Augustine Reflection Essay - 1386 Words

The first two books of â€Å"Augustine’s Confessions† focuses primarily on his intellectual formation, his spirituality, and his education. Undoubtedly, Augustine is a very inquisitive individual, and obsesses over his sins. In doing so, Augustine poses all his questions to God, because he believed that our sole existence is to please God until we return to his presence. Moreover, Augustine’s primary lesson learned through his reflection, was that young Christians would benefit more from the study of Holy scriptures as apposed to the spirit defiling classical studies that have a tendency to promote sin. However, in order for one to reach the same conclusion as Augustine, one must consider his lessons learned from infancy, childhood, and†¦show more content†¦Although Augustine finds infancy repulsive and sinful, he realizes through infantile observation, that he learned to speak. He states, â€Å"So, as I heard the same words again and again properl y used in different phrases, I came gradually to grasp what things they signified; and forcing my mouth to the same sounds, I began to use them to express my own wishes† (Augustine 1.8.19). He learned to speak his demands of his own sinful needs. Now, his mother. Being a pious woman, felt anxiety about Augustine being baptized, so that he would be released from sin. However, Augustine fell ill, and his baptism delayed. Thus, he was left to his sinful nature. Clearly, Augustine has concluded that his lack of baptism played a significant role in his fall, and the importance of spirituality to protect one’s soul from grave peril. Secondly, Augustine’s childhood is recalled as less sinful, and learns the lesion of praising God for the good things about himself, and that his sins during his childhood were due to the misdirection of his gifts that took his eyes off God and placed them on the materialistic world, and the perverted human customs rather than moralit y or truth. For instance, he states to God, â€Å"Yet all these were the gifts of my God, for I did not give them to myself. All these were good, and all these were I. Therefore, He who made me is good and He is my good: and in him I shall exult for all the goodShow MoreRelatedAugustines View of Humanity1047 Words   |  4 PagesCollege Senior (4th year) Essay No Of Sources: 2 Statistical Analysis:Yes Topic:Essay Assignment Augustines Confessions Throughout Confessions, Augustines view humans-- essential nature interesting differences , time periods civilizations, humans. 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The Corporate Side Of American Public Education And The...

Diane Ravitch explores the corporate side of American public education and the reformists’ misled beliefs that the school system is in crisis. The school reforms in place are disguised as a means of improving public education, when in reality it has become an objective to â€Å"replace public education with a privately managed, free-market system of schooling† (Ravitch, p.4). Diane Ravitch supports her claim that the reformation movement has poor intentions with multiple sources of evidence. Among these facts she uncovers the truth behind test scores and the achievement gap. Furthermore, Ravitch exposes how the reform movement is a back-door way to privatize schooling with monetary motives in mind. In response to these problems, Diane†¦show more content†¦Another reality that Diane Ravitch sheds light on is the misconstrued theories about the achievement gap. Reformers often say that African American and Hispanic students have not made progress for decade s (Ravitch, p.55). However, after looking at the data from NAEP, it is evident that this assertion by the reformers just simply is not true. Rather, these students have shown dramatic increases in math. Many do not recognize this though because white achievement has also improved which keeps the gap at large. (Ravitch, p.56) Throughout different grades, African Americans and Hispanics have shown remarkable progress in mathematics. There has been improvement in reading as well, just not as dramatic as the progress shown in math. Ravitch states, â€Å"Today’s reformers often imply that schools alone can close the achievement gaps among different groups. The like to point to exemplary charter schools with high test scores to prove their point† (Ravitch, p.59). While the belief that a charter school could bridge the achievement gap and overcome the disadvantages of poverty, it simply is not a realistically feasible concept. Thomas B. Timar of the University of Cal ifornia states, â€Å"Yet the gap is the symptom of larger social, economic and political problems that go far beyond the reach of the school†¦ While schools are part of the solution, they alone cannot solve the problem of educational disparities† (Ravitch, p.60). Timar calls society to take action by

Low life expectancy free essay sample

Todays world is all about speed. Every single process is studied and programmed to be as quick as possible, with optimal efficiency. We are currently witnessing a fundamental transformation of the society that we can qualify as a robotisation, essentially in the developped countries. That could be beneficial for some countries, in some fields, for some people. But we all should be aware that there are humans that cannot follow this step. In fact, this new process is involving a wider gap between developped countries and the least developped countries concerning life expectancy. Life expectancy is an average number of year given to a person at his birth depending on the country he was born in, and it is a factor defining the health of a country. Diseases, war, famine, death rates in one hand, national economic prosperity, standard education and performant healthcare in the other hand, there are many factors affecting the life expectancy in each country, making it better or worse. People tend to have. a longer. life in western countries like Israel where the average expectancy life is 81 years old, instead of Zimbabwe, where the average expectancy life is 52 years old (CIA, 2012). This essay will assess two solutions to low life expectancy in the developping world. First, the. promotion and improvement of the health care system and infrastructure, then the development of appropriate education programs to instruct and educate the population of those third world countries. The countries where life expectancy is very low are country where death rates are very high. These death rates are caused by further facts as war, diseases, pandemics and outbreaks so we can notice that healthcare system and infrastructure are very important to maintain the population in a good shape. The difference between evelopped and developping countries concerning this matter has always been the economical issues. Developping countries, in order to improve their situation, must establish plans Wich will structure an efficient government budget, however because of their low or very low GDP, this budget could be extremely tight regarding. healthcare and infrastructures dedicated to that matter. For example in UK, the budget dedicated to healthcare represents eleven percent of the GDP, whereas Angola uses only 2% of public expenditure (WHO,2005). Due to such a low budget dedicated to Healthcare, developping countries are not able to provide efficient reatments and qualified medical staff to their citizens. The only solution to that issue for developping coutries is to increase their health care budget and place the ministry of health upper in their priorities. Increasing the tax rates on high income people would raise the budget and slightly rise the budget by 2% in the Gross Domestic Product. Government should aso work on the drug prices and user fees to make it more affordable , and control the parallel market to prevent fiscal losses. A reasonnable and efficient use ot ressources should imply an equilibrium in the third world economies and make them refill their budget. That would make the coutry eligible for a financial help from the world bank, the african development Bank or the IMF. Construction of new hospitals and purchases of drugs would then be possible perspectives. Moreover, the governments should focus on supportive private health care and introduction ofa health insurance that would help people keep their money and still get efficient treatments. Improving healthcare all over the world and especially in the developping coutries is actually one of the most relevant issues of the 21 rst century. The second part of the essay focuses on the educational kind of treatment that eople in the developping coutries should get in order to educate them to the new technologies that they will be facing, the new facilities that tey will be using. Education will also allow the medical staff to supply the knowledge and services that people are expecting. On top of that, education will improve peoples situation, working in better places and not being in contact with diseases and bacterias. They will earn more money and that is improving the situation of the country as well, by increasing the GDP. We can say that ducation is at the begining of the chain that will bring a country to prosperity. In order to improve the medical treatments quality, the ministry of education should organize training programs and. seminars for the. medical body (WHO, 2000). In a close collaboration with the ministry of Health and some associations, the Ministry of education should promote hygenie among primary schools, high schools, universities and other educational institutions through presentations, or conferences with medical bodies or even advertisement. The local associations should be also supported and prevention should happen mor often. Give soap a chance! (wash hands, 2012) is a slogan used by NHS in the I-JK, a world eading country in terms of health. Awareness of young people associated with scientific knowledge and prevention actions would be a great sanitary improve and could lead toa rie in the life expectancy rise. According to the previous sayings, we can say that life expectancy could be well improved by working on how to manage the budget to improve the sanitary system, and improving the educational system that will in a way rise the awareness of people concerning health care and science. Even if we focused on two aspects of low life expectancy solutions, we should mention that famine, war and natural disasters are lso issues that governments should work on. http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/rankorderguide.html http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre/press_release/en/ http://www.who.int/hac/crises/ago/background/Angola_Dec05.pdf http://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/

Kabbalah Essays - Jewish Culture, Sephirot, Kabbalah,

Kabbalah Kabbalah is described as Jewish mysticism dating back to the beginning of time according to holy beliefs. Opposed to traditional Judaism, Kabbalistic beliefs are based on a different interpretation of the book of Genesis. Kabbalistic concepts consist mainly of a Sephirot Tree which organizes the ten basic principals of life and an organized Universe making this branch of Judaism very different than other mainstream religions. Kabbalists have faith that divine status can be reached through means of traditional magick to find the meaning in numbers and letters of the holy scriptures making Kabbalah very unique in it's beliefs. I. Creation A. Taught by God to a group of angels B. Hebrew Sources in Israel C. first centuries B.C.E. II. Scriptures A. Book of Zohar (Book of Splendor) B. Sefer Yezirah C. Genesis, Old Testament III. Beliefs A. World Can be grasped through numbers and letters B. Job to discover hidden meaning in numbers and letters of holy scriptures through traditional magick methods C. Sephirot Tree of Life 1. ten numbers are working principals of life organized and pictured in the S.T.L. 10 - Malkuth Kingdom - Divine (Exile/Physical) 9 - Yesod - Foundation (Union of Male and Female) 8 - Hod - Glory (Dependence/Vulnerability) 7 - Netzach - Firmness (Leadership/Conference) 6 - Tiphareth - Beauty (Balance/Harmony) 5 - Geburah - Strength/Severity (Discipline/Boundaries) 4 - Chesed - Mercy/Love (Compassion/Healing) 3 - Binah - Intelligence/Understanding (Differentiation/Repentance) 2 - Chochmah - Wisdom (Pure Thought/Connectedness) 1 - Kether - Being/Existence (Will/Selflessness) 2. 11th Sephirot - Between Chochmah and Binah - Daath - Knowledge (sex) found in the first chapters of Genesis 3. climb tree by means of magick D. God 1. fills Universe 2. all things, good and evil/immanent and transcendent 3. boundless IV. Rituals/Ceremony A. Coming of Age 1. Bar Mitzvah a. ceremony of admitting a boy (13) to the adult Jewish community 2. Bat Mitzvah a. ceremony of admitting a girl (12 or 13) to the adult Jewish community B. Hanukah 1. eight days 2. signified with the Menorah 3. commemorating the rededication of The Temple in Jerusalem C. Prayer 1. pray in Hebrew 2. Shabbat is celebrated as the day of rest (sundown on Friday night to sun down on Saturday) 3. bow before entering a Jewish worship service Conclusion: Kabbalah is described as Jewish mysticism dating back to the beginning of time according to holy beliefs. Opposed to traditional Judaism, Kabbalistic beliefs are based on a different interpretation of the book of Genesis. Kabbalistic concepts consist mainly of a Sephirot Tree which organizes the ten basic principals of life and an organized Universe making this branch of Judaism very different than other mainstream religions. Kabbalists have faith that divine status can be reached through means of traditional magick to find the meaning in numbers and letters of the holy scriptures making Kabbalah very unique in it's beliefs. KABBALAH Kabbalah is described as Jewish mysticism dating back to the beginning of time according to holy beliefs. Opposed to traditional Judaism, Kabbalistic beliefs are based on a different interpretation of the book of Genesis. Kabbalistic concepts consist mainly of a Sephirot Tree which organizes the ten basic principals of life and an organized Universe making this branch of Judaism very different than other mainstream religions. Kabbalists have faith that divine status can be reached through means of traditional magick to find the meaning in numbers and letters of the holy scriptures making Kabbalah very unique in it's beliefs. Kabbalistic practices are believed to originate straight from God. Kabbalists believe that the secrets of the holy scriptures were taught by God to a group of angels in Heaven. The angels then came down upon earth in human form and taught the religion to the people of Israel. Writing of the Kabbalah dates back to the first reordered centuries of the earth (B.C.E.) known to creationists. The scriptures of Kabbalah include the Book of Zohar or Book of Splendor. The Zohar is a five-volume mystical commentary on the Torah. Torah is the Hebrew word for law or teaching and it more commonly referred to as the Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; and Deuteronomy. It is traditionally said to be authored by Rabbi Shim'on bar Yohai, about 2000 years ago. Historically, it was probably put into written form in the fourteenth or fifteenth century by the Spanish rabbi Moses de Leon. Another scripture of Kabbalah is Sefer Yetzirah which means "Book of Formation". Sefer Yetzirah is a brief work on the Creation. It is traditionally ascribed to Abraham,