Monday, March 30, 2020
True Love Essay Example
True Love Essay Alex True Love This is something that divides us as humans, with quite a lot of gray area in the middle. You will find people that swear to the truth of this and others that try to finally prove it false. Right now I see myself in the grey area, questioning. Does true love exist? Is it possible for everyone? I am not sure even what this is seeing as I have yet to be in love. I have often asked myself if there was a one true love for me and if someone somewhere was pulling the strings just right so that I would meet them or not. In recent years the divorce rate in America has gone up. Some say this is because women have become more independent and no longer feel the need to stay with a man in order to survive. I think that Americans have lost faith in an Ancient belief, true love. Or maybe the problem is that we are searching for something that doesnââ¬â¢t exist. Can true love scientifically be proven? Is there something in our body that tells us when we are in love? If we could find a way to prove that true love exists can we tell when two people are really in love? Do we really want to know? If someone that we love dies can we get married again? We will write a custom essay sample on True Love specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on True Love specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on True Love specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Can there be more than one person in your life that you have loved, love, or will love? I want to look into why this is different for everyone. I expect to find what makes us believe in something when most of us can say we have never experienced it. How did this belief come about? Is it possible to fall in love no matter the appearance, gender, or race? I know we all have our prejudices but perhaps true love is the bridge over these barriers. Polygamists treat their wives like property but still say they love them. If you truly love someone how should you treat them? I think that scientific research will show that love does exist and that you can fall in love multiple times in a life. Fate is something that canââ¬â¢t really be proven. I also am hoping to find how the idea of a true love came about. I donââ¬â¢t think that an interview will help much because it varies so much from person to person. What I want to accomplish is to focus on three main points for my paper. First, can true love be scientifically proven? I also want to go into how it has proved the existence of love? (I believe they have)Second, why do we believe in true love in the first place? Third, has America lost sight of the idea of true love or are we focusing on it too much? There is a lot more I could go into but these are my main three. To begin, I first need to establish what true love is. While I am trying to figure out if this proposed phenomenon actually exists, for this section I will assume that it does. This basis will allow for proof or disproof. Getting everyone to agree on one definition is impossible, so I hope to highlight a couple. First, I wanted to find an article on the Christian view of how to find true love. Since most of the population in America is made up of Christians, I felt that it was important that this view was included. It begins with the famous verse from Corinthians, ââ¬Å"Love is patient, love is kindâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ This is a view that many people hold dear to their hearts. This article is more of a guide for Christians on how to find true love and tells that in order to find true love that we need to do three things. First, the article says to read the bible and find what to look for in love. Next, honesty is needed with ourselves and the one we love. Finally, to be ready to commit for a lifetime and understand what this commitment means. The view of this article is that love lasts forever and that unless you are looking for the right qualities that you wonââ¬â¢t ever find it. While this is only one opinion, it is quite standard. The next definition needed comes from the opposite direction, science. This article from CNN states that researchers from Stony Brook University have proved the existence of lasting love. Their research focused on new lovers and couples that have been together for around 20 years. They analyzed the chemical reactions when the person was shown a picture of their loved one. Old research had found that the chemical reaction in new lovers fade within 15 months and is gone after 10 years. Somehow, these scientists managed to find a few couples that defied these statistics. !0 percent of the couples that had been together for twice the amount of time that their love was supposed to fade by had reactions the same as a new couple. This definition of true love is based on time and fact but it is just as real as an immeasurable definition. This next source is called ââ¬Å"7 Myths of Happily Ever Afterâ⬠by Blair Justice. This is an article about how Americans view perfect relationships (incorrectly). Instead of looking at a definition, this looks at common misconceptions. The first is about how all people look for that person to live happily ever after with. It states that we all are searching for that unconditional love, futilely. We shouldnââ¬â¢t have that unconditional love between us and our partner in order to have that ââ¬Å"perfect relationship. â⬠Then, that when there is true love between two people that they should not have to tell the other what they want. Third we search for someone with the same problems that we have and that will make both of our problems disappear. Maybe he/she will even understand and that will be enough. Fourth, donââ¬â¢t go to bed angry. An unhealthy relationship would be if you never slept away from your partner after an argument. As long as you are not running away and can try and put the heat of the argument behind you. Fifth, we never talk. We actually talk a lot but we need to learn how to communicate better. Sixth, he will change after we are married. We need to get rid of the illusion of changing our partner later. This entire article tells pretty much what Americans view as true love. The question that is brought up by all these wrong beliefs is, if we change how we think about love can we find it? What the focus needs to shift to is recognizing this love. When you fall in love you head in full force. You devote all of your attention to that one person and nothing else. The passion and heat takes over. This is not true love, though. True love is the kind that lasts; this heat we all feel in the beginning of a relationship will always fade. If there were a device to prolong this feeling, it would be coveted by all. How do we act when we are truly in love? In this article from Christian Answers gives a list on how to know when you are in love. The first step to having a true relationship is establishing that what you have is exclusive. By telling your partner that you want to be with them and only them shows that you are ready to commit fully. Next you say that this is the best relationship that you have had. It is like starting a new chapter in your life where you can only go forward. Then, once you are past the lets go anywhere stage and the stage where you stand up for yourself, this article says that you can accept the other personââ¬â¢s interests to partake in them sometimes as well. The article says that you must accept the other personââ¬â¢s beliefs enough to not oppose them. You also have to just be able to enjoy the other personââ¬â¢s company enough that doing nothing together is like a break from the rest of the world, even though you are with him/her. Lastly, it lists that you have to show that you are comfortable being yourself in front of them. Overall I believe that this is a good list of how to recognize true love. There are many people loosing the sight of true love and this can be represented by the amount of divorces in the United States. When two people get married, most say that they will be married forever. Some hold on to the view of happily ever after, while others are more realistic about their life after marriage. One thing that we have to accept is the ending of marriage. While many people say that 50% of all marriages in America end in goodbye, this is not entirely correct, this article states. The facts do show that if the current trend continues that we may even surpass this number. We loose sight of the hope for true love for many reasons. The main reason in this short article is childlessness. ââ¬Å"The absence of children leads to loneliness and wearinessâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ This last article is called ââ¬Å"True Love? Forget it! â⬠This article argues that true love does not exist. The author, Lynn Truss, says that we often use the non-existence of a perfect partner as an excuse to not find love at all. If someone was ââ¬Å"just looking for the right personâ⬠they might pass up on several people that might not be perfect, but are perfect for them. The definition of love is given as what you do with what youââ¬â¢ve got. We often have unrealistic views of love and this is because of two things. First, love is deeply placed in human nature and we see love as something we find. Actually, he states, love is something we create, an achievement. So this article is saying that we make up true love to fill a void in our life that everyone has. Love is something we make not something we just bump into. To turn this last topic around I would like to highlight a girl that never gave up on love, even if it hurt. Nancy Rue says in her book, Coping with Dating Violence that abuse happens in many ways. Sometimes the guy doesnââ¬â¢t want to lose the girl and sometimes he has anger issues. What I was interested in was why women tend to stay with these men when they arenââ¬â¢t treating them right. This book states that women often blame themselves for the abuse. What I am interested in is the fact that some stay because, in the beginning, it was perfect and they were so in love. Was this true love that just went wrong or a facade from the beginning? When girls fall in love with this boy they are really falling in love with him, she states. When a girl is being abused by the ââ¬Å"mental illnessâ⬠that the boy has. During this process I learned a lot, but not as much as I wanted to. Next year I will have to write a ton of papers. While this project was interesting, I donââ¬â¢t see it preparing me for the future. I already know how to research, so hat was one of the easiest parts. The main thing that I learned from this project was MLA format. I have worked with many kinds of formats before so it was good to be able to focus on just this one. What I really liked about what I did was the quality of research although I wish that I had the time to get more. I also make summaries daily for other classes which made it easier to do the summ aries in here. One thing that I really need to work on is my citations. Most of the times they need a little bit of tweaking, in order to be fully correct, there arenââ¬â¢t too many problems. What I learned in both this area and in MLA format will most certainly help me in later projects. During this particular project I liked it simply because it was different. It is not like the typical high school paper. One thing it could have benefited from was a little less structure. We were able to pick out our own topic which was nice but turning in our summaries every due date was a little confining. I believe that more freedom would have also been more responsibility, so I understand the structure somewhat. I began this paper with an idea. Actually, I had many ideas but my main one was my favorite. This idea has become a growing question in my own life. Does true love exist? Some people believe they can answer this question with a yes or no. This is not the answer that I want. I want a reason, explanation, but most of all information. Iââ¬â¢m not researching that feeling you get when you see that cute guy a couple rows over in class smiling at you. I am looking at actual, forever love. I was hungry for information and began searching from many different angles. I found scientific evidence and put it right along side the religious. I read stories about terrible abuse and tales of enchanting love. The scientific evidence claimed its existence, if rare. Just by looking at divorce rates in America shows how wrong we can be about love. These are some of my favorite sources. My absolute favorite has to go to the book I read. This story speaks to me in a way that none of the articles could. One of the stories from this book tells of a girl that fought so hard for love, she almost died. The desperation that she feels is what makes this the best in my eyes. After all of this time I think I can finally say that I have an answer that makes sense to me. True love is out there for everyone somewhere. It is just up to you to find it and hold on tight. There will never be a world where everyone will find this connection but the first step is knowing what to look for. At the very least, you should know what to stay away from. This conclusion has helped me with my own life, even if it never helps another person. I wish that I could not change my question but instead write a follow up piece. If I could it would be on the history of love, how it has evolved. That topic intrigues me but the one I wrote this paper on was just right for me.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Dance of the 1950 essays
Dance of the 1950 essays The decade of the 1950's witnessed the continuing growth of dance activity in North America. The Rock n' Roll explosion of this decade reflects the optimism in society after World War II and provided the chance for the younger generation to clutch to something exciting. This new trend however not only excited people's ears, it also excited their bodies, and initiated people to get up and dance whether it was in the privacy of their own home, at parties, or at the drive-in. Ultimately, Rock n' Roll became synonymous with dance crazes among the young people, for they both did the same thing; celebrated the joys of youth. Unlike dances such as the waltz, when gliding conservatively across the floor in a very conspicuous manner was the "proper" way of dancing, artists such as Elvis Presley introduced gyrating hips and torso moves and a body attitude that seemed to express let loose and do your own thing," which many loved to imitate. Therefore, one could say that dance in the fifties bec ame "dirtier" and more importantly, liberated, being the perfect rebellion act for teenagers during this decade. In the '30s and '40s, you went to Harlem's Savoy Ballroom for the ultimate source of swing era dance style. However this sophisticated approach changed in the 1950s, when adolescents simply went to their living room for a feel-good experience every day after school. Beginning on October 7th, 1952, a new obsession swept the continent, referred to as American Bandstand. Hosted by Dick Clarke, this music and particularly dance show was the most popular of its kind. In order to conform to the carefully crafted bandstand image, Dick Clark did not permit aerials, lifts, dips, partnered charlestons, or jazz moves. Also, the tight confines of the studio were hardly favorable to flash dancing. Therefore, even thought parents disapproved of the Rock n' Roll emergence, as well as what it influenced in their children, American Bandstand was fairly a...
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Researched Personal Argument on pro-hunting Essay
Researched Personal Argument on pro-hunting - Essay Example Their argument with regard to this controversial activity of hunting is that a legal solution will ensure that people will no longer rely on hunting for a living. This will have been as a result of it being made impossible to continue hunting under animal protection by legal intervention. Thus, forbidding hunting using legal channels, as is being seen from the point of view of the urban onlookers, is seen to shed light to a brighter future of the wild animals. This is, especially, for those animals which have been hunting targets for the human beings. There exists, also, another perception which is from a slightly different point of view from the previously mentioned one above. This is the one in which the legal intervention is seen as the beginning of a journey towards a complex system of causal activities which will indefinitely continue with the seeking of wild animalsââ¬â¢ liberation from the oppression by human being hunters. These activities referred to in this former statem ent are such those that will probably ensure that the human being activities within the environment affect it in a positive ways. First in the list of these activities according to Harvey is the replacement ways of modern agriculture which are unkind and damaging the environment with better ones (Par. 21). Harvey also suggests the employment of an entirely new form of land management (par. 21). Activities which would also bring harmony between those residing in the town and the rest of the population in the other parts of the country are also part of the causal activities which would unfold once the legal employment of protecting wildlife from human being hunters is established. However, this perspective of resolving the issue between hunters, the hunted and the environment has elicited varied criticism. Being also inclined to the opinion of the critics of Harveyââ¬â¢s argument, I tend not to support the establishment of
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
HR1003 People, Organizations and Management Assignment
HR1003 People, Organizations and Management - Assignment Example Working in call center can be monotonous and seem tedious at times. It can be stressful if a single worker attends high percentage of calls in a single day. Generally, workers have to do night shifts and with not enough information (Norman, 2005, p.7). 3. A personââ¬â¢s involvement towards his work can be assessed by his instrumental orientation to work. An employee will be maintained in an organisation depending on the economic returns from his work. His involvement in his work will be calculated. His job will not be part of his social life. (View From Below, n.d., p.40) 4. Task significance is the concept of determining the positive effect that a personââ¬â¢s job can have on other people. By cultivating this concept, an employeeââ¬â¢s job efficiency can be increased as it will make him feel that his efforts are being valued. One example is working for social causes in NGOs (Grant, 2008, p.108). 5. When focusing on gender issues in a factory, Anna Pollert described how women workers feel doubly oppressed by the male workers and also by capitalists. The domestic pressures also remain in the consciousness of these women workers. Pollert said that although these women work in a manââ¬â¢s domain, but still they have managed to create their own existence (View From Below, n.d., pp.46-47). 6. William Thompson says that if a person earns more money in a job of low standard, then he has the tendency to spend more. A person identifies luxury cars and expensive vacations as compensation for hard work. Thompson has seen this similar psychology in workers at slaughterhouses. This attitude helps the workers to tolerate the drudgery of slaughterhouses (Barton, 2006, p.94). 7. Intrinsic rewards of work mean the rewards that a person receives from his own performance towards his job. For such rewards an individual does not have to rely on others. When a worker receives intrinsic rewards from his work, he will not think
Monday, January 27, 2020
Web Application Design for School Organisation Optimization
Web Application Design for School Organisation Optimization Application and Knowledge Design At first, the ontology will be planned in accordance with the methodology of ontology building. Description of the Ontology The ontology domain is based upon the running of a school. The goal of the research is to provide users of the applications with the prospects to get information regarding the requirement that is required in the running of a school. The school will incorporate classes, departments, subjects, all staff etc. Queries In order to get all the required information, a number of queries have to be performed throughout the web. Coupled with the required information, it can be stated that the following queries need to be performed. What is taught Monday morning in room CWG/03 at 9am? How many girls are in year 10 take Science? How old is the head teacher? What teacher is head of the sports department? Who teachers Geography and also Sports? Please give all the names of teachers and their email addresses if known. How many of the admin team are under 40 years of age? Admin Staff members whose surname begin with W Retrieve all teachers and their qualifications Retrieve the name of all subjects taught by the teacher with ID 2341 Why the Domain is Interesting to an Audience? The shift of the paradigms in the field of education in the recent decades, as well as the spreading of education, proposes ways through which the education can be provided under one roof. Practitioners and researchers are making every attempt to find approximate methodologies for making education easily available to every human being. With the proposed ontology, the user can have a concept of the school and will be able to develop the school system in any part of the world with an ease of the information technology. The respective domain ontology will act as an instrument for the construction of the school system in an effective and efficient manner. Consider Salvaging Existing Ontologies In order to make an application that fulfils the needed requirements, the following ontologies have been deployed. Tools for Managing Ontologies In the context of definitions and typologies, there are also several available tools for defining and managing ontologies. Since the initials and more rudimentary (Ontolingua Server, Ontosaurus) to the most recent and advanced, the following typology has been proposed. Ontology Development Tools This group includes the tools that serve for the construction of new ontologies or for the reuse of existing tools (Tolk, 2013). Among its functionalities are the addition and the consultation, as well as the export and import of ontologies, visualization in various graphic formats, etc. Ontology Fusion and Integration Tools These tools try to solve the problem of the combination and integration of diverse ontologies of the same domain; that occurs when two distinct organizations are united, or when it is intended to obtain a quality ontology, from the existing ones (Jain, 2013). Ontology Evaluation Tools They appear as tools for support should ensure that both ontologies and related technologies have a minimum level of quality (Ferraram, 2013). In the coming years, this effort can lead to identical certifications. Annotation Tools These tools are premeditated to consent users to insert information and data (Jain, 2013). Most of these tools have seemed recently, along with the idea of à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¹ the semantic web. Tools, Storage and Questions They are termed as the instruments that have been created to allow easy use ontologies (Maedche, 2012). The key is the intent that the web becomes a real platform to transmit knowledge. Learning Tools They are semi-automatically used to build ontologies from natural language. Along with the tools or editors, ontologies must mention the existence of different languages à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¹Ã ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¹that allow the creation and / or development thereof. Most are built by XML syntax or RDF (S) and OIL (Ontology Inference Layer), DAML (DARPA Agent Mark-up Language), OIL and OWL (The Web Ontology Language) (Shvaiko, 2013). In any case, some of these ontology languages à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¹Ã ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã¢â¬ ¹are still in development, although thanks to the work and support of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) OWL seems that consolidates acquiring a clear and obvious progression. Significant Terms used within the School Ontology The significant terms that will be deployed throughout the research paper are mentioned below. Staff Students Teachers/Lecturers Admin staff Rooms Classrooms Staff room Timetable Description of the Classes and Hierarchy Classes The classes are explained in the below mentioned diagram. The Architecture of 3-Tier Content Management is illustrated in the below mentioned diagram. Description of the Classes and Hierarchy Classes Describing Classes Three primary classes will be defined i.e. Users, institutions, and learning resources. The institution class is further divided into colleges. The learning resource class incorporates a list of overall courses as its user class and subclasses consists of a list of every type of users i.e. Instructor, student, and administrator (Jain, 2013).Ãâà The overall classes are sub classed under one class that exemplifies overall classes root. Tools and Techniques Used in Prototype Development Owl and Protà ©gà © editor have been deployed to build domain ontologies for its popularity and simplicity. RDQL and Jena2 APIs have been deployed in order to interact with a semantic web reasoner to implement the designed prototype (Kholief, 2012). OWL has been used as the ontology language, reason being; it has been recommended due to its tool support, and functionality. SPARQL is the recommendation of the W3C recommendation as a query language within the framework of Jena for RDF. SPARQL has been deployed to extract the information from the graphs of RDF. This infers that the only information retrieved by the SPARQL is stored in a model that consists of a set of N-triple statements (Ferraram, 2013). Moreover, SPARQL can process the ontology in a wide range of languages, including SPARQL, OWL, similar to other languages of RDF based query ierSeRQL, RDQL, and SPARQL is tough to provide semantics with reference to DL, OWL. A typical SPARQL query possesses the below motioned forms SELECT ?x WHERE (?xshortPrefix : localNameÃâà value) USING short Prefix FOR ?x refers to the variables that will return to the applications. The WHERE clause stipulates the graph pattern in the form of the list of the triple patterns USING clause describes an alias for URIs prefix to simplify the URLÃâà (Stevenson, 2015) SPARQL can query regarding the objects or predicates too. However, the limitation of SPARQL incorporates that there exists no query disjunction. The Repository tier stores both; the structure and content of the ontology. The Generic ontology researcher engine resides in the semantic tier amid the end user interface tier and repository tier (Icoza, 2015). The end-user interface tier cooperates with the content server via the reasoner by stipulating the criteria tier attribute-value pairs and the constraints. Then, the reasoner locates the pertinent contents (based upon those conditions), and deliver content to the software agents/ users within an arranged manner. Such a type of system decomposition allows those to develop large-scale software systems and reduces the overall time of development (Kholief, 2012). To illustrate the dependencies or relationships in the respective domain, 2 types of relationships have been used; the direct relationship amid content incorporating its inverse relationship. The other relationship is the transitive or indirect, tier prerequisite that refers to the inherited relationships. Sparql queries What is taught Monday morning in room CWG/03 at 9am? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?course ?weekday ?time ?room WHERE { ?course rdf:type sch:CourseÃâà . ?course sch:day ?weekday . ?course sch:time ?time . ?course sch:room ?room . FILTER regex(str(?weekday),Monday,i) FILTER regex(str(?time),9AM,i) } Science course is taught Monday at 9AM in room CWG/03. How many girls take science in year 10? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT (MAX(?course) as ?course_name)Ãâà (COUNT(?students) AS ?no_students) WHERE { ?course rdf:type sch:Course . FILTER regex(str(?course),Science_,i) . ?course sch:hascourse ?students . ?students a ?typeÃâà . FILTER( regex(STR(?type), Year10)) . ?students sch:gender ?gender . FILTER regex(str(?gender),F,i) . } The number of girls who take science in year 10 is 2. How old is the head teacher? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?task ?num WHERE { ?task rdf:type sch:Headteacher . OPTIONAL {?task sch:age ?num } } The headteacher is 45 years old. What teacher is head of the sports department? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?name WHERE { ?name rdf:type sch:Sports_head . } His name is Martin Richards Who teachers Geography and also Sports? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?teacher ?teaches WHERE { ?teacher rdf:type sch:Teachers . ?teacher sch:IsLecturerOf ?teaches . FILTER (regex(str(?teaches),Geography_,i) || regex(str(?teaches),Sports,i)) . } Bill Waite teaches both Geography and Sports. Please give all the names of teachers and their email addresses if known. (Optional patterns, week 6, lecture 5, slide 12) PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?name ?email WHERE { ?name rdf:type sch:Teachers . OPTIONAL {?name sch:email ?email } . } How many of the admin team are under 40 years of age? PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT (COUNT(?all)Ãâà AS ?total) WHERE { { ?all rdf:type sch:Receptionist } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Secretary } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Switchboard_Operator } . ?all sch:age ?yrs . FILTER (?yrs } There are 2 members of the admin team that have less than 40 years. What members of the admin staff surname begins with W PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECTÃâà Ãâà ?all WHERE { { ?all rdf:type sch:Receptionist } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Secretary } UNION { ?all rdf:type sch:Switchboard_Operator } . FILTER regex(str(?all),_w,i) } Paula Wilson, Charlie Williams and Jane Wight are the admin members whose surname begins with W. Retrieve all teachers and their qualifications PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?teacher ?teaches WHERE { ?teacher rdf:type sch:Teachers . ?teacher sch:IsLecturerOf ?teaches . } Retrieve the name of all subjects taught by the teacher with ID 2341 PREFIX rdf: PREFIX owl: PREFIX rdfs: PREFIX xsd: PREFIX sch: SELECT ?teacher ?id ?subjects WHERE { ?teacher rdf:type sch:Teachers . ?teacher sch:ID ?id FILTER (?id=2341)Ãâà Ãâà . ?teacher sch:IsLecturerOf ?subjects } Albert Tatlock, the teacher with ID 2341, teaches ICT. DBPedia A timetable query. Results in HTML Ontology-Oriented Inference-Based Learning Content Management System Application Semantic web technologies based upon ontology are considered as the promising solution in order to provide an explicit definition of the shared conceptualisation regarding certain domain as well as acknowledging assemblage of e-learning contents. Ontologies integrated with profiles of the learner integrate to provide enhanced results within an e-learning LMS system. It could be used in contrast with multi-agent technologies in order to derive personalised learning paths (Stevenson, 2015).Ãâà The domain of courses can be easily managed by ontology and provide explicit details of education establishment as well as adaptation of students learning paths. General Concepts of LCMS LMS is regarded as the software package, usually applied on the large scale that enables the delivery of learning resources and courses and management to students. Most of the LMS systems are web-based in order to facilitate anywhere, anytime access to administration and learning content. LMS is referred to as the reporting systems and do not include ways to develop new content or to deliver small learning packets (Icoza, 2015). LMS is fashioned for tracking test results, registration, class lists, grades, managing all learning events within the academics institute and class scheduling. In contrast, the LCMs focus upon the learning content. It provides authors, subject matter experts, and instructional designers to means to develop e-learning content in a more effective way. The core concern that is resolved by LCMs is to develop sufficient content just in time to meet the requirements of the learners group or individual learners (Kuhn, 2012). Instructional designers develop chunks of reusable content rather than entire courses and acclimatising to multiple audiences, and make them available to the course developers all through the academic institute. Sequence Diagram The sequence of steps is performed on the retrieve and query as mentioned in the figure below. The flow proceeds as follows: The user search for certain information after the registration to system Then, the semantic-based LMS check the validation of the query The system informs him about, if there is any error in request sending or if the query is invalid If the query is valid, then the system gets the query at repository data as well as user history repository, and sees there is any existing data (Kuhn, 2012). The system notifies him about the existence of data, if the data exists, then data is retrieved by the system makes an inference to that of fetching data by deploying the rules of validation It saves the result of inference to the repository and includes the outcomes to the original retrieved data and responses to the operator. Figure: Sequence Diagram FundamentalÃâà Ontologies The system is based on the ontological framework to allow formal demonstration of learning content along with its principle building blocks such as; different types of learning activities, learning content, participants within the process of learning i.e. teaching assistants, teachers, learners, etc. (Ferraram, 2013). The ontology domains defined can be salvaged by other ontologies, therefore assimilating various contemporary technologies under single ontology illustrating a large domain. Describing Classes Three primary classes will be defined i.e. users, institutions, and learning resources. The institution class is further divided into colleges. The learning resource class incorporates a list of overall courses as its user class and subclasses consists of a list of every type of users i.e. instructor, student, and administrator (Jain, 2013).Ãâà The overall classes are sub classed under one class that exemplifies overall classes root. Outlining Properties Figure: Object Properties Figure: Datatype Properties The ontology of the learning resources is the core of this framework has been demonstrated in the graph illustrated below using the OntoGraft (Kholief, 2012). It consists of a number of properties and classes aimed at formally signifying learning content. The ontologies have been divided into two segments; information of learning course and learning content information. The class courses is the one that has been opted by more than one learner while interrelating with customers. The other class consists of the course content such as; lab experience, PowerPoint lectures, notes, and media. Moreover, the courses are also divided into the subclasses. Class course specifications incorporate the information regarding the field, term, and the course type. In addition, class course enrolment includes information regarding the enrolment of students on certain course (Icoza, 2015). The ontology signifies characteristics to the overall procures of E-learning i.e. Preferences and basic personal data along with the speciation of the features of leaner-specific, including multiple dimensions of learning styles and performance. Figure: Projected Learning Resource Ontology Class Diagram A class diagram is the UML structure diagram that illustrates the structure of designed system by exemplifying the classes in the system, constraints, relationships, their features, amongst the classes.Ãâà Ãâà Moreover, the active entities of the anticipated systems include; courses, students, course administrator, and course content. The entities of the business domain include; test, enrolment, course evaluation, and course specification (Kuhn, 2012). The class diagram of the projected system has been illustrated in the below mentioned figure. Figure: Class diagram of Learning Resources ontology Logical Rules The above mentioned rules demonstrate the semantic probing of course content upon the system. The explanation of the rules is mentioned below. rules 1; the privilege of the learner to course content ie enrollment rules 2; pre-request courses of various courses (Ferraram, 2013). rule 3; topic of certain contents such as; authentication lectures of course database is linked to security of topic too Related Work The research will incorporate the approaches of e-learning content management along with the semantic approach that is associated with the represented work. The review has enhanced the e-learning environments with that of the semantic-rich cognisance information. It has intended the educators to utilise this information when updating learning content for future courses. Therefore, heuristics have been developed that allow both; the convergence of LCMS log data and the intelligent analysis into the ontologies of the Semantic web. ILMSs (Intelligent LMSs) have linked the modern approach to the web-based education is dependent upon the LMSs, but under adaptive hypermedia and intelligent tutoring technologies (Kholief, 2012). As the generation of the new Web, the Semantic web has improved conditions for reusing and composing the learning materials. The research has been aimed to develop a simple, learner-oriented, and customised e-learning system as well as to create the material of particular course conforming SCORM. The research emphases upon the development of an ontology of student model that is appropriate with the needs of learning procedures in the faculty of computer science. The oncology has, moreover, incorporated the knowledge regarding student learning styles, student data, as well as the performance of the students (Jain, 2013). The research is based upon the approach, identifying such of those learning objects that amalgamate information technology and educational pedagogy via instructional design. Brief Phenomenon of Ontologies The term Ontology comes from the world of philosophy is the part of metaphysics that deals with being in general and of their transcendental properties, or properties that transcend the limits of the merely experimental (Wanner et al, 2015).Ãâà This concept has been adopted by computer science, specifically in the domain of artificial intelligence, adapting it to their needs, and using a metaphor according to which the experimental, physical, tangible, objective and recordable would be the data, and the metaphysical, inedible, subjective would be informative. More rigorously, this metaphorical adoption has given rise to a wide variety of definitions of this new concept, a product of the points of view of diverse authors and, fundamentally, of the different ways of constructing and using ontologies as computer systems (Brizzi et al, 2016). Among the most well-known and used definitions is that states that that an ontology constitutes an explicit and formal specification of menta l abstractions, which are shaped by an agreement of the expert community in a domain and in a design for a specific purpose this definition implies a multitude of aspects that contribute to clarify this concept. Therefore, when analysed in detail, it is ontology provides the structure for a vocabulary controlled in a way similar to a dictionary or a thesaurus. This vocabulary, agreed by the community, is expressed through concepts, thus conforming the abstractions (Johnson, 2016). On the other hand, in terms of the formal specification of a vocabulary, this could be in various forms, such as a flat list of words, a dictionary, a taxonomy, an entity-relationship diagram, a Unified Mark-up Language (UML) model, an XML schema and many other possible ones (Goodchild, 2013). However, the ontologies are much more than described so far and to give a small sample that its possibilities are not confined and trying to clarify and deepen especially, it has resorted to the definition of Neches and employees. It has been argued that ontology defines the vocabulary of an area through a set of basic terms and relations between these terms, as well as such, as rules that combine terms and relationships that extend given definitions in the vocabulary (Kuhn, 2012). This assumes that the ontologies are not formed only by mere concepts with a certain organisation, which would not be much more distant of a thesaurus, but also relations, rules, and axioms are given between concepts that enrich and contribute to expanding the vocabulary of the work domain. In order to clarify, with a concrete case, what is ontology is included below an example regarding possible travel ontology (Stocker et al, 2014). Within it would be all the relevant concepts related to the subject in question, among others: travel, flight, the client, lodging, road, departure, arrival, rate, etc. In this ontology, everything would start from the key concept, trip. Of the same, the different types of trips that a person can perform (flight, train, bus, by boat, etc.). Also, it is the fact that every trip has a single date, time and place of departure and a single date, time and place of arrival, a company and a tariff, concepts all that would be part of the ontology (Whitehead et al, 2013). Once all the basic concepts have been defined, the relations between them, for example, a trip of a certain type with a place of departure and another one of arrival corresponds a determined duration. Another possible relationship would be formed by the place of the concept of departure, place of arrival, and itinerary by road, and that a certain sequence of roads connects two different places. The complexity and variety of relationships can become as can imagine since the multiplicity of relationships can achieve a system much more powerful and effective. Thus, a city of origin may have as points of departure a particular bus station, a train station or an airport (Jain, 2013). Different points of departure that will be depending on the chosen destination or on other issues such as schedules or economic ailments, among others. With this complexity of criteria, intelligence implemented in the system this will be able to guide to the most suitable station or airport, at a certain time and with the relevant transhipments. In this way, the efficiency can be management process of any trip, greatly facilitating the whole process (Ferraram, 2013). Another important element that is part of the ontologies are the axioms (logical expressions), which serve to define meaningful constraints of the type such as, is not possible to travel from the USA to Europe by train or it is not poss ible to travel by boat between Madrid and Barcelona. In addition to it, this small ontology could be implemented on an Information System (GIS), helping to manage all this information in a more efficient and autonomous, because it will allow the user to know what type of transport takes you from one city to another, days and times of departure and arrival, fares, durations, accommodation, etc., all in a smart and automated way. Without forgetting that the information to be obtained can be as much or more complex as it goes bringing greater
Sunday, January 19, 2020
My father, my role model Essay
By Jem Finch At first, I thought Atticus was just a feeble, old man. He never took part in anything interesting; he didnââ¬â¢t play poker, stayed in an office, and didnââ¬â¢t go hunting or fishing like all the other men in town. He was never too tired to play keep-away, but when I asked if we could play tackle, heââ¬â¢d tell me: ââ¬Å"Iââ¬â¢m too old for that, son. â⬠Whenever there was a football competition, he always told me he was too old for that too. All the other fathers went to it anââ¬â¢ all my father ever did was wear his glasses and read. I was embarrassed by him. Though, my whole opinion changed since the incident with the mad dog and the court hearing with Tom Robinson. I was flabbergasted! Miss Maudie said back in Atticusââ¬â¢ time, he was the deadest shot in town. They called him one-shot Finch and I couldnââ¬â¢t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. I saw him differently then. I was most eager to brag about it too. But it wasnââ¬â¢t just the way he handled the gun that impressed me, it was also ââ¬â¢cause of his modesty. I could tell Scout hadnââ¬â¢t realised it, but Atticus never said a word about his marksmanship. I liked that part of him. I also liked his defence for Mr Robinson. Everyone had been against him for defending a coloured person, but Atticus held his head high. He provided an awful good argument too. I appreciated Atticusââ¬â¢ efforts and grew to respect him. He had taught me that true courage wasnââ¬â¢t a man behind a gun, but itââ¬â¢s when you keep on fighting even if you know youââ¬â¢d lose. I wished I could be more like my father. Then I could become a lawyer too. I figured I wouldnââ¬â¢t care if he couldnââ¬â¢t do a single blessed thing. Atticus is a gentlemen, just like me! By Charles Baker Harris I am real proud of my father. He did so many things for the country I can hardly remember them all. At one time he fought in a war to keep the other countries from invading us. Every now and then heââ¬â¢d show me his collection of the tags he took from the soldiers he killed, and the medals he had earned for his acts of bravery. But that wasnââ¬â¢t all he did. He did other things too. When he had time, he would go fishing and hunting with me. Once, we caught a fish so big it didnââ¬â¢t fit in the boat and we had to get a ship to drag it ashore. The other day he picked me up from his aeroplane and drove me all ââ¬â¢round the country. I could see all the houses from there. They were about the size of an ant and were nothing compared to the house my father had bought me. He was also the president at one time. Thatââ¬â¢s why heââ¬â¢s always got so much money. But I didnââ¬â¢t like how his job took up so much of his time. He couldnââ¬â¢t allocate any time to play with me then. Apparently he had more important things to do and he couldnââ¬â¢t go hunting with me no more. I didnââ¬â¢t like that. Thatââ¬â¢s why I decided to run off to Maycomb County to live with aunt Rachel. I thought itââ¬â¢d show him that he needed to spend more time with me. I met Jem and scout down at Maycomb County. Their father was called Atticus I think. But he wasnââ¬â¢t anything like my father; all he ever did was read all day. He was a boring person and werenââ¬â¢t any fun at all. I didnââ¬â¢t know how Jem and Scout got on with him. Seeing Atticus only reminded me of how great my father was. Maybe, in the summer, Iââ¬â¢ll return to Washington and see my father again.
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Book Summary: the Bible Among the Myths by John N. Oswalt Essay
John Oswalt, in his book The Bible Among the Myths, presents his position to the reader that the bible is different and separate from other writings of the Ancient Near East. He asserts the Bible is both historically accurate and theologically sound. He makes the defense the Bible was divinely inspired and revealed to humanity and unique from other Ancient Near East literature. There was a time when the Bible, and the Israelite religion was different from its neighboring societies. But as times have changed, many people now lump the bible with other Ancient Near East myths. The book is broken up into two sections. The first half of the book, ââ¬Å"The Bible and Myth,â⬠Oswalt takes the time to define what a myth is and what differentiates the Bible from a myth. He then describes the different between the worldview of the Ancient Near East and continuity is different from the Bibleââ¬â¢s transcendence. The second half of the book, ââ¬Å"The Bible and History,â⬠examines several philosophical thoughts proposed by others that attempt to explain the Bibleââ¬â¢s relevance separate from historical validity. Oswalt provides excellent arguments against the new age philosophies. Oswalt provides an articulate argument for the veracity of the Bibleââ¬â¢s history and theology by providing several convincing points to affirm the Bibles varicity. Introduction John N. Oswalt, in his book The Bible Among the Myths, provides the reader with a brief, yet comprehensive view of the differences and similarities between the Old Testament and Ancient Near East religions. In the introduction, he provides a brief overview of scholarly thought regarding the Old Testament literature and Ancient Near East literature and how perspectives have changed in nearly 50 years. Oswalt states at the time he was introduced to the subject, scholars believed the Old Testament and its theology stood alone from other Ancient Near East religions. He now contends that present day scholars believe the Old Testament is just one of many Ancient Near East religions. Oswalt states it was the differences between the Old Testament and other Ancient Near that separated the two. But today, scholars are taking the same data and looking their similarities (11-13). He states that this is a ââ¬Å"vital philosophical distinction between ââ¬Å"essenceâ⬠and ââ¬Å"accident.â⬠â⬠ââ¬Å"Essenceâ⬠has to do with the essence of the subject whereas ââ¬Å"accidentâ⬠is those things that are not essential to the subject (13). He insinuates that scholars of today are centering their attention on the ââ¬Å"accidentalâ⬠attributes of the Old Testament and Ancient Near East religions and not centering on those things that are the essence of the subject; those things that make the religions different. It is these similarities and differences Oswalt states he will center his attention (14). Oswalt then turns the attention of the reader to the definition of a myth. He states there are different definitions of a myth but the Bible is not one of them. He states when people start to think of this word as ââ¬Å"typical of a myth,â⬠then four things happen: 1) The individual is devalued; 2) There becomes a disinterest in history; 3) People become open to the occult; and 4) People do not take responsibility for their actions (14). Oswalt believes what makes the difference between the Old Testament (OT) and the Ancient Near East (ANE) literature is how God makes himself divinely known to his people. The next premise Oswalt boldly states is that if we believe in Scripture theologically, then we can also believe that the Bible is historically true. He states, ââ¬Å"the veracity of the theological claims of the OT is inseparable from the veracity of the historical claimsâ⬠(16). The Bible maintains a ââ¬Å"unique worldviewâ⬠and is one that has been revealed by God to his people, Israel. He states there are things we must wrestle with when it comes to investigation the Bible historically from its theological stand but the Bible can uphold its claim to be theologically and historically viable. Chapter 1 Chapters one through five discuss the differences and similarities of the Bible compared to ANE literature. The premise of chapter one is the Bible has had a major impact on the world, especially with its contributions to Greek philosophy and thought. Greek philosophers believed there was one ââ¬Å"unifying principle in the cosmosâ⬠(21) and that everything could be identified and reasoned with through logic. As Oswalt states, this brought into conflict the thought of a myth based polytheistic society to a monotheistic mindset. Oswalt states that the Hebrew thought survived through the exilic period in Assyria and Babylon even though they were in direct conflict with the societies in which they were captive. Israel brought into these societies the thought that there was only one God and He was the creator of the world and humanity. In addition, Oswalt states the Israelites brought the unique ideas that God was not dependent upon humanity but himself and that God revealed himself to humanity and gave them specific understandings of what he expected from his people. It was only by Godââ¬â¢s design that the people of Israel were able to maintain their religion in a foreign land. Greek and Hebrew thoughts combined into a complementary way of thinking about the universe and the world. The Hebrew religion of one creator who created the world found a place in the Greek philosophy of a unifying principle to the universe. On the other hand, Greek philosophy could combine itself by to Hebrew ideas by linking the cause and effect of the world (26). Oswalt states that there was a necessity for the biblical worldview. Without it liking itself with the Greek philosophy, we would not have a need for reason, understand the importance of history and have value of the individual (27). Chapter 2 Oswalt, in chapter two, attempts to define the word myth but prior to his discourse, he revisits the divergence of scholars going from believing in the OT as a separate piece of literature from all other ANE mythological literature to being placed in the mix of ANE literature as mythology. Oswalt contends the job of defining a myth is challenging especially in a climate the Bible is being placed with other ANE literature. He states there are two definitional problems. The first problem has to do with the definitions of myth. He states there has been a breakdown in providing an accurate definition. The other problem has to do with the definition itself. It may not accurately describe the members of a class (32). Two primary definitions are provided for the reader. The first is the historical-philosophical definition which attempts to ââ¬Å"describe how the myth operates in societyâ⬠(40). Subdivisions of the historical-philosophical definition are the etymological, the sociological-theological and the literary. The second is the phenomenological. Etymological definition attempts to identify the false nature of an event or story. The sociological-theological definition is a form of story in which conveys some truth about the world. Literary definition of a myth is the narrative attempts to use the source of symbolism to convey truth or meaning (33-39). The phenomenological definition regarding a myth is to look at the common characteristics of the story and how it relates to the society. Oswalt states that all these definitions have a commonality of continuity. No matter their defined variations, they are interrelated. Oswalt states, ââ¬Å"Continuity is a philosophical principle that asserts that all things are continuous with each otherâ⬠(43). Myths are to have a common approach to the world (45). Chapter 3 The idea of continuity in myths is continued and expended in chapter three. Continuity can better be defined as all elements of a myth are interrelated physically and spiritually, in a circular motion, to each other. In a story, there are no distinctions between humanity, nature and the divine. This also includes the thought of pantheism, ââ¬Å"the divine is everything and everything is divineâ⬠(49). The problem with this is that there are no absolutes, and people and nature are equal to god. Oswalt state, there are a number of ââ¬Å"far-reaching implicationsâ⬠with regard to continuity. The first is that myths only look at the here and now, the present, and keeping things as status quo. Myths are not in interested in the future or moving forward. Second, myths do not look at the involvement of humanity and the choices they made. Third, myths also perpetuate the actualization of a ââ¬Å"timeless reality.â⬠Maintenance of the system is needed. This is accomplished through sexual relations in order to maintain fertility of the earth and living creatures as well as performing other ritualistic acts in order to ensure the gods and goddesses maintain the cycle of fertility. Fourth, nature is used as an important ââ¬Å"expression of the divine.â⬠The gods were personified in nature. Fifth, mythology used magic in order to accomplish something in nature or in the divine realm. Finally, because of this continuity, there are no boundaries which cause a blurring o f the natural, human and divine (44-56). Once both sides of continuity are explained, Oswald provides what he believes are common features of myths. There are always elements of polytheism. There are multiple gods. Gods are always represented by some natural element such as wood, stone or other natural element. The gods are not multidimensional and are stereotyped. The gods are not valued nor are humans. The gods are appeased by certain acts and humans are subject to the gods. There is always an element of conflict in the myth either with the gods or other human conflict. Eternity, both before and after the establishment of the world, was and is chaotic. Because humanity is at the whim of the gods, there is no standard of ethic. Finally, the cycle of life is cyclical. Oswalt states that the cycle goes from ââ¬Å"nonexistence to dependence to independence to dependence to nonexistenceâ⬠(57-61) Chapter 4 Biblical transcendence and the transcendence of God are the major themes of chapter four. While chapter three centered on the identifying factors of what constitutes a myth, Oswalt provides several key elements that make the Bible, especially the God of the Bible, unusual and exceptionally different from other ANE mythological literature and religions. As mentioned before, there is only one godly source of the OT (64). God who is spirit is separate from his creation and cannot be created in any form (65). Once created, the conflict ended with created order both in heaven and on earth (67). God created man in his image and therefore gave him importance by being in his likeness (69). Oswalt interesting notes that God is ââ¬Å"supra-sexual.â⬠Meaning, God is not known by his sexual identity but his roles. In addition, creation is not directed by sexual activity (73). God in all his activities can be relied upon to do all that he said he would do and not deviate as those gods of myths. God prohibited magic was as a method of manipulating Him into some type of action (75). The final element is in regard to the Sinai covenant God made with the people of Israel. They were obligated to live a certain lifestyle whereas there were no restrictions for the other who lived outside of the covenant (76). Comparing and contrasting the biblical worldview from those of a mythological perspective provides some understanding of how radically different and distinctive they are from each other. Transcendence verses continuity; God is above all and separate from the universe, nature and humanity. God interacts with humanity through his covenant relationship. Chapter 5 Oswalt continues his discussion between the differences between the Bible and mythology however he looks at it in light of their similarities. Before he does looks at those similarities, however, Oswalt digs deeper into the ethic as it relates to human relationships with God and man. He states that there are two offences, which are offenses against the gods and offences against other people (85). The mythic ethic, offences against the gods in literature were ââ¬Å"cultic or magicalâ⬠where offences against people were against society, (85-86). Oswalt points out offences against the gods had nothing to do with their treatment of each other. The biblical ethic was something different, more wholistic. Behavior on every level, social and personal was out of obedience in the covenantal relationship with God (88). God and his relationship with the covenantal people maintained the same standard. The author provides a few examples where it would seem as though the Bible is a similar to myth. He provides examples of the creation story in Genesis and in Psalms to point some similarities in the Enuma Elish (Babylonian creation account) and other literature. Oswalt acknowledges that similarities and disputes them as something the Bible took from mythos but that they were similar practices not intended to make the Bible like other biblical literature as much as identifying the differences that stood apart from other literature. Chapter 6 Chapter six marks the second half of the book as it discusses history and the Bible. Like before in the attempts of defining myth, Oswalt attempts to accurately define history. He defined history, in summary, as a narrative that records events which is recorded for ââ¬Å"human self-knowledgeâ⬠and used as a means of evaluation in order to capture important events. According to Oswalt, there are several factors that are dependent upon when understand history. The first thing is that people are ââ¬Å"free and responsible.â⬠The second item is that there are causes and effects in everything that happens. The recorded information must be true is the third element. The fourth key is history can be used as a learning tool for other to grow. Fifth thing is that what happened yesterday is just as relevant today and that there is significance in their ââ¬Å"relationships.â⬠Finally, there must be a standard in which the information is evaluated (113-115). There are several ways ancient people of the Near East recorded events of their lives. They are omen texts, king lists, date formulae, epics, royal annals, and chronicles. Omens were documents that contained something that predicted the good or bad of an event or circumstance. The kingsââ¬â¢ lists contained the genealogy of the names and duration of the kings in power. Date formulae contained the yearly accomplishments of the kings. Epics were a narrative of events in a heroââ¬â¢s life which attempted to convey lifeââ¬â¢s philosophy. Royal annals were recorded events of a king and existed to ââ¬Å"glorify the kingâ⬠not so much to accurately chronicle what really happened. Chronicles were recordings of what actually happened, both positive and negative. They are about as accurate a historical record then the rest. In all, they were specific in the information they contained (116-122). Unlike our historians today or even the historical view of the Bible, the peoples of the ANE perspective was different than ours today. They were generally focused on the here and now and not future orientated. Their orientation included making sure they maintained the status quo in order to maintain the good in their lives. The best for everyone was to maintain the order of their society. They believed that everything was outside their control with a multiciplicity of causes determining their fate. This provides reasons why they were not interested in recording for the future and concerned about seeing the relationships of the events that took place in their lives. The Bible, on the other hand, provides a different perspective. As Oswalt states, ââ¬Å"They [characteristics of the Bible] are clearly presented to us as unique individuals, firmly rooted in time and spaceâ⬠(125). The events which took place were recorded whether they were positive or negative. The events were recorded showing the interrelationships between the events and persons as well as showing the results of human choices and the impact those choices had on the lives of those people. The Bible connects all the pieces together in a way that transcends ââ¬Å"the events themselvesâ⬠by showing the divine interaction with humanity (127). Oswalt asks the question how then could the Israelite nation be different without myth. He indicates it is because there was only one God who kept ââ¬Å"breaking into their experiencing and smashing their easy interpretationsâ⬠(134). God kept involving himself in their lives and these events were recorded. Chapter 7 Chapter seven unpacks Oswaltââ¬â¢s position that the Bible is historically accurate and theologically sound. Oswalt debunks the idea that history must be recorded without divine involvement in order for it to be historically accurate. In fact, he indicates that is what differentiates the Bible from any other work (138-139). The author states that it is the unique working of God in the lives of people to reveal his divine purposes, which is nowhere else in any literature other than the Bible (142). It is what he calls ââ¬Å"revelation through Human-Historical experienceâ⬠(149). God revealed himself and was divinely involved in the lives of the Israelites. Oswalt notes that he Bible did not ââ¬Å"bifurcate between revelation and witness to revelationâ⬠(140). The author goes on to state that if we fail to acknowledge God in the history then how can we accept the ââ¬Å"actsâ⬠of God presented in the literature. There is also the question of how can God be known if we take him out of the equation. Although many maintain that one cannot have an accurate account of history with God. Owalt maintains that without God there cannot be an accurate history without God. Israel had a different and unique perspective of God in literature. Chapter 8 Chapter eight is an extension of chapter seven although Oswalt moves forward on his conviction that the Bible is both historically accurate and theologically relevant. He critically reviews two popular scholarsââ¬â¢ works that have attempted to separate history from the Bible. The first is Rudolf Bultmannââ¬â¢s Existentialist Foundation and the other is Alfred North Whiteheadââ¬â¢s Process Thought. The Existentialist Foundation is the way one sees self relevant to history. As Oswalt explains, ââ¬Å"Instead of seeing the self as an entity shaped by history and a human ââ¬Å"nature,â⬠this way of thinking sees ââ¬Å"existence as the most fundamental aspect of historic consciousnessâ⬠(156). Oswalt states there are several problems with this philosophy; the first major issue is the use of the term ââ¬Å"history.â⬠He says that the term must be narrowed even further. He introduces the reader to the separation of the ââ¬Å"narrative Geschichte from the event Historie. Geschichte is what is ââ¬Å"going on and is in the domain of the theologian.â⬠Meaning what is in the narrative of the story. Historie defines ââ¬Å"what happened and is in the domain of the historianâ⬠(157). Historie centers upon what is the event that is actually happening in the story. Oswalt identifies several flaws with the Existentialist philosophy but the major ones are, 1) God is removed from the process; and, 2) The historical narrative excludes the past there is no acceptance of any standard of evaluation or appreciation of past events. Process Thought is seeks to take the events of the Bible and create together the events that take place into a new event. The events are integrated of the past, present and future. It is interested in the event not so much the substance. This too has its faults, one being that it also removes the transcendence of God in the narrative (167). Chapter 9 Oswalt provides alternative views concerning the biblical worldview in chapter nine. He maintains his stand that the biblical narrative has not changed but thoughts about it have and the biblical narrative is different than other mythological narratives. The author provides four alternatives concerning the biblical narrative. The first alternative is from John Van Seters. Seters stand is that several documents were pieced together and then priests rewrote what we now have today. The document was a work by someone using works similar to Thucydides and Herodotus. The second alternative is from Frank Cross. Cross work asserts that the bible came out of rewriting a poetic epic. The third alternative is from William Dever. Dever does deny archeological evidence of biblical history nor does he believe in the bibleââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"religious explanation of Israelââ¬â¢s existence and natureâ⬠(178). Dever stand is Israelââ¬â¢s religion was no different than that of the Canaanite religion until after the exile and the religion has been inaccurately perceived. The fourth alternative is from Mark Smith. Smith suggests that Israelââ¬â¢s religion originated from the polytheistic religion of the Canaanites (181). Oswalt argues that not one of these alternative thoughts of the biblical narrative has proved the unique nature of the Bible. Chapter 10 Chapter 10 concludes the book by summarizing Oswaltââ¬â¢s main points he expressed throughout the book. The bible is both historically accurate and theologically sound. The Bible is unique and separate from myth literature but their similarities should not stand in the way of perceiving it as different. What makes it markedly different is that a transcendent God come to involve him into the lives of humanity is radically different means than that of the other cultures which overrode the continuity of myths.
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