Why Do Mothers Kill Their Children?

Although it may seem crazy, some mothers do commit the unthinkable act of killing their own children. The act of mothers killing their own children is called Maternal filicide. Each time this occurs, the question is raised, "How could this possibly happen?". Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, D.C. says "Mothers don't kill their children unless they are seriously disturbed." The article points out that there are five motives for maternal filicide. These five motives are Altruistic filicide (where a mother rationalizes that killing her child is in the child’s best interest), Acutely psychotic filicide (where a mother kills without an understandable motive, possibly hearing voices), fatal maltreatment filicide (where a mother does not necessarily mean to kill her child, but death occurs after cumulative abuse), unwanted child filicide (where a mother believes her child is a hindrance in her life), and spouse revenge filicide (where she kills her child to emotionally strike out against the father). According to this article, this unfathomable act gets attention because the media likes to report on this type of story, but it should be noted that maternal filicide is quite rare. Studies and experts agree on one common factor when mothers commit such an unthinkable crime, it must be because of mental illness.

How can Taoist texts help deepen out understanding of early Chinese history?

After reading the article "Reconstructing Taoism's Transformation in China", we can definitely see how Taoist texts can help deepen our understanding of early Chinese history. Taoism translates to "daojiao" which is the religion of Taoism and "daojiao" which refers to philosophical works that are associated with Laozi and Zhuangzi. The religion of Taoism has many codes of conduct that it's followers must observe. Taoism began in the year 142 in Western China. For over 2,000 years, China had an emperor who was in charge. This is all they ever knew. The early history of Taoism was based on celestial masters. The celestial political structure, "Great Peace" in which everyone would be treated equally. This was important because it was an alternative to what the Chinese were used to; Confucianism. Since Taoism did not use physical objects for worship, there were none left behind to help trace back. They used texts to piece together history. The texts were found in a huge collection called the Taoist canon. This canon shows us other aspects of the Chinese society.

Is Our World Real?

After reading the article, Are We Living in a Computer Simulation,  it does make you question whether or not our world is real? I actually think it would be very hard to just go on if I didn't believe our world was real. At the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate which took place at The American Museum of Natural History, this controversy was discussed.  It really is impossible to test whether we are all part of a computer simulation.  David Chalmers, a philosophy professor at NYU said, “You’re not going to get proof that we’re not in a simulation, because any evidence that we get could be simulated." I know that I am not very mathematical but there are so many different things that come in to play in human life and there are so many people in the world, how can this be part of a game?  I just don't believe it.

Holocaust Survivors: The Search for Faith vs. The Book of Job

The story of Moshe Yosef Daum and Fela Nussbaum has similarities to the Book of Job.  In both of these stories God put people to the test.  He wanted to see if with all the cruelty and bad things that happened if they would lose their faith in God.  Menachem told the story about his parents and their feelings about the holocaust.  His mother did not have the same feelings as his dad.  She felt if God had done so many miracles then why didn't he do any miracles during the Holocaust? How could he let this happen? Moshe felt that we couldn't possibly ever understand why God does what he does.  This is also apparent in The Book of Job.  How could God possibly do all of those cruel things to Job when he was a good person?  How could he kill his family, kill his animals, put sores all over his body, making him wish he was never born? They both question how God,  for someone we think is almighty and should only do good things, could have this in his plan and that the end result would turn out good.

The Book of Job vs. The Story of Abraham and Isaac

There are similarities between The Book of Job, and the story of Abraham and Isaac. In both of these stories God is so cruel. He tests both Job and Abraham.  Although, Job has not sinned or not done anything wrong God is so mean. After God and Satan talk he turns Job's life upside down, killing his children and killing his animals and covering his body with sores.  Satan told God that Job will not love him if he is mean to him. He caused Job so much pain that Job wondered why he didn't die at birth.  In the story of Abraham and Isaac God also wants Abraham to prove his love.  He wants him to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove that he loves him.  At the end he didn't end up having to kill his son. It is interesting to see in these stories that a common thread is God being insecure about how others feel about him.  He always wants to be shown, proven how they feel about him so he becomes mean and cruel to see if they will turn on him.

First Month of High School Complete

It is crazy to think that my first day of high school was already a month ago. It seems like yesterday I was getting ready for school and was so nervous and anxious about the year ahead of me. There are many things that I think about when reflecting back on this past month. There were many changes that took place when transitioning from the middle to high school for both the better, and worse. My favorite part about being in high school is that I have had a significant amount of freedom compared to my past years in the middle school. I feel much more grown up and although I may have a lot of work, I feel that it has been very manageable. In addition to loving the freedom I have gained here, I really enjoy the opportunities being provided at this school. Joining the many different clubs is such a great opportunity and chance to do many different things for such good causes. In my opinion, the worst thing about high school is that I feel very pressured to do well considering this is where every grade I get really starts to count. I feel that I have been a lot harder on myself lately about my grades because of this which I do not like. Overall, it has been amazing so far and I am excited to see what the rest of my high school career has to offer.

God Mind Map

After doing this assignment on the characterization of God, I learned many different things and I think differently about God than I did before. I thought that this assignment was very enjoyable because I was interested in learning about the story of Genesis and what God was like. As I read more and more, I got many different ideas and different opinions about God, God's personality, and God's actions. As I read, there were many times I stopped to think about what the text was telling and showing me about God and I continued to learn more about what kind of character God really is. Before reading this, I thought of God as a very happy and understanding person. After reading this, my thoughts slightly changed and I do not think of God as such a perfect, innocent person anymore. I began to think of him more as a selfish and cruel because of many of the things he did, such as putting all living things in danger and needing everything to be exactly how he wanted. For this assignment, we were told to read Genesis 6-9 and find examples of God's indirect characterization. I enjoy doing work with indirect characterization because I do not find it very difficult and It really helps me better understand different characters.

Who is to blame for Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden?

After reading Genesis 2 & 3 Adam and Eve have been kicked out of the Garden of Eden.  I would blame the serpent because he was the one who lied to Eve.  In the text, he asked Eve “Did god really say, “ You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”  Eve said that they are able to eat from the trees in the garden but not the tree that is in the middle and do not touch it.  The serpent told Eve “You will not surely die”.  She believed him and ate the fruit from the middle tree and also gave it to her husband Adam to eat.  God realized that they ate from the tree because when they ate the fruit their eyes opened and they knew they were naked which Adam told god.  God cursed the serpent above all of the livestock and wild animals.  God then cursed both Adam and Eve and he banished them from the Garden of Eden. In the text, God said to Adam “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return”.   I think that Eve really believed the serpent and had she realized that he was being deceitful she would not have eaten from the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Comparing Flood Myths

The Haida Flood & The Epic of Gilgamesh
Information from: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html#Innuit

We are able to compare The Haida Flood Myth to The Epic of Gilgamesh in many ways.  In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian hero traveled the world to search how to cheat death. On his journey he met an old man named Utnapishtim who told him about a flood from centuries ago.
In The Haida Flood Myth there was a strange who woman was sitting by the seashore.  She kept on trying to move away as the tides rose higher and higher so she would not drown. Also, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods were angry at mankind so they sent a flood to destroy it. Gilgamesh built a boat for his family and “the seed of all living things”. When the rains subsided the boat had landed on a mountain and he was ok. In the Haida Flood Myth, the tides kept on rising but although the tide covered the entire island, the villagers were also saved because of the rafts that they had to help them. In both of these stories the people were unharmed even though they were in dire situations from the water.

Welcome to my blog

Hi, I'm Hallie Singer. Welcome to my blog! This year I made a transition from the middle school to the high school and it was definitely a great change for me. This year has been great so far and I am looking forward to getting the oppurtunity to post the many writing assignments I have in English for the rest of the year.  I am very excited to be sharing my future work, ideas, and opinions on many different things. I think that this blog will be very interesting and i hope hat everybody visiting my page will agree! :)