Psychology, Theology and the Spiritual Life in Christian Counseling Essay Example for Free

Psychology, Theology and the Spiritual Life in Christian Counseling Essay 1. This paper is a book review that will deal with the above work by McMinn and the nature of Christian counseling in general. The work is a whole is designed to be easily read, and reads very quickly at the price of sophistication. Its ultimate purpose is one of integration on wto levels: first, the integration of the â€Å"broken† person back into loving relationships, chiefly with God, who is a God of healing, and second, the immensely important integration of theology with the aims of counseling. Counseling without God is a far less complex affair than Christian counseling. The secular counselor can be safely utilitarian, whatever helps heal the person might be tried or advocated. However, with Christian counseling, the idea of integration is all important. Christians have a specific view of the personality that cannot be ignored in counseling. These ideas on the human personality is based around our inherent sinfulness and â€Å"brokenness. † (McMinn, 1996, 32). This is central, all of humanity is in need of counseling of some sort, but the final end of counseling, that of union with God in and by healthy relationships with other persons, provides far more difficult challenges than the more utilitarian secularist. Furthermore, the idea of the integration of the ego out of its sinful (yet natural) drive to self-sufficiency (cf. 35-40ff) is another specifically Christian idea when coupled with the important idea of Grace, the Grace that is, by its very function, a healing balm. Hence, the counselor must also know how to â€Å"give way† to grace, grace that is not in the control of the counselor. The notion of the â€Å"abuse of power† so important to the chapter on â€Å"Sin†is precisely not realizing the fact that the Christian counselor must act as a conduit of grace and not its â€Å"dispenser. † Thus, the counselor that does not realize this gap, the gap between the counselor and the will of God for the broken victim has failed in his duty. The grace for the believer is always present, and Christian counseling must have a sense that his duty is to help the victim find it. The basic thesis of the book is sound from a theological and a psychological point of view: the modern secular mentality stresses ego satisfaction and ones â€Å"control† over ones life. But this is little more than the institutionalization of original sin: this is the problem, not the solution. This desire, natural to fallen man, to be self-sufficient is the root of all psychological problems. Hence, the work takes this fundamental insight through the various ideas that develop in the process of counseling: prayer, scripture, forgiveness, etc. Each concerns itself with bringing the patient to a fuller understanding of the nature of his alienation, both from others an from God. 2. In the section on prayer, I was struck by several things, things that I recall myself going through. I was always taken aback by the attacks on prayer by both mainline psychology and society at large: why would one pray if God is all knowing? Of course this is not an easy question, and the church fathers dealt with it in some detail. I began to see prayer as being of 2 kinds: the intercessory prayer, or the literal meaning of prayer in the sense as â€Å"to ask. † This is not a part of Christian counseling to any great degree. But the second form of prayer, that of communion and oneness, is. The prayerful meditation of the ancient monks has healing properties even apart of belief. Prayer, as McMinn points out, reduces stress, creates a bond with the counselor, and places the problems of man in a theological context (66ff). The same might be said for his section on Scripture: is not Job an excellent case study for the Christian counselor? Is not David and his sins even better? (Cf. 100) It seems to me that the development of my own prayer life since being involved with counseling has more to do with dealing rather than asking. , In other words, it seems to me that pure prayer is not about asking for things: God knows what we need. Pure prayer is about dealing with that which God has given us in our own development. Suffering is no a bad thing with a prayerful attitude: it permits us to reject the world and its comforts, and to seek our rest in God alone. Christians involved in counseling should avoid, as my experience has shown, treating prayer as a means of â€Å"getting† things. This can lead to disappointment and a belief that God is merely a great cosmic vending machine that exists to grant wishes. I recall my older view that prayer was about â€Å"getting,† instead of â€Å"dealing. † Prayer as a means of communing with God in the midst of suffering is both a very Christian idea as well as a powerful tool in counseling Christians. 3. A major issue that arises from reading this book is the difficulty of the task. The author is writing for a popular audience, and hence, can not get into the deep psychology and theology necessary to make his this work. Theology is the highest of the sciences, and this is because the understanding of Christ as Logos gives both the efficient and final cause of creation, including our minds. The Logos is the being of all things so far as they exemplify a cosmic reason, an interconnectedness that makes nature understandable and law-abiding. But our problem arises, both as Christians and as counselors, when we are forced to deal with the affects of the fall: a nature that bears God’s energy (though not her person), but is only poorly reflected in our minds that have been darkened by sin. Christianity has been worried about this healing since St Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine, who have dealt with the church and the Christian life as primarily a psychological affair, an affair of the consciousness, but a consciousness whose own drives seek to obliterate God and his presence in the interests of self centeredness. The very nature of the book in question cannot get into these issues except in trite examples. The book needs to build upon Christ as Logos before any serious psychology can be done. Putting this differently, the point is that Christ is to be found in the human mind in that it bears traces, fingerprints of the creator, but the creator as the Son, the image of the Father. The cosmic reason found in all things. This is an ontological problem, one that needs to inform all Christian psychology. Th reality is that this book is far too simple, far to â€Å"easy† and cannot gt to th heart of the matter. 4. In terms of action, I want to take from McMinn’s section on Scripture. This is likely the most valuable part of the work, and Scripture, to say the least, is only rarely considered a bok of counseling or psychology. Yet, the scriptures are saturated with psychological insight. Hence, my action here is to begin bringing scriptural sources into counseling. Even with secular patients, the Bible, even if the patient does not necessarily believe its divine origin, still contains many positive and negative examples for people to consider. The sins of David, including murder, are helpful is showing the example of repentance and the fact that a spiritual giant like David can be so flawed. I might say the same of Noah, after his drunkenness. God can forgive anything. The prophets such as Jeremiah or Amos were all persecuted for their beliefs and complete refusal to compromise. For people to be treated harshly because of their faith is something Christ explicitly mentions as the lot of the Christian: scripture is about God’s presence amidst a world that does not recognize him, whether it be the establishment of Judah or the Jewish Pharisees. The Christian Will suffer–there is no getting out of that, it is built into the process of both living and counseling. Christ Himself is such an example. Therefore, in dealing with patients, the Scriptures will be the central component in counseling for the examples they contain: examples of righteous suffering, but suffering with a purpose. Suffering with a purpose is bearable, suffering for no reason is not,. There is not a major figure in the Scriptures that is not persecuted for one reason or another by a world that does not understand te godly life. For us as counselors, nothing can be more important, useful or inspiring.

Management Accounting: Information for Decision-making

Management Accounting: Information for Decision-making Management accounting information should comply with a number of criteria including verifiability, objectivity, timeliness, comparability, reliability, understandability and relevance if it is to be useful in planning, control and decision-making. Explain the meaning of each of the criteria named above and give a specific example to illustrate each. Give a brief explanation of how the criteria detailed in (a) might be in conflict with each other, giving examples to illustrate where such conflict might arise. Question 2 : (Information for decision-making) The overriding feature of information for decision-making is that it should be relevant for the decision being taken. However, decision-making varies considerably at different levels within an organization, thus posing a particular difficulties for the management accountant. Describe the characteristics of decision-making at different levels within an organization. Explain how the management accountant must tailor the information provided for the various level. Question 1 (a) Management accounting information should comply with a various number of criteria including verifiability, objectivity, timeliness, comparability, reliability, understandability and relevance if it is to be useful in planning, control and decision-making. Below we are discussing about the criteria needed to achieve its natural reason which is for planning, control and decision- making. The first criteria of management accounting information is verifiability. It means the ability through consensus among measurers to ensure that the information represents the purposes and the right method of measurement has been used without any errors or bias. It also means that it is observable to outsiders, in the context of model of information. Verifiability refers to the ability of accountants to ensure that accounting information is what it is meant to be. The outsiders cannot see the accounting informations and the references to those variables in a contract between the two parties cannot be enforced by outside authorities. An example of verifiability is that of two accountants looking at the same information like inventory valuation and coming to similar conclusions. There are three key aspects in verifiability. The first aspect is consensus among observers. The second one is the assurance of correspondence to economic things and events. The third key aspect is direct verifi cation versus indirect verification. Besides that, objectivity is another criteria that is also another useful aspect in planning and making decisions. Most accountants these days rely on verifiable evidence. Example of verifiable evidence are invoices, delivery notes, receipts, physical counts or even financial statements. By practicing objectivity, it is now possible to compare financial statements of different firms with an assurance of reliability and also uniformity. In another words, when the management accountant is providing information to the top-level management, they should provide the accurate result without altering or changing anything so that the manager will be able to make a accurate decision without being influenced by anyone. Moreover, Timeliness is one of the important parts for management to balance the relative merits of timely reporting and the provision of reliable information. Timeliness is concerned with having information to meet needs of decision makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions. More accurate information may take a longer time to produce. Thus, to provide information on a timely basis, it may often be necessary to report before all aspects of management accounting transactions or any other event. Example, a firm may test-market a potential new product in a city. Despite a long wait for the accurate marketing report may cause a slight delay in the managements decision to launch the new product nationally and the information will be useless to the decision making process. Thus, it is one of the managerial accountants role in the decision-making process which will decide what information is relevant to each decision problem and provide accurate and timely data. Not forgett ing that its a conflicting criteria. Delaying information can significantly influence decisions and can rob information of its potential usefulness. Timeliness can have a direct impact on stock prices. Late reporting can represent bad news or a negative forecast. If the delay is great, it allows the opportunity for more information to be reported and to be supplied or maybe even speculated on by other sources. The next criteria is comparability. This criteria helps us to compare the financial statement of an entity through time in order to identify trends in its financial position and performance. At the same time, this criteria also helps to evaluate and compare the financial statements of different entities. It provides information about a particular entity that can be compared with information about other entities and with similar information about the same entity for some period or some other point of time. For an example, the management accountant should prepare the accounting information in a consistent way using historical concept for every year so that it will be much easier for the company to make comparison with the past accounting information or related entities. The heads of the company must determine if they want comparability to be driven by the type of instrument or other factors such as management intentions and industry segments. For an example, financial service, software and also manufacturing. Another criteria which is also needed is reliability. It is the quality of information that assures that information is reasonable free from any errors and are bias and faithfully represents what it purports to represent. It related to faithful representations and verifiability. An aspect in the context of reporting for financial instruments is the reliability of measurements including relevant disclosures about such reliability. For example, the staff has observed that many constituents seem to equate reliability with verifiability, not representational faithfulness. For purposes of discussion at this meeting, the staff plans to collect those sub-characteristics into three groups. The first one is, Faithful representation, including completeness and substance over form. The second one is verifiability, including precision and uncertainty. The last one is neutrality, including freedom from bias, prudence, and conservatism. The second last criteria is understandability. It relates to the users perspective and financial informations that are useful. It could be increased by reducing complexities for users through reporting information that represents the underlying economics, or by reducing the number of alternative accounting methods applicable to a subset of asset. Informations that increases the understandability are definitely very useful. Understandability is known as when the users have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and a willingness to know more the information with reasonable diligence. Information about complex matters that should be included in the financial statements because of its relevance to the economic decision making needs of users should not be excluded merely on the grounds that it may be too difficult for certain users to understand. For the example, management accountant should prepare the accounting information or summarize of the report and analysis that easily understood to the decision maker in order to let them easy to make final decision. One other noteworthy aspect of the interaction of the financial statements and Management Commentary is the understandability of the information provided in the financial reports. Understandability can be adversely impacted by placing related information in different parts of a report and not providing the user with a cross reference. If the IASB does add guidance on Management Commentary to its existing guidance on financial statement disclosures, this would provide an opportunity to better integrate related information. The last criteria is relevance. It is also very important in the planning, control and decision-making. Relevance is the capacity of informations that are needed to make a difference in a decision by helping the users to form predictions about the outcomes of the past, present and future events or even to confirm or correct prior expectations. Relevance may be represented by determining which values assigned to financial instruments allows user to make better decisions based on the information provided to them. Informations may be deemed more or less relevant based on which measurement basis is being used. Different decisions basically will require different type of data. For example, an analysis on a project should not have any information on indirect costs because it is not relevant for making decision of the project and should include any prime cost because it is relevant cost for the decision-making. Question 1 (b) Management accounting information is used to satisfy the management needs. Those informations are useful for planning, controlling and decision making. However, these criteria also face conflict amongst one another. Conflict simply refers to the incompatibility or interference of ones idea, event, or activity with another. In this case, the conflict between criteria will happen when satisfying a criterion affects another criterion being difficult to fulfill as they are in collision with each other. They are few types of conflicts involved. Below are the conflicts. Relevance vs Reliability Relevance and reliability are two important criteria which are needed while making a decision. However, often there are some conflicts occur because of these two conflicts, requiring a trade-off between various degrees of relevance and reliability. A forecast of a financial variable may possess a high degree of relevance to investors and creditors. However, a forecast necessarily contains subjectivity in the estimation of future events. Therefore, because of a low degree of reliability, generally accepted accounting principles do not require companies to provide forecasts of any financial variables. Reliability and relevance often impinge on each other. Reliability may suffer when an accounting method is changed to gain relevance and vice versa. Sometimes, it may not be clear whether there has been a loss or either on relevance or reliability. The introduction of current cost accounting will illustrate the point. Proponents of current cost accounting believe that current cost income from continuing operations is a more relevant measure of operating performance than is operating profit computed on the basis of historical cost. They also believe that if holding gains and losses that may have accrued in past periods are separately displayed, current cost income from continuing operations better portrays operating performance. The uncertainties surrounding the determination of current costs, however, are considerable, and variations among estimates of their magnitude can be expected. Because of those variations, verifiability or representational faithfulness, components of reliability, might diminish. Whether there is a net gain to users of the information obviously depends on the relative weights attached to relevance and reliability (assuming, of course, that the claims made for current cost accounting are accepted). Comparability vs Consistency Comparability is another important criteria for planning control and decision making. Comparability which enables users to identify similarities in and differences between economic phenomena should be distinguished from consistency; the consistent use of accounting methods. Concerns about comparability or consistency should not preclude reporting information that is of greater relevance or that more faithfully represents the economic phenomena it purports to represent. If such concerns arise, disclosures can help to compensate for lessened comparability or consistency. Timeliness vs verifiability Timeliness and verifiability is needed all times for decision making. Information is useful when it is timely. To be timely, the information must be available when needed to define problem or to be begin to identify possible solutions. Those criteria might conflict with verifiability. It is because when needed verifiability information, it may take time to calculate or to get it after production process is end. Verifiability is the useful information when it is accurate. Before relying on information to make decisions, it is important to ensure that the information is correct. For example, a production manager has to decide the actual amount of lychee to be used in produce of 10000 units of lychee drink. But, because of the time given is limited, he has to prepare the report to the top management by forecasting the amount of lychee that will be used. Although he has meet the criteria of timeliness, he is might not meet the criteria of verifiable. This is because, he did not use the a ctual amount of lychee that will be used. This might cause some problems to occur during the production process. The cost of lychee is lower or others factors. When the production has come to an end, he will be able to know the actual amount of lychee that was been used. So, there is a conflict between timeliness and verifiability. Timeliness vs reliability Another conflict is between timeliness and reliability. Information is said to be reliable when they incorporate all aspects of a transaction as well as other events in order to facilitate users in deciding on any issue regarding the latter. However, most of the times in providing timely reporting, those aforesaid transactions or events are never taken into account as it occurs after the report is prepared and thus impairing reliability. In interest of timeliness, the reliability of the information is sacrificed, every loss of reliability diminishes the usefulness of information and as time pass, and either the reliability of the information drops or increase accordingly. For example, the material supplier decides to supply only one of the Material A. Company Y is very interested and is capable to buy the Material A. The supplier is interested on selling the Material A to Company Y, but there is no contract signed between them. As time passes, the supplier received an offer from Comp any Zs, with a higher price and shorter time compared to Company Y. Therefore, Material A is selling to Company Z and Y loses the Material A. Company Y is reliable on material supplier to get the Material A yet the supplier needed to sell the Material A in a shorter time to get the profit. So, supplier decides to sell it to Company Z. Thus, the criterion of timeliness is conflict with criteria of reliability. Question 2(a) The process identifying problems and opportunities and resolving them is called as Decision Making. Decision making is intertwined with the other functions such as planning, coordinating and controlling. Decisions are made in order to change the companys current status to a more desirable state of affair. Managers, teams, and individual employees make company decisions, depends on the scope of the decision and the design and structure of the organization. Organizations which have decentralized structures will delegate more decisions to teams and front-line employees. Programmability, uncertainty, risk, conflict, scope, and crisis are the characteristics of decision making. Programmability is divided into two. They are programmed decisions and non-programmed decision. Programmed decision means identifying a problem and matching the problem with established routines and procedures for resolving it. Whereas, the non-programmed decision is the process of identifying and solving a problem when a situation is unique and there are no any previously established routines or procedures that can be used as guidelines. Uncertainty also has two types. They are certainty and uncertainty. Certainty is the condition when all the information is needed to make a decision. However, uncertainty is the condition when the information available to make a management decision is incomplete. Risk is the level of uncertainty as to the outcome of a management decision. Risk has positive and negative aspects too. Decision environment for risk vary depending on company size and culture. Those who work in entrepreneurial firm must be more comfortable with making risky decisions than those who work in large corporations with established procedures. Next characteristic of decision making is conflict. It is always hard to get everyone to agree about what to do. Conflict over opposing goals, utilization of scarce resources, and other priorities are often characterized in decision making. Decision scope is the effect and time horizon of the decision. The effect of a decision includes who is involved in making the decision and who is affected by it. The time horizon of a decision may range from a single day to five years or more. There are three different level of management. They are the top-level management, middle level management and the lower management. The top-level management takes the strategic decisions. The middle level management takes tactical decision. And the lower level management takes the operational decision. The top level management who makes the Strategic decisions encompasses a long term perspective of two to five years and affect the entire organization. Top level managers, or strategic manager are also called senior management and executives. They are those individuals who are at the top one or two levels in an organization. Examples of top level management are The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operational Officer (COO), Chief Informational Officer (CIO), President, Vice President, Chairman and Board of Directors. They have the long-term vision for the company. They are not involved in day-to-day tasks need to possess conceptual skill so as to set the goals for the organization as a whole. For example, Jerry Yang, the former chief executive of YAHOO, was criticized when a $44.6 billion acquisition bid from Microsoft failed under his watch. They frame the organizational policy. They are also responsible for mobilization of resources. They generall y make large budgetary decisions for the company and are responsible to the shareholders and the general public. The success or failure of the organization rests on the shoulders of the top level management. Middle level managers are those in the levels below the top managers. Middle level management makes Tactical decisions which have a short-term perspective of one year or less and focus on subunits of the organization, such as departments or project teams. Tactical decision is the mixture of strategic decision and operational decision. Example of middle management is General Manager (GM), Plant Manager, Regional manager and Divisional manager. Middle level managers are responsible for carrying out the goals set out by top management with setting goals for their departments and other business units. Tactical decisions, the medium term decisions about how to implement strategy, are delegated to middle managers. Middle management decisions might include marketing a new product, communicating with and managing lower management and determining what issues need to be addressed with top level managers. Each individual middle management department develops a strategy to meet its inner departm ental goals. Lower level management makes Operational decisions which cover the shortest time perspective, generally less than a year. Operational decisions, short term decision or also called administrative decisions about how to implement the tactics affect daily tasks and generally handled by lower level managers. They are often made on a daily or weekly basis and focus on the routine activities of the firm such as production, customer service, and handling parts and supplies. Office managers, shift supervisor, department manager, foreperson, crew leader and store manager, are responsible for the daily management of line workers. For example, supervisor may decide to reward the most productive employee with an employee of the month award, or offer incentives such as gift certificates. The last characteristic of decision making is Crisis. Decision making during crisis is more challenging and difficult than under ordinary conditions. Making a decision in a crisis situation can make or break the career of a manager.   Question 2(b) A management accountants duty is to provide information to users who are part of the organization from various levels. However, different level of management has different information needs. Thus, a management accountant has to tailor the information for them. The first step that should be taken before the management accountant provides any type of information is that he should be clear and understand the company vision as the top, middle and bottom management of an organization. The top-level management is responsible for the long term strategis plan with strategic decisions for about 5 to 10 years time. Therefore the top management will create a mission, which will consist of a more specific goal that unifies companys efforts. So, the management accountant should prepare budgets for top management accountant to decide which projects have to undertaken to achieve the companys goals. Budget is a strategic plan that details the action that must be taken during the following year. It also pinpoint the responsibility of achieving the budgets to respective managers inline the company policies. For example, management accountant prepare the imposed budgets to top management before imposed to middle management to achieve targets. In the top-leve l management, a management accountant should be responsible for all or a part of a companys financial status, actions and transactions. The management accountant should also maintain budgets, perform financial analysis, build business strategies and also manage their relationships with investors and auditors. In middle management, they are responsible for developing and carrying the tactical plans to accomplish the organizations mission. Tactical plans specify how company will use resource, budgets and people to achieve company goals within its mission. In this level, management accountant will use various methods to decide the profit with minimum production costs. Profit volume analysis is one of the methods to calculate changes in cost and sales in determine the profit. Management accountant will calculate breakeven point where the level of sales of company needs to achieve at zero profit. After that, management accountant also prepared the report on scare resources which the supply of resources is limited by define the limit factor. Then, management accountant will produce the product that give higher contribution per limiting factor and take considerations of qualitative factors before final decisions is made. Final decisions is means whether to make or to buy the decision. It is situ ation where an organization is given a choice to produce by own resources or pay other organization to make the product. After management accountant prepare the information in form of cost volume profit, limiting factors analysis and decisions about activities either to buy or to make, middle management have to decide, carrying the tactical plans and delegating the responsibility of jobs to the operational management. In a summary, the types of information that a management accountant should tailor to middle-level management is like preparing financial statements, assess internal controls, supervise accounting staffs, complete and review tax returns and also help to manage the general ledger. Lower lever management is responsible to carry the operational plans where it is related to day to day plans in producing products or services. For example, management accountant will determine the economic order quantity for lower management to know the amount of inventory they should reorder order to minimize ordering cost and holding costs. Therefore, lower level management will order the maximum order. In the lower level, the types of informations a management accountant should tailor are receivables and payrolls, financial statement and compliance audit, help in the budget department and also prepare reports for the controllers department. Question 2(c) An example of a typical management decision is Strategic Decision. Strategic Decision would normally be taken at first level which is top management. A top management approach is one where an executive, decision maker, or other person or body makes a decision. This approach is disseminated under their authority to lower levels in the hierarchy, who are, to a greater or lesser extent, bound by them. For example, a structure in which decisions either are approved by a manager, or approved by his or her authorized representatives based on the managers prior guidelines, is top to bottom management. Top management translates the policy (formulated by the board-of-directors) into goals, objectives, and strategies, and projects a shared-vision of the future. It makes decisions that affect everyone in the organization, and is held entirely responsible for the success or failure of the enterprise Strategic decisions are broad based, qualitative type of decisions which include or reflect goals and objectives. Strategic decisions are non quantitative in nature. Strategic decisions are based on the subjective thinking of management concerning goals and objectives. Besides that, there are impact of mergers and acquisitions on top level management. Impact of mergers and acquisitions on top level management may actually involve a clash of the egos. There might be variations in the cultures of the two organizations. Under the new set up the manager may be asked to implement such policies or strategies, which may not be quite approved by him. When such a situation arises, the main focus of the organization gets diverted and executives become busy either settling matters among themselves or moving on. However, the decision maker must be well equipped with a degree or must have sufficient qualification to solve the problems that arises. Knowledge of management accounting is needed by the decision-maker to come out with relevant information. A part of that, there might be an impact on tax because of this decision made. The information provided not only for the inside people but also for the external people such as shareholders or supplier. On the other hand, top management will practises non-routine concept for all the activities held. Non-routine is known as nonrecurring decision such as the following to accept or reject a special order; to make or buy a certain part, to sell or process further, or to keep or drop a certain product line or division. In these types of decisions, the decision maker must have knowledge of relevant costs and contribution margin.

Religious Themes in Oryx and Crake Essay -- World Literature Religion

Religious Themes in Oryx and Crake It is in these representations of Snowman that I believe Atwood is making a definitive statement as to whether God created man or whether man creates God. Undoubtedly Atwood is suggesting that man inevitably, despite of himself, creates God, with or without outside assistance. It seems that throughout the novel there is an extended metaphor of Snowman as various figures from the Christian bible. The first figure that Snowman can be said to represent is that of Adam, the first man, though the similarities between the two characters do not follow the same chronology. Just as Adam is given the animals as companions to look over, similarly Crake has ensured that the Crakers and Jimmy are both left in the newly re-created world as companions. Another strong resemblance and play on words can be observed in the Christian story of original sin and Crake's mass destruction of humanity. In Genesis, God sets aside one fruit tree and commands Adam not to touch or eat from it, as a result of Adam's betrayal, God casts him out of paradise, and forces hardship on him for the rest of his days. Likewise, Jimmy is fully cognizant the first time he meets Oryx that she is off limits to him, yet his betrayal of Crake ultimately results in his leaving Paradice and forces various hardships on him. Lastly, in the Snowman-as-Adam device, there is a realization that the companions which have been assigned by a higher power are insufficient, and the following desperate need for companions that are closer on the evolutionary chain. For Adam, this companion was Eve. Throughout Atwood's novel Snowman is absolutely desperate for some companion, someone more understanding than the Crakers, or better than his ow... ...t this leads to a rather interesting debate: whether or not the Crakers would have eventually created religion or at the very least art themselves, regardless of Snowman`s interference. I believe that Atwood is commenting on the fact that it is man's nature to be existential, to wonder where he came from, and who created creation, and that it is natural to invent possible answers to these questions when none are evident. For example, as Snowman returns after his foray back into the Compound he finds that the Crakers have created an idol of him and are chanting his name in a way which sounds like `Amen', "next they'd be inventing idols, and funerals, and grave goods, and the afterlife, and sin..."(361). Either way you look at Snowman, as a religious patriarch or a representation of the biblical serpent, he is still corrupting the Crakers with his false dogma.

The Global Epidemic of Cesarean Surgery and the Feminist Movement :: Essays Papers

The Global Epidemic of Cesarean Surgery and the Feminist Movement Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland writes in a 2002 paper she presented to the XVIII European Congress of Perinatal Medicine, â€Å"There is an ongoing â€Å"epidemic† of cesarean sections in Asia and Latin America. This worldwide fad of obstetrical interventions may have a serious negative health impact on women. In contrast, the low rates observed in Africa reflect a lack of resources more than a consensus of providers. The commercial and litigation pressures that drive this ‘epidemic’ need to be countered.† Her medical metaphor notwithstanding, this is a serious wake-up call for women to be asking the question, â€Å"What is going on that this phenomenon of major surgery on women is happening on such a wide scale?† We are here faced with the polar opposite extremes in birthing. Seemingly, if a woman has too little prenatal care and education regarding birthing (as in Africa) she may not have the access to a Cesarean when she truly needs it; and at the other end of the spectrum if a woman has enveloped herself in a system that relies too heavily on birthing technologies she may end up with an unnecessary Cesarean surgery. Other paradigms exist for birthing such as in Holland where every woman is provided with a midwife for her birth, and Brazil where the C-section rate tops 80 percent. Yet another microcosmic pocket of birth in the U.S. shows us that C-section rates can be achieved at below 2%. Such are the ranges of Cesarean birthing experiences and corresponding women’s movements that will be explored alongside the politics of birth in this Birthquake research project. Literary Review In doing this project the literature drawn from is largely non-scholarly for the reason that I am prevailing upon the reader to think outside the box about birth. Most of the â€Å"scholarly† research that is available was written by doctors or nurses/nurse midwives who were trained in the medical model of birth. Since part of my premise is that the high rate of Cesarean sections is caused in part by viewing birth as a medical and therefore pathological event, and in part for its emergence as a capitalistic industry, it was then necessary to find literature written by people who have expertise in birthing though not from the traditional obstetrical/medical school approach.

Roman Extrapolation :: essays research papers

Extrapolation of the World had the Roman Empire succeeded Everyone has wanted, at one time or another, to go back and change history. Have you really thought about what would happen should you do that? Things would be different, you wouldn’t be who you are, and the world would potentially change.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the course of history, mankind has been judged on its actions and advancements. From the beginning of written history, we have strove to better ourselves in all aspects. Certain peoples stand out in our texts as the people that lead to these strides. Arguably, none greater then the Romans. Through the process of extrapolation, I will show you how the world’s governments, medical care, and culture would change had the Roman Empire not fell.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rome was considered by many to be the height of civilization. Their advancements in every field were leaps and bounds ahead of what scholars today thought they were capable of. Their amazing advancements in technology undoubtedly lead them into this position. The Roman’s however should not, and cannot be held responsibly for their rise to power.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rome started off like any other, as a small city-state with dreams of advancement. Unlike the other cities in the region, Rome was bloodthirsty. The Romans love for blood started early. While other cities were concentrated on scientific and agricultural advancement, Rome was preparing for war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Around the year 740 Rome started advancing its forces. They easily conquered their close neighbors. Knowing that expansion depended on people Rome decided instead of enslaving its conquests, it would absorb them. Rome continued this policy throughout its career. â€Å"Rome’s policy of taking in conquered outsiders produced tremendous expansion (Hunt et al 138).†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This absorption of different peoples is how Rome achieved all its great discoveries. Some of which were said to have happened before Rome was founded. The common technological advancement credited to the Romans is roads. The ability to move an army quickly over land, it was thought roads were used to move troops quickly across the growing republic. In 509 B.C. Rome overthrew its last king and created the worlds first republic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Said to be their greatest achievement, the Roman republic is what many of today’s governments are based upon. Using Hammurabi as an example the Romans established a stable system of laws that its people were expected to follow. The â€Å"Laws of the Twelve Tables† was published in 449 B.

In view of what we know of Beatrice and Benedick from Act I and Act II, Scene I, how realistic is Don Pedro’s aim to bring them together?

Beatrice and Benedick are the two major characters in ‘Much Ado About Nothing' that provide comic relief. Their ‘merry wars' of words and phrases as described by Leonato, are frequently throughout the play examples of Shakespeare's magnificent ability to bring about amusement in his plays. In Act I and Act II scene I, Beatrice and Benedick are reunited after Benedick and the other soldiers return from war. Beatrice almost instantly jumps into a frenzy of lyrically punishing Benedick, who after a war of men begins a war of words. From the beginning of the play even before Beatrice and Benedick begin their battle of wit, it is evident to the audience that she has some kind of strong feelings for him, whether they are feelings of hate or of lust or of something in between or that they. Thought their insults are biting, their ability to maintain such clever, interconnected sparring seems to illustrate the existence of a strong bond between them. This is shown when the messenger arrives to bring the news that the war is won and the heroes are soon to return. The conversation focuses on Count Claudio and his bravery, ‘the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion,' however Beatrice almost instantly changes the subject by asking the messenger if ‘Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?' Although this is an insult, it is evident that Beatrice could not wait to find out how Benedick was. The audience are instantly given the impression that she disguises her feelings for him. She continues talking about Benedick with the messenger and Leonato, who states that ‘There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her; they never meet, but there's a skirmish of wit between them'. Beatrice argues back that ‘in our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.He hath every month a new sworn brother†¦.he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat,' meaning that he has no true friends and he changes his faith as often as he changes his hat. To add to this, the other soldiers who return from battle, who bear prominence in the play are Don Pedro and Claudio. Claudio is instantly paired up with Hero, although this does not officially happen until the party later that night, on stage and in films they stare at each other as if love struck. The same goes to Beatrice and Benedick at the reunion, except they do not stare at each other as if love struck but moreover as if they cannot wait to resume their ‘merry war'. This feeling becomes quite obvious when Beatrice speaks almost instantly after Benedick enters the conversation, it is as if he cannot be part of something without her being part of it as well, even if she is bullying him. Shortly after everyone leaves the stage apart from Benedick and Claudio. Claudio expresses how Hero has caught his eye and Benedick dismisses her as ‘too short'. From this conversation we learn that Benedick thinks he will never fall in love and does not believe in marriage. ‘I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor', in turn this casts a shadow of doubt over any forecasts that members of the audience could have made about Beatrice and Benedick being paired up. However, from the beginning it is obvious that Benedick is an entertaining character and unlike his counterparts Don Pedro and Claudio, what he says is not taken especially seriously. Furthermore, at the beginning of Act II Scene I Beatrice also reveals herself as anti-marriage, ‘Just if he send me no husband; for which I am upon my knees every morning and evening.' She adds to this statement by stating that she imagines married people go to hell and single people do not, however in addition to this she says, ‘he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long,' this suggests that she hopes to have some kind of fun with bachelors in the future which brings us back to Benedick's belief that he will always remain a bachelor. From the end of Act I and the beginning of Act II Scene I we have learnt that both Beatrice and Benedick possess anti-marriage views, but given that they are both histrionic and insecure characters, nothing can be taken for granted. It is noticeable that Beatrice talks about Benedick a lot and often in conversations about subjects that bear no relation to him, she finds a way of interpreting the conversation to make him the fundament – usually criticising him of course. For example at the very beginning of Act II when Leonato and Antonio are having a conversation about Don John's absence at supper, she compares him with Benedick abruptly. This furthers the readers/ members of audience beliefs that she has an interest in Ben. Beatrice and Benedick are perhaps Shakespeare's most famously witty characters, neither ever lets the other say something without countering it with a pun or criticism. One notable characteristic of their attacks upon each other is their ability to extend a metaphor throughout lines of dialogue. When Benedick calls Beatrice a ‘rare parrot-teacher,' Beatrice responds, ‘a bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours'. Benedick continues the reference to animals in his response saying, ‘I would my horse had the speed of your tongue'. It is as if each anticipates the other's response. It is suggested in Act I Scene I that Beatrice and Benedick have previously been lovers, but Benedick led Beatrice on, perhaps this is where her viciousness towards him stems from. This is suggested in this quotation: ‘Benedick set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight, and my uncles fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid,' she describes a battle of love between herself and Benedick which she has lost. At the masked ball later that night Beatrice dances with Benedick, the audience is unsure whether she simply does not recognise him due to his mask, or pretends not to recognise him. Nonetheless, she cleverly insults him, leaving him a nervous wreck as he cannot reveal himself to be Benedick. ‘Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising slanders†¦..and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy.' She is mocking him and saying that his jokes are boring and nobody finds them amusing. I believe that Don Pedro's aim to bring together Beatrice and Benedick is reasonably realistic. There are many times in Act I and Act II Scene I that the thought of the two of them marrying seems almost impossible. For example when Benedick swears he will ‘live a bachelor', and when Beatrice is on her knees every morning and evening thanking God that she does not have a husband. However, Beatrice and Benedick are both very melodramatic and provide most of the comedy in the play, this gives the reader the view that what they swear cannot be taken as seriously as for example Claudio. From the beginning of the play, it is obvious that there is a strong bond between them. It appears that the ‘skirmish of wit' between them is a cover up for what is a strong bond underneath all the exchanging of criticisms. In act I, Beatrice shows that she thinks about Benedick a lot, by asking the messenger if he has returned from war and by talking almost every time he says something. This also shows in the first scene of Act II when she brings him into the conversation at the masked ball out of the blue. In the end, Don Pedro's plan was a success.

Enlightenment philosopher Essay

John Locke (1632-1704) was an Enlightenment philosopher. Some authors define him as â€Å"the philosopher of freedom† and â€Å"the father of English empiricism and liberalism†. His ideas and concepts about social structure, social consent and human natural rights determined development of political philosophy and republican democracy. John Locke was an Oxford scholar. His teachers were famous British scientists including chemist Robert Boyle who probably taught him about atomism. John Locke was medical researcher and physician, philosopher and pedagogue, economist and ideologue for a revolutionary movement. His career was associated with name of the First Earl of Shaftesbury who was a Lord-Chancellor of England. When Locke emigrated to the continental Europe he studied Cartesian philosophy in France and become acquainted with William of Orange who later became English King. Locke came back to England only in 1689 and took up many official posts but devote much more time to his scientific studies. Contemporaries knew Locke as an economic writer and opposition political activist. Locke was an ideologue of constitutional monarchy and division of powers. He was an opponent of theories of divine origin of the royal power. He was a friend of Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle and an early member of the Royal Society. The principles of Locke’s philosophy were the ideological basement for Great French and American Revolution. John Locke together with Francis Bacons was a founder of empiricism theory. He assumed that human mind at the birth is like â€Å"blanc paper† and only experiences through trials and errors form ideas and knowledge. This theory was described in Locke’s â€Å"Essay Concerning Human Understanding† and had impact on the development of behaviorism. Lock started to write his main work â€Å"Essay Concerning Human Understanding† in 1671, but published it only in 1690. Why he wrote it? Essay present the fundamental principles of his philosophy, it’s the culmination of his reflection on the origins of human knowledge. Essay contains of four books: â€Å"Of innate notions†, â€Å"Of ideas†, â€Å"Of words† and â€Å"Of knowledge and probability†. This philosophic treatise is written in archaic style but it still easy to read because of the use of dialogue form and clear argumentation. Locke devoted much of the Essay to an extended argument that human ideas and understanding are ultimately derived from experience. Before scientists suggested that some ideas could be innate. Actually, Locke proposed new theory of knowledge. Essay is an answer to the question: â€Å"Where do we get ideas which are the content of our knowledge? † The first chapter of the first book is named as â€Å"No innate speculative Principles†. It consists of twenty eights paragraphs. The name of chapter reflects its content. The chapter is opened with discussion â€Å"how men, barely by the use of their natural facilities, may attain to all the knowledge they have without the help of any innate impressions†. Locke wrote about the importance of speculative and practical principles and gave examples of them to show that â€Å"universal content proves nothing innate†. He used humor to show that nothing on the mind is naturally imprinted when speak about children understanding. To show impossibility of innate concepts and sensations he used dialectic that helped reader to understand that only experience could generate ideas. Just some examples of his logic. In the paragraphs 6-12 he explained that if all people have innate ideas but later they will come to know things upon the use of own reason then innateness is loosing its sense. He wrote about peculiarities of child’s mind: â€Å"after they come to the use of reason, those general abstract ideas are not framed in the mind, about which those general maxims are, which are mistaken for innate principles, but are indeed discoveries made, and verities introduced, and brought into the mind by the same way, and discovered by the same steps, as several other propositions, which nobody has ever so extravagant as to suppose innate†¦ † In 15th section of the chapter author outlines his theory of knowledge origin. He showed the sketch of new theory and how it could be applied to the particular and general ideas, to the memory, names, abstraction and language. He noted that universal concepts came from self-evidence, not innateness (Ch. 1, 18) and that less general ideas (he called them â€Å"propositions†) are known â€Å"before. universal maxims. He insists that theory of innate ideas is fruitless because innateness cannot be applied to mathematics and other complicated fields of human knowledge. In 24-27th sections he wrote that ideas cannot be innate because they are not â€Å"universally assented to†. In the last paragraph of the chapter Locke wrote: â€Å"Upon the whole matter, I cannot see any ground to think †¦ speculative Maxims innate: since they are not universally assented to; and the assent they so generally find is no other than what several propositions, not allowed to be innate, equally partake in with them: and since the assent that is given them is produced another way, and comes not from natural inscription, as I doubt not but to make appear in the following Discourse. And if these â€Å"first principles† of knowledge and science are found not to be innate, no other speculative maxims can (I suppose), with better right pretend to be so. † Locke is a propagator of ideas that abstract speculative principle cannot be innate. He attacked the theory that human mind is born knowing certain things. It was revolutionary for the late XVII century and John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding have had great impact on the history of philosophy and society. His studies of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity and his polemics with adherents of stagnant views on the nature of knowledge stimulated development not only of epistemology but all fields of science. Locke’s ideas played at least some part in the formation of revolutionary thought in France and American colonies. Of course, not only â€Å"Essay Concerning Human Understanding† influenced on social history of those and many other countries but this trait liberated mind of other researchers. References 1. Essay Concerning Human Understanding 2. Johne Lock Wikipedia on-line 3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy