Understanding Religion Through Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle
The following is issued as a warning from the author
Kurt Vonnegut to the reader: "Any one unable to understand
how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not
understand this book either"(14). The latter quote is
typical of Vonnegut in his usage of creating a personal
narrative.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in Indianapolis, like many
of his characters, in 1922. His life from that point on
closely resembles the lives of the people in his satirical
novel Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut's mother committed suicide when
he was twenty two years old and in many of his novels the
character of the mother is dead. Vonnegut's "lifelong
pessimism clearly has its roots in his parents' despairing
response to the depression" (Allen 2). He was captured in
WWII and was present in Dresden, Germany when it was bombed
and set fire to, killing 135,000 citizens. This later became
the basis for Vonnegut's greatest success
Slaughterhouse-Five.
Cat's Cradle was published in 1963, and though it
wasn't as big a success as Slaughterhouse, it became widely
known as contributing to the "counter-culture" since it does
in fact question and counter almost every part of our
society's culture (Reed). One of the largest points of our
culture brought into question in Cat's Cradle is religion.
Vonnegut himself is a Humanist, meaning that he isn't sure
of the existence of a God, but values life above all else.
In his last novel Timequake, Vonnegut explains that he
understands that humans need religion as something to turn
to for comfort and suppo...
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Huber, Chris. The Vonnegut Web. 14 Feb. 2002. 25 Feb. 2002
http://www.duke.edu/~crh4/vonnegut/
Klinkowitz, Jerome. Vonnegut in Fact: The Public
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Reed, Peter J. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Warner Books, 1972.
Vit, Marek. Marek Vit's Kurt Vonnegut Corner. 4 Mar. 2002.
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http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/vonn.html
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Publishing, 1988
Vonnegut, Kurt. Mother Night. New York: Fawcett, 1962.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Timequake. New York: Putnam, 1997
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Religion is a set of faiths or beliefs that is based around one or more central powers. Religion can take what is good and turn it to evil, especially in the case of the Taliban and crusades. Religion can be used for good as well, in the case of several modern day religions.
Caregivers may often experience decreases in immune system functioning, as well as increases in blood pressure (Haley, 2003; Weitzner, Haley, & Chen, 2000). With patients in advanced stages of cancer, patients are more likely to exhibit signs of distress because of the ways in which advanced patients require increased care and support (McMillan, 2005). Overall, caregiving affects the physical health of caregivers because the consistency of providing self care to a family member can exhaust and strain the caregiver (Roberto & Jarrott, 2008; Schulz & Sherwood, 2008). Many predictors of the wellness of a caregiver depend upon the problems with the patients behavior, cognitive deterioration, and any disabilities the patient may have. The amount of time that a caregiver spends providing assistance, and the demands of watching the patient to make sure they are safe can also contribute to the overall wellness of the caregiver (Schulz & Sherwood, 2008). Although many have studied the ways in which caregiving can create stress for the caregiver, there have also been reported positive effects of this role that are worth
The Theory of Caregiver Stress was a significant breakthrough for the reasoning of why caregivers are so deeply affected by this job. “The Theory of Caregiver Stress was derived from the Roy Adaptation Model to use as basis in understanding the relationships among caregivers and the stress faced when caring for a chronically ill relative” (Tsai, 2003). The Theory of Caregiver stress is a middle-range theory used to predict the outcome for stress and other various side effects (Dobratz, 2011). These adverse effects are predicted by: Demographic Characteristics, Burden in Caregiving, Stressful life events, Social Support and Social Roles. Also, because of the multitude of different scenarios and background for both the patient and the caregiver, these categories are necessary to compare and effectively use the results. The theory makes four main assumptions regarding adaption: “environmental change; the caregivers’ perceptions will determine how they will respond to the environmental stimuli; the caregivers’ adaptation is a function of their environmental stimuli and adaptation level, and lastly the caregivers’ effectors are results of chronic caregiving such examples include marital satisfaction and self-...
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In Chapter 1 of Keith Ward’s, The Case for Religion, Ward discusses Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s concept of the term “Religion” and his definition of the term and critically responds to it. In one of Smith’s own books, The Meaning and End of Religion, he discusses both his interpretation of the term “religion” and his opinion that the term should no longer be used. Smith’s skepticism of the term, together with his attempt at defining it, creates a contradiction that Ward critically unpicks and responds to.
Religion benefits our society in various ways. In this paper, I will be discussing the importance of religion to the society. Religion provides comfort and quells dissatisfaction, it strengthens human community, religion assures us of comic order, it managed conflict in society, and it teaches us morals that helps we the people in the community to follow.
Kierkegaard, a highly regarded philosopher of the 19th century, put to us the idea of living life in three different stages. He named these stages the Aesthetical, the Ethical and the Religious. He himself passed through each of the stages in his own lifetime and he adopted them as his own philosophy of human existence. The first two stages are characterized by a distinct set of beliefs and behaviors that are easily identified, whereas the last stage, the religious is characterized by a highly personal, subjective and non-rational ‘’leap of faith’’. The ideal is to progress from the aesthetical to the ethical, finally reaching the religious stage but as Kierkegaard himself realized, it is possible to regress or go back a stage. He said that he felt that he had never really left the first two, these stages were always there. He believed that one can move in and out and through all three stages within a lifetime. For the purpose of this essay I will explain each of the three stages in order to give an understanding of Kierkegaard’s philosophical theory of life. Also I will discuss why Kierkegaard considered the religious stage as the best kind of life for humanity and I will present to you some criticisms against Kierkegaard’s third stage.
Religion as defined in, You May Ask Yourself, is a system of beliefs, traditions, and practices around sacred things, a set of shared stories that guide belief and action (Conley 613). Meaning, religion, is the way people can navigate their world and distinguish right from wrong, and good from bad. Everyone has their own belief system and often that belief system does not go with the norm of the rest of society but, what happens when a person 's belief system based off of that of the social norm? That is what society considers religion. Religion, not only in America but also the rest of the world is the basis of not only peoples beliefs but also the way they choose to live their lives. Majority of all people in the western world
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