Can Evolution Fit into Christianity? Essay -- Religion Creationism Sci

Can Evolution Fit into Christianity? Thesis: Evolution versus Christianity has long been a topic of debate inside and outside the scientific community. Christianity believes that God created the world, the universe and everything in them. It believes that God takes an ever-present, active part in this world. Evolution states that over long periods of time the world changed. Bit by bit, change by change, the world was created and life began. As a scientist and a Christian, I will look at whether or not it is possible to fit evolution into my religion. Can these two controversial subjects be meshed or is the difference between them too great? What is Christianity? The Christian religion believes that God created the earth and the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ, God's son. A person must ask Jesus to come into his or her heart to live and forgive all of their sins. The main concern throughout this paper deals with the first statement in this paragraph, how the earth began. In Genesis 1:1 it states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."1 Then it continues on to tell how he created it. Christians believe that God is ever present in this world. He is always here, watching what happens and responding when someone asks. Christians also believe that God is all knowing and therefore he has foreseen how a person's life will go and what decisions he or she will make. What is Evolution? As a person begins to study the topic of evolution, it becomes apparent that everyone has their own perception as to what evolution is. Some people talk of evolution as if it were Darwinism or natural selection. Others think it is the primordial soup and the big bang. Some people simply compare an ape ... ... 4Johnson, E. Phillip, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1997. 3Moran, Laurence. (January 22, 1993) What is Evolution? Retrieved October 30, 2003 from, http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-definition.html 10 National Academy of Sciences (2001) Science and Creationism [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 29, 2003 from, http://bob.nap.edu/html/creationism/conclusion.html 6Redelings, Benjamin. Evolution and Christianity [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 29, 2003 from, http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~bredelin/Topics/Evolution/ 12Weiner, Jonathan, The Beak of the Finch, Vintage Books, New York, 1994. 8Woodward, Thomas, Doubts about Darwin, A History of Intelligent Design. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 2003. 11Wright, Richard T., Biology Through the Eyes of Faith. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, 2003. Can Evolution Fit into Christianity? Essay -- Religion Creationism Sci Can Evolution Fit into Christianity? Thesis: Evolution versus Christianity has long been a topic of debate inside and outside the scientific community. Christianity believes that God created the world, the universe and everything in them. It believes that God takes an ever-present, active part in this world. Evolution states that over long periods of time the world changed. Bit by bit, change by change, the world was created and life began. As a scientist and a Christian, I will look at whether or not it is possible to fit evolution into my religion. Can these two controversial subjects be meshed or is the difference between them too great? What is Christianity? The Christian religion believes that God created the earth and the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ, God's son. A person must ask Jesus to come into his or her heart to live and forgive all of their sins. The main concern throughout this paper deals with the first statement in this paragraph, how the earth began. In Genesis 1:1 it states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."1 Then it continues on to tell how he created it. Christians believe that God is ever present in this world. He is always here, watching what happens and responding when someone asks. Christians also believe that God is all knowing and therefore he has foreseen how a person's life will go and what decisions he or she will make. What is Evolution? As a person begins to study the topic of evolution, it becomes apparent that everyone has their own perception as to what evolution is. Some people talk of evolution as if it were Darwinism or natural selection. Others think it is the primordial soup and the big bang. Some people simply compare an ape ... ... 4Johnson, E. Phillip, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1997. 3Moran, Laurence. (January 22, 1993) What is Evolution? Retrieved October 30, 2003 from, http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-definition.html 10 National Academy of Sciences (2001) Science and Creationism [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 29, 2003 from, http://bob.nap.edu/html/creationism/conclusion.html 6Redelings, Benjamin. Evolution and Christianity [Electronic version]. Retrieved October 29, 2003 from, http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~bredelin/Topics/Evolution/ 12Weiner, Jonathan, The Beak of the Finch, Vintage Books, New York, 1994. 8Woodward, Thomas, Doubts about Darwin, A History of Intelligent Design. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 2003. 11Wright, Richard T., Biology Through the Eyes of Faith. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, 2003.

Western Influence on Intellectual Movements in China

These considerations give us a limited objective — to mark some of the broad outlines and trace some of the main patterns in the intellectual history of modern China’s attempt to comprehend the West and adjust to it. The study proceeds on the assumption that Western influence did indeed precipitate the remaking of Chinese life and values (Gu and Goldman 2004 74). The imitation of Western arms, the program of â€Å"Self-strengthening† through Western studies, later through industrialization and eventually through institutional reform, the movement for revolution and republicanism— all these and many other programs have had their day and contributed to the long struggle for the remaking of Chinese life. All of them have been related, in greater or less degree, to the Western influence on China, even down to the alleged â€Å"American imperialism† (Ghai 1999 32). The story of what happened during 1 920s and I 910s and World War II and its aftermath to the overseas trained intellectuals and the role they played in China’s history after World War II can be told through the recollections of Chen Renbing and the overseas educated. They reflected on their lives as intellectual; in China during the rise and implementation of communism and anti-intellectual movements, including the Thought Reform Movement, the Anti-Rightist Movement, the Cultural Revolution and the downfall of the Gang of Four and an attempt to return to a more civil society (Gu and Goldman 2004 74). These mostly male intellectuals provided fascinating details of their early lives and education abroad (Ghai 1999 32). However, even more questions arose with the realization that their influence upon returning to China was severely limited by anti-intellectual mass political movements. Discussion May Fourth Movement in 1919 The incident of May 4, 1919, was provoked by the decision of the peacemakers at Versailles to leave in Japanese hands the former German concessions in Shandong. News of this decision led some 3,000 students from Beida and other Beijing institutions to hold a mass demonstration at the Tiananmen, the gateway to the palace. They burned the house of a pro-Japanese cabinet minister and beat the Chinese minister to Japan (Ghai 1999 33). Police attacked the students and they thereupon called a student strike, sent telegrams to students elsewhere, and organized patriotic teams to distribute leaflets and make speeches among the populace (Gittings 1996 268). Similar demonstrations were staged in Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and elsewhere (Gu and Goldman 2004 74). A few students were killed and others were wounded (Rodan 2004 231). The prisons were soon full of demonstrators. Visits by Bertrand Russel and John Dewey, coupled with a large number of Chinese students seeking education in Europe, Great Britain and the United States, promised, a new epoch in China’s relations with the rest of the world (Gittings 1996 268). Some Chinese Critics blamed the government’s woes on its Eurasian nature, a reference to the many foreign advisers and Western-educated Chinese in its ranks (Ghai 1999 33). Rising patriotic sentiment was accompanied by heightened anti-foreign feeling. A generation of intellectuals whose mettle was forged in the May Fourth movement of 1919 sought inspiration from the West, absorbing Western ideas and values while rejecting Western influence in China (Rodan 2004 231). As the Nanking government centralized its power in the early 1930s, it tightened censorship and restricted intellectual freedoms (Zhao 2000 268). In the midst of civil war, any form of dissent, especially of a Communist flavor, was severely repressed, and a sort of ‘reign of terror† existed on some university campuses, with occasional raids, expulsions, and arrests. Espousal of communism was a capital offense and often no proof was required. In one incident, six young writers were forced to dig their own graves and then buried alive—an ancient punishment (Ghai 1999 34). Student Protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 In the spring of 1989, what began as a student protest in Beijing galvanized diverse social groups throughout China. Spurred by the death of the popular pro-democracy Politburo member Hu Yaobang, university students began a series of protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the civic and cultural heart of China (Rodan 2004 232). The students camped out in Tiananmen Square, listening to speeches, chanting slogans, and singing songs of freedom and protest. Print and broadcast media covered the lofty pronouncements of the charismatic student leaders (Gries and Rosen 2001 211). For many students, influenced by exposure to Western ideas as China opened its doors in the preceding decade, democracy appeared simply to mean freedom of press and expression (Ghai 1999 35). After some weeks, the students held the entire nation of China in thrall, threatening the ideological hold of Deng arid the other octogenarian Communist Party leaders (Zhao 2000 268). Traditionally, the people of China have viewed student protests respectfully (Gries and Rosen 2001 211). Western liberalization and significant political inclinations influence Chinese students to rally protest in realization to their demands of rights and appropriate humanitarian treatment, such as those performed in Western lands (Pok Xing 2004 121). The students, in fact, consciously sought to associate themselves with the May 4th Movement, a popular and patriotic pre-republic protest against foreign domination. At the core of the students’ concerns was a hope for greater democracy (Jeans 1997 184). Indeed, one of the most enduring symbols of the Tiananmen Square protests was the erection of a large-scale statue— the â€Å"Goddess of Democracy. In 1989, the economic reform initiated by Deng was a decade old, and many within China—even at the highest levels of government—believed that it was time for political reform as well (Gries and Rosen 2001 212-213). By May, the protests had expanded to nearly forty cities throughout China. The students drew support from many elements of Chinese society—from journalists, intellectuals frustrated by the Communist Party’s tight control over free expression in the press and academic institutions, urban workers concerned about growing inflation (nearly 27 percent in the first four months of 1989), and even bureaucrats upset about government corruption (Gries and Rosen 2001 212-213). The participation of workers m the protests were especially galling and worrisome to Communist Party officials. The party was, after all, supposed to be the vanguard of the workers (He 2001 88). Moreover, as events in Tiananmen Square were unfolding, party leaders were aware that Lech Walesa had recently led the independent trade union Solidarity in a call for political reform and free elections in Poland (Pok Xing 2004 121). Spiritual Pollution Policy Spiritual pollution and the closely related evil, â€Å"bourgeois liberalization,† are defined as beliefs in excessive and unchecked freedoms that undermine the four basic principles (Wood 2002 46). The ideological battle against such pollution was urgent but this problem occurred in the thinking of Party members, cadres and the people generally (He 2001 88). As a contradiction among the people, spiritual pollution could be solved using study, criticism and self-criticism. The place for eliminating such evils among united front targets was the institute of socialism (Chi 1996 196). China is particularly sensitive about Western cultural influence. Haunted by anti-foreignism, which ebbs and flows in recent Chinese history, China regards Western media fare as an important source of spiritual pollution and peaceful evolution (Wood 2002 46). News of the anti-spiritual pollution movement and its activities were like a virus spreading over China (Jeans 1997 184). In some places it took a serious turn and in some areas, like in Guangdong, it only received lip service (He 2001 88). With the campaign of party rectification proceeding at the same time, it was like the San-fan and Wu-fan campaigns revisited, but on a smaller scale. History came back to haunt the entrepreneurs, who were just recovering from the wrath of Mao and still hoping to overcome their fear of life uncertainty Mass campaigns in China typically had not been limited to the goal of the campaign but easily rolled over to microeconomic aspects of life, thus making life miserable for private entrepreneurs and consumers alike (Chi 1996 196). Western Influence: To Lead in China’s Democracy First, political civilization is part of the civilization of humankind: and advanced political civilization includes progressive political ideas, such as democracy, liberty, equality, fairness, justice, political transparency, and human rights, which are shared by all human beings (He 2001 88). Second, the development of socialist democracy in China should correspond to the country’s economic and social development as well as its political tradition, and China should never copy any Western political models. Third, in promoting political development, China can learn from the achievements of political civilization of other peoples, including some ideologies of Western democracy in terms of theoretical principles, institutional design, and political process (Wood 2002 48). Fourth, the priority in developing political civilization is to ensure that China’s socialist democracy is institutionalized and standardized, with corresponding procedures (Liew 2004 158). Such a theoretical innovation suggests Beijing’s flexibility and bottom line in search for the socialist democracy in general and intra-party democracy in particular (Gittings 1996 268). The influence of Western ideologies are significantly manifested in Chinese intellectual protests from the time of May fourth protests up to the latest at Tiananmen Square in 1989; hence, the possibility to utilizing western influence, particularly in democratic ideologies, can be a potential tool in introducing the concepts of democracy to the society and political system (Liew 2004 158). Conclusion The central theme of modern Chinese history has been to compete with the West so as to gain a foothold in the modern world. In the transformation to study western learning to achieve national prosperity and strength in modern times, China made a tremendous effort and paid dearly. Western learning spread in the beginning of this century, however the concepts of the rights and of the rule of law went against feudal social relationships. As with incidents in May fourth and Tiananmen Square, many had liberal if not leftist leanings, and were filled with disillusionment and yearnings for a strong and modern China. The western influences had indeed played significant role in the events; thus, with intellectual bodies stirred up, the possibility of introducing democratic concepts in Chinese society is indeed possible and potential.

A Comparison of Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite Essay

Mythology was very important to the men and women of ancient Greece. They worshipped the gods and goddesses, wrote poems about them, and based a great deal of art work off of them. The people of Greece looked to the gods and goddesses for help in all aspects of their lives; including health, agriculture, and war. Reading about Greek mythology can inform people about the society of Greece itself because the Greek gods were created by the people of Greece. Three main goddesses who were worshipped by the Greeks were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. These three goddesses represent three different types of women in Greek society. Sarah Pomeroy, author of Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, believed that â€Å"the goddesses are archetypal images of†¦show more content†¦Here the author explains that much of the reason why men of the society felt it necessary for the women to remain a virgin until marriage was because they were afraid of the sexual power that women had over men. For this reason girls were forced into marriage as soon as puberty hit; when they were able to understand and feel a sexual desire toward men (Walcot 39). The third and final trait that will be discussed is submission to men. In Greek culture, the men had all of the power. Women were supposed to stay at home while their husbands worked and had relations with other females. In this quote Walcot supports this idea: â€Å"Thus Greek wives were required to be totally faithful, whereas husbands might amuse themselves outside the home with those other than their wives† (39). This paper will explore these Greek goddesses and how they differ or are similar with three important traits of Greek women which were domesticity and motherhood, virginity until marriage, and submission to men. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, queen of the gods, and goddess of marriage is a goddess who represented the reality of marriage for Greek women. Homer describes her as â€Å"Queen of the immortals, beautiful beyond all others, sister of loud-thundering Zeus and glorious wife† (148). Hera is similar to Greek women in two out of the three traits. The first trait ofShow MoreRelated Roman And Greek Gods Essay example1482 Words   |  6 PagesItaly before the Greek religion became influential there.† (Pg. 333) This implies that the idea of Zeus, Jupiter and Jove had very little influence on each other since they were created before the Greek myths and Roman myths had started to cross paths. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the queen of the heavens. She gave birth to Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia. She also gave birth to Hephaestus, but it has been believed that she bore him without the aid of ZeusRead MoreThe Nature Of The Gods94 8 Words   |  4 Pagesremain untouchable by their puppets. Throughout the Iliad, the mortals were able to interact with the gods. 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His brother Hector and he were on a peaceRead More Troy vs. The Iliad Essays1385 Words   |  6 Pages We will never be here again (Troy 2004). The suspected start of the war- over the abduction of Helen, Queen of Sparta- was caused entirely by a godly conflict over who was the most beautiful- Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, was selected to judge. He chose Aphrodite, who in turn gave him Helen, who was her equivalent in beauty amongst humans. In both versions, Paris is portrayed as a wife stealing, thief in the night. His brother Hector and he were on a peace missionRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey977 Words   |  4 Pagesand situations of the characters, molding them to the desired outcome. Without the influence of the gods in either of the epics, however, the ending might have been very different. There was a great deal more divine intervention in The Iliad in comparison to The Odyssey, however, as there were more godly characters in that text. 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The Goddess of Love won hisRead MoreNores vs. Greek Essay5576 Words   |  23 Pagesthat this was necessary because they were not yet at the societal maturity level to have a single god on a cosmic plane. Most of the comparisons will be examining the similarities between major Greek and Norse gods, as well as creatures, stories and specific symbols which are featured in the mythologies. Some of the gods do not have direct counterparts (Thor, Athena and Loki). However, I will provide possible similarities within the respective mythologies. ASGARD Asgard is sometimes known as