Thursday, October 31, 2019
The Divided Kingdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
The Divided Kingdom - Essay Example In Samaria which was the capital of Israel at the time, people fed on their children (2 Kings 6:25-30). According to Collins, for both Judah and Israel, the offences against God were: idol worship, religious syncretism, desecration of the temple with idols, a litany of social and economic injustices and moral decadence. All these problems persisted because of Israel and Judah’s failure to listen to God’s word which came through the prophets. Bad leadership may also have exacerbated this unfortunate state of affairs. All the kings of Israel were not faithful to YHWH, while the bad kings in Judah were Rehoboam (930-913 BC), Abijam (913-911 BC), Jehoram (848-841 BC), Ahaziah (841 BC), Queen Athaliah (841-835 BC), Uzziah (781-740 BC), Manasseh (697-642 BC), Amon (642-640 BC), Jehoahaz (609 BC), Jehoiakim (609-598 BC), Jehoiachin (598-597 BC), Zedekiah (597-586 BC). The good kings of Judah were Asa (11-870 BC), Jehoshaphat (870-848 BC), Jehoash (835-796 BC), Amaziah (796-781 BC), Jotham (740-736 BC), Hezekiah (716-687 BC) and Josiah (640-609 BC) (Collins, 75). Question 2: The history outlined in 1 and 2 Kings is a theological history rather than an accurate accounting of events because therein, the authors were interested in giving an explanation for the division of Israel into two; the reason for the captivity; and hope for the future, rather than an accurate blow-by-blow chronicles of events. The Deuteronomistic History clearly shows that both Judah and Israel succumbed to unfaithfulness to YHWH, and that total destruction of both empires was the appropriate punishment. Again, there are those who trace Deuteronomistic History back to the Babylonian Exile of 585 BC, as the place and time of authorship. The gravity behind this standpoint is that the authors of these books may have been written out of retrospection, and not at the time the actual events contained in Deuteronomistic History materialised. This is to the effect that writing from memory may not be as detailed as a writing which may have been composed at the actual time an incident happened. While this absence of much specific detail may accost the books in Deuteronomistic History, it is not to be misconstrued as to mean contradiction. Instead, details such as exact timeframes and more details concerning Judah are characteristically missing from Deuteronomistic History. Being in Babylon, the authorship behind the Deuteronomistic History may have written to explain the reason behind God’s people being in exile, in lieu of giving a blow-by-blow account on the details which built up, in the run-up to the Exile. In another wavelength, other theorists such as Thomas Romer, a French scholar, have come to see a distinct party of authors who may have had different views (Raymond, 130). 3: David and Solomon as Both Good and Evil Kings Both David and Solomon are remembered simultaneously as both good and evil kings because their regimes were marked with faithfulness and u nfaithfulness to God. The good exploits David and Solomon exacted emanated from faithfulness to God, while their negative acts were are a result of their unfaithfulness to God. David’s goodness is exemplified in the fact that he is the only king, who presided over a united Israel, transported the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh to Jerusalem, established Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, drove away Israel’s enemies from Jerusalem and Israel, extended mercy to Mephibosheth (the house
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Western civilization paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Western civilization paper - Essay Example While some causes for doubt were natural processes quite beyond the scope or prevention of the church of the times, such as in the case of the Black Death and subsequent plagues that periodically decimated the European population, others were undoubtedly the result of greed and bids for power, such as could be seen in the Western Schism. Finally, social changes ranged far out of the control of the church through a variety of factors. A growth in the population leading up to the reformation, coupled with significant changes in economic structures as agrarian workers moved to towns and villages began to produce a more literary public. This was encouraged by the invention of the printing press that made the production of books faster and more economical and thus making them more accessible to a wider audience. This, in turn, promoted the spread of Humanitarian ideas throughout the general public following a period of church failures. Thus, while it can be argued that Martin Luther was t he biggest catalyst for change, he was heavily assisted by a variety of factors that came together at just the right time and place for his words to have maximum impact. The most recognized figure of the Protestant Reformation is that of Martin Luther (1483-1546), although this was not necessarily what the humble monk envisioned when he posted his 95 theses in 1517. His early life was spent in preparation for a career in law, but his adolescence gave him a jolt of divine inspiration when he was struck by a bolt of lightening and he turned to a life of serving God. Reports indicate he was a very devout monk, pious and humble, devoted to discovering God. This is revealed in his letters as he addresses the Archbishop regarding his concerns over the sale of indulgencies. Despite his strong feelings on the matter, he still addresses the Archibishop with excessive-seeming humility: â€Å"Spare me, More Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Prince, that I,
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Geography
Geography Geography Location The community lies in the Weschnitz valley in the Odenwaldsome 25km north of Heidelbergand about 20km northeast of Mannheim. It is on Bundesstraße38, and the river Weschnitz flows through it. The land is hilly, green and dotted with horse farms and forests. Neighbouring communities Birkenau borders in the north on the community of MÃ ¶rlenbach, in the east on the community ofAbtsteinach, in the south on the community ofGorxheimertaland in the west on the towns of Weinheimand Hemsbach(both in Rhein-Neckar-KreisinBaden-WÃ ¼rttemberg). Constituent communities Birkenaus Ortsteileare Birkenau, Buchklingen, Hornbach, Kallstadt, LÃ ¶hrbach, Nieder-Liebersbach, Reisen and Schnorrenbach. Climate Owing to its location near the Bergstraße, a mild climate prevails in Birkenau, which can often be seen in what for Germany is a very early blossoming ofalmondtrees. History Schloss Birkenau Birkenau had its first documentary mention in 795 in the Lorsch Codexas a cell of the Lorsch Abbey. As one of the Abbeys holdings, it passed into the ownership of the Archbishopric of Mainz in 1232. The centres of Hornbach and Balzenbach, on the other hand, belonged to Electoral Palatinate, meaning that after the Reformation, they belonged to different denominations. In 1532 the town hall was built, and in 1771 the palace, Schloss Birkenau, of the Lords of Wambolt von Umstadt. By 1964, the population had grown to more than 5,000. In 1967 the community was recognized as a recreational resort (Erholungsort) and in 1979 as an open-air resort (Luftkurort). Owing to the only slight tourism, however, it has not reapplied for this designation. In 1995, Birkenau celebrated its 1,200-year jubilee.
Friday, October 25, 2019
The Pilgrims and the Pilgrim Mystique :: American History Research Papers
The Pilgrims and the Pilgrim Mystique - A Blend of Myth, Fiction, and History [1] At the conclusion of the film Plymouth Adventure, the Pilgrims, physically and mentally, have withstood the rigors of persecution in their homeland, of the long and difficult voyage, and of their first year in the wild, desolate New World. Ultimately, this paradigm becomes the emblem of the founding of our nation and the beginning of a whole panorama of different versions each time the story is retold--some of them factual and some of them mythical. The purpose of this essay is to: 1) survey the scope of the Pilgrim mystique; 2) sort myth from fact in the story; 3) pinpoint the sources of the information we have about these settlers; 4) establish why this group was chosen rather than any of a myriad of settlers who came to the New World, both before and after the Pilgrims; and 5) finally, and most importantly, determine whether the facts about the Pilgrims have been misrepresented, distorted, or simply omitted in the film based on Gebler's book, The Plymouth Adventure: A Ch ronicle Novel of the Voyage of the Mayflower, and the two most reliable accounts we have of the Pilgrims' story, William Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation and Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Scope of the Pilgrim Mystique [2] If one were to ask the man on the street to recite the story of the Pilgrims, it would go something like this: These religious people wanted to worship as they pleased, so they left England and came to America; the voyage was hard and many of them died, but with the help of Squanto they were able to raise crops the next Spring and Summer. They had a bountiful harvest, and in the Fall they invited the Indians to join them in a thanksgiving feast where they served roasted wild turkey. Their strong religious faith and trust in God's providence were the main reasons they prospered in the New World. Quite likely these two facts would not be mentioned: the Pilgrims were a separate group from the Puritans, and the Plymouth Colony failed to obtain a charter and ultimately became a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692. Also absent from the recital would be the fact that Plymouth, the poor but proud capital of the Pilgrim Colony, sank to the status of a not-very-important cou nty seat, its interests shrinking to a radius of a few miles and the scale of its affairs lessening accordingly (Willison 408).
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Berkeley
The concerns of idealism and empiricism have been of continual concern in philosophy. Pre-Kantian thought had this collision at the highest point of controversy. Idealism holds the view that reality is composed in the consciousness of various agents. It finds its most radical postulation in the work of George Berkeley. Berkeley famously holds that view that nothing exists in the absence of perception – ‘to be is to be perceived’, as the maxim states. The reality of objects is assured by their projection onto or within the consciousness of different agents. Idealism here is represented by Berkeley who is the foremost proponent of a pure idealism in the western philosophical tradition. Similarly, he is the only major immaterialist thinker in his era of Enlightenment philosophy. The role of the perceiver is the final referent in the equation. This is in line with the return to science and the re-appropriation of classical values that characterized the Enlightenment worldview. Empiricism is headed by John Locke, the emphasis here is thus not as much on the perceiver as it is on the perceived objects. Within both traditions of philosophic thought there is great emphasis on perception as the key determining process in the attainment of reality (or an accurate representation thereof). When perception is the key to proper inquiry there are two main branches of problems that must be accounted for, illusion and delusion. Illusion is a problem or difficulty with the function of sensory input and delusion, being a problem with the perceiving mind.  The opposition between a mental and perceptual problem doesn’t hold up as well in contemporary philosophic thought, however it seems necessary to include these models of thought for the purpose of explicating the idealist-empiricist debate circa 1700s. Another framing concern is the epistemological character of the entire dialogue. It is specifically a drive toward certainty that fueled much philosophic inquiry. Illusions, in the sense that one’s perceptions imply contradictory things, have often fascinated philosophers from Plato through Descartes and even until today. In Berkeley’s work Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, he discusses a number of perceptual discrepancies using Philonous as his mouthpiece. The problem is stated that if one puts a hot hand in water the temperature feels cooler and warmer if one places a cold hand in the same water (Berkeley 142-143). This is done within the context of Berkeley’s idealist project which is to remove attributes from the object and describe things in terms of their existence in perception. He starts by mentioning the limits of the senses: they cannot infer from observation to causes and are bound to that which is immediately perceived (Berkeley 138). In this manner, he argues that since there is a discrepancy in the perception of the same object. The ‘temperature’ of the water must not be a uniformed attribute that exists within the water. Otherwise, the water must be at once hot and cold and this is rejected as an absurdity (Berkeley 143). Hylas raises the objection that while the sensation may be in the perceiver, the quality that gives rise to it must be within the object. This is countered by stating that such a quality has no bearing as we know of it only by our intellect. That is, we have removed it from any sort of corporeality. He writes in his principles that ideas of one God and ideas of man are both subject to being ideas, they cannot exist â€Å"otherwise than in a perceiving mind†(Berkeley 74). Locke’s approach to this particular problem is addressed in a different way in his Essays Concerning Human Understanding. While Berkeley describes the sensations of heat and cold as analogous to sweetness and bitterness or more generally pleasure and pain, Locke conceives the situation of temperature as analogous the properties of motion. Locke holds the view that heat and cold are actually a form of motion at a minute level (Locke 2.8.21). This is, of course, a prototypical view for the modern scientific view of temperature where heat is represented by low-level vibration of particles. The faster the vibration the higher the temperature. With this model, what we feel in the bucket example is the deceleration of particles in the warm hand and the acceleration of particles in the cool hand. The differential temperatures see to average themselves out. This model is well in line with the contemporary palette, however, it fails to address Berkeley’s perspective which erases the concept of an inherent quality. The problem of delusion is brought up, again in Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. Hylas posits, â€Å"What difference is there between real things and chimeras formed by the imagination . . . since they are all equally in the mind?†(Berkeley 197). The answer comes that â€Å"ideas formed by the imagination are faint and indistinct†(Berkeley 197). This may be a submerged reference to Descartes demand for ‘clear and distinct’ ideas as the foundation of analytic truths. Locke discusses this in his Essays Concerning Human Understanding. He suggests that wit produces combinations of ideas while judgement separates them (Locke 2.11.2). He writes, â€Å"How much the imperfection of accurately discriminating ideas one from another lies, either in the dulness or faults of the organs of sense; or want of acuteness, exercise, or attention in the understanding†(Locke 2.11.2). Furthermore, he suggests that ideas must link up with things. Sensation is produced by the conformity of the object with the perceiver (4.4.4). The distance between the two thinkers is thus that of their views of the fundamental role of perception. For Berkeley it may seem that Locke is being overly skeptical on the role of the perceiver. For in the thinking of Locke the mind is not the origin but the senses which shape the mind. For Locke, we are born tabula rasa, a blank slate to be impressed by our sensory input. Our mind takes up the job of shaping sensation after that point. This is to say with Locke we are in an a posteriori epistemology whereas with Berkeley we are a priori. The problem for Berkeley could thus be characterized as finding the foundation of knowledge on the continually shifting horizon of sensation rather than the static, constant world of ideas. In a way this is analogous to the divergence between Heraclitus who wrote that â€Å"nothings stays fixed†and Parmenides who held that â€Å"Being is unchanging†(Wheelwright 70,90). The problem has come from a long history and different forms of this dispute will likely continue with eternal perpetuity. Works Cited Armstrong, David M.. â€Å"Introduction†. In Berkeley’s Philosophical Writings. Ed. David M. Armstrong. New York: Collier Books, 1965. 7-34. Berkeley, George. Berkeley’s Philosophical Writings. Ed. David M. Armstrong. New York: Collier Books, 1965. Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I. Jan 2004. . May 21, 2007. Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume II. Jan 2004. . May 21, 2007. Wheelwright, Philip. The Presocratics. New York : The Odyssey Press. 1966.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Number theory
The number theory concerns about numbers i.e. whole numbers or rational numbers (fractions). Number theory is one of the oldest branches of pure mathematics and one of the largest. It is a branch of pure mathematics concerning with the properties and integers. Arithmetic is also used to refer number theory. It is also called higher arithmetic. The earliest geometric use of Diophantine equations can be tracked back to the Sulba Sutras, which were written, between 8th and 6th centuries BC. There are various number theories described as follows: Elementary Number theory Analytic Number theory Algebraic Number theory Geometric number theory Combinational number theory Computational number theory FUNCTIONS Number theory is connected with higher arithmetic hence it is the study of properties of whole numbers. Primes and prime factorization are important in number theory. The functions in number theory are divisor function, Riemann Zeta function and totient function. The functions are linked with Natural numbers, whole numbers, integers and rational numbers. The functions are also linked with irrational numbers. The study of irrational numbers may be done with Surd, Extraction of Square roots of natural numbers, Logarithms and Mensuration. At present Number Theory functions have 848 formulas, which are related with Prime Factorization Related functions and Other Functions. Prime Factorization Related Functions Factor Integer [n]                                         70 Formulas Division [n]                                                   66 Formulas Prime [n]                                                       83 Formulas PrimePi [x]                                                    83 Formulas Divisor Sigma [k,n]                                      128 Formulas Euler Phi [n]                                                 109 Formulas Moebius Mu [n]                                            79 Formulas Jacobi Symbol [n,m]                                     101 Formulas Carmichasel Lambda [n]                              63 Formulas Digit Count [n, b]                                         66 Formulas Computational number theory It is a study of effectiveness of algorithms for computation of number-theoretic quantities. It is also considers integer quantities (for example class number) whose usual definition is non constructive, and real quantities (eg. The values of zeta functions) which must be computed with very high precision. Hence in this function overlaps both computer algebra and numerical analysis. Combinational Number Theory It involves the number-theoretic study of objects, which arise naturally from counting or iteration. It is also study of many specific families of numbers like binomial coefficients, the Fibonacci numbers, Bernoulli numbers, factorials, perfect squares, partition numbers etc. which can be obtained by simple recurrence relations. The method is very easy to state conjectures in this area, which can often be understood without any particular mathematical training. Integer factorization Given two large prime numbers, p and q, their product pq can easily be computed. However, given pq, the best known algorithms to recover p and q require time greater than any polynomial in the length of p and q. Discrete logarithm Let G be a group in which computations are reasonably efficient. Then given g and n, computing gn is not too expensive. However, for some groups G, computing n given g and gn, called the discrete logarithm, is difficult. The commonly used groups are Discrete logarithms modulo p Elliptic curve discrete logarithms REFERENCE: http://functions.wolfram.com/NumberTheoryFunctions/ Weil, Andre: â€Å"Number theory, An approach through history†, Birkhauser Boston, Inc. Mass., 1984 ISBN-0-8176031410 Ore, Oystein, â€Å"Number theory and its history, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1988. 370 pp. ISBN 0-486-65620-9.
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