves utilization on analyzing financial information for evaluating the businesses position in finance. I have learnt that book keeping, managing balance sheet and income statements is the primary tools for accounting that provides the opportunity to the student for projecting and analyses potential growth and profit for an organization that accesses the resources especially that of monetary resource and utilizes statistic s of accounting and reports for future funding options. I have also learnt that accounting helps in specialization of topics such as tax auditing risk assessment international accounting and management, accounting, forensic accounting is another possible option which have learnt that allowed me to analyze myself in case studies and real life scenarios that help me to understand accountancy processes, legal proceedings and suggesting electronic crime cases related to coding, insurance, claims, corporate ethics and bankruptcy. I also found that anti specialization in walls, financial evolution, behavioral finance, corporate finance, capital markets. Financial modeling investment involvesmanagement of financial aspiring for keeping pace with new processes, continuous development, changing markets and emerging technologies. I have taken accounting and finance as my graduate program as my short term goal is to get placed in an organization that provides me an external and internal development opportunity as well as learning ability. However my long term goal is to get placed in an accounting and finance in firm It was always my dream to become a business owner for several days. I always wanted to become a successful businessman and hence required adequate knowledge to maintain the numbers. As the world faces financial turmoil, organization and company's needs accurate analysis, understanding and actions that navigate the different problems of accounting and financing. My degree provided me the opportunity that I can take in financing degree that also will be competent to get acquainted to various kinds of financial control system and focus the finances of the company to provide recommendation. Depending on analysis done on the company's financial growth, mitigation techniques will be prescribed and help the company to adopt techniques and ways that will help them to maximize their profits and reduce unnecessary financial expenditures. Strengths My major strength is that I do not fear learning new things. I am a quick learner, a keen observer and a good listener. My quick learning ability makes me learn different tools and techniques used in finances and accounting quickly and makes me competent in analyzing define financial situations. I am also a computer literate as well as have excellent communication skills. I know range of financial and accounting software packages that usually used as industry standards. Creating objectives and meeting the objectives is my another strength that helps me to pursue my career efficiently and effectively. Few of my other skills involve range of technical software such as SPSS and knowledge of working in Watson Analytics. I am also competent in handling C++ programming and have working knowledge of MS Excel. I also have knowledge of DBMS as well. I have a working efficient knowledge in R, Python and Java programming language as well. Weaknesses One of the major weaknesses is that I cannot refuse or deny anyone. I don't usually say no to a people wanting help from me that constitutes one of my major weaknesses another weakness of mine is my detail consciousness that makes me to check the work over and over again after it has been completed Skills The key skills that I have gained during accounting and finance in classes are quantitative skills that help me to analyze the data and provide an insight and in depth towards the data collected. I have also learned specialized knowledge of various accounting techniques and topics. My course enables me to become aware of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. I am also able to gain knowledge regarding account accounting regulation issues as well as strong understanding of the business industry. I worked on the knowledge of industrial practices and principles strong theoretical knowledge research skills communication skills stock market knowledge as well as investment and trade. I have given enough skills and ability for understanding and interpreting statistical as well as numerical data. I can also sustainable the price recommendation techniques. Conclusion I can conclude that my subject knowledge regarding accounting and financing has made be competent in analyzing various kinds of business situation and their financial statements as well as provide an analysis and evaluate the situation recommending them proper tools and techniques to control the financial expenditure. My learning capability helps me to develop an affinity towards success. My quick learning ability also made me competent to achieve deadlines and meet objectives efficiently. Although few of the weaknesses are serious however my competency to overcome my weaknesses makes me confident enough to perform well in the industry.

What Caused World War 1 free essay sample

What caused World War 1 Many different factors led to the start of the First World War. Like many other historical occurrences, one thing led to another and all of these factors came together to start World War 1. The main causes were militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism, but many more other causes also helped spark the war. The rulers of the countries were all first cousins, with a lot of power that was in need of testing. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand sparked rivalry between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. The Schlieffen Plan and growing militarism cause pressure between the countries as each knew the other’s capabilities for war. Nothing really started the first world war, but many things lead to it. Tension had already started to build up between certain European countries before the war. Many countries had already started building up armies and ordering ships. There was also a fair amount of competition between the countries, as the rulers of Great Britain, Germany and Russia were all first cousins. We will write a custom essay sample on What Caused World War 1 or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As you could imagine, they would want to compare their armies, supplies and vehicles with each-others, so it was more a power contest, as whoever had the best developed military system seemed superior. It was also said that some of the cousins actually wanted there to be a war, as to set matters straight. This is one of the initial causes that helped fuel the start of the war. After the Black Hand assassinated the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary was displeased with Serbia. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, after Serbia did not meet the requirements of an ultimatum. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. As Russia is tied to Serbia by a treaty, Russian forces are sent to Serbia to defend against Austria-Hungary. This was just the beginning. The â€Å"official† outbreak of World War 1 was on 01/08/1914 when Germany attacked Russia as an act of defending Austria-Hungary, to whom they had an alliance. As you can see, at this stage, things were already starting to get messy. France attacks Germany, as France is bound by a treaty to Russia, and Great Britain have no choice other to help France. America declared her neutrality, and so did Italy, but was still bound to Germany and Austria-Hungary by treaty, under specific terms. She ended up joining the allies, France and Great Britain. Germany wanted a way to defeat France while still defending her borders. This is where the Schlieffen Plan was born. France and Britain signed the Entente Cordiale in 1904. This treaty promised the allied defence against Germany in an event of an attack. When this treaty was signed, Germany started to worry for her survival in if they were to attack France. This is when Germany had to plan a strategy to attack France and defend against Great Britain and Russia. Alfred von Schlieffen, an army chief, conceived a strategy that was able to defeat France while fending off an attack from both nations. This was called the Schlieffen Plan. The plan was to quickly send German troops through Belgium and capture Paris. By doing son, the allies would not want to fight Germany as France was captured. This plan infuriated the allies and made the war worse. It was put to action on the 2nd of August, 1914. The plan seemed to be going well until Belgian forces started using guerrilla warfare against the German troops. Germany allowed for a week at most for troops to march through Belgium, but Belgium did not like that idea. They were neutral, but did not approve of German soldiers marching through their territory. So they started using guerrilla tactics. Drive by shootings and poisoning of German soldiers. This delayed them for weeks. Enough for Great Britain and Russian forces to come in to help France. The Schlieffen Plan had not succeeded. These are some of the causes of the First World War. They all came together to spark the start, and one thing came after another. The main causes were Militarism, Imperialism, Nationalism and Alliances. World War One was caused mainly by Militarism.

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