Friday, November 18, 2016

Why do some mothers commit the unthinkable act of maternal filicide?

Some mothers commit the unthinkable act of maternal filicide because they are probably mentally ill. There are many reasons why a mother may commit this awful crime. The most common motive is that the mother justifies her actions by saying it is for the child's best interest. Another common reason why a mother may do this because they are mentally insane and they hear voices telling them to kill their child. When this happens there is no understandable motive. Another reason is that a mother may not necessarily mean to kill her child but death occurs after cumulative abuse. A mother may also kill her child because the child is a hindrance in her life. The most uncommon motive for a mother killing their child is that they want to emotionally strike out against the father of the child. Even though this is an unthinkable act it does occurred sometimes for various reasons.


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

How can Taoist texts can help deepen our understanding of early Chinese history?

Taoist texts can deepen our understanding of Chinese history. Taoism is China's only indigenous religion. Ancient China had never had an alternative model other than an emperor. Emperor was the model for over 2,000 years. Early Taoism is much different than that though. Taoism is a theocracy based around "tianshi." Tianshi was a celestial master who was supposed to establish a new political structure. The political structure was the "Great Peace," in which every individual would be treated justly. This concept provided an alternative for Chinese people in ancient times from Confucianism. The founder of Taoism didn't take the title of emperor unlike all all Chinese rulers. The founder of Taoism is called Zhang Daoling. But the political structure in China did not last. Taoism is an important religion among ethnic minorities in China, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The Taoist religion left behind no physical objects so Historians needed to look at official dynasty history to learn about this religion and about its traditions. Also, the Taoist canon can be used to provide information about the religion.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Is Our World Real?

Is our world real? That's the question people are asking. Is everything we know exist or is it all a simulation? In the article, Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? the science world talks about this topic? It says that there is a 50% chance that our entire world is a simulation. They gave lots of evidence why this could be true but there is no real way to test these types of theories. I believe however that our world is real and that everything is not a simulation. I think that a greater intelligence being able to simulate our world with all of its details and everything that goes on it daily is close to impossible. The people controlling us would have to monitor everything 24/7 and if they are anything like modern day humans they probably are too busy with their own stuff then to bother with what we are doing. I think that everything we do it is real. Just like the quote by René Descartes, "cogito ergo sum," "I think, therefore I am," because I think and I am able to question whether the world is real or just a simulation I am real.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

The Holocaust vs. The Story of Job


The story of Moshe Yosef Daum and Dela Nussbaum is very similar and different from the story of Job in the Old Testament. Moshe Yosef and Dela Nussbaum were both holocaust survivors and after the holocaust Dela Nussbaum lost some of her faith towards God because she was confused how such a powerful thing such as God could allow so many of his faithful followers, the Jews, to suffer such awful things. This also happened in the story of Job. In the story of Job Satin convinced God to test Job's loyalty to him and make him suffer by torturing him and see if he is still faithful afterward. This happened in the holocaust because like Job, God allowed to the Jewish people to suffer greatly and some people remained loyal to God after everything occurred and some people lost all their faith. Moshe Yosef Daum remained loyal to God even after all the suffering and so did a Hasetic Rabi who lost his wife and 11 children. The Rabbi said, “The fact that there are Holocaust survivors who, after all they endured, can still keep faith, is itself, the greatest miracle of all.” This is different from the story of Job because after God allowed Job to go through all this suffering he did lose faith in Gob by cursing the day he was born which was really cursing God because God has a plan for everyone and everyone was born for a reason and by cursing the day Job was born he was really cursing Job's plan.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

The Book of Job vs. The Story of Abraham and Isaac


In both The Book of Job and the story of Abraham and Isaac God was cruel and insecure. In the story of Abraham and Isaac God told Abraham to sacrifice his own son to prove how faithful he was to God, this was cruel of God because Abraham loved his son very much and Abraham never sinned or did anything bad towards God. God did this because he was insecure and he wanted to see how much Abraham loved him. In The Book of Job God was cruel towards Job and punished him and did all these bad things to him even though Job never sinned or ever did anything wrong because he wanted to see if Satan was right. Satan said that Job only loved God because God was never cruel to him. Satan told God to punish Job to see if he would sin in Gods face. So this is what God does. In both stories God took an almost perfect man who never did anything wrong and put him to the test to see how much they loved him. God was a little bit nicer in the story of Abraham and Isaac than in the story of Job because in the story of Abraham and Isaac God only told him to sacrifice his son but didn't let him go through with it but in the story of Job God continued to make Job suffer and suffer until he cursed the day he was born.

Friday, September 30, 2016

High School Pros and Cons

So far I like high school much better than middle school. I have so much more freedom in high school than in middle school. I like being able to go out for lunch whenever I want and when a teacher is absent I like having a free and being able to use the time being productive and doing homework rather than sitting in the classroom and doing nothing with a substitute teacher like in middle school. Another thing that I like about the high school is that everyone is spirited. In the middle school during spirit week nobody dressed up but in the high school everybody dressed up and got really into it. The worst thing about high school is the amount of work I have each night. I have so much homework every night and I have at least three tests a week I have to study for. Also the high school is so big and I don't see some of my friends at all throughout the day whereas in middle school I always saw my friends in the hallways and we all ate lunch together in the cafeteria everyday. But overall I like high school much better because we are treated more like adults.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

My View of God

After reading Genesis 6-9 I learned a lot of things about God. I learned that God is not always so forgiving. He was upset at the people of the earth for being wicked and instead of trying to teach them to do that right thing he decides to kill all of them with a huge flood. This changed my view of God a lot because I always thought of him as a very forgiving character and always being merciful towards his people but after reading Genesis 6-9 I realized he is not always like that. But after God sent the flood to kill everyone he felt very guilty and he made a covenant with Noah and said he would never kill all of man-kind again. Also since God created every man in his image and he is saying that all men were wicked does that mean that he was wicked as well? I always pictured God as being nice and kind but since all men are copies of him maybe he also has a wicked side to him. Finally at the end of the story God was very generous towards Noah and gave him everything on the earth. God told Noah that all lives on the earth could be his food and all the plants on the earth were his as well. This agrees with my past assumptions about God. I always thought he would be generous towards his people and this story proves that he was.