The Is Not A Perfect Understanding Of God - 1466 Words

Wars have been fought, prophesies have been made, books have been written, and lives have been changed, all in the name of God. For centuries man has posed the question as to whether or not an all-knowing, all-powerful, and unconditionally loving God truly exists. While there are many who searched for and believe in the existence of some form of supreme being that has ultimate control over our existence, there are others who don’t believe in any such higher power. According to Hunter (1974), â€Å"It is not easy to find a perfect understanding of God. The search requires persistent effort, and there are some who never move themselves to pursue this knowledge. In place of making the struggle and effort to understand, they follow the†¦show more content†¦In order for an individual to have any type of relationship with God, it is imperative for that same individual to have an understanding of who God is as well as his nature. The book of Genesis, found in the Holy Bible, gives a full account of the creation of this world, as well as all things found within, including mankind. According to the Bible’s account, we were all created in the image of God, both male and female (Genesis 1:27, King James Version). Stenmark (2012) said, â€Å"A central element to Christianity is the idea that human beings are created in the image of God and that they are the only creatures on earth that are created in such a way. The expressions ‘in our image’ and ‘according to our likeness’ are used of no other creature in the Bible, so there is something special about human beings compared to all other living things on earth.† If God created man in his own likeness and image, then he must have a very important purpose and plan for such a creation. As God’s crowning achievement in creation, mankind has been given dominion over the entire earth as well as all of God’s other creations. Unfortunately, our human nature is to not always make the best decisions, or to sin, which trait can be traced back to our first parents on this earth, Adam and Eve. One of the commandments that God gave Adam and Eve while they were

The Use Of Shoplifting And Its Effects On Society - 859 Words

Many people suffer from some kind of mental illness. Often when people are caught shoplifting they blame it on kleptomania or some other kind of psychological disorder. Most people cannot fathom the idea of someone accidently placing some merchandise in their pockets and walking out of the store without paying. This is why it is hard to tell if someone is lying when they say they have an illness. Not a lot of people call it a crime. Shoplifting has been linked to impulse control, substance abuse, bipolar disorder, personality disorders and many others. Most individuals with an illness steal as a way to cope with unwanted thoughts or feelings. People with an impulse disorder are unable to resist the urge to steal objects that they may not even need. Even though kleptomania is one of the illnesses that cause people to shoplift, a vast majority of shoplifters are clinically depressed. â€Å"Only very few of the many convicted shoplifters are referred to the psychiatrist†, (Anonym ous, 1955, pp. 1422). There are many 12 step programs available for people that have shoplifting problems. No studies have been done to evaluate their success. Peer pressure Everyone knows what it feels like to want to fit in to a group and participate in some kind of dangerous activity in order to look cool. Peer pressure can contribute to some of the shoplifting that happens today, especially in the younger crowd. Most people do not realize how serious shoplifting really is. There’s no distinctive typeShow MoreRelatedStealing: Theft and Store1134 Words   |  5 PagesCost to Society For Shoplifting Shoplifting is a major problem in today life. 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Some other people might also not have the conscience to feel wrongRead MoreTeenagers Today Lack Moral Values and Self-Discipline Essay644 Words   |  3 Pagesinflicting torture upon less able people. As fewer people lack the morality to help the needy, even Community Involvement Projects have to be forced upon students. The masses of the youths today have little regard for moral values. As society is under the more ‘open-minded’ western influence, many teens are just blindly following trends, placing peer pressure and the desire to fit in over their own moral values. One example is the fact that promiscuity is on the rise. ManyRead MoreThe United States The Criminal Justice System856 Words   |  4 Pages and when he was found shoplifting the family was able to obtain a social worker to help them solve the underlining issues that their child had (Marc Mauer lecture). 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In September of 2011, police officers were called to a shoplifting incident at the Ashland Massachusetts supermarket Caetano and another person were identified as potential accomplices to the shoplifting incidentRead MoreSpeech: Against Capital Punishment Essay1185 Words   |  5 Pagesthe punishment is in use, with those countries where it has been abolished. Capital punishment violates the right to live, a right everyone has even if they are mass murderers. Crimes punishable by death include rape, murder, adultery and kidnapping, all which should be punishable in a more civilized way and not by the death sentence. All in all, there are thirty-five crimes punishable by death, ranging from assassinations to shoplifting. As a community, we shouldRead MoreThe Population Of St. Paul s Informed On The Consequences Of Crime1406 Words   |  6 Pagesand reliable conclusions, quantitative survey research through the use of structured questionnaires is used. Questionnaire was chosen to gather information on villagers since; adequate information can be collected from a large size of the villagers in a short period of time and in a cost effective manner. Also, the information captured from villagers and quantified through the use of charts, graphs and table with limited effects to its validity and reliability. The structured questions allowed forRead MoreThe Effects Of Consumer Behaviour On Consumer Behavior1986 Words   |  8 PagesCONSUMER MISBEHAVIOUR This essay, firstly, seeks to explain the meaning of consumer behaviour. Secondly, the essay will critically analyse consumer misbehaviour. Respectively, Binge drinking, illegal downloading and shoplifting will be given as examples to make misbehaviour term understandable. The essay will focus on the reasons and impacts of misbehaviour. Finally, the essay will give some statistics and pieces of advice to prevent consumer misbehaviour. When people live, they have to do some choicesRead MoreArgumentative Essay On Peer Pressure1532 Words   |  7 Pagesteenage years. It is natural, healthy and important for children to have and rely on friends as they grow and mature.† These friendships can offer both positive and negative influences on a young adolescents life. Peer pressure does have some positive effects, but as teens get older the peer pressure only seems to impact their lives negatively. Young teens have always had issues with peer pressure and everyone should be against it because it is harmful, can be destructive, and makes adolescents do unwantedRead More Plagiarism: A Serious Crime Essay664 Words   |  3 Pagesthieves get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, so why shouldnà °t plagiarizers? Anyone that uses anyone elseà °s work as his or her own and receives credit should be punished to the fullest extent of the law also. This is a crime too. You are stealing someoneà °s work. People may not think that this is a serious crime because it is thought of to be just a book or an idea and how could this effect or hurt someone? But this is just as serious as stealing a car or a jacket from a store.

Aristotle’s Ideas in the Modern Work Environment Free Essays

Aristotle in the Modern Work Environment In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, every point, every major idea, and every argument made, is all connected back to the concept that every action seeks an ultimate good. Aristotle felt that there is an intrinsic good that humans aim for and that there is this â€Å"good life† we all mean to have. However, what does it mean to be good? That means something different to everyone; we all inhabit many different roles in our day to day lives, whether we strive to be a good parent, a good sibling, a good student, a good citizen, or a good leader. We will write a custom essay sample on Aristotle’s Ideas in the Modern Work Environment or any similar topic only for you Order Now All emphasize the importance of our own well-being, as well as that of others, and the greater community as a whole. For the purpose of this paper, the focus will be on work relationships, what it means to promote a good work environment, and how Aristotle’s ideas relate to the modern work community. First, we will examine the characteristics of a great place to work, and then we will examine how each of Aristotle’s main ideas on civic relationships relate to these modern work relationships. Whether the association is that of an employee and an employer, a buyer and a seller, or even a manager and an investor, each relationship has common business ideas and common human needs. Sometimes companies get so caught up in the business ideas that the human needs become null. However, the most successful companies are the ones who are able to excel at both the business practices as well the care of their employees. So what defines a â€Å"great† place to work? Is it the business with the most elaborate holiday parties, the one with the highest paid employees, or perhaps is it the business that places value in the intangibles, such as trust, communication, and strong leadership? To define the traits of a positive work environment, we will examine the Great Place to Work website, who every year, partners with 5,000 plus companies and conducts a survey to find out exactly what a great workplace means. Essentially, a great work environment can be defined by three main factors; employees trust the people they work for, they have pride in what they do, and they enjoy the people they work with. Of these three, it is the mutual trust that employees and employers have in one another that sets the foundation for a successful company. An employer can build trust with their workers by having credibility for the work output and treating them with respect and fairness. This in turn, creates a loyal employee who is dedicated to producing their highest quality of work as well as motivating others to do the same. Whether the business is a small ma-pop store, or a Fortune 500 corporation, all have the ability to achieve a cohesive work environment. The best of both an employee and an employer can be explained by Aristotle’s views on happiness, the virtues and deliberation, justice, and friendship. All are interconnected, and when applied to a professional setting, help to promote an work environment that is beneficial for the company, but more importantly, the human good. Aristotle’s most important concept is that of human happiness because happiness in and of itself was reaching the end good. According to him, humans have three parts to their soul. The first is the most basic, a vegetative state in which all living things share in which we are satisfying our most basic of needs. The next level is that reason that is grounded in emotion. The two are grounded in each other, and therefore, can be swayed by each other, such in that our emotions can influence our reason. Aristotle believed that true happiness was engaging the highest activity of the soul, our capacity for thought. He believed that happiness was â€Å"the human good [that proves to be] the activity of the soul in accord with virtue. In other words, a person living life to the fullest was the person pursuing their purpose in life with action, and reaching a certain amount of excellence in that purpose. In turn, that will bring a true state of happiness. The best way to bring about this state of individual happiness is through community. In terms of a business community, it is the responsibility of the leaders to promote an environment that focuses on establishing a w orker’s strength, discovering his or her potential, and then developing that potential in order to fulfill that person’s purpose. In the business world, we see people all the time who feel their work is not fulfilling and lacking in purpose. These are also the kinds of people we see that show up to work and complete the bare minimum necessary for obtaining their paycheck. An employer who wants to have a successful company needs to promote the kind of work that is in their employees’ best interests and allows them to feel useful each and every day. A happy employee will be more invested in the business’s day to day operations, as well as the overall success of the organization. The discussion of happiness leads to Aristotle’s next major ideas, those of the virtues and deliberation. A happy person will be someone who lives in accordance with the virtues. He is neither too much of one thing, or not enough of another, he is in the middle of two extremes. Aristotle explained the virtues to be a perception of the right thing to do or the appropriate response when faced with a certain situations. The good decision lies in the virtue that is between what Aristotle called the â€Å"vices of excess† and the â€Å"vices of deficiency. For example, cowardliness would be a vice of deficiency, foolhardiness would be a vice of excess, and courage in the middle of these two would be the right decision. Aristotle’s virtues can be broken down in two ways: intellectually and morally. Intellectual virtue comes from education, which must be taught over a length of time. Moral virtue, on the other hand, comes from habit. They are virtues that need to be le arned, and that is accomplished by actually practicing it. People become virtuous by performing virtuous acts, and the more they are practiced, the more the virtue becomes a part of one’s disposition. Although moral virtues are reactions due to habit or practice to respond in certain ways, Aristotle believed virtues are cultivated through deliberation. One must think about the situation he or she is in, and contemplate as to what good could be achieved in that situation. In deliberation, one must consider the â€Å"ends† he or she is trying to ultimately reach, and make a decision about the best way to go about achieving that end result. Virtues and the deliberative process are involved everyday in the business world. A person’s virtues guide his decisions, and decisions have to be made on a daily basis when it comes to a business’s operations, finances, resources, customers, or even future goals. A company therefore needs their leader to be virtuous in order to make the kinds of decisions that will be in everyone’s best interest. A leader that is virtuous will desire to be good and do good, therefore he will make decisions that are fair. This engages one of the fundamental traits of a Great Place to Work, and that is the leader promotes an connection based on trust between himself and his employees. When employees believe their boss is contemplating the best course of action when faced with a certain situation, they can trust him to make a sound and virtuous judgment. The trust that is built here translates into respect for their superiors, and when employees respect the people they work for, the entire organization is given the opportunity to run smoothly and cohesively. Another of Aristotle’s virtues that he specifically singles out is justice. It includes all other virtues under its umbrella, because to be just is to consider all the other virtues and act in a virtuous way. In this case, he is not describing the kind of justice to exact on a criminal, but rather justice in that a person gets what he deserves. Justice must maintain a certain balance in which advantages and disadvantages are equal. In Aristotle’s opinion, greed or the desire to have more than one’s due counteracts his idea of distributive justice. In this concept, wealth among the community would be spread out among its members, with everyone receiving their fair share according to their virtue. He believed the economy was not driven by a â€Å"guiding hand† but by reciprocity. A successful economy distributes goods not to satisfy an individual’s best interest, but to facilitate exchanges within the community, with the ultimate goal being people living the life they want in accordance with their virtues. The most virtuous people make the most significant contributions to the community, and therefore are of the highest merit. His concept of distributive justice enables the greatest privilege to go to those with the most virtue, and not those with the most money, the most power, or the most inside connections. The best places to work are the ones that are most just. They exhibit all the virtues in the best sense, but most of all, the people within the company benefit from an environment of fairness, for both the employees and the employers. In order to maintain the balance of justice, not one employee is treated with an unfair share of disadvantages and therefore carries too much of a burden. On the other hand, not one employee enjoys an unfair share of advantages and therefore is overly privileged. Everyone is cooperating together and this kind of justice only facilitates the inner workings of a business in a way that contributes to the overall success of the company. It also promotes a fair merit-based system that rewards promotions and other benefits fairly. If employees know that privileges will be handed down based on highest merit, and not unfairly based on seniority, or inside connections, they will be motivated to work hard and produce their best work, which in the end, only builds a more successful business. The last of Aristotle’s main ideas we will discuss is friendship, and how in a certain way it connects all of Aristotle’s main ideas together. Very simply put, friendship can be defined as wishing each other well and there being a mutual awareness of good will between two individuals. Aristotle then classifies three types of friendships: those based in utility, those based in pleasure, and those based in character. A friendship based in utility, occurs when two people can benefit from each other. By doing the same thing, both gain an equal advantage in the relationship. This kind of friendship is a temporary situation because it is based in two individuals being useful to each other, rather than any enjoyment they have it the person. If the usefulness ends, the purpose of the relationship disappears, and therefore so does the relationship itself. A friendship for pleasure happens when two people enjoy the other’s company and have a common interest in doing a certain activity together. In this case, doing the activity in the company of another makes the activity more enjoyable than if it had be done alone. This kind of friendship is also temporary because the relationship lasts only as long as the two individuals share the common interest. The strongest and most enduring of friendships are also the rarest kind, and those are friendships based in character. This relationship occurs when two people admire the quality of the other person and find common ground in their virtues. They develop a long-lasting friendship that develops over time as they get to know one another. It is a very selfless kind of relationship as there are no motivating factors these individuals seek in one another. They accept each other for who they are and encourage each other to find the â€Å"goodness† in what they pursue. Friendships of character connect the ideas of virtue, justice, and happiness together. The basis of a good friend is that the friend is good in and of himself. He realizes his best self in accordance with the virtues, and will encourage a friend of similar virtue to seek his best self. He who acts in accordance with all the virtues is just, and justice in its fullest sense is friendliness. Both justice and friendliness inhabit the idea of distributive justice. Not in an economical sense, but friends of utility, pleasure, or goodness equally exchange advantages consistent with the type of friendship they share. If there is an unequal distribution of disadvantages in friendships of utility or pleasure, then the relationship will disintegrate. Therefore, among true friends that is based on character, there is no need for justice. Those who actively engage in friendships are also the happiest. Humans are not meant to live in solitude, and it is by engaging those around them and participating in the community that one will find the good in others, the good in the community, and the good in life. Friendship in the workplace bolsters the idea of camaraderie among employees and employers. When people enjoy the other people they work with, they’re surrounded by a positive environment that enables them to work at their highest potential. this doesn’t mean that people’s work environments have to be filled with their best friends, but instead should feel a friendliness towards their peers out of a sharing their professional lives together and a common interest to meet their business goals. The most likely of friendships to be found in a work environment are friendships of utility or pleasure. Every person within an organization may have separate goals, but all share the same goal of seeing the company do well. The success of the business will benefit everyone as long as they work together. It’s also likely that people within the same line of business will share some of the same interests. This commonality between workers can be the foundation for them to work together effectively and support each other in their work. The rarest kind of work friendship would be that based in character. It is likely that you may share some of the same professional values, but people are so different that it’s rare to come together on a work platform and build a lasting relationship. However, hopefully people within the business can at least appreciate the quality of their peers and superiors, even if they don’t fully admire them. The best kinds of work environments are the one that exhibit all Aristotle’s main ideas, such as happiness, virtue, deliberation, justice, and friendship, to their fullest. Environments that remain open to dialogue and respect, that recognize differences among people as a unifying force rather than a dividing one and utilize people’s strengths to their greatest potential are the kind of work environments that Aristotle would promote. While it may be hard for a business to maintain the best environment all the time, as long as it stays true to its ethical business principles, and as long as its leaders strive to meet the human needs of its employees and well as the goals of the company, then I would consider that a great place to work. How to cite Aristotle’s Ideas in the Modern Work Environment, Essay examples

Carlyles statement Essay Example For Students

Carlyles statement Essay The two men who accompany Gradgrind are introduced to us in the second chapter. Half way through the second chapter we are introduced to the man who has remained anonymous until now is a government inspector. Dickens describes him as, A mighty man at cutting and drying Like Gradgrind he is cutting which brings a sharp and edgy feel to him, drying makes him sound cold and heartless. Dickens has used the sentence, always with a system to force down the general throat like a bolus to sound like force feeding, this reminds me of the pupils being taught facts forcefully. The government officer is there to back Gradgrind up in that fact should only be taught. He uses what decoration to have on wallpaper as an example, he explained to the class why you mustnt have horses on wallpaper, Ill explain to you, thenwhy you wouldnt paper a room with representations of horses. Do you ever see horses walking up or down the sides of rooms in reality-in fact? He then goes on to talk about what you would have on your carpet; he questions Sissy about this and, as did Gradgrind, embarrasses her. After this he sounds very smug with himself, smiling in the calm strength of knowledge. The class is later told that you must discard the word Fancy altogether. This clearly tells the reader that the government officer agrees with Gradgrind and is a standard way of teaching. This is a new discovery. This is fact. This is taste. The government officers philosophy is that he believes facts are a way of life and are tasteful. I think Dickens included the government officer in the first two chapters as he thought they had too much to do with education and it was becoming very political. Mchoakumchild, the schoolmaster, is a product of the industrialisation of education, he is a teacher who follows the same beliefs as Gradgrind and the government officer, he too believes in facts. Dickens tells us that MChoakumchild has a lot of factual knowledge but If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! I think that Dickens is again expressing that he believes imagination is a must as MChoakumchild has a lot of knowledge but his students will never be complete people as they will only ever see one side of life. The school itself is described as a factory, He and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters, had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory This is what really built the image of the school up for me. It sounds as though the whole education system was made to run like a factory. The pupils are the machines and the teaches are the workers, like men and women who operate machinery are only useful to their masters for this, MChoakumchild is only useful to Gradgrind because he is so full of facts. Dickens believed that children should have an imagination, he was a romanticist. He wrote Hard Times at a time were everyone believed in empiricism, it was very different from other novels that were wrote at the time. Dickens has used characters to represent empiricism, for example Tomas Gradgrind, as he has with characters representing romanticism, for example Sissy Jupe. Dickens dedicated Hard Times to a philosopher friend of his, Tomas Carlyle, who felt very strongly that society was threatened by industrialism. In 1892 he made the following statement, It is the age of machinery in every outward and inward sense of that word. Nothing is now done directly by hand; all is by rule and calculated contrivance Men are grown mechanical in heard and in heart, as well as in hand. Throughout Hard Times Dickens refers to the workers as Hands, men and women who are only important to their masters because they can manage machines. We can see that Hard Times reflects the issues in Carlyles statement, the themes of industrialism and everything following fact.