PAPER Topics

... that those who do not honor the life of others make null and void their own right to membership. Those who violate the personhood of others, especially if this is done persistently as a habit must pay the ultimate penalty. This punishment must be inflicted for the sake of maintaining the community whose foundation has been violated. We can debate whether some non-lethal alternative is a fitting substitute for the death penalty. But the standard of judgment is whether the punishment fits the crime and sufficiently honors the nature of moral community. LOVE AND AN IDEAL SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY Agape, Christian love, is unconditional. It does not depend on the worthiness or merit of those to whom ...

... become an obsession with young Satanists. It is sought after on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. Gaining knowledge that others do not posses is another aspect of the occult. When an individual has more knowledge it allows them a degree of power over those who do not have access to that knowledge. The Ouija Board has proven particularly useful. The Ouija Board is an instrument for communication with the spirits of the dead. The Ouija Board is an open door into the world of the occult and demonic activity. Disembodied speak to the living through the medium of the Ouija Board. This information is believed to be truth from the other side; Lucifer's delusion to gain our allegiance. ...

... regardless of what they did to earn it. This ‘ doctrine' stated that God determines a mans' destiny, whether it be redemption or condemnation, regardless of any worth or merit on the person's part. It could be compared to the failures of Communism in that no matter how hard a person worked, how devout a person was, how often a person went to church, there was no way to get into Heaven unless they were chosen. Aside from the doctrine of elect, the Puritans had other outrageous beliefs including the degradation of one's self, the utter and total dependence on divine grace for salvation, and the wrath of an angry God. The God worshipped by the Puritans was not a forgiving God, and definitel ...

... with all the specialized requirements of food and environments for millions of creatures? 320 different species of hummingbird alone, for example, have very high metabolic rates and have to consume large amounts of nectar throughout the day. The Ark would have had to cater for 640 hummingbirds, requiring a constant supply of insects and nectar. How could the ark cope with disposing of the waste products of all those creatures? It must have had an incredibly advanced plumbing and ventilation system, superior to anything to be found on modern ocean liners or large military vessels (e.g., aircraft carriers). Next time you are at a zoo, ask one of the keepers how easy it is to deal with the ...

... Guatama was born in Kapilivastu. His father was the ruler of the small kingdom near the Indian/Nepal border. As a child, his future was foretold by sages. They believed that he would someday be a fellow sage or leader of a great empire. He led a very pampered and sheltered life until the age of twenty-nine. It was at that time that he realized that he had led an empty life. He renounced his wealth and embarked on a journey to seek truth, enlightenment, and the cycle of rebirths. In the first years of his journey, Siddhartha Guatama practiced yoga and became involved in radical asceticism. After a short time, he gave up that life for one of a middle path between indulgence an ...

... in 1940 but managed to escape, and become one of the leaders of the Existential movement. Other popular playwrights were Albert Camus, and Jean Anouilh. Just like Anouilh, Camus accidentally became the spokesman for the French Underground when he wrote his famous essay, "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" or "The Myth of Sisyphus". Sisyphus was the man condemned by the gods to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll back down again. For Camus, this related heavily to everyday life, and he saw Sisyphus an "absurd" hero, with a pointless existence. Camus felt that it was necessary to wonder what the meaning of life was, and that the human being longed for some sense of clarity ...

... to the will of Allah, the one God. Muslims are those who have submitted themselves. The basic creed of Islam is brief: There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah. Islam teaches that there is one God, the creator and sustainer of the universe. This God, Allah, is compassionate and just. Because He is compassionate, He calls all people to believe in Him and worship Him. Because He is also just, on the Last Day He will judge every person according to his deeds. On the Last Day, all the dead will be resurrected and either rewarded with heaven or punished with hell. In Christianity one of the Ten Commandments states that "I am the Lord you God.....you shall have no ...

... nation of him. Abram willingly decided to follow God to the city of Canaan. Abram not only traveled with his wife on this journey, but he also picked up his nephew, Lot. He lived his life in Canaan as a Nomad. Famine eventually struck the land of Canaan , forcing Abram and his family to move on to Egypt. In Egypt, Abram was fearful that the Egyptians would kill him and take his wife Sarai if they were to discover that the two were married. Abram attempted to cover this up by telling everyone that he and Sarai were just brother and sister. The Pharaoh demanded that Sarai be brought to his palace, and as result, God sent down plagues which devastated all of Egypt. In a desperate attemp ...

... the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations. Totally there are around 24,000 total MSS for the New Testament. The next closest document in respect to MSS is the "Illiad" by Homer, with 643 manuscripts(McDowell 43). The textual reliability then continues with respect to the time interval between the original and the first known manuscript. The shorter the interval, the more reliable the text is. Homer's "Illiad" was written in 900 BC and the earliest copy was found in 400 BC. This is compared to ...

... Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in the Gulag Archipelago that it was in prison where he learned that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, not through classes, not through political parties, either, but right through every human heart and through all human hearts. When we give ourselves serious evaluation, we find things hiding in our hearts that, if we could choose, we would remove. Our hearts have been described as "a zoo of lust, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds." Yet the Church, by its very nature, must be made up of the likes of us. "Imagine yourself as a living house," wrote C. S. Lewis. "God comes in to ...