The existence of god Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The existence of god - Essay Example In this way, the analysis will seek to provide a thoughtful overview of some of the most salient critiques of Anselm’s ontological view as well as to provide the reader with the alternate views that philosophers have developed over the years in response to it. Stone asserts that Anselm’s argument purports that God is conceived as the being that supersedes other beings. He purports that God exists in both understanding and reality. This is because if His existence was perceived not to be in reality, another being greater than God could be conceived. Therefore, his argument articulates that God really exists. Gaunilo’s argument uses the model of a perfect island to counter-argue Anselm’s strategy (Stone). The perfect island is described as a piland taking the form of an island in the mind which in reality is perceived greater than the piland idea. He purports that the occurrence of a piland idea in the mind proves that the piland exists. Gaunilo did not iden tify the fault in Anselm’s theory, but warned that there is something wrong with it because if the theory was perfect, then its logic can be applied in proving things that one has no reason to believe to be true (Burgess 2). For instance, Guanilo suggested the possibility of constructing an argument like that of the ontological argument proving the occurrence of a lost island (Burgess 3). His critique replaces the term ‘God† with â€Å"lost island† and views the idea that anything than which nothing bigger can be conceived must exist. It is reasonable to point out that Anselm’s approach is a supposition that a tangible thing corresponding to an idea emanates from an idea itself. The objection to the ontological idea is that of defining things into existence which is viewed as impossible. Stone asserts that Gaunilo shared this worry to explain that a person could use non-existent things to portray the existence of non-existent things. According to Gau nilo, if the argument for a superior being works, even that of a lost island is true; which is absurd (Burgess 3). In his response to Guanilo, Anselm purports that the concept is only applicable to God, as He is the only being that can be conceived. According to Stone, Anselm argues that Guanilo’s lost island strategy is variably spurious because Guanilo provides no justification to prove the island exists. Additionally, a perfect island is perceived as the one with abundant lush palm trees and pristine beaches. This proves the incoherence of this argument because perfection cannot be quantified through reference to these features as each island is perfect in its own way. This implies that there is no greater island than which no greater island can be conceived. Consequently, the concept of a greater God is coherent. This is because the features that are used to describe God are superior to that any other being can possess e.g. moral goodness, power and knowledge. Similarly, Immanuel Kant, the 17th century philosopher who actually coined the term â€Å"ontology† and â€Å"ontological†, had a specific criticism of Anselm’s rather simplistic means of argument. Although agreeing with the premise that God existed, Kant sought ot further differentiate the manner by which human rational and understanding could necessarily seek to prove or disprove such an existence. As a function of this, Kant argued that

Senses and the endocrine system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Senses and the endocrine system - Essay Example These abnormalities that occur sometimes have no effect on the systems while in other cases the effects are detrimental. One of the common seen abnormalities as people age is the formation of cataracts. Cataracts are a clouding of the lenses in the eye to where light becomes hard to pass through. As a result of the light not being able to penetrate, problems with vision occur. Cataracts can form in a person’s eyes as the result of multiple conditions. Exposure to ultraviolet light can cause proteins to denature, which can lead to the condition. Certain diseases such as diabetes have been known to cause this to occur. Eye trauma and genetic issues can also be accounted for with the development of cataracts (Goldstein, 2010). Cataracts are an abnormality that is forming which affects the visual field of the individual. This is because the lenses in eyes are biologically centered around having a clear lens that is adjusted by the retina to allow light in depending on the light le vel. Even though aging of biological components is inherent as humans age, the formation of cataracts is often caused or started by external or internal determinalistic factors that cannot be accounted for. As a result, these are biological factors, which represent an abnormality to normal human physiology.

Wuthering Heights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Wuthering Heights - Essay Example Nelly Dean is the housekeeper in Thrushcross Grange and she is a close friend to Lockwood. Lockwood is curious and, thus, he asks Nelly to narrate to him the strange stories about Wuthering Heights and its dwellers. Nelly is in the best position to tell the story about the house and its past dwellers since she has been serving as a servant to a strange family residing in Wuthering Heights (Bronte 7). Her employer, Mr. Earnshaw, has a wife and two children, Hindley and Catherine. Mr. Earnshaw adopts a black son, Heathcliff, while he is travelling to Liverpool. The rest of his family finds it hard to accept Heathcliff. The family members hate him and they really mistreat him in the first few months that he lives with them. After sometime, Catherine grows fond of Heathcliff and their bond gets stronger with time. Hindley, on the other hand, still harbours detest towards Heathcliff. In a sad turn of events, Earnshaw’s wife passes away. Hindley’s cruelty towards Heathcliff c ontinues and his father finds himself loving the adopted son more than his cruel real son. He sends the spoilt son to college to give Heathcliff a conducive environment (Bronte 41). When Mr. Earnshaw passes away, his real son who is the heir of this father’s property returns to take over the Wuthering Height property (Bronte 87). He is married to Frances and together they treat Heathcliff as their slave. Later, when Heathcliff and Catherine are on their fun chasing errands in Thrushcross Grange, Catherine is forced to stay in the house for several weeks to recuperate from a dog bite. During the time that she stays in Thrushcross Grange, Catherine falls for Edgar. Hindley’s wife dies shortly after she gives birth to a son and this causes him to lose his sense of humanity. He buries his sorrows in alcohol and he gets crueler towards Heathcliff. After Catherine’s engagement to Edgar, Heathcliff elopes only to return home to find that Catherine has already married E dgar despite the fact that she was still deeply in love with Heathcliff. Heathcliff accumulates a hefty amount of money while he is away from Wuthering Height and when he comes back he embarks on a revenge mission on his enemies. He lures Hindley into getting into heavy debts and later he dies leaving the property to him. Marrying Isabella Linton places Heathcliff in a position to later inherit Thrushcross Grange. Catherine gives birth to a baby girl and succumbs to her long illness. Heathcliff’s obsession with Catherine turns him into a weird person. He starts urging Catherine spirit to stick with him. Catherine’s daughter is named after her and Nelly acts as her caregiver. Heathcliff later reunites with his son Linton, who he treats very badly. Linton and young Catherine start a romance story secretly. Heathcliff pushes his son to pursue Catherine so that he can be the rightful heir of Thrushcross Grange which will serve as revenge on Edgar. Heathcliff manages to lur e Linton into marrying Catherine and when Edgar and Linton die, he takes over the two houses (Bronte 202). The story from Nelly disgusts Lockwood and he leaves for London only to visit Thrushcross Grange six months later. Nelly continues with the story. Catherine falls in love with Hareton as Heathcliff loses his mind over Catherine. He starts seeing her ghost and he passes away with his sorrow. Meanwhile, Catherine and Hareton plan their marriage after they inherit Wuthering Height and Thrushcross Grange. After the narration by Nelly, Lockwood decides to visit Catherine and Heathcliff’s graves (Bronte 712). Review Wuthering Heights clearly depicts a clear picture of social class differences and the class

Theories of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes Essay Example for Free

Theories of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes Essay The concept of social contract theory is that in the beginning man lived in the state of nature. They had no government and there was no law to regulate them. There were hardships and oppression on the sections of the society. To overcome from these hardships they entered into two agreements which are:- 1. Ç ²Pactum UnionisÇ ³; and 2. Ç ²Pactum SubjectionisÇ ³. By the first pact of unionis, people sought protection of their lives and property. As, a result of it a society was formed where people undertook to respect each other and live in peace and harmony. By the second pact of subjectionis, people united together and pledged to obey an authority and surrendered the whole or part of their freedom and rights to an authority. The authority guaranteed everyone protection of life, property and to a certain extent liberty. Thus, they must agree to establish society by collectively and reciprocally renouncing the rights they had against one another in the State of Nature and they must imbue some one person or assembly of persons with the authority and power to enforce the initial contract. In other words, to ensure their escape from the State of Nature, they must both agree to live together under common laws, and create an enforcement mechanism for the social contract and the laws that constitute it. Thus, the authority or the government or the sovereign or the state came into being because of the two agreements. Analysis of the theory of Social Contract by Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes theory of Social Contract appeared for the first time in Leviathan published in the year 1651 during the Civil War in Britain. Thomas HobbesÇ ¯ legal theory is based on Ç ²Social contractÇ ³. According to him, prior to Social Contract, man lived in the State of Nature. ManÇ ¯s life in the State of NATURE was one of fear and selfishness. Man lived in chaotic condition of constant fear. Life in the State of Nature was Ç ®solitaryÇ ¯, Ç ®poorÇ ¯, Ç ®nastyÇ ¯, Ç ®brutishÇ ¯, and Ç ®shortÇ ¯. Man has a natural desire for security and order. In order to secure self- protection and self-preservation, and to avoid misery and pain, man entered   into a contract. This idea of self-preservation and self-protection are inherent in manÇ ¯s nature and in order to achieve this, they voluntarily surrendered all their rights and freedoms to some authority by this contract who must command obedience. As a result of this contract, the mightiest authority is to protect and preserve their lives and property. This led to the emergence of the institution of the Ç ²rulerÇ ³ or Ç ²monarchÇ ³, who shall be the absolute head. Subjects had no rights against the absolute authority or the sovereign and he is to be obeyed in all situations however bad or unworthy he might be. However, Hobbes placed moral obligations on the sovereign who shall be bound by natural law. Hence, it can be deduced that, Hobbes was the supporter of absolutism. In the opinion of Hobbes, Ç ²law is dependent upon the sanction of the sovereign and the Government without sword are but words and of no strength to secure a man at allÇ ³. He therefore, reiterated that civil law is the re al law because it is commanded and enforced by the sovereign. Thus, he upheld the principle of Ç ²Might is always RightÇ ³. Hobbes thus infers from his mechanistic theory of human nature that humans are necessarily and exclusively self-interested. All men pursue only what they perceive to be in their own individually considered best interests. They respond mechanistically by being drawn to that which they desire and repelled by that to which they are averse. In addition to being exclusively self-interested, Hobbes also argues that human beings are reasonable. They have in them the rational capacity to pursue their desires as efficiently and maximally as possible. From these premises of human nature, Hobbes goes on to construct a provocative and compelling argument for which they ought to be willing to submit themselves to political authority. He did this by imagining persons in a situation prior to the establishment of society, the State of Nature. Hobbes impels subjects to surrender all their rights and vest all liberties in the sovereign for preservation of peace, life and prosperity of the subjects. It is in this way the natural law became a moral guide or directive to the sovereign for preservation of the natural rights of the subjects. For Hobbes all law is dependent upon the sanction of the sovereign. All real law is civil law, the law commanded and Page 3 of 7 enforced by the sovereign and are brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the natural liberty of particular men, in such a manner, as they might not hurt but to assist one another and join together against a common enemy. He advocated for an established order. Hence, Individualism, materialism, utilitarianism and absolutions are inter-woven in the theory of Hobbes. Analysis of the theory of Social Contract by John Locke John Locke theory of Social Contract is different than that of Hobbes. According to him, man lived in the State of Nature, but his concept of the State of Nature is different as contemplated by Hobbesian theory. LockeÇ ¯s view about the state of nature is not as miserable as that of Hobbes. It was reasonably good and enjoyable, but the property was not secure. He considered State of Nature as a Ç ²Golden AgeÇ ³. It was a stat e of Ç ²peace, goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservationÇ ³. In that state of nature, men had all the rights which nature could give them. Locke justifies this by saying that in the State of Nature, the natural condition of mankind was a state of perfect and complete liberty to conduct oneÇ ¯s life as one best sees fit. It was free from the interference of others. In that state of nature, all were equal and independent. This does not mean, however, that it was a state of license. It was one not free to do anything at all one pleases, or even anything that one judges to be in oneÇ ¯s interest. The State of Nature, although a state wherein there was no civil authority or government to punish people for transgressions against laws, was not a state without morality. The State of Nature was pre-political, but it was not pre- moral. Persons are assumed to be equal to one another in such a state, and therefore equally capable of discovering and being bound by the Law of Nature. So, the State of Nature was a Ç ®state of libertyÇ ¯, where persons are free to pursue their own interests and plans, free from interference and, because of the Law of Nature and the restrictions that it imposes upon persons, it is relatively peaceful. Property plays an essential role in LockeÇ ¯s argument for civil government and the contract that establishes it. According to Locke, private property is created when a person mix es his labour with the raw materials of nature. Given the implications of the Law of Nature, there are limits as to how much property one can own: one is not   allowed to take so more from nature than oneself can use, thereby leaving others without enough for themselves, because nature is given to all of mankind for its common subsistence. One cannot take more than his own fair share. Property is the linchpin of LockeÇ ¯s argument for the social contract and civil government because it is the protection of their property, including their property in their own bodies, that men seek when they decide to abandon the State of Nature. John Locke considered property in the State of Nature as insecure because of three conditions; they are:- 1. Absence of established law; 2. Absence of impartial Judge; and 3. Absence of natural power to execute natural laws. Thus, man in the State of Nature felt need to protect their property and for the purpose of protection of their property, men entered into the Ç ²Social ContractÇ ³. Under the contract, man did not surrender all their rights to one single individual, but they surrendered only the right to preserve / maintain order and enforce the law of nature. The individual retained with them the other rights, i.e., right to life, liberty and estate because these rights were considered natural and inalienable rights of men.   Having created a political society and government through their consent, men then gained three things which they lacked in the State of Nature: laws, judges to adjudicate laws, and the executive power necessary to enforce these laws. Each man therefore gives over the power to protect himself and punish transgressors of the Law of Nature to the government that he has created through the compact. According to Locke, the purpose of the Government and law is to uphold and protect the natural rights of men. So long as the Government fulfils this purpose, the laws given by it are valid and binding but, when it ceases to fulfil it, then the laws would have no validity and the Government can be thrown out of power. In Lockes view, unlimited sovereignty is contrary to natural law. Hence, John Locke advocated the principle of -Ç ²a state of liberty; not of licenseÇ ³. Locke advocated a state for the general good of people. He pleaded for a constitutionally limited government.   Locke, in fact made life, liberty and property, his three cardinal rights, which greatly dominated and influenced the Declaration of American Independence, 1776. Analysis of the theory of Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau was a French philosopher who gave a new interpretation to the theory of Social Contract in his work The Social Contract and Emile. According to him, social contract is not a historical fact but a hypothetical construction of reason. Prior to the Social Contract, the life in the State of Nature was happy and there was equality among men. As time passed, however, humanity faced certain changes. As the overall population increased, the means by which people could satisfy their needs had to change. People slowly began to live together in small families, and then in small communities. Divisions of labour were introduced, both within and between families, and discoveries and inventions made life easier, giving rise to leisure time. Such leisure time inevitably led people to make comparisons between themselves and others, resulting in public values, leading to shame and envy, pride and contempt. Most importantly however, according to Rousseau, was the invention of private property, which constituted the pivotal moment in humanityÇ ¯s evolution out of a simple, pure state into one, characterized by greed, competition, vanity, inequality, and vice. For Rousseau the invention of property constitutes humanityÇ ¯s Ç ®fall from graceÇ ¯ out of the State of Nature. For this purpose, they surrendered their rights not to a sing le individual but to the community as a whole which Rousseau termed as Ç ®general willÇ ¯. According to Rousseau, the original Ç ®freedom, happiness, equality and libertyÇ ¯ which existed in primitive societies prior to the social contract was lost in the modern civilisation. Through Social Contract, a new form of social organisation- the state was formed to assure and guarantee rights, liberties freedom and equality. The essence of the RousseauÇ ¯s theory of General Will is that State and Law were the product of General Will of the people. State and the Laws are made by it and if the government and laws do not conform to Ç ®general willÇ ¯, they would be discarded. While the individual parts with his natural rights, in return he gets civil liberties such as freedom of speech, equality, assembly, etc. The Ç ²General WillÇ ³, therefore, for all purposes, was the will of majority citizens to which blind obedience was to be given. The majority was accepted on the belief that majority view is right than minority view. Each individual is not subject to any other individu al but to the Ç ®general willÇ ¯ and to obey this is to obey himself. His sovereignty is infallible, indivisible, unrepresentable and illimitable. Thus, Rousseau favoured peoples sovereignty. His natural law theory is confined to the freedom and liberty of the individual. For him, State, law, sovereignty, general will, etc. are interchangeable terms. RousseauÇ ¯s theory inspired French and American revolutions and given impetus to nationalism. He based his theory of social contract on the principle of Ç ²Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chainsÇ ³. COMPARISION OF THE THEORY OF SOCIAL CONTRACT OF THOMAS HOBBES, JOHN LOCKE AND JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 1. Hobbes asserts that without subjection to a common power of their rights and freedoms, men are necessarily at war. Locke and Rousseau, on the contrary, set forth the view that the state exists to preserve and protect the natural rights of its citizens. When governments fail in that task, citizens have the right and sometimes the duty to withdraw their support and even to rebel. 2. Hobbes view was that whatever the state does is just. All of society is a direct creation of the state, and a reflection of the will of the ruler. According to Locke, the only important role of the state is to ensure that justice is seen to be done. While Rousseau view is that the State must in all circumstance ensure freedom and liberty of individuals. 3. Hobbes theory of Social Contract supports absolute sovereign without giving any value to individuals, while Locke and Rousseau supports individual than the state or the government. 4. To Hobbes, the sovereign and the government are identical but Rousseau makes a distinction between the two. He rules out a representative form of government. But, Locke does not make any such distinction. Page 7 of 7 5. RousseauÇ ¯s view of sovereignty was a compromise between the constitutionalism of Locke and absolutism of Hobbes. CRITICAL APPREHENTION 1. Rousseau propounded that state, law and the government are interchangeable, but this in present senerio is different. Even though government can be overthrown but not the state. A state exists even there is no government. 2. Hobbes concept of absolutism is totally a vague concept in present scenario. Democracy is the need and examples may be taken from Burma and other nations. 3. According to Hobbes, the sovereign should have absolute authority. This is against the rule of law because absolute power in one authority brings arbitrariness. 4. Locke concept of State of nature is vague as any conflict with regard to property always leads to havoc in any society. Hence, there cannot be a society in peace if they have been conflict with regard to property. 5. Locke concept of laissez-faire is not of welfare oriented. Now in present scenario, every state undertake steps to form a welfare state.

Comparison on Computation Cost of the Cloud

Comparison on Computation Cost of the Cloud In this chapter, we list the comparison on computation cost of the cloud for file upload between †¦ and our scheme. Computational Cost Data access issues in the field of the cloud computing provide a good measurement-based performance as mentioned along this research, and hence, the security features can be improved using the new proposed model as well as a suitable computational cost. However, the proposed protocol provides these advantages and evaluates the performance based on computational cost and security requirements. The performance of our proposed scheme is evaluated using the existing experimental in [33] [34] [35] for a variety of cryptographic operations using MIRACLE [36] in PIV 3 GHZ processor with Windows XP operating system and 512 MB memory. From [33] [34] [35] the relative running time for the operations we adopted in our proposed scheme and we define some terms for the running time calculations: Tp= Pairing operation= 20.01 ms Th= Hash function= 3.04 ms Tpm= Pairing-based scalar multiplication= 6.38 ms Tec= ECC-based scalar multiplication= 0.83 ms Other operations: omitted The following tables illustrates the performance efficiency based on running time which is focus on user side including data owner: Table 1: Computational Cost-based Performance Efficiency Phases↓ Operations Running time (ms) Key Generation Tec+2Th 6.91 Upload Tp+Th 23.05 Download (Transformation Key) Tpm 6.38 Total Tp+ Tpm+Tec+3Th 36.34 The following table shows comparison between [37] [38] and our scheme in the major process which is file upload/download, with file in any size (not affected) and for one user: Table 2: Comparison of Computational Cost-based Performance Efficiency References→ Ref [37] Ref [38] Our scheme Upload 872.09 33.24 23.05 Download 400.21 39.25 6.38 Total 1272.30 72.49 29.43 From the above tables we clearly can observe that our proposed model is more efficient and has low running time indeed. The following figure can simplify this comparison: Figure 1: Comparison of performance efficiency-based running time Security requirement In the security aspects of our proposed model, we can notice that this model can achieve AC, FR, DC, IG, security requirements. Furthermore, this model not only provide a cost-based efficient scheme, but also provide a high secure and robust model against attacks such as Anti-collusion, Replay, MITM, and DoS attacks as follows: Anti-collusion attack  Ã‚   Some unauthorized users or members whose attributes do not satisfy the access policy, they may also try to access the data by colluding together with other users or even the service provider to compromise some data owners privacy. Our scheme is considered it to be secure against this attack due when a user is revoked, the group manager updates the revocation list (RL) stored in the cloud with a new. In addition, the group manager adds a time stamp to the data files and signs, to make sure that the cloud updates the data files.   New DF = sign ts (à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ… ¸Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‹Å" =(à ¢Ã… ¸Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ¢,à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ†â€™(à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ¢)à ¢Ã… ¸Ã‚ © ∀à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ¢-∈à °Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ ¦Ãƒ °Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã‚ ¿), group id, CT ) Replay attack Replay attacks are network attacks in which the attacker spies the conversation between the sender and receiver and takes the authenticated information e.g. sharing key and then contact to the receiver with that key. Moreover, our scheme is considered it to be secure against this attack due to temporary session by using timestamp for encrypted data. Man-in-the-Middle Attack (MITM) Man-in-the-middle attack has become quite popular in the SaaS environment. Here the attacker intercepts the communication channel established between legitimate users and modifies the communication between client and server without their knowledge. Moreover, our scheme is considered it to be secure against this attack due to encrypted identities and the hash function used in the term of key generation: Denial of Service Attack (DOS): Most of the serious attacks in cloud computing.   In   Denial   of   service   attack   an   attacker   prevent   legitimate   users   of   service   from   using   the desired resources by flood a network or by consuming bandwidth .So authentication is need to distinguish legitimated   clients   from   malicious   clients,   which   can   be   performed   through   strong   cryptographic verification. Moreover, our scheme is considered it to be secure against this attack due to the client creates a unique HMAC, or hash, per request to the cloud by combing the request data and hashing that data, along with his id and sending it as part of a request. The cloud receives the request and regenerates its own unique HMAC. The cloud compares the two HMACs, and, if theyre equal, the client is trusted and the request is executed. Request | | tk+ H(id)   For convince, we define the following terms: AC: Access control FR: Flexible revocation DC: Data confidentiality IG: Integrity Sym: Symmetric Algorithm CT: Computational cost TS: Timestamp ODBE: RBE: Role based encryption LGS: leveraging group signature DBE: dynamic broadcast encryption Table 3 Security requirement comparison References→ Ref [ 38] Ref [39] Ref [40] Our scheme Techniques Sym DBE RBE ABE Features AC, DC AC, DC AC AC, FR, DC, IG Comments High CT, No TS High CT, No TS High CT, No TS Low CT,TS Anti-collusion attack √ Replay attack √ MITM attack √ DoS attack √ √  Ã‚   means the scheme can achieve the corresponding goal. In general and from the above comparisons, our scheme can achieve data confidentiality, secure  Ã‚   access control, integrity and  Ã‚   flexible revocation.   For clearly seeing the advantages of security of our proposed scheme, as explain in table 3, we list a table compared with ref [38], ref [39] and ref [40].

Gay Marriage Will Help America Essay -- argumentative, persuasive

Why is gay marriage such a big deal? Why are there so many people against it? Most of the time it is easy to presume where to draw the line when interfering with someone else’s rights. Simply, do not do it. Everyone has the right to get a driver’s license or has the freedom of speech, but why on earth do some people have the right to wed and think that he or she has the right to tell somebody else that he or she does not have that same right? Gay marriage is not traditional, gay relationships are immoral, and marriage is for procreation. Gay marriage is a perfectly acceptable decision that any citizen should be able to make for themselves. A gay California man, whose partner died in the September 11 terrorist attacks has become "legally vulnerable in ways he could never imagine". Keith Brodowski lost his life partner, Jeff Coleman, to American Airlines flight 11, which was the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. Coleman was a flight attendant. Brodowski is now battling the state and the nation for survivors' benefits, granted to the widows of those who died. It took powerful words of Keith’s testimony to move legislation to grant partial inheritance rights for registered domestic partners in California. Married couples had to go through nothing of this caliper for their benefits. In a survey conducted by Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples, over fifty percent of lesbians and forty percent of gay men had faced problems obtaining employment benefits, lower tax rates, and insurance breaks because civil unions are not recognized as a legal marriage. Other discriminations included employment, hospital visitation, adoption, and many more. These problems could have been eliminated if the couple had been legally m... ...y not believe in the same sexual likings as us, they are still people who live among us. People with different religions do the same and they are allowed to get married and spend a life together. Why shouldn’t gays? References Bidstrup, S. (2000). Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives. Veritas Et Ratio - Truth And Reason. Retrieved from website on March 19, 2011. From . Head, T. Arguments against same-sex marriage - Debunking 10 Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage. Civil liberties at about.com - Your guide to civil liberties News and Issues. Retrieved from Website on March 19, 2011. From . Should gay marriage be legal?. Gay Marriage ProCon.org. Retrieved from website on March 18, 2011. From .

The film Stigmata & the Challenge of Conceptualizing Women as Spiritual Agents :: Free Essays Online

The film Stigmata & the Challenge of Conceptualizing Women as Spiritual Agents The history of Western religion has, for the most part been a history of men's religious stories, practices, and writings. It is quite rare and exceptional to find accounts of religion or practicing groups that place women's experiences at the center. Books, films, and various other cultural products bear this out by demonstrating a stubborn lack of attention to women's religious experiences. At first glance, the movie Stigmata seems like a film that defies this generalization. The movie, starring Patricia Arquette, places a female protagonist and her mystical experiences with Christ at the center of the plot. The woman is modeled after a great figure in the Catholic tradition, St. Francis, and hers is seemingly the story around which the entire movie is structured. Though this apparently unusual use of a woman's direct experience with God seems on an immediate level to be very transgressive, however, the film ends up being even more hegemonic, in a sense because of the way in which it subtly reinforces normative notions of the male-centeredness of supernatural experiences of God in the Catholic tradition. In this paper I will look at how Stigmata represents sex and gender roles in the Catholic church and in secular America and of how it uses women's sexuality and assumptions about women's lack of spiritual agency to ultimately undermine the legitimacy of authentic feminine experience with the Christian God. I will argue that the movie's emphasis on very structuralist notions of good and evil, man and woman, pure and impure, inevitably sets up a system in which a female's religious authority will be lost. A patriarchal tradition, as the Catholic church most certainly represents, must always scramble to accommodate the abnormality of a woman experiencing a direct link with God. The unwillingness to imagine a situation in which a character like that of Patricia Arquette's character, Frankie, would have a legitimate direct experience with God is a common one throughout the Western (and Western-occupied) world. The emphasis on only granting legitimacy to the written word in the Western rel igious tradition has always created an environment of hostility to women's non-discursive religious experiences. This paper will also look at how the religious conflicts between the Western patriarchal tradition and female members of a non-Western religious tradition (specifically a group of Ngarrindjeri women) have unfolded and at how such conflicts are similar to the conflict that is represented between Frankie and the priests who would control her in Stigmata.