the Last Spin.
THE LAST SPIN It was a cold winters day and me and my gang were at the den drawing straws to see which poor guy was going in next. If I had any idea what was going to happen later on that day I would of that the gang a long time ago. This was a ritual between two gangs it was kind of like the "Russian Roulette" the torture game. Two people were choose, one from each gang and were sent down into a damp, dark smelly, rat invested basement. They were given a gun and a number of cartridges. The gun was loaded and the barrel was spun. One guy held the gun and loaded it; he then held it up to his head and pulled the trigger. God have pity on the guy that has the cartridge loaded as he ends up with a massive hole in his head. I've never been in that position but I've heard and seen the guys that have came out of that dreaded basement. I was about 15 at the time and I was brain washed by my so-called gang. At the time my gang could do no wrong, it was my life, my crew and my family. At first we just hung about at each other's house and went to the cinema each weekend, but then there was drink, drugs and they started stealing cars. I tried to get out of it but they kept persuading me to stay. There were two main gangs in my estate; my gang "The Diddymen" and our rival gang "The Loughries Loffies." For ages we'd been rivals, been in fights and destroyed each other's
Accidental pregnancy.
Women of all different ages, educational levels, racial and ethnic groups, social and economic classes and religions find it necessary to have an abortion when faced with accidental pregnancy. Almost half of all U.S. women will have an abortion at some point throughout their lives. While abortion rates among young, unmarried, poor and minority women are the highest, rates among those of religious, racial and ethnic groups thought to oppose abortion are high as well. Surprisingly, Catholic women have an abortion rate 29% higher than Protestant women. About 58% of women having abortions are using some sort of contraception during the month they become pregnant, the condom being the method most commonly used. The proportion of women using a condom has increased dramatically among all groups of women having abortions; most of the increased usage replaced reliance on other barrier methods or usage of no method. Among the 42% of women who do not use any types of contraceptive methods when they become pregnant, three-quarters have used one at some point; the majority of these had most recently relied on either the pill or the condom. Fifty-three percent of prior pill users and 76% of prior condom users became pregnant within three months of stopping use. The proportion of abortion patients who have never used any contraceptive method is highest among women who are younger than
Siddhartha - What message do you think Hermann Hesse wishes to convey by the way he concludes the novel?
Man Ju Y13A English What message do you think Hermann Hesse wishes to convey by the way he concludes the novel? "Siddhartha" is one of the famous books written by Hermann Hesse. It is a novel about Siddhartha, the protagonist, seeking for self-realization, inner knowledge and ultimate reality. Although some people might regard this book as a rather uninteresting book, I believe that it is because they have not study the book profoundly. In my opinion, it is a thoughtful book which can make us understand the meaning of life. In the following essay, I would discuss about what Hermann Hesse wishes to convey by the way he concludes the novel. First I would like to talk about Siddhartha's love for his son. In the chapter "Om", the story first deals with the sorrow that Siddhartha is suffering from losing his son. Hesse is trying to emphasize that both the love between parent and child and the love between male and female are important to all of us human beings. Not until Siddhartha has his own son did he understand the love towards one's child. When Siddhartha sees parents with their children, or man with his wife, he knows the feeling they have. But this understanding neither makes his wound heal nor make him forget about the lost of his son. When Siddhartha looks into the river, he sees his reflection staring back. And it reminds him of his father, who must "had
Was the prophet Muhammad, in your opinion a political leader? Discuss and support your opinion with evidence.
Henry Morris, 0255543, TH1060 Was the prophet Muhammad, in your opinion a political leader? Discuss and support your opinion with evidence. In the early seventh century, Muhammad had a vision. The angel Gabriel appeared and proclaimed "You are the messenger of God". Muhammad began his career as rasul Allah (a messenger of God). Today more than a billion people align themselves with the Islamic tradition and recognise Muhammad as its human founder. On earth Muhammad led and guided people, militaristically, spiritually and politically. He appears to have been an extraordinary man who founded a very large and influential religion. But was he a political leader? Muhammad was a skilled politician and a shrewd tactician. To Muslims, however, he is a prophet. He led people under God's banner. The aim of any politician or political party is to attain power. Muhammad didn't appear to be out for power himself, rather to show the world the way of Islam. As a prophet, Muhammad performed the functions of a political leader for Islam rather than himself. We might suggest that the compartmentalisation of religion and politics is fairly recent and it is accordingly anachronistic to look at Muhammad in such simple terms. This provokes the question, how are we identifying Muhammad? Are we looking at him, or representations of him made over thirteen centuries. Is posterity providing our
Source and Form Criticism of the Bible. Both types of criticisms are helpful by trying to understand the biblical content of the Bible and where it originated. By raising questions such as, are the stories that are told in the bible just parables or did
Words: 2431 Methodology: Source and Form Criticism The bible is perceived as a historical text; however there is no historical evidence that proves biblical events ever occurred. This is why critical analysis of the bible is essential in the understanding of the events that occurred in the bible. As form criticism plans out the "life setting" of the text, it helps to develop an understanding of where the text came from. Whereas source criticism helps to decipher fact from fiction in the events that occurred, by viewing two different sources of the same text and deciding which one is true and which isn't. Both types of criticisms are helpful by trying to understand the biblical content of the Bible and where it originated. By raising questions such as, are the stories that are told in the bible just parables or did they actually happen? Come the understanding of biblical studies. Form criticism is a translation of the word Formgeschichte, which literally means "history of form." Gunkel noticed that many stories in the bible were often causation and why things are the way they are. For example, in there Genesis 35 Jacob meets God at Bethel in a dream, and this story explained why the later Israelites made there pilgrimage to the cult centre at there site of Bethel. Gunkel recognised that each type of genre had its introductory formula. This is where the Sitz im Leben or
The Cycle of Karma
ID number : 4580175 Due date: 05/02/2003 EC 1 section 2 John McNulty Assignment 1:Narration The Cycle of Karma Buddhism has many teachings. The Buddha teached people to believe in the fact. The Buddha's teaching is really true and never out-of-date. It's always true every era especially the cycle of karma, which is the heart of the teaching. Karma or deed can be either good or bad. Everyone has karma. Some people have sins more than merits but some groups of people do not. In the past, I never realized the story about merit and sin until one day I heard an amazing and unbelievable story from my uncle. It is a true story that happened with my uncle 29 years ago. My uncle's experience is like the cycle of karma. The cycle of karma is believed that what you do is what you will deserve. My uncle was the first lieutenant in 1974. He worked for the government as a commander in Ubonrajchathanee. One day, he got an order to take the army about one hundred people in order to suppressed the terrorists who were the communists at Phoophannoi in Nakornpanom. His army had walked for 2 days to get there. On the way, there was a villager's dog that followed his army. Every soldier had the compassion and took care of this dog according to fate.
When I ask people what world peace means to them,I rarely get a coherent answer. When I do, they generally express the same sentiment:
Peace "If you could have one thing, what would it be?" The classic answer to this question, of course, is world peace. When I ask people what world peace means to them, I rarely get a coherent answer. When I do, they generally express the same sentiment: "Where everyone is happy and no fighting is taking place." Yet a dream scenario such as this can never truly exist, even in a utopia. This impossibility leaves me wondering whether peace is just an unattainable goal, or something different, more personal and more possible. A dictionary defines peace as a state of existence with an absence of conflict. Again, the unattainable goal of "peace" is the basis of this definition. Dictionaries, although they print a strict definition, cannot take into account all the different connotations of a word. Dictionaries also cannot begin to explore what a word means to different people based on their experiences. I once knew someone who worked as a peace keeper in Bosnia. He told me that his job description included disabling people who tried to disturb the "peace." He commented on how ironic this was, as he, by disabling people, was not actually being peaceful himself. He said that he had to break the peace in order to keep the peace. His definition of peace was one of organizations, religions, or groups of people that did not physically fight or hurt each other. My mother
J. Bury, The Idea of Progress
J. Bury, The Idea of Progress . Appleby et al. write: 'Before there could be moderns, there had to be ancients'. Did Enlightenment writers think that theirs was a new age or epoch, no longer dominated by antiquity and tradition? How did they distinguish their age from the 'past'? Enlightenment writers believed that to some extent arts are brought to perfection by experience and long labour (i.e. progress) and therefore the modern age must, as a result, have the advantage over that of the ancients. On the other hand, some argued that this was not the case because the same arts and studies are not always uninterruptedly pursued by the most powerful intellects, and so can decline or even be extinguished. In distinguishing their age from the past, Enlightenment writers often spoke of their time as a 'great age', comparable to the Age of Augustus. Few of the Enlightenment writers would have preferred to have lived at any other time. J. Bury states that 'the Enlightenment of the present age surpasses that of antiquity: La docte Antiquité dans toute sans sa durée A l'égal de nos jours ne fut point éclairée'. 2. Appleby et al. also write: 'Progress and modernity...marched hand in hand'. Did Enlightenment writers invent the idea of progress? What did they think progress consisted of? (Did they all agree, for example, about where it was evident, how far it could go, how
Compare and Contrast the Representation of Enlightenment in "The Matrix" and "American Beauty." How do these films represent enlightenment and what difference does enlightenment make to the characters of Neo and Lester Burnham?
Compare and Contrast the Representation of Enlightenment in "The Matrix" and "American Beauty." How do these films represent enlightenment and what difference does enlightenment make to the characters of Neo and Lester Burnham? Enlightenment is represented in very different forms in both of these films. This is not merely because one is science fiction and the other is about a dysfunctional family in a happy American suburb, but it is also portrayed by various film techniques and the portrayal of the characters themselves. However, there are also similarities between the two characters as they both seek enlightenment, as they are not only insecure but also unsure of what their place on earth is and why they are meant to be here. The answer from each movie is very different to this question but as a result of their enlightenment both characters achieve a state of relative contentment although for how long this will remain is unknown. American Beauty initially pokes fun at suburbia so as to allow the audience to realise the situation that Lester Burnham is facing. It quickly describes the suburban houses and the products their owners have the need to fill them with. Cyril Connolly described suburbia as, "the incubator of apathy and delirium" (quoted in: Carey, 1992: 51). This therefore sets the scene for the dysfunctional family with the male going through a mid-life
Religions of the Eastern World
Jessica Burns November 10, 2003 Religions of the Eastern World Within the Buddhist tradition, lies three 'vehicles', or three main religious ways of life. As a whole, Buddhism is spread worldwide and its patterns of practice and instruction prove to be rather diverse, as they split accordingly into their three respective traditions. The first of these vehicles is the Theravada, or Hinayana, which extended from India to Southeast Asia. The 'Little Vehicle', as it is sometimes called, was thought to be rather conservative and refuses to deify the Buddha or accept scriptures written after the Tripitaka, or three baskets of sacred text. Next is the Mahayana, spreading from India to central and eastern Asia. Whereas Theravada maintained a rather fervent focus on the Sakyamuni of the present age as well as his self-control and spiritual insight, the Mahayana stressed the principle of the aforementioned insight as accomplished by "enlightened beings of past and future worlds." Another difference in these first two vehicles lies in how Mahayana fills the heavens with powers beyond deities or humans, something Theravada doctrine was hesitant to consider. In addition, several other differences between the Theravada and Mahayana traditions exist, however the focus of this paper is to speculate more on the third vehicle, or Vajrayana, and expand on Tibetan Buddhism as seen in the movie