Proverbs 1-7: Sanctions and Ethics

"Discuss the relationship between ethics and sanctions in Proverbs 1-7." 

       Today we will be focusing on the ethics and  sanctions in Proverbs 1-7.  
     One of the first ethical sanctions  in Proverbs is in chapter 1 verses 8-9 

  "My sonne, heare the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.

 For they shall be an ornament of grace vnto thy head, and chaines about thy necke."

      Here is a positive sanction.  He will have an "ornament" of grace and "chaines" around his neck.  (This doesn't mean chains in a bad sense.  In those times, people of wealth would sometimes wear chains around their necks.)  It is saying that listening to the parents is an ethical thing to do.  It will bring about good sanctions.  

     Here are some more verses that use ethical sanctions. Chapter 6: verses 9-11. 

     "How long wilt thou sleepe, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleepe?

 Yet a little sleepe, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleepe.

 So shall thy pouertie come as one that trauaileth, and thy want as an armed man."

     These sanctions are negative.  These verses say that if we are lazy and do not work, we will descend into poverty. Poverty is obviously a negative sanction.  

     Ethics and sanctions go hand in hand.  We have no need for sanctions if the sanction is not ethical.  

     Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!

Aristotle and Sparta

           "Why was Aristotle a significant figure?"

     Well...This is a tricky subject.  I mean, what makes anyone a significant person in history?  The person was born, raised, the person had a brain, a heart, and I'm sure that they had a favorite food, but obviously these facts aren't what makes a person significant.  Considering all of the people in the world it's a strange wonder how anyone makes it to the top. 

     Alright,so let's just try and figure out what the significant figures all have in common. They all have that strange, magical, mystifying, and very rare ability to pull people in to what they are saying.  There could be the person who is the key to every question that the human race have ever asked living on this planet right now and we wouldn't even know who that person was if he had no means of telling us.  If he didn't have the talent or resources to tell us, then how would he?  Well, he wouldn't because he couldn't. That's it then, we have found the reason that Aristotle was significant!  No no no, remove that ridiculous idea from your mind!  We still have quite a ways to go in figuring out why this man was significant.  What is another thing that all significant people have in common?  That's right, all significant people have a message that they think is important to the world that they would like to share.  Do we have the answer yet?  No, I'm afraid not.  We know that he had some way of drawing attention to himself and that he had a message to give, but what was that message and why was it important? Then and only then, will we know what was so significant about Aristotle.  
     (Caution!  You are now entering into a different time in history!  You may experience the feeling that only comes from the sheer perfection of learning about the past.)  
     "Excuse me, but you seem to be a little lost.  Is there anything that I can help you with?"  The stranger looks at you calmly and sincerely.  "Yes, indeed you can.  I am looking for Aristotle the philosopher.  Do you know where I can find him?" "Surely, I believe that he is with young Alexander right about now."  You give the stranger a nod of gratitude and hurry down the road till you find the place where the future Alexander the Great and the philosopher Aristotle were studying.  "Excuse me sirs, but I am in need of both your assistance.  You see, I need to know what makes Aristotle here a significant figure!  I have searched high and low but I cannot seem to find the answer.  I thought that if I spoke to you directly, then I might understand it more clearly."  Aristotle and young Alexander look at you in amazement.  "I do not know what makes you think that you can just barge into the lesson I am teaching, but because you seem so genuinely confused, you are welcome to sit in and listen to what I have to say for the time being.  You thank the man for allowing you this great honor and sit quietly while him and Alexander go through that day's lesson.  
     Through sitting here, you learn many things about this person that you have only read and heard about through your life.  You learn that he thought that we should not simply ignore the world in which we live, but rather, we should study it.  You hear him talk about his findings in science as well as his moral beliefs.  You come to see that he is a very logical person and it is no wonder to you now why he was so significant in history.  
     When the lesson is finished, you thank the two and go back to your world.  When you arrive you quickly write down your findings on why this man was so significant.  Here is what you wrote.  "Aristotle was a man with a mind of his own.  He did not just accept the findings of others to be true.  He wanted to know for himself.  This was what made him a philosopher.  He was not simply a philosopher though, he was a philosopher who wanted to know many things.  He thought about science, politics, logic, etc.  He made us use our minds.  His ideas intrigued us,  He made us think logically through questions that we have asked ourselves, and he tried his very best to leave us with some idea of our world.  He was "the philosopher."  This is why he was and still is, a significant figure.  
  


                                  "What was Spartan society like?"
     Spartan society was a very strange place to say the least.  Once Sparta had conquered Messenia, they enslaved the conquered people.  It turned out that the slaves or helots as they called them, ended up greatly outnumbering Sparta.  Because they were afraid of a helot revolt, they decided to turn Sparta into a military state.
     They took the Spartan boys at age 7 and forced them to commit horrible acts, eat only a small amount of food, took away their shoes, and they only gave them one cloak.  The boys would be in the military training for 13 years.  Once they reached the age of twenty, the boys would join into the citizen army and be allowed to marry.
     The girls were not taken from home but did have to participate in sports such as running.   This was so that they would be fit bearers of children.
     Finally, after all of that time away from home, at age 30, the Spartan men could go back to their families! Even though they were allowed to live at home, they still had to eat at a public mess hall.
     Now I will tell you about the government of Sparta.  Sparta had two kings, a council of elders, an executive board of five ephors, and an assembly of citizens which consisted of every Spartan male who was over the age of 30.
     Well, now you know a little bit about Sparta.  Shout it from the roof tops, tell it to all of your friends, send out Sparta information packets in the mail!  (Please don't actually do that.)
  I hope that you have enjoyed this essay, and please let me know what you think!      

Epinephrine (Adrenaline)

    Imagine this, You are riding your horse at a cater through a beautiful meadow in the early morning.  The crisp cool air, the mist, and the sounds of birds singing makes this perfect.  You slow your horse down to a walk and decide to just take in all of the world's beauty.  All of a sudden, you see a large furry animal in the distance.  You figure that it is just your neighbors dog and keep going.  Your horse seems uneasy as if the dog had the intention of hurting it.  You think to yourself, "That's strange, my horse has never been afraid of a dog before."  As you near the dog your heart nearly stops. You now realize that what you are staring at is not even close to a dog, it's a Black Bear!   You want to tell your horse to gallop, but you're scared that even the slightest move might make the bear attack.  Too late!  The bear is coming at you and your horse!  Your horse breaks into such a gallop that not even race horses can move that fast.  (Then again, race horses don't have a hungry beast chasing them.)  The bear couldn't keep up and very soon, you lose him. 


    What was the point to my story? I am trying to give you an example of an adrenaline powered response.  Adrenaline is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands.  It makes our blood flow quicken, it allows us to breath in more oxygen, and increases carbohydrate metabolism.  
   Our body knows when to use this hormone because of long-distance cell signaling.  Long-distance cell signaling is a way that cells communicate from (you guessed it!) a long distance.  
   Alright, but what is the point of adrenaline?  The point of adrenaline is to trigger that "fight or flight" response. Without adrenaline, whenever we were face to face with a lion, tiger, whoolly mammoth, cannibal, etc., we would not know weather to fly like a little bird or to sit happily like a tree frog that has found a lovely tree. (Tree frogs like trees in case you didn't know.)  

    I hope that you have enjoyed this essay and please let me know what you think!          

Western Civilization Essay: Week 4

                                   "1. What was the disagreement Socrates had with the Sophists?"

   Socrates disagreed with the Sophists concerning right and wrong.  The Sophists believed that what is right for you may be wrong for me and what is wrong for you may be right for me.  They thought that there was no truth and that there was no firm idea of what was right and what was wrong.  Socrates on the other hand, believed that the Sophists were harming the people with their beliefs and that the Sophists would raise the children of Athens to be corrupt.  This was the disagreement between Socrates and the Sophists.

                                             "2. What was Plato's point in his allegory of the cave?"

    In Plato's allegory of the cave he talks about men chained in a way that they can only stare at a wall.  Puppeteers behind them cast shadows on the wall and these images are the only things they see.  They may see a shadow and call it a cup but they are only seeing shadows.  They do not know what the true things are.  To them these are real.  Now we see a man escape from his chains.  He ventures out into the real world and gains knowledge and sees that what the people in the cave see are only shadows and if they want to find the real things they must go out of the cave and find them.    
    Now that I have given you some background, here is Plato's point in the allegory of the cave.  Plato was trying to get across that unless we "leave the cave" so to speak, we will never find the truth.  We cannot learn the truth by sitting in chains and looking at shadows.  We must go out and discover "what casts the shadows."
  
    Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!    

  

"Discuss some of the reasons offered in the Psalms for long-term optimism."

    As we read through the Psalms we find David and others in many different situations.  The people in Psalms find themselves in quite a "pickle" very frequently but they never deserted God.  Why?  Because they knew that as long as they followed God's instructions, that he would protect them from their enemies and occasionally, themselves.  In return for their "anti-desertion" God never deserted them.  He would sometimes leave for a certain portion of time, but he would NEVER desert those who truly loved him.  The people in Psalms were sad at times but knew that God would prevail over the wicked and this is the reason for their long-term optimism.  Without this optimism, the people in Psalms would be "dead in the water" so to speak. They would only be focusing on the bad and in the end, the bad circumstances would have taken over.
 
     Just like those people in the Psalms, we need long-term optimism in order to prevail over the hard, even dangerous situations in our own lives.  Weather it be in politics, sickness, or our own little problems in every day life, stay optimistic!  The Psalms teach us that if we don't, then we will eventually be taken over by our grief and sorrow.  Don't let those ridiculous things weigh you down!  Get up, brush off the dust, and remember just like those in the Psalms, you will prevail!  

"How important is the concept of historical sanctions in the Psalms?" Here is my answer.

 

  I believe that the importance of sanctions in Psalms was very significant.  I believe this because of the reasons that I will list in this essay.  

   

  God uses sanctions to protect the just from the wicked.  Without these sanctions, the world would continue to become horrid and corrupt.  The world needed these sanctions just as you would need to punish a child for doing wrong.  God uses these sanctions not because he wants to harm people, but rather, so that they can learn from their mistakes and do good in the future.  

  

  These sanctions would not be important if they were not a part of the Bible, but they are.  Anything and everything in the Bible is important, otherwise, the Bible would have never been written.  

  

  The historical value was not only important then, but it is also important now.  It is important now, because those sanctions can help us to not take a path of wickedness, but rather, a path of peace, goodness, love, and kindness.  This is the historical significance that the sanctions in Psalms hold.  This is the message that we are supposed to receive from not only Psalms, but in fact, the entire Bible.  The sanctions in Psalms are not to frighten and discourage the readers of Psalms (Of course, I'm sure that it frightened those living at that time.), they were to teach us.  

   

  Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!          

The Odyssey (Cyclopes)

   In The Odyssey we read about a people known as the Cyclopes.  The Cyclopes are not human.  They are described in a way that makes you think of them as giants, which have a mind that can understand, reason, etc.  They appear to be very cruel and horrid.
  For a part of this report I will share my opinion on weather or not they have a civilization.  I believe that the Cyclopes do have a civilization, but not as we know it.  Although they do not gather together, live in a village, sell merchandise, etc.  They do appear to get along together.  Their species does not seem to have broken into factions, but rather, they seem to have adapted to living in the same area.  These are the reasons why I believe that the Cyclopes do have a civilization.
 

  Now I would like to talk about Odysseus and the Cyclops named, Polyphemus.  In the Odyssey we are are told of a man named, Odysseus.  Odysseus was traveling back home after fighting in the Trojan war for ten years.  He and his men encounter many dangers during their journey back home and one of those dangers is their encounter with the Cyclops, Polyphemus.
  Odysseus and his men go to the cave of Polyphemus to see is he is a friend or foe.  He turns out to be a foe and everyday he eats two of Odysseus's men.  Odysseus comes up with a plan of escape and they poke out the giant's eye.  Next, they hide underneath of the Cyclops' sheep and escape to their ship.  Once they reach their ship, Odysseus tells the giant his real name, Ulysses.  The monster is terribly angry and tries to kill them again.  Luckily, he does not succeed and they get away.
   Thank you very much for reading, and don't forget to tell me what you think!    

 

Biology Essay 1

    As you probably know, the earth gets a huge amount of energy from the sun.  We are not able to get all of it though.  What does reach the earth's surface is obtained by organisms called producers.  Producers are able to use this energy to help them make their food.
    Now we come to consumers.  Consumers are creatures that need to consume the producers to get energy because they are not able to make their own food.

    Here is an important little bit of information.  When one creature eats another one, it does not get the same amount of energy that the other had.  It gains about ten percent of the energy.  Many animals starve for this reason.  When the energy is diminishing, it eventually runs out, and the animals are not able to use it.  If there is a change in primary producers or consumers, then bye bye animals that used to feed on them.  This is an example of how delicate our lives are.  One simple change, and our world can be turned upside down.  

    Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!

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Cite for this report:  Lesson One      

Ethics in the Story of Noah and the Flood

    In the story of Noah and the Flood we see that man had become wicked.  God was sad that he had created man, and made an ethical decision based on man's wickedness, to destroy mankind.  There was one man who was good in the eyes of the Lord.  His name was Noah.  God spared him and his family, as well as some animals.
   
    We see that God sent the flood because of man's wickedness.  This was an ethical decision.  Without ethics, there would be no point in sending the flood.  If he had no basis for destroying the earth, it would make no sense to do so.
   
    After the flood, God sent a rainbow as a sign that he would never again destroy the earth in a flood.  This was also an ethical decision.  He had a reason for making this covenant and thus, makes this an ethical decision.
   
    Later we come to Noah and Ham.  Noah had become drunk and lay in his tent.  Ham goes into the tent and sees that his father is naked.  He goes and tells his brothers and they go in and cover their father.  When Noah awakens from being drunk, he punishes Ham.  This was a case of family ethics.  Ham had disrespected his father and so, Noah made an ethical decision to punish his son.
   
    Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think!            

The History of Minoan Crete and the Mycenaeans

     We did not really learn about the existence of Minoan Crete until about 1899 when the city of Knossos was excavated.  Other cities were found around the island of Crete as well.
     They were a civilization with lovely pottery, palaces, and frescoes.  Their art seems to focus on daily life.  As for the palaces, they are thought to have originally been religious centers and later used for royalty.
     The Minoans are thought to have been a peaceful people focusing in trade instead of war.  But it does appear that they took part in human sacrifice.
     They had a "palace economy" where the people would manufacture the goods and the government would decide where everything went.
     We are not familiar with their literature because their language is written in a text called "Linear A" which we cannot decipher.
      They are thought to eventually be invaded by the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece.


     We will now talk about Mycenaean Greece.  It was thought that Greek history began in 800 BC but that theory was proved wrong by a man named, Heinrich Schliemann who lived from 1822-1890.  He loved the Homeric epics and decided to go to Turkey to find the city of Troy.  He does find Troy and excavates it.  He found evidence of destruction and he wondered if that could possibly be evidence of a Trojan war.  It was not enough however, and we still are not sure if their ever was a Trojan war.
      The Mycenaeans appear to have had independent cities and each one was probably ruled by one king.         The Mycenaeans seem to have been a warlike people quite unlike the Minoans of Crete.  The Mycenaeans did however absorb some of the Minoan culture which can be seen in their craftsmanship.
      The Mycenaeans used a form of writing called "Linear B" which we have deciphered and have learned that it is an early form of Greek.
      We think that a lot of Greek religion originated in Mycenaean times.
      We will now come to the demise of Mycenaean Greece.  Here are some theories on what happened to Mycenaean Greece.  Some believe that there was internal conflict.  Others think that environmental factors were involved.  There are also other theories but I will not mention all of them.
      Now we will move on to the Mycenaean Dark Age, (1100-800 BC) where we find next to nothing concerning outside trade, literacy, or anything else.   There is however, some controversy on if their ever was a "Dark Age". This minority is convinced that we have the dating systems wrong and that we are adding time that was never there.
     Thank you so much for reading "The History of Minoan Crete and the Mycenaeans" and please let me know what you think!