Abortion Essay -- essays research papers

According to Webster’s dictionary, abortion is the termination of pregnancy after, accompanied by resulting in, or closely followed by death of the embryo or fetus. I believe that abortion should be illegal. Our world today is full of unsolved, devising and controversial issues. Most of them relate to our morals, ethics, and religion, thus creating a very strong ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. If you were to come to any kind of conclusion on abortion, there would still be a downside to it, and that is primarily why the world cannot agree on this sensitive and emotional issue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Make no mistake-that from the moment of conception, a new human life has been created. Only those who allow their emotional passion to override their knowledge can deny it: only those who are irrational or ignorant of science doubt that when a human sperm fertilizes a human ovum a new human being is created. Do you consider something with a beating heart a living creature? A baby’s heart forms and starts beating in the fifth week of pregnancy: therefore, that would make abortion murder. Most people consider it murder to kill a baby the day after it is born. Then why would it not be murder to kill it before it is born?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Abortions are often considered â€Å"the easy way out.† I feel that abortions are just selfish. There is no easy way out. I could not imagine living with the guilt of taking Maker 2 another’s life. Especially the life of something I created, and that ...

Dulce et Decorum est †Anthem for Doomed Youth Essay

â€Å"Dulce et Decorum est† and â€Å"Anthem for Doomed Youth† are two poems written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War. Owen, like most soldiers, joined up after being convinced that war was fun by propagandistic posters, poems and stories, and once he had realised that the truth was quite the opposite of this, he decided that it was his responsibility to oppose and protest against poets like Jessie Pope through poetry itself. People were not prepared for the sheer scale and manner of death and the mechanised nature of trench warfare, and had false expectations of the heroic endeavour, but little awareness of the realities. However, compared to â€Å"Dulce†, the anger portrayed is dramatically understated. â€Å"Dulce† is an outrageous protest, displaying the â€Å"haunting† and â€Å"bitter† effects of war, and after describing in great detail the horrific story of a soldier â€Å"drowning† and â€Å"choking† in gas, Owen reveals his passionate hatred for the false and misleading idealisms of heroism in war using particularly emphatic imagery in â€Å"cancer† and â€Å"froth corrupted lungs†. The fact that â€Å"Anthem† is a sonnet, is ironic in that they are usually about love, and because it is actually about grief, it somewhat lulls the reader into a false sense of security, therefore making the poem more effective. Both poems seem to talk about the vile and painful conditions in war, â€Å"Dulce† using onomatopoeia in â€Å"trudge†, giving the impression that war is truly appalling, immediately going against the common belief that it is a game from poems like â€Å"Who’s for the game?†. Also, true to both poems is the idea of undignified and casual death, rather than the heroic, glorious death promised by governmental propaganda. For example, in â€Å"Dulce†, Owen talks about the way they â€Å"flung [the dead soldier] in a wagon† with such brutal nonchalance. Furthermore, â€Å"Anthem† introduces a typical Victorian funeral with singing â€Å"choirs†, and juxtaposes it with the â€Å"shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells† on the battlefield, and with the constant end-stopped lines, this conveys a sense of solemn grief rather than the vicious anger in â€Å"Dulce†, which tends to use enjambment more frequently. Also, â€Å"Anthem† discusses the lack of ceremony and dignity in which people are â€Å"honoured† after their death on the battlefield, and Owen reveals his anger for this using the powerful, hyperbolic alliteration in â€Å"rifles’ rapid rattle†. In addition, the fact that the sound of machine gun fire is reflected in the phrase â€Å"rifles’ rapid rattle† presents to the reader that the harsh realities of war are indeed more than just frightening. In addition, a sense of urgency and immediacy is portrayed in the second stanza of â€Å"Dulce†, when Owen uses direct speech and exclamations in â€Å"Gas! Gas!†, while the epizeuxis and use of the present continuous tense gives further emphasis to this desperate urgency .On the other hand, â€Å"Anthem† has a strong sense of sympathy and general tranquillity throughout the second stanza, which is juxtaposed by something quite the opposite in the first. As well as this, the light lexis used in words such as â€Å"glimmers† and â€Å"tenderness† in the second stanza, give the impression that it is a poem of mourning and respect rather than anger and hate. In general, â€Å"Dulce† uses fairly vulgar and crude language, conveying his disrespect for propagandistic poets, as well as his anger at the unawareness of the dangers of war of the British public: â€Å"He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.† Owen’s use of the words â€Å"guttering, choking [and] drowning†, has numerous implications and effects. Firstly, a â€Å"gutter†¦Ã¢â‚¬  represents the bottom of society, and therefore shows how soldiers dying is in fact not a respectable act, but rather an act that is hardly noticed by society. Also, the onomatopoeic sounds of â€Å"guttering† and â€Å"choking†, give an even more emphatic image of death on the battlefield, portraying Owen’s desire for the awareness of the harsh realities of war in youth culture as well as in everyday men. Finally, the fact that Owen uses three separate adjectives to describe the horrific scene, in addition to the tri-conic feel it gives, the phrase implies that Owen could not put what he was seeing into words, and therefore persuading the reader that war is simply a catastrophic, desperate excuse for a fight, sacrificing millions of men in the process. Unlike â€Å"Dulce†, â€Å"Anthem† brings out the mournful, respectful side of Wilfred Owen through the melancholy atmosphere he creates through the modulation of harsh imagery to a more resigned tone: â€Å"The monstrous anger of the guns†¦ †¦but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.† This dramatic contrast between coarse and frightening imagery in â€Å"monstrous anger of the guns† and the solemn melancholy in â€Å"the holy glimmers of goodbyes† is a very moving one. This is not only because the phrase refers to tears in young men’s eyes, which in itself is a saddening image, but also because it refers to â€Å"goodbyes†, forcing a more personal image of saying â€Å"goodbye† to close friends or relatives as they go to war upon the mind of the reader, again, creating a sombre mood. In addition, the end-stopped line following â€Å"goodbyes† is very effective in that it makes the â€Å"goodbye† seem all the more sudden, harsh, and hurtful. In conclusion, â€Å"Dulce† and â€Å"Anthem†, although they are both written in protest against the deceiving propaganda made by various people, they go about it in different ways. â€Å"Dulce† is an outright outrage at individuals, which we know from Owen’s draft that it was targeted at Jessie Pope, using coarse and harsh language to do so. â€Å"Anthem† on the other hand is a more solemn and moving poem, although it starts as if it were to be an outrage, before we learn that in fact, it is only grieving for the dead and their lack of ceremony, and it becomes literally, an anthem for doomed youth.

Mesopotamian and Egyptian Culture

The main scripture that holds the Christian faith is the Holy Bible. It has existed for a very long time already that it is already considered as an â€Å"institution† when it comes to its teachings and the values that it imparts on the readers. Some religions have even sprung from Christianity itself, and the basis of their teachings is also the Bible. But there are some who dispels the notion as the Bible being an institution of knowledge by saying that some parts of the Old Testament has been copied or patterned to other writings from other cultures. This has greatly affected the formation of the Old Testament, since it has to incorporate some materials and information from other cultures. It could also just be a coincidence that they have similar points, other than that, neither one of them copied the contents of the other. The Epic of Gilgamesh/Gilgamesh as the Babylonian Noah One of the great literary pieces to ever exist was the Epic of Gilgamesh. It talks about how the great Sumerian King Gilgamesh lived is life. Even though epic was compiled into written form a very long time ago, it has existed way back in 2100 B.C. in another form which is through word of mouth. This just show how long it has already been in circulation, in order to establish a comparison with the existence of the Christian’s Moses, if he ever existed. Moses, when he came into the scene through the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, is said to be 800-900 years younger than the Epic of Gilgamesh. With this information at hand, it is clear to see that the Epic of Gilgamesh came first, with a head start of 900 years before The Book of Exodus in the Old Testament came into existence. One of the arguable points in the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament was Great Flood that the Lord had given the lands of man. It was done in order to cleanse the earth of the sins of man. However, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, we can see that there was also a great flood delivered to cleanse the world of sinful people: same content, but different stories. It was Ut-Napishtim who told him about the gods giving such punishments to people. He told Gilgamesh to take down a house and make a boat out of it. He would spare Gilgamesh’ family and relatives; he was also instructed to gather as all the animals and living things that he can spare. Gilgamesh was vey much like the famous Noah who built the Ark on God’s bidding for them to be spared, along with pairs of different animals he can gather. But considering the time frame, it is more like, Noah was very much like Gilgamesh who built a large boat, and God was very much like Ut-Napishtim, who cleansed the lands with a great flood to get rid of sinful people. Gilgamesh and Noah are two different people coming from two different cultures in different time frames. They are very similar in a lot of aspects, especially in the matter of the Great Flood. If it was merely a coincidence that they both constructed a great water vessel and rounded up all the animals in the world, no one knows. It is just that These two men were both heroes and icons of their own times, and have made their marks in their own different cultures. The Code of Hammurabi and the Laws of Moses One of the most notable law maker/leader would be King Hammurabi of the Babylonian Dynasty. He was noted for his Code of Hammurabi, a very influential set of laws and corresponding punishments to its violators. He existed around 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C., 300 years before Moses is said to have existed. The point of comparison that is being built-up here is that Hammurabi came before Moses. Most people know that Moses is noted to be the bearer of the Lord’s 10 Commandments. This is because of some claims saying that even the 10 Commandments, as well as the laws set by Moses or the Mosaic Laws were patterned to the Code of Hammurabi. There are several concepts that would attract one’s attention if he’s looking for similarities. One of these concepts is with regards to the respect for parents. For Hammurabi, a son who strikes his father should have his arm cut off. In Mosaic law, if someone curses his parents or is very rebellious, then death is the right punishment. Another would be on marriage. For Hammurabi, if a man wishes to leave his family, then he should prepare a fraction of his property and wealth in order for the mother to raise their children. On the other hand, Mosaic law says that divorce will only be allowed if a spouse becomes indecent or unfaithful. Both Hammurabi and the Mosaic law agreed that death should be the appropriate punishment for both man and woman committing adultery. Incest for them is also unacceptable, and should be dealt with sever punishment, and if necessary, it should be death for those who have committed the crime Theft is also another aspect of similarity, where both of them condone the act of stealing and robbing from other people. In the Mosaic law, whatever living property is stolen and has been killed, should be returned five folds. If it is alive, it should be returned immediately. On the other hand, Hammurabi states that it depends on the social position of the thief, whether he should pay ten-folds or thirty times the original. But for those caught in the act of robbing someone else or stealing someone else property, no matter how valuable it is, the punishment to be given should be death. Finally, the one that showed relevant similarity was on inflicting physical injury in another person. In Mosaic laws, it depends on the weight of the damage done by the offender. Injuries which are not serious should be given necessary fines, where the offender would pay this fine for the damages he has done to the victim. But for those who have committed serious injury on somebody else, then it would be necessary to exercise taking a life for a life, or a limb for a limb. The Hammurabic code is the source of the line â€Å"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.† The Hymn to Aton Not only did the Bible borrowed from the early Mesopotamian societies, they have also extracted some from early Egyptian cultures. Praise worship for the Lord which is found in several verses of the Bible can be traced back to tomb scriptures of some of the great men of Egypt, rulers who have made a great impact on their constituents. They are revered even after their deaths, with poems, songs and hymns being written for them as a form of praise-worship. This has been adopted by some verses in the Bible, showing how the Lord is miraculous, powerful and merciful. Not many of the people know that these verses were patterned from some dead guy’s tomb scriptures. The Sinai Covenant The Sinai covenant has been the primer of what seemed to as periodic worship, which is timely, for it was allotted a day in a week for worship. However, there are also other religions that follow this day of the Sabbath, where they would do nothing else but worship their gods all throughout the day. This is in relation to what the Bible claimed to be the day of worship for its followers. References: Anonymous. â€Å"Egyptian & Old Testament Scriptural Correspondences.†Ã‚   http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/thera/egypt.html. Caroll, Robert Todd. â€Å"Noah's Ark.†Ã‚   http://skepdic.com/noahsark.html. Latoundji, David Paul. â€Å"God at Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and Ancient near East.† Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society ( Mar 1999). Nosotro, Rit. â€Å"Comparing the Content of Hammurabi's Code, Mosaic Law, and Justinian Law.†Ã‚   http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw03hammurabijustinlaw.htm. Tolerance, Ontario Consultants on Religious. â€Å"Comparison of the Babylonian and Noahic Flood Stories.†Ã‚   http://www.religioustolerance.org/noah_com.htm. Worldwide Church of God. â€Å"Did Moses Steal the Ten Commandments? .† Worldwide Church of God, http://www.wcg.org/lit/bible/law/steal10.htm.      

After Apple-picking by Robert Frost Essay

The â€Å"apple†: In this poem, Robert Frost uses the symbol of picking apples to represent the speaker’s hard work and decisions throughout his life. In the Bible, the apple symbolizes knowledge; this analogy reinforces the knowledge gained from the speaker’s life experiences. â€Å"My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree/Toward heaven still† emphasizes that the act of picking apples can be interpreted as something related to religion. In the book of Genesis in the Bible, Eve was tempted by a snake to eat the forbidden fruit of the apple because the snake convinced her that eating it would make her more knowledgeable than God. This story can be related to the poem because when Eve eats the apple, she can go up the â€Å"ladder to heaven† because she is â€Å"omniscient† enough to do so. A freshly picked apple could also symbolize opportunities in one’s life. In the poem, the speaker does not successfully pick all the apples, this shows that there were a lot of opportunities in his life that he never accomplished. â€Å"Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough/But I am done with apple-picking now† show that the speaker is quick to give up on the opportunities he was offered during his life. The imagery of the thousands of apples that struck the earth and became bruised also means that the speaker has wasted a lot of opportunities in his life. â€Å"Winter† Frost also uses â€Å"winter† to symbolize a long resting period or death. Towards the end of the poem, the speaker contemplates whether death is merely the state of hibernation, meaning that there is life after death or just â€Å"human sleep† where the speaker is able to wake up the next day only to find that he has to continue living his old life. In line 12: â€Å"And held against the world of hoary grass†; the word â€Å"hoary† means frosty, the poet has chosen this specific word in order to show the speaker’s pessimistic view about the world and reiterate the speaker’s contemplations about death. > Structure: The poem is not structured into any stanzas because the whole poem is one stanza. It contains forty-two lines but only fourteen sentences. If the sentences were highlighted, it would look like the steps of the ladder mentioned in the second line of the poem. These â€Å"steps† emphasize the speaker’s longing to die in order to go to heaven. The poem has multifarious end-rhymes, but it doesn’t have a regular pattern. â€Å"I was well/Upon my way to sleep before it fell/And I could tell† is an example of some end-rhymes that allows readers to vicariously imagine an image where the speaker is drowsing off with his head slowly going down and up again. The rhyme words â€Å"well†, â€Å"fell†, and â€Å"tell† emphasizes deep sleep. There were also some assonance present in the poem: â€Å"Stem end and blossom end,† and â€Å"Magnified apples appear and reappear†. These assonances were also used to provide readers with a drowsy feeling. The number of syllables of each line of the poem varies from two to eleven syllables. The longer lines of the poem add to the sleepy mood of the poem but the short and abrupt lines create a sense of hesitation and the sudden awake of the speaker from his sleep. For example: â€Å"Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall† shows the speaker’s dreaming state of mind while â€Å"For all† emphasizes a sudden alarm for the speaker. > Tone: The overall tone of the poem is pessimistic because the speaker is upset with his failures in life and is just passively waiting for his ‘long sleep’ or death. This can be seen when the speaker was picking apples and gives up when he was unable to successfully pick all the apples. â€Å"Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now† shows that the speaker gives up his opportunities in life so easily by simply saying he’s done with â€Å"apple-picking†. Towards the end of the poem, he sarcastically says: â€Å"Long sleep, as I describe its coming on/Or just some human sleep†. By adding â€Å"or just some† in front of â€Å"human sleep†, the speaker hints to the reader that he is sick and tired of having to wake up from his sleep to find that he has to run the same old, monotonous life that has no meaning. The speaker wants to be like the woodchuck that is able to hibernate during winter and is able to start a new life after it wakes up from hibernation. The speaker wants to have a new life and not the current one he’s leading. > Repetition: The word sleep is repeated six times in the poem, to strengthen and reiterate the speaker’s feelings of drowsiness. The word â€Å"sleep† gives the strongest effect at lines 35-40. There is a rhyme between the word â€Å"Heap† in line 35 and the word â€Å"sleep† in line 38†³. Another â€Å"Sleep† is repeated in the same line: â€Å"This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.† The last the lines of the poem: â€Å"Long sleep, as I describe its coming on/Or just some human sleep† nicely ends the poem with a sleepy tone. This ambiguous line leaves readers uncertain whether the speaker is indeed just having some â€Å"human sleep† or has already entered his â€Å"long sleep†. â€Å"Long sleep† as mentioned above, was an euphemism for death. Frost juxtaposed the words â€Å"long sleep† and â€Å"human sleep† in order to contrast the fact that â€Å"long sleep† implies ‘life after death’ and â€Å"human sleep† implies ‘boring and old life†. The speaker is being a little sarcastic because he doesn’t even care whether he is going to die or not. He says he might go for a â€Å"long sleep† or just a normal â€Å"human sleep†. The poet raises a question to readers about whether humans know what happens after they die. Humans cannot know what comes after death; it is only through their faith in a religion that can give them a sense of where they are going after death.

Juvenile Delinquency Essay

We hear a child stealing an apple from the market stands, and then rob a small shop, next day we learn about a 17-year-old kid who killed his classmates. People are concerned and rightly so. That’s all what we do or maybe give them a harsh punishment. It seems that the problem has only focused on punishment and very little on prevention or intervention. There is no single cause of violence but we can certainly list a lot of risk factors, which increase the development of criminal behaviour. These include child abuse and family disintegration, violating behavior, academic failure, school dropout, and lack of contact with the society, fighting with peers and antisocial behavior early in life. Juvenile crime rates have nearly doubled in many countries. In the news we keep hearing about youngsters got mixed up in shady affairs and committing petty crimes. What actually is a juvenile crime? Juvenile crime is a term denoting various offences committed by children or youths under the age of 18. Such acts are sometimes referred to as juvenile delinquency. Children’s offences typically include delinquent acts, which would be considered crimes if committed by adults, and status offences, which are less serious misbehavior problems such as truancy and parental disobedience. Both are within the jurisdiction of the youth court; more serious offences committed by minors may be tried in criminal court and be subject to prison sentences. In order to reveal the real background of juvenile crime it’s obviously not enough to stop at this point. Probably none of the young delinquents were born with hostility, rage and hatred. Their environment and our society have turned them into who they are today. Juveniles have to face the cruel sides of the world too early and they are not well prepared for it yet. Some of them are able to deal with it, some of them are not. The latter shocked by the realization will escape to the world of crimes so trying to hide themselves from all the dissatisfaction. Young people should not be expected to have the same values and judgment as adults, therefore not the same treatment either. This is especially true if they have been the victims of poverty, neglect, and abuse. The good approach of the problem can help a lot. Young lives can be salvaged but not with incarceration. It has never been a good solution. Nevertheless developing more programs’ to prevent these children entering the juvenile justice system would be far more effective and less costly.

Behaviorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Behaviorism - Essay Example It is built upon certain observed characteristics of adults, which affect the way in which they learn and relate new information (Knowles et al, 2005). Due to the distinguishing characteristics of adult learners, certain psychological theories must be applied in order to maximise on learning potential which requires several actions to be taken, such as assessing the current state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating a systematic instructional format based upon this. To succeed, it is dependent upon pedagogically tested psychological theories, the principal approaches being behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. Primarily characterised by their individual interpretations of what constitutes ‘learning’ and how it occurs, these approaches provide instructors with verified strategies and techniques for facilitating learning. This essay will discuss the defining characteristics and necessary conditions for adult learning as postu lated by theorist Malcolm Knowles. It will then examine behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism as general approaches to learning with particular emphasis on the superiority of constructivism in this context and how it can be applied to adult learning. One of the central principles which surround the teaching of adult learners is that of individual experience. â€Å"As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning† (Smith, 2011). Unlike children, adults have inevitably built up a wealth of personal experience which can be utilized in a way which can help learning, such as relating new information to previous experience, recalling previous experience, and/or using familiar examples to apply learning to unfamiliar concepts. Teaching strategies which build upon experiential learning will be an extension of everyday life (Knowles et al, 2005). Adult learners partake in a process which sees them reflect, dra w inference from and conceptualize, based upon previous individual experience. As this wealth of experience is seen as the richest resource of information for the learner, it must be pointed out that individual experience is fundamentally biased and of an entirely subjective nature. This implies that new information may be interpreted in different ways, which can be advantageous as it allows for new ideas and opinions, but can also have its disadvantages regarding personal bias. A second principle which is determined to be of special significance to adult learning is that of the self-concept. Within the paradigm of learning, self-concept relates to the movement of an individual’s perception of themselves as a self-directed person rather than being dependent upon others. Adults are viewed as being responsible and fully accountable for their own decisions and therefore must be treated as autonomous learners. Due to this perspective, autonomy is seen as vitally important for thi s theory. In its broadest sense, self-directed learning describes a set of actions in which potential learners take the initiative in identifying their learning needs and goals, and evaluating learning outcomes. The steps involved in working through such a process have generated several model which have since been re-imagined into a more interactive design which takes into account the nature and contextual elements of the learning (Cooper, 2009). Readiness to learn, or motivation to learn, is another

Race Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Race - Essay Example Though inequalities still exists, it doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be any racial categorization. In the present world scenario utmost importance is given to human rights. Under United Nations resolution human rights to every citizen of every country should be considered as an important factor. It’s every country’s responsibility to protect its citizen’s basic human rights. Human rights violation should be considered as a serious offence, legal and appropriate action should be taken against those who violate these rights Assessing student’s abilities and disabilities is the major factor and teachers should strive to identify these issues. By identifying their strengths and weaknesses one can easily work on these issues. Self-confidence plays an important role in everyone’s lives. It is the deciding factor that decides a winner and a loser. In US the Blacks are the largest immigrants. They migrated from the far lands of the black continent Africa. In the past, since these countries were not as developed as US and their socio-economic structure was on decline, many of the citizens were forced to work as slaves and have to migrate to US. In US, Black immigrants have less education and less skill set, even among Black women also. Apart from other groups these Blacks have less human capital, so they have very less employers in their group and it is indirectly affecting their economic status and social environment also. Gender inequality was always prevailed among the Blacks. Since they were not the major community and further more they were immigrants, they had to face the brunt of racial abuse. One of the reasons of racial abuse was, fear among the US citizens was losing the jobs to these immigrants. Since the Blacks were ready to work for fewer wages there always lies the danger of losing jobs. Most of the Blacks were more or less unskilled or semi-skilled. This makes them of