Playing God, By Ruth Chadwick

The play Mission of Mercy was written by Esther Lipnick. It was about a woman becoming a nurse. That woman's name was Florence. Florence Nightingale is many different things. But she is brave more than anything.

In Danielle Allen’s essay, Our Declaration, she argues that all people should understand and recognize that the Declaration gives all people in the United States the undeniable freedom to self-govern. One person has the power to change the government; although this is not specifically stated, the freedom to self-govern implies every voice matters. She guides the reader to this idea by using simple and easy to follow examples to show the reader that they have the power to invoke a change the government. Allen also uses credible sources in order to give her reasoning credibility as well as using arguments that elicit an emotional connection.

The poem “Mothers and Daughters” is written by Pat Mora. Pat Mora is a contemporary award winning writer, who writes for children, youngsters and adults. She was born in El Paso, TX in the year 1942. She attains a title of a Hispanic writer; however, the most of her poems are in English. In her literary work, one can observe the different aspects of the immigrants’ lives such as language issues, family relationships, immigrants’ experiences and cultural differences (1187).

One field of genetic science which is crucial in society today is medicine where cloning is now possible. The need for moral reasoning is essential in this field because with greater power society must “[recognize] not only the limits of our knowledge but also our vulnerability to being misguided” with an evolving world (Dalai Lama 140). Humans have kept high moral responsibilities over the century when faced with new developments in knowledge. The Dalai Lama suggests that “our technological capacity has reached a critical point” during the past decade and the gap between knowledge and human ethics when making decisions has grown farther apart as new biogenetic science has arose (133). The issue is not whether

Ana Castillo’s novel, So Far From God, propels the reader on a vibrant and surreal journey through the tragic ordeals of Sofi and her four daughters. The first chapter, which offers certain similarities to the Bible’s story of Jesus Christ, in that Sofi’s three year old daughter, La Loca, seems to succumb to a violent and horrifying death, and at the wake, she returns to life with a tale of her journey beyond the veil. This scene creates a notable comparison between the patriarchal religiosity of the story of Jesus Christ and the Chicana-centered resurrection, complete with the hypocrisy of a male-centered system of beliefs, the acts of acquiring selfhood as a female centered savior, and the phenomena of the “death” of the saviors.

Throughout many years in the early 19th century, people were forced to work in very poor environments. From working for long hours on fields and plantations, they did not have an opportunity to have a free and self-fulfilling life. Their lives were very similar to that of a mule where they had to perform very tiring and hard jobs for most of the day. In many instances, people lived their whole life working towards freeing themselves from the work but were never able to accomplish their goal. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the mule is used as a symbol of the way Janie is treated in each of her relationships except when she is with Teacake, demonstrating that it is more worthy to work like a mule with a lover than live a leisurely life without one.

Often times we are at a loss for words when it comes to talking about the person of the Holy Spirit. Beth Felker Jones in her work entitled “God the Spirit” serves as an introduction to the study of the Holy Spirit in a distinctly Wesleyan and Ecumenical Perspective. Jones is working against the notion that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is often the most neglected of all Christian teachings (1). She recognizes her experience within the Wesleyan tradition as one that shapes her pneumatology and this book. She asserts that one of Wesleyan Christianity’s special gifts is it’s “leaning against any tendency to neglect the Spirit” (4). Even with this framework she aims to place the Wesleyan perspective in a larger ecumenical milieu that shows the continuity of a Wesleyan pneumatology with the Tradition of the Church. Overall, her approach is very accessible, as she assumes very little and writes in such a way that allows her to cover large dogmatic topics clearly and concisely. By merit of simply being an introduction only style book, there is the risk of glossing over topics and not providing enough in depth discussion to fully understand and comprehend the doctrine discussed. A reader should feel confident that Jones has indeed provided us with a solid introduction to Wesleyan pneumatology that has the ability to bear fruit and initiate growth in the life of the believer.

In the article, “Is Your God Dead?,” George Yancy makes a compelling argument on the idea of social activism. The argument proposed by Yancy in his article is influenced by the negative remarks human beings have made with each other based on gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. There is a sense of discouragement being made among each other because we do not like to be view alike. Yet, we have been told by religious figures that everyone is made by the image of Jesus Christ. Yancy is trying to achieve realization in his article. In doing so, Yancy mentions various examples of unholy actions distributed by people. Along with that, Yancy correlates his argument with Heschel’s article on “How dare we come before God with our prayers when we commit atrocities against the one image we have of the divine: human beings?,” in order to further emphasize the key concepts of religious

Through the words of Thomson, the argument of determining the implementation of life exists. Thomson examines the conflict between practicality and impracticality. Practicality stands on empiricism where science- based beliefs as factual concrete information structures the overall argument of pro- choice. Impracticality stands on faith where it could be argued that religious- based knowledge serves as concrete information to defend pre- life. In my essay I will argue Thomson’s claim of the special cases in which abortion is acceptable and challenge the morality of deciding the fate of a human life who does now have a voice of input.

One example of this is that Aylmer made a potion to extend life. According to Aylmer this potion, ”could apportion the lifetime of any mortal at whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst of a breath”(Hawthorne 13). Much like his birthmark removing procedure, this potion would probably also fail miserably since life is supposed to end eventually. Another example is when Aylmer mentions that he could dethrone kings if he wanted to. Aylmer states, “No king on his guarded throne could keep his life if I, in my private station, should deem that the welfare of million justified depriving him of it"(Hawthorne 13). He thinks that with this potion that he could decide who lives and who dies for the “greater good.” In summary, Playing god should not be done by a human scientist, who is obsessed with perfecting something he

Abraham was not ethical in the story of Genesis 22. Judaism and Christianity should not perpetuate the teachings of this story due to the some of the negative consequences it has had on larger society. The lessons of this story teach us the role women and men play in culture. Perpetuated in this story are notions that men are somehow closer to the divine; while women are seen closer to nature solely for the purpose of reproducing. As stated by Carol Delaney, " Men were thought to beget, women to bear... that is, men have been, and often still are, seen as the ones who engender, while women merely give birth"(Delaney). In the story of Abraham, Sarah's opinion is completely non-existing. As women who has given birth to Isaac, she holds no auditory

The idea of Mother Earth is extremely empowering for women; most women believe that, right? Ellen Cronan Rose finds the idea of mother earth tremendously unempowering. Rose writes in her article “The Good Mother: from Gaia to Gilead”, that the imagery of mother earth is deeply problematic and is harmful to the feminist cause. This is a shocking view considering that most women don’t seem to have a problem with that idea. Ellen Cronan Rose states that the “mother earth” metaphor is harmful to the way women are viewed in society because it perpetuates negative stereotypes against women, it views the earth and women primarily as producers, and it overlooks the fact that both men and women are connected to nature. She goes in-depth into how mother earth imagery can impact women.

From Scripture, it is understood that God is sovereign, that he rules all things, ordains all things, and reigns over all things for His glory and the good of His people. It is also understood that through the Lord’s Prayer, believers are invited by God to come to him in prayer and bring their petitions before Him. When someone puts these two ideas together, one might ask, “If God is sovereign, and has ordained every detail of what is taking place in one’s life, not only in the present but in the future, why should people even bother to pray? Moreover, if the Bible states that ‘all things work together for those who love God’ (English Standard Version Bible, Rom. 8.32), shouldn’t a person be content with knowing that what God has ordained is best? What purpose does anyone serve by praying to

In his poem "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace," published in 1968, Richard Brautigan places the reader in a future realm: a sparkling utopia "where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony" (1). He draws us in by juxtaposing images of nature, man and machine that challenge us to imagine this new world. In essence, Brautigan's poem is a supplication for that dream world, but to the modern reader it can be a land of irony.

Did you know that we have the technology to change the world as we know it? With this, the cure for cancer, Parkinson's, and even heal the paralyzed can become a reality. It’s sound’s amazing but it comes at a cost. The technology I am talking about is cloning. Although it can have major benefits it is a very controversial matter. Cloning has been done since the 1950’s with mammals. Cloning animals is only a small contribution to the larger matter at hand. This matter is human cloning. Human cloning has been the major controversy, in the sense that is it morally wrong. Some believe that it isn’t a human's right to play God. In this essay, I am going to inform you on both sides of the argument. To start off we need to know a little about cloning