In "The Star" by Arthur C. Clark, a Jesuit astrophysicist is forced to question his faith. The findings are troubling, an entire civilization is destroyed by a supernova; the implosion of their sun. The calculations that he makes proves that explosion could have been seen from earth at the same time the Star of Bethlehem announced the birth of Jesus Christ. His crew looks at the situation with a more logical justification. They believe that the events in the universe happen with no plan or purpose. It doesn't matter if the civilizations that have been destroyed have done good or bad, those events are inevitable.
The Jesuit's faith still remains after much pondering. He justifies his God's actions with the fact that God himself does not have to justify His actions. God made the universe; therefore He can destroy it how and when He wishes. The Jesuit admired this human-like civilization. He asks his God why they were destroyed; the Jesuit believes that they could have learned much from them. They had written language that, he says, could be easily translated. The discovery of a pylon structure shows that they had a belief in a higher power, that they had some type of religion.
His crew's reaction is a little different from the Jesuit's. Millions of stars are destroyed every day. They believe that many civilizations have been destroyed, but there is no rhyme or reason for it. It really doesn't matter in the end whether they have done good or evil. There is no divine justice, and there is no God. They accept the Jesuit's faith, but they are also amused by it. They wonder how he can believe in a higher power and in the workings of the universe. He replies that even though there are few Jesuit astrophysicists, since the eighteenth century they have made many contributions to astronomy.
The destruction of this civilization happened at the same time the star of Bethlehem signified the birth of Jesus. The calculations that the Jesuit has come to are profound.
What could make a person transform from a family-man-school-teacher to a weapon-wielding-meth-cook? The first season of the television series, Breaking Bad, shows Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher, beginning to adopt traits and perform actions that would be described by Mike Alsford as those of a super villain. Unlike many characters discussed in Alsford’s book, Heroes and Villains, Walter White seems to lack a definite arc of good slowly giving way to evil in his development. Precisely stated in an article by Sean T. Collins for Rolling Stone, "Walter White doesn't have a character arc. He has a character slope." The villain inside takes over quickly once awoken out of necessity, as if it had always been a part of him, resting in a state of hibernation until Walt’s life is drastically altered by the devastating news of his impending death from cancer.
They viewed the garden of eden as a myth, but still idealized the Romans and Greeks as perfect beings and the onset of the “dark ages” as a sort of fall from grace
I enjoyed reading Freeman's book and I think that I would use a similar method if I were to write a book about Alexander. He wrote the book as a story describing what the figures may have been thinking and feeling giving the reader a look into the mind of a Macedonian far from home on campaign in asia. Describing battle scenes he make the reader feel the battle describing pain, fear, anger, and more. Rather than a dry and clinical text book approach to the history of Alexander he gives a more visceral approach similar to a fantasy novel. He also avoids using esoteric and foreign language making the book easy, as well as enjoyable, to read while still accurately conveying the facts and possibilities of Alexander's campaign across Asia.
The book Ordinary Men discuss the story behind the men who were involved in the killing force of the final solution. Throughout the book one finds out that the men who were involved with these groups were no different than any other person at the time but they just got stuck in a bad situation. The Reserve Police Battalion 101 was responsible for a large amount of the mass murders that were taking place during the holocaust. The basis behind these mass murders was to fulfill the plan of the final solution. The final solution was the plan to completely wipe out anyone who was not a member of the Aryan race. The goal was to have country of all German Aryans. Although Hitler and associates were never able to completely carryout the final solution they did succeed in the murdering of millions of innocent people.
Hello and welcome to the first episode of a history of the Roman World in 200 objects here at the Royal Ontario Museum. I your host today, Rahman Salehi, will take you on a journey 2000 years back in time, in which the Roman Empire was one of the greatest powers of the Ancient world. The Roman Empire was a very heterogeneous society with various ethnic groups such as the Latin’s, Etruscans, Greeks, Phoenicians, Italians, Carthaginians and so forth. However, they all had one thing in common. That is, religion played a very important role in the daily lives of individuals of Rome. Romans believed that gods controlled their lives and, hence, spent a great deal amount of time worshiping deities.
Character list Annemarie is one of the main characters in this book. She is a 10 year old German girl who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with her mom, dad, and young sister Kirsti. Annemarie tells the story from her point of view. “It was only in the fairy tales that people were called upon to be so brave, to die for one another. Not in real-life Denmark” Annemarie struggles to find the definition of courage, but with the big journey that awaits uphead she soon finds out.
The Roman Empire was unparalleled in the ancient world. With strong a military, technological development, and widespread infrastructure, Rome easily became the undisputed superpower of the Mediterranean. Lurking underneath this greatness was a deadly secret that caused the eventual collapse of the empire. The secret that eroded Rome, as outlined by Francis Schaffer in How Should We Then Live?, was the civilization’s understanding of God.
In papal Rome in the early 16th century the “Good Book” was the reference book for all scientists. If a theory was supported in its holy pages, or at the very least not contradicted, then the idea had a chance of find acceptance outside the laboratory. Likewise, no theory no matter how well documented could be viewed with anything but disdain if it contradicted with the written word of, or the Church’s official interpretation of scripture. For these reasons the Church suppressed helio-centric thinking to the point of making it a hiss and a byword. However, this did not keep brave men from exploring scientific reason outside the canonical doctrine of the papal throne, sometimes at the risk of losing their own lives. While the Vatican was able to control the universities and even most of the professors, it could not control the mind of one man known to the modern world as Galileo Galilei. Despite a wide array of enemies, Galileo embarked on a quest, it seems almost from the beginning of his academic career, to defend the Copernican idea of a helio-centric universe by challenging the authority of the church in matters of science. Galileo‘s willingness to stand up for what he held to be right in the face of opposition from Bible-driven science advocates set him apart as one of the key players in the movement to separate Church authority from scientific discovery, and consequently paved the way for future scientific achievement.
The painting Light of Hope is a realistic painting of a light house on the coast of an American shore done by contemporary artist Thomas Kinkade. Thomas Kinkade started his career with his first lithograph, and after some time he realized he was inspired to paint not for the money but from his heart. His main goal became glorifying God and spreading His light. Kinkade grew up in Placerville, California and growing up to be a big family man. Often in his paintings he leaves little symbols representing his wife and children. Over the years he has donated his earned money to different charities and is al crediting God for his ability to paint. His purpose as a painter has been and will continue to share of the light of God (Thomaskinkade).
Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991.
The book that I have read chose to review is Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. James ramsey Ullman was born in New York City in 1907. His highest-honored book was Banner in the Sky, but four of his books, including this one, were made into major motion pictures.
The nineteenth century was a time of economic, technologic, and population growth. These changes created problems in everyone’s daily lives. Two examples of things that affected the lives of many were disease and sanitation. Disease and sanitation led to high mortality rates in Nineteenth- Century England. This relates to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as it takes place during nineteenth century England and multiple characters died presumably due to disease.
The role played by the Church was directly entwined with the history and development of Western civilization. Although the church has had an influence on many things during its long history, it had a major impact culturally and philosophically. Specifically, the church had a major influence on the arts and architecture, which resulted in a changed philosophical mindset. The church’s influence on western society led to a had a major influence on art, architecture, and philosophy within these branches led to a had a major influence on the building of Western civilization.
George Herbert throughout his poem “The Collar” puts his thoughts, feelings and complaints on paper on freedom restrictions. He resolves to break free from the binds fastening him to the life he fights to be free from. In various ways, countless things hold down and confine us from doing certain things daily. All the way through history people fought for the rights that tied them down for what they believed in. Herbert explains in his poem that one requires some restrictions even if we cannot understand the motive behind it.
Over the course of the years, society has been reformed by new ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming, outer space, and technology. However, this pattern of gaining knowledge did not pick up significantly until the Scientific Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy, mechanics, and medicine. These new scientists used math and observations strongly contradicting religious thought at the time, which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory. However, astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton accepted the heliocentric theory. Astronomical findings of the Scientific Revolution disproved the fact that humans were the center of everything, ultimately causing people to question theology’s role in science and sparking the idea that people were capable of reasoning for themselves.