Tuesday, December 24, 2019
The Great Depression And Dust Bowl - 1165 Words
Alissa French Mrs. Lilley English III 6 April 2017 The Great Depression/Dust Bowl The ââ¬ËDirty Thirtiesââ¬â¢ is perhaps one of the most known time periods in American History. During the 1930s, the worst and longest drought occurred in the United States, this was also know as the Dust Bowl. According to Christopher Klein, the Dust Bowl is considered both a man-made and natural disaster. In fact, many events contributed to the Dust Bowl such as poor farming techniques, a severe drought, and economic depression. One of the main causes of the Dust Bowl was the poor techniques that farmers used to plant and harvest their crops. Most of the Roaring Twenties consisted of a continual cycle of debt for the American farmers as their production pricesâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦In some cases, school was cancelled because of these storms. In the same year, slightly after noon on January 21st, a dust storm was reported that rose up to 10,000 feet in the air with winds that blew 60 miles per hour. According to Duncan, the local weather bureau called it ââ¬Å"awe-inspiringâ⬠and ââ¬Å"most spectacularâ⬠. An Associated Press reporter gave the Dust Bowl its name the day after Black Sunday, which was the worst dust storm reported (Ganzel). These storms were so devastating that people had to cover their faces with wet rags in fear they would get dust pneumonia, a deadly condition where dirt would clog up the lungs (Klein). They were also fearful of being caught outside of their house in the middle of a dust storm, because the storms rolled with thousands upon thousands of fine particles of dirt that would completely block out the sun, and no light could penetrate the blanket of darkness (Ganzel). The residents of the Great Plains couldnââ¬â¢t even escape the dust inside their own homes. The dust would somehow percolate through the tiniest of cracks, crevices, or gaps in the walls, windowsills, and door frames (Duncan 51). These deadly storms were also capable of producing so much static electricity betwe en the ground and the airborne dust that even a simple handshake could initiate a spark so powerful it would knock them to the ground (Klein). The entire region of the Plains was affected, and eventually the entire country (Ganzel). In addition to the mainShow MoreRelatedThe Great Depression : The Dust Bowl984 Words à |à 4 Pages The Great Depression was a horrible time in American history, with as much as one-fourth of the population out of work. One of the hardest hit areas of the population was the agricultural center of the United States in the area that would come to be known as the Dust Bowl. The problems that the people of the Dust Bowl dealt with however were not a result of the Depression as a whole but instead were the result of a combination of bad farming decisions and a horrible drought. Even though the timingRead MoreThe Great Depression And The Dust Bowl1197 Words à |à 5 Pages The New Deal In the year following the Roaring 20s, the United States had a major economic crisis along with the Dust Bowl that affected many of the american people, but if Franklin D. Roosevelt had not saved the economy with the New Deal, the economy would have never truly recovered. The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl The Great Depression was the longest economic recession in the history of the United States. The recession started in the summer of 1929 when stock prices began to rise and alsoRead MoreThe Great Depression And Dust Bowl2250 Words à |à 9 Pagessome of the best times in history. However, later in the decade, devastation came in the form of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. These two factors left a sour taste in the mouthes of Americans as they moved into the thirties. The drastic difference between the economic high and low of the 1920s are due to a combination of the economic boom at the beginning of the decade and the Great Depression at the end, with numerous factors in between these two bookend events. During the best of the decadeRead MoreThe Dust Bowl Effect On The Great Depression1032 Words à |à 5 PagesThe Dust Bowlââ¬â¢s Effect on the Great Depression The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, pays homage to the critical impact the Great Depression had on dust bowl farmers. The growing demand for wheat products forced farmers to overgraze their property. This reduced the overall usefulness and biodiversity of the land, and attributed to the desertification of their establishments. With this, the once lush fields turned to dust, which blew away with the commencement of the severe drought in the earlyRead MoreThe Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck1190 Words à |à 5 Pageswith selling over 428,900 copies. Steinbeck, who lived through both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, sought to bring attention to how families of Oklahoma outdid these disasters. Steinbeck focuses on families of Oklahoma, including the Joads family, who reside on a farm. The Joad family is tested with hardship when life for them on their farm takes a corrupt turn. Steinbeck symbolizes the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, as the monster, by focusing on bringing attention to how the families inRead MoreDust Bowl of the 1930s911 Words à |à 4 PagesThe Dust Bowl of the 1930ââ¬â¢s had such an antagonistic effect on the United States economy that was already plummeting. The Dust Bowl affected the U.S economy in just about every way possible ranging from agriculture to finances including government expenses to population changes. This phenomena can be considered as one of the worst natural disasters that has affected the United States. The ââ¬Å"Dust Bowlâ⬠was the name given to the Great Plains region that was greatly affected by drought in the 1930ââ¬â¢sRead MoreFarming During The Great Depression1210 Words à |à 5 PagesNovember 2015 Farming During the Great Depression There were many factors that caused the Great Depression. But one of the main causes of the Great Depression was the farming conditions. Before the Great Depression life was great! The American life was starting to get better and better. But In the early 1930 s soil was reduced to dust and eroded, because of drought and improper farming practice. This period of long, stressful farming conditions was known as the Dust Bowl. It led to the increased numberRead MoreThe Struggle Of The 1920s1322 Words à |à 6 PagesWhat the Great Depression Did to America During the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, the United States underwent a series of changes that had a drastic effect on people across the nation. As the economy began to slow to a halt, millions of people were left broke and without jobs. As the countryââ¬â¢s farmers were paralyzed with debt, food prices increased radically (McElvaine). During the mid-1930s, a series of droughts coupled with poor agricultural methods led to years of soil erosion and dust stormsRead MorePresident Hoover s Impact On The Great Depression910 Words à |à 4 PagesDuring 1929, The Great Depression changed the shape of America and how many people would struggle during this time. The Great Depression had many issues happen that hurt many people and their jobs. President Hoover had a major impact during this time. The Great Depression started after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The economy during this time was in a world of hurt and people in the economy were going through a rough time. Many farmers dur ing this time lost money to pay for their jobs and couldRead MoreThe Dust Bowl Of The Great West1172 Words à |à 5 PagesLucia Martinez Professor Kim Wombles English 1302 September 21, 2015 The Dust Bowl Imagine a great wall closing in on you with nowhere to run. Imagine sweeping a floor of sand that will never go away. Imagine having a terrible cough that leaves your throat irritated and raw to the point where you are coughing up blood. Imagine the disappointment of realizing a possible rain cloud is really a wall of dust rushing your way. For people living in the Midwest during the 1930s this was
Sunday, December 15, 2019
The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam Free Essays
string(26) " no impact whatever on U\." Robert S. McNamaraââ¬â¢s memoir ââ¬ËIn Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnamââ¬â¢ offers an explanation of McNamaraââ¬â¢s handling of the Vietnam War as Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. McNamaraââ¬â¢s goal directed as well as logico-mathematical approach to decision-making must be blamed for the failure of the US to stop North Vietnam from winning the war. We will write a custom essay sample on The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam or any similar topic only for you Order Now Bloodshed would have been evaded if merely McNamara had looked at the probable outcome of his decisions on Vietnam. What appears from pages of this book are mechanics of a machine closed in on itself. It digested just the information that suited its version of reality or served its bureaucratic interests. It unnoticed discordant views, reorganized unlikable facts as well as, when proved wrong, simply redoubled its efforts. It was a machine suited to a military colossus whose directors never doubted their premises or their capability to make reality symbolize the exercise of their power. The book is written down in a manner that brings joy particularly to the hearts of the pacifist crowd even while they criticize him, as its confessions appear to justify their opposition to the war. That was Bill Clintonââ¬â¢s self-satisfied response. Thus far the book is extremely superficial in its political analysis ââ¬â signifying how far in over his head McNamara was in that job from the start. Certainly, itââ¬â¢s high time that someone inquired our countryââ¬â¢s inclination of picking big-time industrialists for defense secretary on the theory that itââ¬â¢s just a big management work. Sometimes the job needs a lot more than management talent: deliberate understanding and judgment, which McNamara without a doubt never had. In justice to McNamara, his long silence had an admirable cause. Given the national shock that Vietnam brought, he feared that any apologia would be expedient and inappropriate. This caginess renowned McNamara from egregious former colleagues for instance Clark Clifford, Averell Harriman, as well as Cyrus Vance, who within months of leaving office were attacking the Nixon Administration with peace proposals also demands for concessions to the North Vietnamese. The end of McNamaraââ¬â¢s book in brief touches non-Vietnam matters ââ¬â particularly the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the Harvard conferences he has lately attended, which brought together Soviet, American, as well as Cuban veterans of that crisis. The malice of such conferences is established by the breast-beating wrapping up of McNamara and some further Americans that it was our entire fault: Khrushchev put missiles in Cuba for the reason that he feared we were planning one more Bay of Pigs. Suffering regarding that brush with nuclear tragedy has led to another of McNamaraââ¬â¢s recantations his vigorous anti-nuclear activism, proceeding proposals for disarmament and no-first-use of nuclear weapons. He has championed this reason with the same sanctimonious obstinacy with which he once sold us the body counts and wunderkind strategizing in Vietnam, and with which he at present proclaims his confessions of our Vietnam errors. He possibly will never get it right. (Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie Collier Hillstrom, 1998). DEVELOPMENT OF THEME This book ââ¬Å"In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnamâ⬠is barely likely to assuage that cynicism. Certainly, it will most likely reinforce it. For what it exposes is a leadership class so in thrall to power, so persuaded of its own intellectual superiority, so cut off from, and even disdainful of, the wider society it has been empowered to serve, that it was eager to sacrifice virtually everything to evade the stigma of failure. The usefulness of McNamaraââ¬â¢s book is in the description of that trickery and of that failure. Much of the documentation has long been accessible in the Pentagon Papers, which he commissioned soon before leaving office, and which were leaked to the press by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971. However there is something to be erudite in hearing it from such a highly placed participant. Nevertheless, no one else, at such a level of influenceââ¬ânot Johnson, or McGeorge Bundy, or Walt Rostow, or Henry Kissinger or Richard Nixonââ¬âever openly admitted error or accepted blame. McNamara has at least broken the wall of silence. And even though he remains protective and largely uncritical of his colleagues, including the most imperceptive, the picture that appears is not one to motivate confidence. What this account noticeably discloses is that at no time did officials in either the Kennedy or Johnson administrations ever seriously think about anything less than an enduringly divided Vietnam with an anti-communist government in the south. The North Vietnamese, for their part, never measured anything less than a unified nation under their, i. e. communist, control. No one was in any doubt about this. The problem was that the Americans were persuaded that by inflicting unbearable pain they could force Hanoi to desist however they were wrong. It was their country, not ours. In the end it was we who withdrew in the face of unbearable pain. Why did three successive administrations think that Vietnam was so imperative? First, there was the domino theory, which decreed that if Saigon fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would shortly follow. Kennedy himself authorized it. When asked in 1963 by a television interviewer whether he doubted the correspondence, he answered, ââ¬Å"No, I believe it. ââ¬Å" Second, there was confronting of communist-led ââ¬Å"wars of national liberation. â⬠As nuclear weapons had made war too risky between America and Russia, the conflict transferred to the Third World, where a host of impecunious, ex-colonial nations looked up for grabs. Did it matter whether these were communist or anti-communist despotisms? Almost certainly not. Although there was nowhere else the competition could occur, and so there it raged. Vietnam turned into a test case. Third, there was the well-known supposition that Beijing was taking its marching orders from Moscow, and calling the shots in Hanoi. The truth that China and Russia were already disputing publicly and that the Vietnamese had historically viewed the Chinese as their greatest enemy made no impact whatever on U. You read "The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" in category "Papers" S. policymakers. It did not fit into their worldview. Fourth, the worldââ¬â¢s greatest military power was not going to confess failure, least of all against what Johnson once mentioned as a ââ¬Å"piddling, piss-ant little country. â⬠It was too mortifying even to contemplate. Beyond all this there was one more reason that neither Kennedy nor Johnson, once the United States so carelessly slid into Vietnam, could easily get out. The Democrats were the party, in accordance with the Republicans, who had ââ¬Å"lostâ⬠China to communism. They were definitely not going to offer more fodder for their foes in Vietnam. As Truman had pushed above the thirty-eight parallel in Korea to illustrate that he was tougher on communism than the Republicans, so Kennedy and Johnson felt they dare not lose Saigon to the Reds. This is why the assumption, here thoughtfully echoed by McNamara, that Kennedy would have pulled out of the war had he lived, appears wishful thinking. Kennedy fans, including McNamara, time and again cite the presidentââ¬â¢s much-quoted September 1963 statement regarding Vietnam that ââ¬Å"in the final analysis, it is their war. There were, certainly, ways out all along, had anyone wanted to follow them. One opened up in the fall of 1963, when Ngo Dinh Nhu, Diemââ¬â¢s influential brother, started secret contacts with Hanoi. Sensing a possibility for a deal akin to the arrangement previously worked out over Laos, French President Charles de Gaulle suggested the amalgamation and neutralization of Vietnam. However the Americans saw this as an intimidation somewhat than an opportunity. Second-level officials in Washington plotted with the Saigon embassy and South Vietnamese army officers to conquer Diem and replace him with a government more resolute to fight the war. Kennedy could not make up his mind whether or not to endorse the coup. It came anyway in November, ending in the assassination of Diem and Nhu. Three weeks later Kennedy himself was murdered. McNamara now articulates that would have been a good moment to leave. However at the time he recommended the newly installed Johnson that impartiality was unthinkable for the reason that ââ¬Å"South Vietnam is both a test of U. S. determination and particularly a test of U. S. capacity to deal with wars of national liberation. â⬠This was our war and the Vietnamese were not going to be permitted to get in the way. At present McNamara confesses that ââ¬Å"we erred seriously in not even exploring the neutralization option. â⬠Although at the time there was no way officials would have discovered it, given their view of the stakes at issue. This was a war they were resolute to win, even against their reputed South Vietnamese allies. So far McNamara cannot bring himself to accept the noticeable insinuations of what he is so undoubtedly saying. He wants to convince us, and conceivably himself, that it is all a problem of management. In other words, he is still the bureaucratic organizer who thinks that all troubles can be reduced to flow charts and statistics McNamara informs us that as early as the fall of 1965 he had doubts regarding the value of the bombing in breaking Hanoiââ¬â¢s will or reducing the flow of supplies into the south. Sporadically he espoused bombing pauses with the argument that this might influence Hanoi to negotiate. This was a wan expectation, as he was never ready to negotiate what Hanoi sought: a withdrawal of the United States from South Vietnam and communist representation in Saigon. By the fall of 1967 he had lost his value: the Joint Chiefs and the hawks in Congress were infuriated by his antagonism to sending more troops and extending the bombing, whilst Johnson considered him undependable and feared that he might join Robert Kennedyââ¬â¢s camp. He was pushed out the door with a golden handshake as well as the presidency of the World Bank. However it was all done in a spirit of good fellowship and mutual congratulation, together with an overenthusiastic letter of appreciation he wrote to Johnson that he here reproduces. ââ¬Å"I do not know to this day whether I quit or I was fired,â⬠he says of his departure. This was consistent with his not knowing whether he measured the war to be wrong or just badly organized. Certainly he left silently. Almost all of them do. If he felt the war was so ââ¬Å"awfully wrong,â⬠why did he not leave in protest and take his case to the public? 20,000 Americans died in Vietnam on his watch, and almost another 40,000 died, along with millions of Vietnamese, after his departure. Did he be in debt something to them? Not it seems that as much as he owed to Johnson, and most probably to Nixon too. It ââ¬Å"would have been a violation of my responsibility to the president and my oath to uphold the Constitutionâ⬠to have publicly protested the war, he explains. Whereas the Constitution says not anything regarding muzzling public officials after they leave office, it is right that complainers are hardly ever asked to come back and play one more day. Would it have made a difference if McNamara had openly turned against the war? One cannot be certain. It might or might not have ended the war sooner. However it would have justified those who protested against or refused to battle in a war they considered morally wrong, and it might have saved the lives of some of those who went to Vietnam for the reason that they thought that their country wanted to send them there for fine reason. Regardless, the assurance of making a difference is not the issue. We often cannot be certain of the outcome of our actions when we undertake them. We either do something since we think it is right, or we decide not to do it. McNamara privileged what he supposed to be his duty to Johnson above what many others, but in fact not he, would consider his responsibility to his country. He can live with that, although he must not expect our appreciation. We can be glad that McNamara wrote this book without admiring the man or sanctioning his elusions. He had an opportunity to redeem himself for a war he felt to be wrong. However those opportunities came almost 30 ago, and at present it barely matters. What is constructive regarding this elusive book is the terrible picture it represents of men caught in the prison of their own narrow suppositions and of their bureaucratic roles. These were men who knew that their strategies were not working, that their actions were driving ever-deeper divisions within the country that they were losing the admiration of several of those whose opinions they most appreciated. And thus far they persevered. Or else they shuffled out without a sound, like McNamara, and found other ways of trying to change the world and of trying to redeem themselves. McNamara was not unaware to what was happening. In his memo to Johnson of May 1967 quarrelling against a planned major intensification in the war, he wrote: There may be a boundary beyond which several Americans and much of the world will not allow the United States to go. The picture of the worldââ¬â¢s utmost superpower killing or critically injuring thousands noncombatants a week, whilst trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on a subject whose merits are fiercely disputed, is not a pretty one. He was sensitive at least to the bad public relations of the killing, and he acknowledged that the supposed merits of the war were ââ¬Å"hotly disputed. â⬠Nevertheless within the hothouse where Johnson and his advisers met to orchestrate the war, it was merely methods, never eventual aims that were questioned. There was fighting in the streets and good manners in the war room. McNamaraââ¬â¢s book presents a sense of how divorced the two realms were from one another. The planners were locked into the academic concepts of ââ¬Å"credibilityâ⬠and the mechanics of graduated intensification. Although he had doubts regarding the effectiveness of the methods, he never questioned the assumptions. In his defense McNamara makes the amazing complaint that, because of the McCarthy hysteria of the early 1950s, ââ¬Å"our government lacked experts for us to consult to recompense for our unawarenessâ⬠of Southeast Asia. True, numerous Asian experts had been driven from the government for envisaging that Chiang Kai-shek was doomed. However they had not moved to Mars. There were telephones then. They were keen to talk to anyone who would listen. Hence were other considerate and outspoken critics of the war: scholars for instance John Fairbanks and Hans Morgenthau, columnists for example Walter Lippmann, former diplomats for instance George Kennan. In 1966 Senator Fulbright, smarting at having been snookered by Johnson over the Gulf of Tonkin, sponsored weeks of hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offering a forum for a broad range of experts to inspect the premises and outcomes of American policy. Nowhere in his book does McNamara make reference to these hearings, and hardly at all to outside critics. The delirious arguments over Vietnam all the way through the country appear never to have infiltrated the glass bubble of the war room. EVALUATION OF THEME McNamara stayed silent regarding Vietnam, repudiating all interviews until 1994, when he wrote his memoirs. The bookââ¬âIn Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnamââ¬âignited a firestorm of argument upon its release and turned into a national bestseller. Even though McNamara confessed in the book that he had been wrong on the subject of Vietnam, that the United States should never have become involved there, his belated confession did little to endear him to the American people. The book elevated the ire of veteransââ¬â¢ groups, who blamed McNamara of trying to profit from a war that, in their minds, he had started and that had caused so much anguish. Too much blood was on his hands, they said, for him to try to make money off the war. McNamaraââ¬â¢s assertion, in his memoir In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, of having been ââ¬Å"terribly wrongâ⬠regarding rising the war revive an old query often on the minds of young people at present: Would the U. S. have lost the war in Vietnam had Kennedy lived? The easiest answer is: We cannot know; history happens merely one way. The more intricate answer is: most likely not. We must not forget the significance of the Cold War and containment. Just as Kissingerââ¬â¢s predictions that the United States would split itself apart over Vietnam did not come to pass, the cause behind American involvement in the war turned out to have been intensely flawed. The position of the United States in the world was not so shaky and that of the Soviet Union and other revolutionary movements not so prevailing that an earlier communist victory in Vietnam would have altered the effect of the Cold War. We are familiar with this now, and many people came to doubt the significance of U. S. involvement in Vietnam as the war went on. Thus far given the depth of leadersââ¬â¢ commitment to the principles of suppression, it is hard to think that the United States would not have contributed the way it did in Vietnam, at least until 1968. (Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie Collier Hillstrom, 1998). Without a doubt the enthusiasm with which people long for a hero to have lived and saved them from the tragedy of Vietnam makes known how poignant a wound the war left. When McNamara spoke at Harvard University in the spring of 1995, observers noted how Vietnam appeared to have taken place merely yesterday for the people in the audience over forty. Their feelings were raw. For many, McNamara was a figure out of the past. Ernest May, one of the countryââ¬â¢s leading diplomatic historians, gave the most dispassionate elucidation of why he thought McNamara was wrong to have asserted that Kennedy would not have become as intensely involved as Johnson. McNamara appeared to have forgotten the influential spell of the Cold War. It was as if, May noticed, a Crusader wrote his memoirs without mentioning Christianity. However McNamara maintained his usually cool reserve all through the entire controversy. Reference: Kevin Hillstrom, Laurie Collier Hillstrom (1998). The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs, and Films; Greenwood Press How to cite The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, Papers
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Religion and Science free essay sample
They can actually complement each other. To understand what Einstein meant when he said this, we must first understand his views on religion. When I was first given Einsteinââ¬â¢s article ââ¬Å"Religion and Scienceâ⬠in class, I felt like he was very anti-religious. Throughout the first few paragraphs of the article he talked about why people were led to religious thought and belief. According to him, it was fear and the desire for guidance, support, and love emotions that were considered signs of ââ¬Å"weaknessâ⬠that evoked religious notions. It was just this that drove people to look into a higher being as a means of hope. These feelings are what initiated religious beliefs that told people what they can and canââ¬â¢t do to please God. Einsteinââ¬â¢s belief that these ââ¬Å"weakâ⬠feelings initiated religion, made him seem so opposed to the idea of looking into an unknown being as a sense of security. We will write a custom essay sample on Religion and Science or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Later on in his article, Einstein also told us that religion is not necessary for a personââ¬â¢s ethical behavior. You donââ¬â¢t need a God to tell you right from wrong. After reading all of this, I came to the conclusion that Einstein did not believe in religion. However, after further reading on Einstein I realized that I was very much wrong. Einstein did believe in a religion, but his religion was not the typical, traditional, organized religion like most people believe in. Einstein believed in a ââ¬Å"cosmic religious feeling;â⬠he believed in a higher being that controlled the universe, but not one who was interested in the personal affairs of humans. It was his line of work that had become his religion. He was so passionate and devoted to science that it had become his faith. His religious feeling was of ââ¬Å"inklingsâ⬠and ââ¬Å"wondering. His religion was his thoughts, and it was through this that Einstein studied and came to scientific conclusions. Einsteinââ¬â¢s religion was his questions, and science was his means of getting the answers. Einstein once said that you are not a true scientist if you donââ¬â¢t approach science with religious awe. Einstein believed that science and religion were nothing without each o ther. Since religion was Einsteinââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"inklingsâ⬠and ââ¬Å"wondering,â⬠religion was a sort of motivation for science. After all, what would science be without human questioning? Science would be pointless without religion, and that is what Einstein meant when he said ââ¬Å"Science without religion is lame. â⬠Science is just, as many people see it, a search for answers, and religion gives the questions. Some people choose to follow a religion without any logical thinking of their own; this is what Einstein meant by ââ¬Å"Religion without science is blind. â⬠It doesnââ¬â¢t make sense to believe in something without any logical reasoning. You would have to do some further research and study to give yourself further knowledge and understanding of a certain belief. Many people believe in a certain religion just because their parents believe in it, and that is the faith they grew up in to. They practice this religion because itââ¬â¢s what they were taught to do, not because itââ¬â¢s something they personally believe in. This is an example of a religious belief being ââ¬Å"blind. â⬠The person hasnââ¬â¢t looked into the religion at all on their own to see if there is any truth in it. They believe it just because their family believes it. This is completely illogical. Without proven facts to back up a belief, the belief is simply blind. A belief being blind, meaning that the belief has no evidence to back it up. There is no logical reason to believe in it. Science helps to create an open minded understanding of religion. Without science, religion would be useless and completely illogical. Although religion is not the same to me as it was to Einstein, I completely agree that religion and science are nothing without each other. Religion and science go hand in hand. My religion, Islam, doesnââ¬â¢t only tell me to believe, but it also provokes me to ask questions. Unlike Einstein, my religion is not just a religion of questions, it gives answers as well. However, most of these answers can be scientifically backed up, and the others have not been scientifically disproven either. Religion, or more specifically, Islam, is not primarily scientific; however it does answer some of the same questions as science. I believe that religion is nothing without science because it doesnââ¬â¢t make sense to blindly believe in something without some fact to back it up. Religion is a strong elief, and science may elaborate on that belief. In fact, Islam encourages scientific research. Time and time again, it is mentioned in the Quran (holy book) to reflect, not to just blindly believe. A verse in the Quran states, ââ¬Å"And it is He who spread the earth and placed therein firmly set mountains and rivers; and from all of the fruits He made therein two mates; He causes the night to cover the day. Indeed in that are signs for a people who reflectâ⬠[13:3] . This verse encourages us to reflect over these ââ¬Å"signs,â⬠to do research and believe with reason. It is only through research that religion is understood and appreciated even more. In Islam, it is believed that the Quran, the holy book was brought down over 1400 years ago, during the 7th century. That was a time when people didnââ¬â¢t know many of the scientific facts we know now. They werenââ¬â¢t advanced enough, and they didnââ¬â¢t have the correct technology. It was a time when people thought that the world was flat. The Quran, however, stated differently, it hinted at the roundness of the Earth. ââ¬Å"He has created the Heavens and the Earth for Truth. He wraps the night up in the day, and wraps the day up in the nightâ⬠[39:5]. The Arabic word that translates to ââ¬Å"to wrapâ⬠in this verse is ââ¬Å"yukawwir,â⬠which comes from the origin ââ¬Å"kurahâ⬠meaning sphere. Also, in this verse, wrapping the night up in the day means that the night slowly and gradually turns to day, which could only happen if the Earth was round. Another example is the formation of rain. The three stages of rain formation are the ââ¬Å"raw materialâ⬠of rain rising up into the air with the wind, clouds forming from the water vapor, and finally raindrops falling. In the Quran, it is stated, ââ¬Å"It is Allah Who sends the winds which stir up clouds which He spreads about the sky however He wills. He forms them into dark clumps and you see the rain come pouring out from the middle of them. When He makes it fall on those of His servants He wills, they rejoiceâ⬠[30:48]. The stages of rain formation werenââ¬â¢t discovered until after the weather radar was invented, but the same stages are discussed in the Quran. These are just two of many scientific signs in the Quran, but it shows that in Islam, absolute religious text and absolute scientific fact never contradict. Many people believe that religion and science canââ¬â¢t coexist because they cancel each other out. It is either one or the other, but this just simply isnââ¬â¢t true. In Islam, there is no conflict between absolute scientific fact and absolute religious text; everyone would be able to see this if they really looked into both of these factors. Religion actually encourages people to expand their knowledge through scientific research and come to a deeper understanding of their religion.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Open Education Essays - Educational Psychology,
Open Education Between 1967 and 1976, the ideas and practices of open education spread rapidly across the United States. Even today the idea of open education is still growing in popularity. Since it was just beginning to gain popularity in 1967, parents and teachers swarmed to workshops in hopes of better understanding the open concept. Many schools were switching over to an open philosophy. News of the successful educational style fanned the flames of many disbelievers. Many questions still remained about open education. What did children do? What did teachers do? Much earlier on, there was an effort to prevent the progression of open education. During the 1920 through 30's, private schools were set up to maintain a teacher's power and keep kids as her pupils. People wanted a new model of education and the open school model slowly replaced it. In the 60's there was a critical push for open education. The American population had reached a higher level of consciousness about our social and educational system. Yet, one question left people doubtful of open education. How can you "prove" that open education works? People were worried about educational change, because it could be devastating and expensive. It was never proven that open education worked, but more money was spent on workshops, teaching methods, and curricula to create more acceptance of open education. The word was also debated for a long time, because of the many different meanings. Was it opportunity? Relationships? Sharing? It was unknown. Finally, the word was decided apon--open. Open was trendy for the times. As Lydia A. H. Smith from Simmons College wrote "Open education is an approach to education that is open to change." As I have gone through open education, I have noticed differences in teachers. Teachers are not the typical drone model. Open education dropped the workbooks and lecture style learning and picked up discussion and hands-on developmental learning. An idea following this change in classroom materials and teaching styles was the position a teacher held in a classroom. No longer were they the directors that made everything this way or that, but teachers were now facilitators that would ease one's way through the educational system. Education is not just studying about, but about being. The word about never gave you the eyes to see being. In the US the open educational philosophy was spreading rapidly, in Britain primary schools were in a great push towards the movement for open education. Britain had closely been following open education. Many articles were being published on the idea of open school. These published articles were evoking positive feelings throughout the United States and Britain. As for today, there are many different types of educational philosophies. Once open education was accepted and found to work well society was more willing to accept new educational ideas. Educational philosophy The word philosophy comes from the Greek root philos (love) and sophia (wisdom), it means the love or search for wisdom. Philosophy covers a broad area of topics, but there is something that I want to explore more closely. I will look at educational philosophy, since that is what I am dealing with. Basically, I think philosophy in an educational context is the generalized theory of education or wisdom in education. Whatever education is, or becomes, is the basis of its philosophy. Educational theories are applied in a classroom to see if they show better results than before. If not, the theories are removed. Educational philosophy contains ideas of ideal ways education should be taught. Open philosophy wouldn't have been a popular philosophical education model, if it had not worked as well as it has. I believe that educational philosophy expresses ideas of how society should be taught. Since I have been in an open education program for my whole life, I'm going to talk about its ideals and my feelings. I think open education is based on 6 factors (1) the school as a community, (2) the school in the community, (3) the person and thier moral right to freedom and choice, (4) concern for individual differences, (5) the method of intelligence, (6) building curriculum through and with students. (Lydia A. H. Smith, page 376) To me the best a teacher can be is when they are learning from the students and when the students learn from them. It is best when material is not dictated, but presented through thought and participation. "I believe firmly, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Definition and Examples of Substantives in Grammar
Definition and Examples of Substantives in Grammar In traditional grammar, a substantive is a word or a group of words that functions as a noun or noun phrase. In contemporary language studies, the more common term for a substantive is nominal. In some forms of construction grammar, substantive is used in a broad sense thats unrelated to the traditional meaning of substantiveà (or noun). As Peter Koch observes in Between Word Formation and Meaning Change, It simply has the sense of constituted by one or more particular lexical or grammatical items (Morphology and Meaning, 2014). (See Hoffmans remarks in Examples and Observations below.) EtymologyFrom the Latin, substance Examples and Observations Doctors have asserted many times over the centuries thatà walking is good for you, butà medical advice has never been one of the chief attractions of literature.(Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Penguin, 2001)The motion was eager, shy, exquisite, diffident, trusting: he saw all its meanings and knew that she would never stop gesturing within him, never; though a decree come between them, even death, her gestures would endure, cut into glass.(John Updike, Gesturing.à The Early Stories: 1953-1975. Random House, 2007)A [substantive is a] grammatical term that in the Middle Ages included both noun and adjective, but later meant noun exclusively. It is not usually found in later 20c English grammars. . . . However, the term has been used to refer to nouns and any other parts of speech serving as nouns (the substantive in English). The adjective local is used substantively in the sentence He had a drink at the local before going home (that is, the local public house) .(Sylvia Chalker and Tom McArthur, Substantive. The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press, 1992) A substantive noun or a substantive is . . . a name which can stand by itself, in distinction from an adjective noun or an adjective. It is the name of an object of thought, whether perceived by the senses or the understanding. . . . Substantive and noun are, in common use, convertible terms.(William Chauncey Fowler, English Grammar. Harper Brothers, 1855)Substantive Nouns and Adjectival Nouns- In Aristotelian, and scholastic, terminology, substance is more or less synonymous with entity. It is this by now almost obsolete sense of substance which gaveà rise to theà term substantive for what, in modernà terminology, are normally called nouns.(John Lyons,à Natural Language and Universal Grammar: Essays in Linguistic Theory. Cambridge University Press, 1991)- The objects of our thoughts are either things, like the earth, the sun, water, wood, what is ordinarily called substance, or else are the manner or modification of things, like being round, being red, being hard, being lea rned, what is called accident. . . .It is this which has engendered the principal difference among the words which signify the objects of thought. For those words which signify substances have been called substantive nouns, and those which signify accidents, . . . have been called adjectival nouns.(Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot, 1660, quoted by Roy Harris and Talbot J. Taylor, Landmarks In Linguistic Thought. Routledge, 1997) Substantives in Construction Grammar[C]hildren acquire language based on a specific lexical input. For example, they first acquireà fully substantive constructionsà (i.e. structures in which all positions are filled such as I wanna ball). Only gradually do they thenà schematize these constructionsà by replacing a substantive lexical item by a variable slot (I wanna ball thus becomes I wanna X and X can then be filled by doll, apple, etc.).(Thomas Hoffman, English Relative Clauses and Construction Grammar.à Constructional Approaches to English Grammar, ed. byà Graeme Trousdale and Nikolas Gisborne. Mouton de Gruyter, 2008)Pronunciation: SUB-sten-tiv
Friday, November 22, 2019
Addiction in our brain
Addiction in our brain Over time, the brain adapts in a way that actually makes the activity less enjoyable. Addictions do not only include bodily things we consume, such as drugs or alcohol, but may include virtually anything. The main addictions tend to be alcohol and heroin, and psychological dependence to activities such as gambling, sex, work, running, shopping, or an eating disorder. Signs of drug addiction include changes in personality and behaviour like a lack of enthusiasm, touchiness, bloodshot eyes and frequent bloody noses, or slurred speech. Addiction is well-defined as a chronic relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is measured a brain disease because drugs change the brain they change its structure and how it works. Though everyoneââ¬â¢s path to addiction is different whether he or she tries a drug or behaviour because itââ¬â¢s what that personââ¬â¢s parents or peer do, or just out of curiosity whatââ¬â¢s common across all substance and behavioural addictions is their stunning ability to increase levels of an important chemical in the brain called dopamine. If you have a blood relative, such as a parent or sibling, with alcohol or drug problems, youââ¬â¢re at greater risk of emerging into a drug addict. Men are more likely to have problems with drugs than women are. However, progression of addictive illnesses is known to be faster in females. Drug use is on the rise in the USA and 23.5 million Americans are addicted to alcohol a nd drugs. Thatââ¬â¢s approximately one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12 roughly equal to the entire population of Texas. But only 11 per cent of those with an addiction receive conduct. The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that between 40 and 60 per cent of recuperating drug addicts will eventually relapse. With heroin, those rates are even higher. Some experts place the rate of relapse for heroin addicts as high as 80 present, which means that the recovery rate may be as low as 20 per cent. Most people overcome addiction to alcohol or drugs on their own, without joining a support group or entering treatment. Alcoholism and other habits are not diseases. There are specific tools anyone can use to help themselves to overcome any addiction with or without professional assistance. The old belief that it took 21 days to change a habit has now been labelled a myth. According to psychologists, while it may take approximately 21 days of mindful and consistent effort to create a new habit, it takes far longer to break an existing habit. In conclusion to this I think that depending on what you do and your daily routine you can become addicted to anything, Some people face completely different addictions to others but the most common one seems to be drug addictions.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Compare and contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 16
Compare and contrast - Essay Example th mountain locations and beach locations are accustomed to having a large number of visitors each year so there are plenty of good hotels and restaurants to go to. Mountain locations will have hotels that cater to their environment, meaning more chalet-style architecture and an attempt to create a sense of isolation within the woods. Decorations are often dark because of the blinding white of winter snow, their busiest time of year, but this can sometimes feel oppressive during the summer months and the world is shaded by the leaves of giant trees. Beach locations have the opportunity to perfect their look as a tropical retreat since their weather stays relatively similar all year through. Decorations are often light on the outside because of the tendency of the sun to bleach out colors and as a means of keeping things cooler inside, but interiors are often full of color and life, always making it seem ready for a party. Restaurants in both places will offer good food, but mountain restaurants will tend more toward beef and a mixture of food while beach locations tend to offer more seafood because they can get it fresh. Although beach locations can offer many of the same activities year-round, both beach and mountain locations need to work with the seasons to offer widely different activities. In the mountains, the seasons will very strongly dictate what you can and cant do. You cant go skiing in the summer in most places and its very difficult to find wildflowers in winter. In the mountains, you can also go hiking, mountain biking, snowmobiling, hunting, freshwater fishing, or just enjoy the services provided by the hotel of your choice. At the beaches, activities are also limited a bit by the seasons, but less so. It might be cold, but you can still go swimming in the ocean in winter and it might be hot, but you can still go sailing in the summer. At the beach, you also have the option of going water skiing anytime as well as kite-boarding, wind-surfing,
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