Traditions of Western Religion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Traditions of Western Religion - Research Paper Example All the world’s major religions contain sects within it; some comingle with ease while others seem to share only mistrust and disdain. Much as Catholics and Protestants fought bloody battles for centuries, Sunni and Shiite Muslims are fighting territorial and political battles throughout the Middle East. This discussion will first address the similar history of all Muslims then the circumstances of the split. It will concentrate on Sunni, Shia, the Druze, a Shiite off-shoot belief and Wahhabism, a derivative of Sunni. The final section explores the contemporary conflicts of Islam’s two main sects. The central belief of all Muslims is that the Prophet Muhammad, who died in 632 AD, was Allah’s (Arabic for God) messenger. His revelations are recorded in the Qur’an and are followed by Muslims of all descriptions who also look to sayings of Muhammad, hadith, for inspiration and guidance. The concepts of justice, goodness and piety are essential to Islamic practices and belief system. Furthermore, all Muslims are directed to live their lives according to the five pillars of Islam: â€Å"(1) shahada—recital of the creed â€Å"There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet†; (2) salat—five obligatory prayers in a day; (3) zakat—giving alms to the poor; (4) sawm—fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan; and (5) hajj—making a pilgrimage to Mecca once during a lifetime if one is physically and financially able.† (Blanchard, 2009) The chief role of Muslim religious leaders is to interpret shari’a, or Islamic law. There are no strict codes or wording of laws such as westerners are accustomed. Rather, for both Shiite and Sunni Islam, shari’a allows for wider legal interpretations to fit the circumstance and greater flexibility for sentencing. The Sunni/Shiite split occurred near the begin nings of the Islamic religion. The main disagreement concerns the Prophet Muhammad’s successor and the type of leadership that would guide Muslim society. The long-standing and significant dispute centers on whether the leader(s) should be a direct descendant of the Prophet or could be a qualified, virtuous and devout person who would adhere to the customs of Islam. This issue was initially decided when Abu Bakr, a friend of the Prophet, was selected by community leaders to be the successor, or Caliph. While most Muslims accepted Bakr, a minority supported Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin of the Prophet’s and his son-in-law. Bakr was married to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet. The term Shi’at Ali translates to â€Å"Ali’s helper.† Another important distinction that relates to modern times is the amount of reverence paid to the respective leaders of the two Islamic sects. Sunni Muslims give exalted status only to the prophets of the Quran and not to present day leaders. Shiites bestow imams with this lofty status. The Sunnis religious hierarchy is not adorned as elaborately, as highly esteemed and is not as politically powerful as the Shiite leadership. Because of this distinction, Sunnis tend to be more accommodating in permitting lay people to serve as spiritual leaders. Sunni religious leaders, as opposed to Shiites, have historically been subject to control by the state. Shiite leaders have enjoyed greater autonomy. (Blanchard, 2009) The Druze is a fairly populous yet little known yet sect of Islam because they want it that way. This mysterious group, numbering nearly one million in Syria alone, has endeavored for many centuries to shield their cultural lives from outsiders and keep their religious views secret. Druze prefers to live in isolation. They are

Eng Comparison Essay :: essays papers

Eng Comparison Essay Innocence, happiness, success, and optimism, are all characteristics of human kind. A cure for cancer is superior to the elimination of physical abuse and suicidal death’s. A result to have all people treated equally appreciated and loved. Is it a possible gesture? It may not happen in our lifetime, but if powerful and caring individuals join forces, it is possible to draw conclusions. To live the dreams and allusions each identity performs and has a reality to people and society. Within the three novels, Ellen Foster, A Virtuous Woman, and A Cure for Dreams, all written by the author Kaye Gibbons, each character from different novels struggles to face reality and find the correct path that will lead them to the right direction in life. While coping with the endless pain, Ellen, Jack, and Betty have only hope to lead them into the direction they encounter to approach. A fate in their lives can change forever. In addition, keep their â€Å"depressing days† only a me mory so that they will become successful. All characters are determined to overcome their obstacles and misery through hope, courage, and inspiration. Throughout Kaye Gibbon’s novels, each unified character portrays a resemblance to overcome their obstacles through hope. In Gibbon’s first novel, Ellen Foster the main character, Ellen a young child struggles to survive and live a normal childhood. Making matters worse, Ellen’s father was a drunken alcoholic who physically abuses her mother and sexually harasses his own daughter. As a result, Ellen’s mother commits suicide and her father dies from over dosage. As her, own parents abandon their precious child; Ellen was alone in search of a new home and family. As hope motivates Ellen to seek forward and find her new home she begins to believe what an ideal family would be like, â€Å"I had not figured out how to go about getting one for the most part, but I had a feeling it could be got†. Similar in Ellen’s case, in Gibbon’s second novel A Virtuous Woman, Jack is in search to regain himself after a heartbreak loss to his wife Ruby who died several months prior from lung cancer. Jack is an old farmer and relied heavily towards Ruby. He is now left on his own, he acknowledges that only hope may lead him back on his tracks and leave all the crucial memories behind.

How serious is Global Warming?

This report will cover Global Warming and its effects on people. Also this report will look at different ways that Global Warming affects humans as well as animals. This research report will cover climate change, greenhouses gases and evidence to support Global Warming. Evidence There is a lot of evidence to support the Global Warming; however the significance of the source depends on the reliability of the source. One of the most reliable methods of collecting data to show Global Warming is ice-core dating. Ice cores are samples dag up from accumulation of snow and ice over a period of time that recrystallized and trapped air bubbles[1]. Measuring temperature of the Earth's surface with thermometer can only provide data for past two or three centuries. Another sources of information about the past, is studying peat bogs or dendrochronology. Plants produce pollen in vast amounts, and each species of plants has a distinctive type of pollen. When looking at peat bogs. Differences between species and between the ecological conditions needed to flourish best, their pollen allows scientists to determine temperature and humidity levels of past years. Tree ring analysis is also used by scientists when looking at Climate change. Each year, tree produces new layer of xylem vessels. The diameter of xylem depends on the season2. The width of the tree ring can tell the scientists about the growth of the tree. This evidence is reliable as tree is dependent on the environment, the temperature and the humidity. All methods produce reliable data, however validity of the evidence can be questioned. The validity depends on whoever carries out the research. If the research is carried out by a private company (e.g. (BP) British Petroleum) will show only some of the data the most reliable to the question or to prove a certain point. The most reliable researches are carried out by independent companies or universities. What is Global Warming? The solar radiation in form of light waves passes through the atmosphere. Most of it is absorbed by the earth and warms it. Some of the waves are reradiated back into space in form of infrared waves. However, some of the Infrared radiation is trapped by the Earth's atmosphere and it warms it. As the composition of atmosphere changes and it thickens, more infrared radiation is trapped causing the raise in global temperatures. In natural cycle the concentration of CO2 in the air should equal the composition of carbon dioxide in the soil. However human activity changed that by releasing extra CO2 from the fossil fuels into atmosphere. The natural cycle is out of equilibrium and can not get rid of the excess of the gas. Causes of global warming One of the main causes for the Global Warming is human activity. The human needs and populations becoming lazy caused everything to be computerized and the energy use is great. To supply great deals of energy more fossil fuels are burned and more greenhouse gases are given off to the atmosphere. Also the lack of commitment of human race to healthy life styles caused the car manufacturers to increase the car production in recent years. Everyone wants to own at least one car, but they don't think about consequences of that. Many more cars cause a lot of emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. Greenhouse Gas Formula Contribution (%) Water Vapour H2O 36-70 Carbon Dioxide CO2 9-26 Methane CH4 4-9 Ozone O3 3-7 The raising temperature causes more water to vaporise, which leads to more UV light being trapped by the atmosphere, therefore the increase in the average temperature. As the graph above shows over a period of hundred years there is a positive skew, which indicated the increases in temperature. The increase is around 1oC, which could suggest a fast increases in surface temperatures. Environmental implications The increases in the concentration of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere, the possibility of acidic rains increases. Acid rains are caused by emissions of compounds of ammonia, carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids.[5] The below diagram shows the damage to the European Forests caused by Acid rain and Air pollution. The data shows on the above diagram was collected in 1988, which means that by now there would be more damage made to the European forests over the past 20 years as the concentration of gases increases in the atmosphere. Economic Implications As the climate changes and the surface temperature increases, the food companies may find it tricky to grow crops in certain parts of the world where they did before. This means that rice for example may not grow in Asia and this may lead to big scale starvation. This could also be seen as a social implication to the Global warming. On the other hand, car industries may have planned rises in sales. There are two reasons for that. One of them is the fact that everyone now want to own a car, however that will only increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in air. Car industries are coming with new ways of overcoming the CO2 emission and are producing hydrogen powered cars. Many hybrids have been designed by many different car manufactures, however they are not widely available for public use as they are more expensive than the petrol powered cars. Prevention of Global Warming To help prevent Global Warming, the emission of Carbon Dioxide has to be lowered and emission of other greenhouse gases. One of the ways in which gas emission can be lowered is use of renewable energy sources. One of the powers that we could use is solar power or wind power, however in England there is a problem with solar powering as there is not a lot of sun and it is not reliable. Many hot countries in the developing world, for example countries of South America could use sun light as their source of energy. However when using sun light energy, back up batteries or generators are essential as sunlight is not a reliable source of energy. In the UK not many houses are solar powered as the installation of PV cells is very expensive. It is important that the developing countries lower their gases emission and start to use renewable sources of energy as the consumption is going up along with the CO2 emission. The industrialized countries are around 24% of world population and use about 75% of energy. Along with that they account for 73% of CO2emission in the combustion of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, it is projected that energy consumption will increase primarily in the developing world related to the population growth and the ongoing industrialization in the future. Another way of lowering carbon emission was introduced by the car industries which introduced hydrogen powered cars. In hydrogen combustion water is given out when hydrogen is used as a fuel. It can be seen that Global Warming is a serious issue even to the government, as the mayor of London decided to have 8 hydrogen powered buses by 2012. It sound like it is not a lot but still developing hydrogen powered engines are very expensive.

Night Shyamalan s Newest Horror Movie - 948 Words

Although the concept of a grandma scurrying around on all fours during the late hours of the night is quite unsettling, M. Night Shyamalan’s newest horror movie, The Visit, just simply is not that horrific. Be relieved! It is not quite as bad as some of his past projects including The Last Airbender (which received a mere 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and After Earth (which surprisingly reached an 11% review from critics on Rotten Tomatoes). Both were rewarded with overwhelmingly bad reviews and had a negative affect on his career. The Visit had a five-million-dollar budget and was filmed over 30 days as a result of Shyamalan attempting to be â€Å"skinny† and work with under a time and strict money budget. He said he was striving to â€Å"shoot fast and with a kind of leaner, tighter mentality† (Guerrasio). He may have accomplished his goal, but his product was no where near reaching the standard set by his best film The Sixth Sense. Choppy found footage is the tactic that is used to document siblings Becca, who has a weird issue with mirrors, and Tyler’s, who is a big fear of germs, week long stay with their grandparents whom they have never met. The cause of the separation is said to be a mysterious argument between Pop Pop and Nana and their mother before they were born. It is left unexplained until the end of the movie with the reveal, frankly, not being that exciting or monumental. However, it lingers in most conversations causing Nana to have some pretty interesting