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.