Greg Bankoff, in his article entitled “In the eye of the storm: The social construction of the forces of nature and the climatic and seismic construction of God in the Philippines”, has comprehensively analyzed how the cultural patterns are shaped by the Filipinos’ collective sense of psychology towards frequent natural calamities. These cultural patterns involve not just theology but also the way of living and the general outlook permeated among the multitude. Also articulated are the political factors in moulding these cultural patterns and the coping measures taken by people in order to endure the recurring debacles of nature.
FATALISTIC IDEOLOGIES IN PHILIPPINES:
First off, a fatalist is someone who believes that his actions are pre-determined and that everything that happened, is happening and will happen is meant to happen so. Fatalism slightly inclines towards pessimism, in that it entails a sense of resignation to the engulfing despondence and misery. This ideology is strongly manifested in the Filipino expression ‘’Bahala na’’, which essentially means “There’s nothing we can do about it”. However, fatalism can be shed in a positive light, justified by a sense of acceptance towards all the approaching predicaments and the grit in us to overcome these obstacles, regardless of their difficulty, without crumbling down in desolation. Therefore, fatalism can be viewed in two paradigms – As an active calculation and acceptance of odds, and as a passive sense of resignation. It can be safely said that, in accordance to people’s attitude towards catastrophes, the above expression is to be taken with a positive connotation.
Also prevalent is the notion that the forces of nature are reined by divine control and that the natural cal...
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...ituality when critical political decisions are to be made. It is noted that the Philippines may have the most professed miracles and messianic apparitions among all countries, and the spiritual adviser is undoubtedly at the heart of all these. Whether these auguries are congruous with the truth or if they are simply the products of machinations of corrupted minds is anybody’s guess. But the point driven home is that spiritualism is given prime importance in the political outline, caused primarily due to the prevalence of natural disasters. Despite the fact that the Philippines lies in the infamous perilous belt called the ‘Rim of fire’, religious aspects continue to be at the helm of the factorization of these catastrophes. The aborigines who were previously left to themselves are now given special attention for their premonitions on climatic changes and disasters.
Earthquake: a series of vibrations induced in the earth’s crust by the abrupt rupture and rebound of rocks in which elastic strain has been slowly accumulating; something that is severely disruptive; upheaval (Shravan). Tsunami: an unusually large sea wave produced by a seaquake or undersea volcanic eruption (Shravan). Combine these two catastrophic natural disasters, and it will be a day that will forever live in infamy through terror; a day much like that of October 28, 1746 in Lima, Peru in which an entire city was destroyed within mere minutes. Author Charles Walker guides his audience through the devastation and wreckage of this heartbroken town and into the economic, political, religious, and social fallings that followed. Walker argues that the aftermath of this tragedy transformed into a voting of the citizens’ various ideas perceived of the future of Lima, theological consequences, and the structure of the colonial rule (p. 12). However, as illustrated by Walker, the colonial rulers would in turn batter the natives with their alternative goals and ideas for the future of Lima. Finally, the author reconstructs the upheaval of Lima during its’ reconstruction and their forced and struggled relationship with the Spanish crown that ultimately led to rebellions and retaliations by the Afro-Peruvians and Indians.
Stephen Spender's "Epilogue to a Human Drama" and Toge Sankichi's "Dying" are poems detailing the destruction of two cities, London and Hiroshima, respectively, during or after World War II bombings. Spender wrote "Epilogue to a Human Drama," hereafter referred to as "Epilogue," after a December air raid of London during the Battle of Britain, which ravaged and razed much of England from Summer 1940 until Spring 1941. Sankichi wrote "Dying" from his vivid recollections of the surprise atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which decimated the Japanese city in less than a second. Both the Battle of Britain and Hiroshima were horrible, senseless, and vicious incidents that exacted gave tolls on innocent victims. Spender endured the Battle of Britain, and Sankichi experienced the horror of Hiroshima. The poets' responses differ greatly in style and perspective, but each work clearly defines the ramifications of atrocities such as those committed against Spender, Sankichi, and the populations of London and Hiroshima.
examples for a relation between nature and God. In fact, Nature is a direct connection to
... the catastrophic event into an opportunity for the future. Even though the tsunami of December 2004 ended in a huge death toll, ongoing trauma and homelessness of millions of Asians, still they can recuperate from this entire horrific event. If any good at all is to come from this adversity on a human scale, it will certainly be considered by the compassion and generosity that the world reveals to the survivors. I must admit that I find very difficult to let it sink in my brain the fact that it can happen to all of us anywhere and any time around the globe. It might not be a tsunami that these citizens have experienced, but there are other natural disasters we can stumble upon as well. Surely, it has been a great experience for me to write this paper and to discover the truth about the tsunami and the total effects of what these people have to deal with.
“Every natural process is a version of a moral sentence. The moral law lies at the centre of nature and radiates to the
The purpose of this reflective outline is to demonstrate a thorough understanding of theories, concepts, and/or strategies relating to cultural and social religions. “Whale Rider” (Caro, 2002) , is a depictive representation of a cultural religion that has survived on the belief of male inheritance as their form of guidance; however, history has shown that change is inevitable. For example, throughout history, religion has played a pivotal role in the development of individuals, including the evolution of societies. This shows that because religion/s around the world have practiced their core beliefs in an attempt to guide humanities behaviors, yet , as we can observe with the “Whale Rider,” even the most influential community and cultural leaders can become miscued in their ideologies. Because The Maori of New Zealand have developed deep seated beliefs within natural creatures; Katu is term used to relate to their god (Maori.com, 2014) steaming for their ancestral Polynesian descendants. In addition to what can be observed, such as beliefs, practices, and/or symbolic terminologies, each religion will ensure its presidential knowledge is passed to those who receive it accordingly. The factual concept stands and history has proven is evolution that without guidance and continuous religious and cultural support, decedents of a heritage may become lost and/or miscued within their mislead ideology. Although many religions are centered on the belief of normality’s cultural expectance, often times we can observe drastic changes in the reorganization of a cultural religion.
These Indigenous people realized that the only way to heal the poverty, dysfunction, addiction, and violence that has plagued them since the ‘assimilation’ efforts was to turn back to their traditional spiritual practices and teach them to the young people (Robbins). Often, the return to Native traditions has meant taking on environmental concerns, opposing development activities, and becoming politically active to protect the nature that is so closely tied to indigenous spiritual practices. This is what makes indigenous spirituality different and hard to define and protect, it is closely tied to the land and environment, which is very different from religion (Fisher). The United Nations defines the situation perfectly in “The State of the World’s Indigenous People: Chapter 2”: “…spirituality defines the relationships of indigenous peoples with their environment as custodians of the land; it helps construct social relationships, gives meaning, purpose and hope to life.” (Kipuri,
On January 12, 2010, while vacationing in Santo Domingo, DR. Tragedy hit and my strong foundation no longer stood. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 shook and uprooted homes, places of business and my sense of peace. After hearing news of the earthquake, I rush to Port-au-Prince to check on my family. I was reassured that my family was secured and had no life threatening injuries, but the same was not said to my grandparent’s neighbor. Their neighbor suffered from a head injury and deep laceratio...
nature was born. According to many theologians, this ‘original sin’ was passed on to every
Nathaniel Hawthorne (a dark romantic poet) showed shows it through his writing, The Birthmark. " We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over nature. " He was not happy with trying to control nature, which is why we shouldn't try and mess with nature. It should be left to be.
The need to control nature is a human instinct that has done more harm than...
Second Paper “I shall briefly explain how I conceive of this matter. Look round the world: Contemplate the whole and every part of it: You will find it to be nothing but one great machine, subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines, which again admit subdivisions, to a degree beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain. All these various machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted to each other with an accuracy, which ravishes into admiration all men, who have ever contemplated them. The curious adapting of means to ends, throughout all nature, resembles, though it much exceeds, the production of human contrivance; of human design, thought, wisdom, and intelligence. Since therefore the effects resemble each other, we are led to infer, by all the rules of analogy, that the causes also resemble; and that the author of nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man; though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work, which he has executed.
August 23rd, 2005; Hurricane Katrina, formed over the Bahamas, hitting landfall in Florida. By the 29th, on its third landfall it hit and devastated the city of New Orleans, becoming the deadliest hurricane of the 2005 season and, one of the five worst hurricanes to hit land in the history of the United States. Taking a look at the years leading to Katrina, preventative actions, racial and class inequalities and government, all of this could have been prevented. As presented in the newspaper article, An Autopsy of Katrina: Four Storms, Not Just One , we must ask ourselves, are “natural” disasters really natural or, are they a product of the people, who failed to take the necessary actions that needed to be taken?
Have you ever wonder how did some things occur in nature? Is someone controlling it or it just happens naturally? People have a tendency to question strange things that happen around us because that appears to be part of humanity, and when they don’t get an answer, they start to feel afraid about that event or subject matter. On the other hand, Wordsworth suggested that subtle changes in nature could lead to great impacts on our lives. Living in a materialistic world has prevented us from marveling the beauty of nature and absorb the message where nature wants to convey to us. In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he accentuated supernatural themes where nature is essential to us and specifically implemented that
In conclusion, while both the Natural Law Theory and the Divine Command Theory have aspects that I don’t agree on, both brought interesting ways to look at the world and the