Personal Narrative – Atheist
I didn't ask for the pastor to come over. I would have much rather been left alone to watch daytime TV. True, I was beginning to feel I little isolated, but some sissy-voiced holy man I hardly knew wasn't going to make me feel any better. But it was standard policy to notify the church when one of its fold has been hospitalized, for prayer requests and all that mush, and when the pastor heard that I was already home, he felt obligated to visit, as if seeing my swollen, drooling face was somehow doing me a favor.
If only I could have had the surgery a year ago, when I still believed in God, but the surgeon made me wear these braces first, buying me plenty of time to attend my freshman year of college. The first class I took was a religion course, Literature of the Old and New Testament. Although I'd always considered myself a Christian, I had never taken time to read the Bible, partly out of apathy and partly out of fear, until that class. During the semester, with my bliss of ignorance lifted, I discovered how barbaric the Christian faith was. I learned of the scores of men sent to die by David's hand so he could learn a lesson about lechery, of the Egyptian corpses floating in the Red Sea. There was also the famous "sacrifice Issac" prank God pulled on Abraham, and the office pool between God and His Accuser to see how long Job could be toyed with before he snapped. Worst of all, a brief tour of Revelations revealed that the Devil might have been the product of a fever dream taken too seriously and that the only real Evil in the world sprang from the hands of an arrogant, pissy God.
Mom was busy tidying up the room, dusting this and that so the church didn't think we were total slobs. She s...
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...dren's Motrin. God may have crushed Jacob's nuts, but a warrior God was still the only god worth praying to.
The prayer began with a brief request for the Lord to watch over me, which turned my thoughts once again to the little brass Jesus in the recovery room. I had secretly missed the little Jesus since the day I checked out, but as the pastor was praying the same old Christian rhetoric, I realized that I didn't need him anymore. The real Jesus was watching over me. Don't ask me how I knew, but I knew. Jesus was watching over the entire world, protecting it as if it were His younger brother. Protecting it from an abusive Father.
As the pastor left I flicked on the TV, more to have something to stare at than something to watch, and to the low, lulling drone of newscasters covering a political scandal, I silently wondered about the last time I attended church.
The United States government was founded on a written set of principles known as the Constitution. There have only been 17 amendments, or changes, since ratification. While the United States has evolved with time the role and function of the government, and the way the government guarantees civil rights and liberties, has also evolved. These changes have resulted from changing or broadening of the interpretation of the constitution. Although the core of the constitution has not changed, it has expanded and its interpretation has changed to keep up with societal demands.
The Constitution which was written 229 years ago, comes with many strengths and weaknesses. One such strength is that the Constitution is a living document. A living document is a document that has the ability to be updated and or drafted upon. The original document had twelve amendments. These amendments were sent to the states for ratification in 1789 and out of the twelve, ten of them were passed by the vote of eleven states in the union. Since that time of the first change in our constitution, it has been added to twenty-seven times. The Constitution is America’s founding document that has lasted for 229 years; it has changed as the country has changed. (THE CHARTERS OF FREEDOM A NEW WORLD AT HAND) The Constitution being a living document was intended to be adapted by future generations and because of its adaptability, it could have new amendments ratified and add to
The end. Absolute in its finality, the end provides at once both a tempting and alluring topic of discussion. Attributable to this fact is the popularity of literary works which discuss the resolution of humanity. Examples of so called apocalyptic literature predate the Old Testament, however, the most controversial biblical example is John’s The Book of Revelation. The work is controversial because it falls to the subjective application of qualifying elements to determine Revelation’s in- or exclusion from the apocalyptic genre. Notwithstanding, while “revelation” is a translation of the word “apocalypse,” this fact does not appear to be enough for Northrop Frye or David Chilton to classify the text as definitively apocalyptic. Chilton argues that Revelation represents such a significant divergence form earlier apocalyptic works that it is beyond inclusion in the genre, whereas Frye perceived the final book as nothing more than a succinct end to the biblical story. In this way, both fail to recognize a third option, that of Bernard McGinn, who instead suggests that The Book of Revelation represents an evolution in the apocalyptic genre.
In America,—the so called “home of the free” and well-known for being just and right—the federal law states that it is illegal to possess, grow, sell, or anything else related to marijuana—a natural, safe, and beneficial substance. If anyone is found guilty of these actions, they could face a fine anywhere from one thousand dollars to four million dollars and/or serve a prison sentence anywhere from fifteen days to life. However, the sale, use and even abuse of alcohol or tobacco—which is scientifically tested not natural, safe, or beneficial—is not seen to the government as illegal and is only punishable if sold to a minor or if the use of the substances causes a crime to occur. The illegal status of marijuana is an unjust law. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) currently lists marijuana as a schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). The CSA states that, “Schedule I drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the...
That is our cue to walk into the church and sit down. I’m amazed at the number of people there. Every single pew is filled, and there are people sitting in spare chairs in the back. We sing hymns, say prayers, and listen to speeches, but one speech stood out from the rest. Reverend Owen LAST NAME is my uncle’s best friend from elementary school. Before he even starts his speech people are crying when they realize that he and my uncle are wearing the same suits they wore to his and Stephanie’s wedding. The main message of his speech was pals, and the huge community that my aunt had built around herself. We laughed and cried, and I honestly felt moved by his
Tragedy is an intrinsically human concept; tragic heroes are damned by what they themselves do. Othello is not so much felled by the actions of Iago, but by a quality all people possess-- human frailty. Accordingly, Othello is not a victim of consequences, but an active participant in his downfall. He is not merely a vehicle for the machinations of Iago; he had free agency. Othello's deficiencies are: an insecure grasp of Venetian social values; lack of critical intelligence, self-knowledge, and faith in his wife; and finally, insecurity-- these are the qualities that lead to his own downfall.
Literalist fundamentalists read Revelation’s multivalent visions as predictions of doom and threat, of punishment for the many and salvation for the elect few. Scholarly scientific readings seek to translate the book’s ambiguity into one-to-one meanings and to transpose its language of symbol and myth into description and facts. In Elisabeth Schûssler Fiorenza’s The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment, a third way of reading Revelation is depicted. The collection of essays in this book seeks to intervene in scholarly as well as popular discourses on the apocalypse from a liberationist feminist perspective.
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Of Shakespeare’s five greatest tragedies, Othello is by far the most passionate and gripping. It is a tale of love, deception, evil, honesty, and virtue. Othello himself is set apart from other Shakespearean tragic heroes by the absolute feeling of affection the audience feels for him even unto the very end of the play. Any discerning reader painfully recognizes the virtue and goodness of Othello throughout the entire play, in contrast to the general degeneration of character so typical of a tragic hero. It is this complete pity that makes the death of Othello so tragic as the audience lends their full hopeful support until the inevitable and unavoidable fall. The evil side of Othello’s tragic flaw came from without, in the form of Iago. The internal flaw exists only in his heartrendingly unshakable goodness and honor.
...fine tragedy by examining some of its major features as they appeared in Othello, it was notable that it largely engaged desperation and loss. Even though ‘pessimism’ is an attitude and ‘tragedy’ is a genre of the arts, the latter resembles definition of the former by its negative take on life, human affairs and relations. It is a genre in which pessimistic expectations are set into practice, becoming reality for the characters. Tragedy’s harshness is due to the notions of innocent characters getting hurt, and of the extent which the misfortune reaches. As was evident in Othello, it concentrates on the personal scale of human catastrophe – the misfortune of individuals. The purpose of such extreme portrayal of sorrow is to evoke emotional responses in the audience. Tragedy aimed to convey to the audience an understanding of the misery of others, which is compassion.
There are several essential elements that must be presented in a Shakespearean play in order to classify the piece as a true tragedy. Most importantly the tragedy must have a virtuous, noble protagonist who possesses a flaw, not a character defect, which will ultimately lead to his downfall or death. Another important detail is that the audience will have an emotional catharsis of pity and terror as the events of the play unfold. The work must also embellish language, and the tragedy will be presented as an action with a realistic plot. Shakespeare's Othello brilliantly encompasses all of these essential elements and introduces the world to perhaps the greatest tragic hero of all time, Othello, the Moor of Venice.
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Throughout time, the tragedy has been seen as the most emotionally pleasing form of drama, because of its ability to bring the viewer into the drama and feel for the characters, especially the tragic hero. This analysis of tragedy was formed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and also noted in his Poetics (guidelines to drama). As a playwright, Shakespeare used Aristotle’s guidelines to tragedy when writing Othello. The play that was created revolved around the tragic hero, Othello, whose tragic flaw transformed him from a nobleman, into a destructive creature, which would inevitably bring him to his downfall. This transformation follows an organic movement of the complex plot from the beginning, middle, to the end of the drama while keeping the tragic hero consistent and also real. As the play moves on the audience feels pity for the tragic hero as well as fear for themselves as they watch the event taking place on stage. Othello can be seen as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, because it follows the guidelines set up by Aristotle’s Poetics.
The people there were all extremely nice and would try to help me understand. They understood and accepted the fact that I wasn’t religious, but was showing interest in their faith. There were not as much people there as I had expected, but that might have been because it was a smaller church. It also wasn’t as racially diverse as I had expected. I thought that because it is the world’s biggest religion, that it
The invention of money is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of human civilization. From the very beginning of society, people have used money to circumvent the difficulties of bartering and to foster trade and commerce. Since then, money has come a long way. No longer do we need to rely on silver coins, cocoa beans, or even anything of intrinsic value to conduct our business; today, we use paper currency, which is convenient and easy to carry around. But slowly, we are moving into the digital age of money, an age in which less of our money is actually tangible and more of it is just data on a computer server. To some, this prospect may seem daunting. However, given the major advantages of electronic money over outmoded paper counterpart, society as a whole should embrace the upcoming era of digital money.