Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens And Feminists Like Phyllis Trible

The example that affected me the most was when there was a homeless man walking across the street towards a mother and child. Due to instinct, the mother held the carriage closer and harder. To ensure the safety of her and her child, she gave him money. It was not that she felt compassion for him, but instead, she thought that this would keep him from harming herself and her child. It was not that the man acted in any unacceptable way, but that the woman and child were the ones at risk. The author shows compassion as more of a transaction as “the man stands and stares.” The fixed stare made her feel uneasy and nervous. It is as if time stopped. it was not a genuine act of kindness on the mother’s part or that she felt sympathetic for him. There is symbolism of protection “[when the mother] passes a folded dollar over her child’s head.” The man “does not know that acceptance of the gift and gratitude are what make this transaction complete.” It is visible that the woman only offers to help the man out of

Are people born with a complete quandary when it comes to compassion or is it something that has always been there? Barbara Lazear Ascher, born in 1946, writes, “On Compassion.” Having lived in New York City, Ascher is able to take first hand examples from the city to show the affection people have towards each other. Ascher is able to illustrate that compassion is something that has to be taught because of the adversity at people’s heels by including tone, persuasive appeals, and the mode of comparing and contrast in her essay, “On Compassion.”

“And yet, it may be that these are the conditions that finally give birth to empathy, the mother of compression. We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very doorstep. I don’t believe that one is born compassionate. Compassion is

God is depicted in the Old Testament with a very bad reputation. David Lamb is an old testament professor and he addresses some of the reasons for this bad reputation. In Lamb’s book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? In his book, there are seven specific citations addressed that provide proof and evidence for those who would believe “God behaves badly.” The examples that Professor Lamb chose are: angry or loving, sexist or affirming, racist or hospitable, violent or peaceful, legalistic or gracious, rigid or flexible, and distant or near. With each chapter that Lamb writes, it provides multiple biblical narrative accounts and establishes a basis for the particular argument aimed against God.

Morrie outlined how American culture was bad for the soul in many ways, he states “People are only mean when they’re threatened, and that’s what our culture does. That’s what our economy does. …And when you get threatened, you start looking out for only yourself.”(Albom, 154) Morrie sees why people are selfish and they feel a sense of entitlement, and he still has compassion for them. I struggle with feeling compassion in a culture that sees compassion as weakness and charity as a thing to be exploited. There was a great revelation for me when Morrie’s talks about cultures problem, “. . . the biggest defect we human being

Alienation, starvation, neglect and abuse are all words that invoke unfavorable connotations and are treatments that no person would ever want to be subjected to. Living in those conditions is something that most people choose not to think about let alone witness with their own eyes. By not seeing it, they find it easier to pretend it doesn’t exist. In the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Ursula Le Guin writes about a city that from the outside looks like the perfect utopian society – a rich culture that is full of laughter, joy and peace, devoid of any violence, poverty or social inequities. Beneath the surface though hides a very dark secret that bares the true nature of Omelas. The citizens of this ostensibly flawless

to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you,to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears,and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters." Genghis Khan, much like the Hebrew Bible during certain points, regards women as objects. However, to write the Hebrew Bible off as fully misogynistic would not do the ancient texts justice. From Genesis to Judges 2, the Hebrew Bible objectifies women, uses them as scapegoats, but during certain points rises them to the level of highly admired Prophets and warriors. This essay attempts to explore the various undertones of femininity depicted throughout the Hebrew Bible.

Where we are is the grand culmination of hundreds of years of cooperating as a species to make for a grander environment that appeals to “all.” Despite our constant effort to improve the quality of life on earth, however, an increasingly tremendous problem pertaining the same subject has been growing “right below our noses”: homelessness. We, the common people, typically place those in such plight into great disregard; push them not off the streets but to the far back of our heads. In the article “On Compassion”, former NEW YORK TIMES columnist, Barbara Ascher, teaches us the ignorance of our denial and the importance of the helpless’ presence, and she does this through the heavy use of contrast, figurative language, a good quantity of rhetorical questions, and some very clever wording. She suggested that the presence of the homeless helps teach us compassion. Afterall, “compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition. It must be learned.”

Ascher believes observing the adversity of homelessness is a necessity in learning compassion because “Compassion is not a character trait. . .It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows” (Cohen 42). Ascher believes we can learn and grow from others' adverse experiences without being a part of it. Although Ascher would have us believe we can learn compassion simply through observing adversity at our windows (homelessness), Eighner would likely disagree because he has struggled in adversity and learned the importance of true sentiment first hand, not through observation. Eighner writes of the importance of having an intimate connection with adversity in his own homelessness, “Once I was the sort of person who invests material objects with sentimental value. Now I no longer have those things, but I have the sentiments yet. . . .The things I find in dumpsters, the love letters and ragdolls of so many lives, remind me of this lesson” (Cohen 157, 158). Eighner has grown and holds sentiment in those lessons because he had those experiences, not because he has simply observed others. Ascher gives us a lesson in learning from adversity but does so from an outsiders' point of view while Eighner's personal experience contrasts to shows us that much can be learn from experiencing adversity more intimately.

Sprinkle, Joe M. "The Rationale of the Laws of Clean and Unclean in the Old Testament." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43.4 (2000): 637-657. ProQuest. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.

This paper explores Peter Singer’s argument, in Famine, Affluence, and Morality, that we have morally required obligations to those in need. The explanation of his argument and conclusion, if accepted, would dictate changes to our lifestyle as well as our conceptions of duty and charity, and would be particularly demanding of the affluent. In response to the central case presented by Singer, John Kekes offers his version, which he labels the and points out some objections. Revisions of the principle provide some response to the objections, but raise additional problems. Yet, in the end, the revisions provide support for Singer’s basic argument that, in some way, we ought to help those in need.

The Hebrew prophets are filled with varied imagery and language, from the colorful language of the visions Ezekiel’s Temple (Ez. 40-48), to the literary techniques of judgement oracles (Isa. 13), to the laments of Jeremiah (Jer. 12). However, no other rhetorical device should cause its audiences, both original and modern, to squirm with discomfort more than the prophetic metaphors that speak negatively of feminine sexuality and propagate misogynistic abuse towards women. These metaphors, graphic and violent, often portray the people of Israel as dishonored, sexually promiscuous women who have shamed their husbands. As an African-American woman and Old Testament scholar, Renita J. Weems deals with these difficult metaphors to understand

The oppressor is dominant, powerful, and unified. The oppressor is disadvantaged, weak, and divided. Often times in the healthcare system, the oppressor appears to be the for-profit corporations, investors, and government to name a few. Similarly on the other end of the spectrum, the oppressed are regularly identified as the poor, minorities, and those that are underprivileged. Sadly, these descriptors are typically accurate in the United States and the world abroad. Freire identifies characteristics of the oppressor as selfish, manipulative of others, abusive of power, and fails to recognize others as humans. He describes characteristics of the oppressed as denying the self, prevented from being authentic, and as being exploited and manipulated without realization (Butts & Rich,

In any case, individuals within society become oppressed as higher-ranked groups control their lower class counterparts. The five characteristics that pertain to human oppression become defined in Plumwood’s essay as: radical exclusion, homogenization, denial, incorporation, and instrumentalism. Radical exclusion refers to the separating of men as the “One” and women as the “Other.” Furthermore, this term means that the qualities of women become

4, emphasis mine) and her insistence on "feeling for my donors every step of the way" (Never, p. 4). Kathy's admission opens up a fundamental tension regarding what it means to homogenise people and actively select who to empathise with based on personal bias. The donation programme thus reflects Kathy’s own attitude and preferences. Yet crucially, selective empathy, this tendency to choose when and who we are empathetic towards, is a universal facet of empathy and provides a useful framework for understanding how other marginalised minorities that lie beyond Ishiguro’s novel –migrant workers, the disabled and the poor – are failed by supposedly protectionist government. Much like Bruce Robbins' critique of the Welfare State, Kathy's humanising education at Hailsham has placed her in what Mark Currie calls "the paradox of privileged deprivation" (2013, p. 158) that partially explains her passive