Definition Essay – Defining God The concept of God can be a difficult one to grasp especially in today's world - a world in which anyone that believes in God is trying to define exactly what God is. To even attempt to grasp such a concept, one must first recognize his own beliefs in respect to the following questions: Is God our creator? Is God omnipotent (all-powerful) or omniscient (all-knowing) or both? Does God care? Is God with us? Does God interfere with life on earth? These questions should be asked and carefully answered if one should truly wish to identify his specific beliefs in God's existence and persistence. One common perception of God is that God is not so much a being, but according to seventeenth century philosopher Benedict Spinoza, that "God is everything, identical to the universe itself." That is to say that God is a part of all humans, all animals, all objects, and all matter in the universe. This particular view is called pantheism, which is literally defined to mean that there is no God, but only the combined forces and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. According to Spinoza, we are each and all an integral part of God, not as individuals or even humanity as a whole but as an integral part of what Spinoza called the "One Substance." He also believed that we are each and all components of some greater being, a being so unimaginably large that we are each nothing more than tiny parcels of matter in that being's blood. Another fairly common perception of God is of relation God's necessity to physics, referred to as Deism and heavily supported by the French philosopher Voltaire. This view is of a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
There are probably as many definitions of religion as there are religions themselves. Behind the definitions lie differing intentions and originate from various sources. Everyone from scholars, to religious leaders, to scientists has weighed in his or her opinion. Even an entire field of academic study arose to help define religion. This academic study of religion has proven useful in facilitating a better definition of religion, as it has identified six key aspects to create a decent definition of religion (Shulman, Definitions of Religion Quiz). The six points are not being bias, not being too narrow, not being too broad, being substantive, being functional, and being comprehensive. Three definitions of religion—one acceptable, one lacking, and this author’s own—go through a compare-and-contrast analysis using these six points as the basis of critique in order to illustrate what makes a definition of religion either acceptable or lacking.
The Question of God is divided into two parts. The first part, titled: “What Should We Believe” seeks to answer the first half of the questio...
They have been called "gods." These almighty, powerful beings that are far too superior for us to understand; or so most of us have been made to believe. Some may say he is a Great Examiner, others could say he is the Creator. Some could even say he doesn't exist. Frankly, what I want to emphasize is how such beliefs could reduce even the bravest and strongest of us all to a whimpering child. Something that we ar...
Laird, Pamela, “Consuming Smoke: Cigarettes in American Culture.” University of Colorado at Denver. Author of Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing. 1998
The intended target audience has varied a lot the past century. Cigarette use within the United States military increased significantly during their entrance into World War l, in 1918, because several tobacco companies began targeting military personnel because soldiers used cigarettes as a physiological escape from the horrors of their daily lives. However, women were also especially targeted during the years of war in America, as most consumer goods were aimed at women since the majority of men were at war. To begin with, women were portrayed in cigarette ads as non-smoking admirers of smoking men, however, by 1927 cigarette adverts with women smokers began to appear in women’s magazines. In the years that came, brands such as Marlboro, continued to attract the female audience into buying cigarettes by using slogans like ‘’Mild as May’’ and altering the product by printing red filters to hide lipstick stains, which they called ‘’Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips’’ and attracted a lot of women, despite the fact that woman smokers were not socially accepted yet. The Marlboro cigarette brand, which was essentially launched as a woman’s cigarette, continually launched advertisement campaigns in order to keep attracting them to their products. Cigarette companies persuaded their audience through beauty themes, by implying they would look great as a result of weight-loss by choosing to smoke cigarettes instead of eating and by using toddlers in adverts to attract attention in the female region through motherhood. An example of this is Appendix 2, from a collection of cigarette advertisements from the time (1951), shows a baby saying, ‘’Before you scold me, Mom… maybe you’d better light up a Marlboro,‘’ this makes w...
Thank you for smoking, it’s what big companies like Marlboro and Camel want to let us know, and keep smoking. Tobacco has been around for thousand of years, but today’s cigarettes contain many harmful and poisonous toxins. Yet, its simple: Tobacco smoking kills, reduces economic productivity, and strengthens poverty. But lets be frank, everyone’s aware of these issues already, everyone’s out to get cigarette companies; however, there’s a bigger problem. What happens when cigarette companies target today’s children?
Cigarettes to non smokers are commonly thought of, as rubbish. They give off an offensive smell, they stain teeth, fingers, smoke lingers in clothes, hair, cars and homes. Unless a person is already hooked to nicotine, there is almost no reason for them to choose to pick up smoking. The only reason anyone would take up smoking in this millenium, against the constant bombardment of anti-smoking advertisements, is a false sense of self propulsion to a higher popularity. Anti smoking ads have gotten more and more creative, and grotesque in the past several years. A campaign being lead by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) attempts to show the ugly side of smoking through any means necesarry. be that commercial that feature young adults pulling
These ideas can be found in Christianity as well. In the Christian faith, it is believed that there is a perfect being that is eternal, unchanging, has absolute truth, and creates all that is seen in the universe, this being is one they call God.
This God is the sole origin of reality, creating what is good, and a world of order
God, a simple 3 letter word. For some of us, we immediately put a face or a name to this simple word. However, for others, much like myself, I place no weight upon the word. There is no meaning in my eyes. As an atheist, I do not believe in a higher being. In order to properly asses this, you must first question: What is god? Where did the concept come from? Philosophers have been in a very heated argument over religion for centuries now, and to today, there still has not been a conclusion. Philosopher David Hume is said to have been undecided as either an atheist or an agnostic. However, another philosopher, Saint Thomas Aquinas, is on a completely different platform. He believed that God is real, and that humans MUST believe in him. For this, I’ll let you be the judge, as the facts speak for themselves.
Women – beautiful, strong matriarchal forces that drive and define a portion of the society in which we live – are poised and confident individuals who embody the essence of determination, ambition, beauty, and character. Incomprehensible and extraordinary, women are persons who possess an immense amount of depth, culture, and sophistication. Society’s incapability of understanding the frame of mind and diversity that exists within the female population has created a need to condemn the method in which women think and feel, therefore causing the rise of “male-over-female” domination – sexism. Sexism is society’s most common form of discrimination; the need to have gender based separation reveals our culture’s reluctance to embrace new ideas, people, and concepts. This is common in various aspects of human life – jobs, households, sports, and the most widespread – the media. In the media, sexism is revealed through the various submissive, sometimes foolish, and powerless roles played by female models; because of these roles women have become overlooked, ignored, disregarded – easy to look at, but so hard to see.
debates in the present day. Since God is a notion about an entity that was never seen or heard from by anyone, it has been a strenuous struggle to substantiate his existence. Yet, great philosophers have always found a way to validate the idea of God through their own way of reasoning. The philosophical discussions about God’s existence began with pre-modern philosophers such as Plato, Saint Augustine, and it was further examined by modern philosophers such as Descartes etc. In this essay I will present St. Augustine and Descartes’ arguments for the existence of God and offer my criticism based upon my own set of reasoning.
The existence of God is a very fundamental topic on which many philosophers have argued and till date there is no physical proof of His existence. At some point or the other of our life, we all ask the question, does God exist? The answer to this changes our way of living, our thinking and how we understand or interpret the world. If one answers a yes then they live for a purpose and hope for eternity, while others create their purpose on planet earth and understand death as their final end.
People all over the world have different religions that believe in there is an almighty being. This means that they believe and worship the almighty being. However, there are people who have questioned whether such a being exists. The question has raised several arguments from different philosophers. Each of them came up with their different views about the controversy surrounding the question. God’s ‘existence’ is one of the widely discussed topics over the years. The question came to place due to some occurrences in society. Similarly, different scientific innovations have contributed to the continued debate on the question. God is believed to be ‘all-powerful’ because there is nothing that he cannot do. This means that he is able to perform anything that is beyond human capability. Such beliefs have raised several questions because they are not in line with science or logic in different ways. God’s existence contradicts with humanity, logic, and science.