The Mysterious Nature of Faith - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1825 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/03/22 Category Religion Essay Level High school Tags: Faith Essay Did you like this example? In our daily life, we can hear people say that they have faith in something. But what on earth is faith? Generally, people may consider faith as religious beliefs. However, does having faith just mean believing in god? Or perhaps it has deeper implication? Do people voluntarily have faith or not? Throughout the history, many scholars and philosophers have tried to define the exact meaning of faith. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Mysterious Nature of Faith" essay for you Create order Based on their solid foundation, I argue that faith is a kind of volitional belief, emotion of admiration and feeling of trust. Having faith means people use their volition to believe in and admire evidence that they think is true. On the other hand, it is about trusting our senses, emotions and perceptions so that we can continue to believe in other things in the world. Before getting straight to my point, lets start with the very beginning. Does having faith merely mean believing in God? In 1200s, a philosopher named Aquinas explained the existence of God in a rational way. He raised five ways, arguments from change, causation, contingency, degrees of excellence, and harmony, to demonstrate his statement. Lets go deeper into some of the ways he claimed. At first, in the argument from causation, Aquinas said that nothing can cause itself. There is no infinite causal chain in the universe. In this condition, there must have a first cause because there will be no intermediate causes or ultimate effect without the first cause. And there is necessarily a first cause that is called God. On the other hand, the argument from harmony, or design, is more controversial. According to Aquinas, nature is not intelligent but seems to behave in regular and goal-oriented ways. Everything is governed harmoniously. Why? He explained that it is because nature must be guided by something with lots of intelligence and that intelligent leader is God. Opponents drastically refuted that the universe or nature forms randomly. There is also a multi-universe theory that there thousands of universe and our universe is only one of them. Anyway, we cant really judge the authenticity of Aquinass arguments, but they can really make us ponder what faith is exactly. For a long time, people equated faith with religious beliefs. From his point of view, there are rational proofs of existence of God. Its really odd that by the time we believe some sound arguments and conclusions we have faith. Thus, it looks like faith is something other than belief in God. If faith doesnt mean belief in God, what can it be? Maybe faith is simply the same as belief? But what is belief? Universally, philosophers consider that belief has some special traits. First, belief is dispositional. It is similar to our unconscious behavior. For instance, we have the belief that water can quench peoples thirst. As we feel thirsty, we are disposed to look for water. Second, belief is involuntary. We spontaneously form the beliefs that we viewed as right and trustworthy in our minds. We cannot choose to believe things that are ridiculous to us. For example, in a rainy day, I cannot brainwash myself to form the belief that today is a sunny day. I can say those words but my behavior reveals that I do not really believe this. My behavior that I bring my umbrella is the evidence that I actually believe it is raining. Last but not least, belief is truth-tracking. It is easy to understand because people are all truth-tracking mechanisms. We always want to seek for the trut h and get things right. We use our perception and see from others to form our own beliefs. Our beliefs are likely to be wrong but we subjectively consider them as true. So how is faith related to belief? In the 4th century, Augustine came up with an argument that belief is a volitional content. Volitional means in your power. You may question that isnt belief involuntary? Maybe belief in his words is similar to so-called faith. Then, it seems that belief and faith are not exactly the same. In other words, faith may be a special kind of belief. Think it that way: having faith is more similar to believing in rather than believing. Believing in something means people choose to believe according to their will, while believing is involuntary. For example, when people believe in God, they not only believe the existence of God, they also pray and have special rituals to show their piety. Therefore, faith is more appropriate to be defined as believing in. Nevertheless, does believing in sound like trust? Trust may be relevant to faith as well. In 2006, Linda Zagzebski from University of Oklahoma put forward that self-trust is necessary for forming our conscientious beliefs. She stated that we need to trust our emotions. The importance of emotion is that it evaluates the situation. For example, fear tells us that something is dangerous and harmful to us. She explained faith by emphasizing on the emotion of admiration. When we admire someone, we actually consider that something about them is worthy of imitation and is a better version of ourselves. Then, we begin to compare which version of ourselves is better, the current one or the admirable one. On the one hand, we may feel that the admirable version is indeed a better version, which leads to convert. One the other hand, we think that there is something in our current version that is admirable. Then, we dont convert. So the main point of Zagzebski is that faith is not just about forming right beliefs, but it relates to our emotional lives. It is about trusting ourselves and about how we think and feel. We always say that we should have faith in love. Now, we have the understanding that we are not only faithful to the person we love but also faithful to a certain version of ourselves. The purpose of having a relationship with others is not just to find a person you can accompany, but to become a better version of ourselves. It seems that we have reached an agreement that faith have something in common with belief and trust. However, the discussion about nature of faith doesnt come to an end. In early to mid-20th Century, Sartre, a philosopher who advocated for existentialism, came up with a notion called bad faith. According to Sartre, we always have faith in something. We need faith to sustain our identity. What matters is that faith can be good faith or bad faith. What is bad faith? First, he stated that there are two aspects of human condition, facticity and transcendence. Facticity is a set of facts that cannot be altered. It is fixed. Transcendence is something that goes beyond the given. It is a function of consciousness. Consciousness always exceeds the facticity of current situation. In Sartres words, consciousness negates the present and brings negation or nothingness. Take a bottle for example; we can only see one side of the bottle at any position. However, we recognize it is a bottle of water because we use our consciousness to look things as if they had more sides. Our consciousness is always negating the given circumstances. For bad faith, it is the denial of some aspects of one human condition. When people deny their transcendence, they always deny their freedom and potentiality. They are constrained by their current situation. For example, some students always say that they do something because their parents let them do. This is a kind of bad faith because they deny the transcendence. They have the freedom to do something else but they dont. When people deny their facticity, they overestimate their freedom. It is a delusional thinking. In his book Being and Nothingness, he says that Bad faith does not hold the norms and criteria of truth as they are accepted by the critical thought of good faith. Bad faith and good faith are both certain ways of interpreting evidence. People with bad faith are aware of the evidence but refuse to pay attention to it. They only stick to their own evidence and ignore any counter-arguments. In contrast, good faith is a kind of critical thinking. People who believe something in good faith continuously open to new evidence in the basis of their evidence. They do not have certainties in their current beliefs and leave room for doubt. Based on predecessors theory, it is not difficult to understand my argument of the nature of faith. Faith is a kind of voluntary belief and admiration in something. To have faith, a person needs to trust his perception, memory and emotion; otherwise, he can doubt his faith. Now we can see faith in a deeper level. Having faith not only means being faithful to someone or something, but also means being faithful to certain version of ourselves. In order to become a better version of ourselves, we should always embrace new evidence and leave room from doubt. We shouldnt constrain ourselves in the current situation and believe our existing beliefs with certainties but go beyond what is. That is the purpose of having faith. As for Coates memoir, many people may think he had a bad faith. In the book, Coates considered black people as victims forced by U.S history. According to him, the social status of the black is fixed. It seems that it is a kind of bad faith because he understood his self-identity strictly in terms of his race, which denied his transcendence. But that is not true. He did write the book to encourage his son and people who read his book to struggle against the injustice in the country. He experienced the death of his colleague Prince Jones who was killed by a rampant policeman. Prince Jones was such a good Christian, scion of a striving class, in his words, but still died from shooting. For his death, Coates felt extremely irritated and hopeless. In his age, he was impossible to do radical revolts to overturn the discrimination in American culture. Thus, his book is a commitment to the future and a reminder to later generations. Furthermore, in the book, he shows strong sense of hatred towards the Dreamers. Dreamers fully believed the American Dream. However, they pursue their dream by freely plundering the bodies of human and earth. The policy of Dreamers created the tragedies in Chicago, Baltimore, and so on. It is these Dreamers who lack authentic self-understandings, trampled over black people and endangered the planet. Perhaps, this is a kind of bad faith. Coates did not blindly believe this kind of American Dream. For him, the real American Dream is that we all sober up, project our real self-identity and realize who we are exactly. His good faith is perfectly embodied in his dream. Work Cited Jean-Paul Sartre, Bad Faith, Being and Nothingness, Philosophical Library, in English, 1956. Print Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me, New York: Spiegel Grau, 2015. print

Community-Oriented Policing and Domestic Violence - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1873 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Research paper Tags: Justice Essay Violence Essay Did you like this example? COMMUNITY-ORIENTED POLICING AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Introduction A myriad of creative approaches in the criminal justice systems of the world have been established over the last two decades in an attempt to lessen or curb the domestic violence incidences in us and across the world. Different law urgencies have now put in place policies that authorize arrest for domestic violence. Such domestic handling options as evidence-based prosecution, no-drop policies and special advocates allocated domestic violence cases have also been adopted by prosecutors. Moreover, in the extension of the community policing initiative the law enforcement outfits have also established partnership with communities in a bid to fight the crisis. According to (Feltes 2000) community-oriented policing has resulted into a reduction of up to 30% of domestic violence case in some states of America. In fact, (Kasturirangan 2008) forecasts that if sufficiently implemented, community oriented policing will result in a 70% reduction in the current incidences of domestic violence in the USA alone. But how intimate is the solving of domestic violence and community-oriented policing? How does the community-oriented policing work within the complexities involved in domestic violence? Can anything be improved for the betterment of the process? This paper seeks to explore these questions. The author of this paper believes that if well managed community-oriented policing can blend within the dynamics of domestic violence and create lasting solutions among families. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Community-Oriented Policing and Domestic Violence" essay for you Create order The evolution of community-oriented policing. It is no doubt that the concept of community oriented policing has been on a continuum of evolution. Since its initiation, several legal and social changes have occurred within the society to improve the experience of community- oriented policing. The following section explores the evolution. What are the components of COP? According to (Lumb and Wang 2006) community-oriented policing (COP) is made up of certain core components that make it possible to use as a problem solving tool. Below are the major components of community-oriented policing: Strategic-oriented policing. Firstly, COP must be strategic-oriented. According to (Matud 2007) strategic oriented policing entails the adoption of preventive and proactive methods of problem and crime elimination. Matud (2007) particularly notes that something is strategic when it has a profound impact on the whole firm; impacts on any of the strategic factors (human resource, performance, financial, corporate culture etc); creates a competitive advantage; futuristic and impacts change management. In the context of COP, this will thus be achieved through the establishment of a stronger relationship and partnership with the communities. As Matud (2007) notes, increased number of police officers in the communities may increase police-community conflicts and thus inadvisable. Strategically, thus the relationship between the few officers and the community can be enhanced, the community members encouraged to report crimes and problems and thus collective prevent crimes and societal problems. Neighborhood-oriented policing. Neighborhood-oriented policing (NOP) is another core component of the COP. (Reisig 2010) defines NOP as an interactive policing process involving the police officers securing certain beat jurisdictions and the citizens either residing or working in the beat jurisdictions collaborating to establish problem and concern identification means. This is then followed by a mutual assessment of viable solutions through the provision of resources available both from the community and the police departments in addressing the problems established. In his study of COP, Reisig (2007) identified four main components of NOP namely: contact; communication; trust; and information exchange. He believes that for the success of NOP the officer must come into contact with the community, communicate to them the intentions of the police department. This communication results in the development of trust which eventually increases information exchange. In essence, NOP also involve police driven community tr ainings and education including drug awareness, DWI awareness, neighborhood watch, school programs and community meetings. Problem-oriented policing (POP). Coined by Golstein (1979), POP is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a model that required the police to be proactive in identifying underlying problems that could be targeted to alleviate crime at its roots.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Golstein (1979) noted that apart from dealing with crime, police had other societal problems to solve such as physical and social disorders. In this regard, they had to extend their mandate from the traditional enforcement of criminal law to the consideration of civil statutes. This way problem would be addressed before crime or disorders lead into disaster. This POP approach was later expounded by Eck and Spelman (1987) in their SARA model- an acrony model for Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assesment. SARA model, which have since then become very popular in practice, illustrated the steps that should be followed in POP. Building trust between police and community. For COP to be successful, the police officers must be able to build a strong relationship with the citizens. According to Sidebottom and Tilley (2011), the building of trust must involve good communication. They further note that the communication should always be done in contact with the citizens in a manner that ensures that the information that citizens exchange is not only acted upon but also not used against the source. Moreover, they argue that the organization of education and training events such as school programs, drug awareness and such increases contact among the police and the citizens and thus trust. In his view increased positive contact results in increased trust and thus helpful information exchange. How is community-oriented policing and domestic violence connected? The connection between domestic violence and COP is not new. Early literature although few noted that domestic violence could be solved through COP. Reisig (2011) noted that domestic violence can result into murder which is criminal and therefore if addressed through the POP component of COP it can be averted. However, posited that mediation other than arrests could be used in COP efforts to curb domestic violence although he accepted that this could trivialize the vice and introduce new complications. Nevertheless, COP through NOP and intimate community partnership could easen access to domestic violence incidences at early stages and address them before they turn dangerous through mediation, counseling and other negotiation methods. B. What is domestic violence? 1. Minnesota Domestic Violence Experiment (MDVE)? The organization conducted a study regarding the police responses in cases of partner violence. The response of the police officers differed wherein one set separ ated the partners, one attempted to mediate the contending parties and the last response was to make mandatory arrest (McClennen 2010). Through this experiment, the offenders and the victims were monitored and were continually interviewed until six months after the incident. Through this way, the police organization was able to follow up whether their responses for the incidents were effective or not. How did police respond in the past? Due to restrictions under the law, police response in cases of domestic violence was only to check and report regarding the incidents. They were not allowed to make an arrest and not to intervene within the family matter. This caused inefficiency on part of the officers to avoid future violence. How police respond after MDVE? After MDVE, different states started to amend their laws regarding arrests of violent partners. Changes in their approach were made wherein large percentage of police organizations use arrest as a form of stopping the offenders. Other states also changed their approaches and made sure that once there are reports, they will implement mandatory arrests. Mandatory arrests laws; is this effective method of reducing this crime? According to Ellis et al (2014), there was a decrease in reports of assaults in states where mandatory arrests are applicable. However, there was increase in cases of homicides between intimate partners as some try not to report the incidence of violent as they do not want their partners to be arrested. How does community-oriented policing work within the dynamics of domestic violence? Community oriented police work can help in mitigating the number of domestic violence as the police can respond with the said incidents swiftly through this approach. Approaches such as NOP can help in improvement of reports of the cases so as to immediately mediate the conflicting parties. A proactive approach can help abused partners to instantly contact the officers once violence occurs. Working closely with the community is the best way to diminish problems within it. 1. Community/police relationships and domestic violence? a. Community coalitions; social programs and interested groups. Community coalitions such as women organizations can help in mitigating violence wherein reports can be easily made and that said incidents can be tackled within the said groups. Partnering with other anti-violence organization can help in avoiding offenses that usually occurs at home. Social programs can be used as a mode of educating the people of the community on how important that t hey need to be aware of the violence and what may be its effect in the future. b. Community responses to domestic violence; community support networks. Spakowski and Milwerts (2006) posited that a powerful community support network serves as the external condition for effective intervention of mens domestic violence against women. The network can be used as a release for the battered partners and serve as their support if ever the problem will still occur. The support network must be organized by the community itself as the beneficial outcome will be for them in the end. c. Response partnerships; police and community leaders. The community leaders must be an instrument towards assuring that the police will be active in mitigating the problem and be alert whenever a violence report is being reported. Through a series of competent communication strategy, the police officers will be able to respond quickly and can even save the victim from future danger. The partnership bet ween the police and community leaders is inevitable if one wants to assure that there is protection and safety within the community. A viable means of communication can be set up to help the members of police force to swiftly provide their response. This may cost the community in some way, but the benefits can be seen in the end if such system will be implemented. II. Conclusion Community-oriented policing is definitely a good approach towards lessening the cases of domestic violence. Though the issues may be personal for some families, the intervention of police authority is needed especially if it will be threatening for the victims and also to some other members of the family. Building ties with the community is assuring that the said community will be protected from future harm. Acquiring a systematic approach towards the said policing may help in more competent police organizations which may be used as a model for other states. References: Ellis, D., Stuckless, N. Smith, C. (2014), Marital Separation and Lethal Domestic Violence, Routledge:UK. Feltes, T. (2002). Community-oriented Policing In Germany: Training And Education. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies Management, 25(1), 48-59. Kasturirangan, A. (2008). Empowerment And Programs Designed To Address Domestic Violence. Violence Against Women, 14(12), 1465-1475. Lumb, D. R., Wang, D. Y. (2006). The Theories and Practice of Community Problem-Oriented Policing: a Case Study. The Police Journal, 79(2), 177-193. Matud, M. (2007). Dating Violence And Domestic Violence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40(4), 295-297. McClenne, J. (2010), Social Work and Family Violence: Theories, Assessment, and Intervention. Springer Publishing Company:NY. Reisig, M. (2010). Community and ProblemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ Oriented Policing. Crime and Justice, 39(1), 1-53. Sidebottom, A., Tilley, N. (2011). Improving problem-oriented policing: The need for a new mo del?. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 13(2), 79-101. Spakowski, N. Milwertz,, C. (2006), Women and Gender in Chinese Studies, LIT Verlag.

Research Paper on Dyckman Farm House and Museum - 650 Words

Research Paper – Dyckman Farm House Museum Dyckman Farmhouse Museum narrates the story of rural Northern Manhattan, a landscape and a life that disappeared in the makeover of a farming community to urban neighborhood. Through the history of the Dyckman family and farm, the museum discovers life in early 19th century rural Manhattan and the protection of that memory in the early 20th century. The Dyckman Farm house Museum is a historical place that reminds us of how the city looked and how it has changed throughout time. The history of the Dyckman Farm House Museum began after the American Revolution. William Dyckman, son of Jan Dyckman, build the house on Kingsbridge Road (Broadway). The Dyckman house was eventually passed to†¦show more content†¦The little historic house was hovering higher than the actual street, extremely different from its surroundings, a reversion of time. I never went to the house until this project came out. I immediately though about visiting the Dyckman Farm and Museum. Surprisingly, when I went the museum entrance only cost $1 and it took me about an hour to see the interior and 30 minutes to walk through the garden. The Dyckman Farm House Museum is small enough that you can self-guide. There are 7 rooms, and one of the most interesting is the main parlor. The house in general is well maintained and the farm house is only open Friday to Sundays from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. The experience of visiting the Dyckman Farm House Museum gave me the opportunity to have an understanding of how beautiful and soundless the city was. Similarly to what George J. Demko said on his essay â€Å"A Sense of Place†, â€Å"All places change. They change in themselves and they change relative to other places, and they may cause in other places. We may imagine there are certain places magically untouched by time or change.† This quotation indeed relates to the sense of magic surrounded to the Dyckman Farm House Museum and how this old colonial-styled house is in the middle of subways, bus stations and buildings, yet it feels like time has not changed. The experience of visiting the Dyckman Farm House and Museum meant

Don Quixote Response free essay sample

He spends the entire night there until he gets into a fight with some men who try to take his armor out of their mule’s trough and he attacks them. Soon after the innkeeper pronounces him a knight simply to be rid of him. Cervantes draws the reader in with his use of Don Quixote’s perspective. Quixote sees what his imagination creates from these stories he’s read and not what is actually there or happening. Later after he leaves the inn Don Quixote hears crying and comes across a boy being flogged by a farmer. When questioned the farmer explains that the boy has been failing in his duties but the boy tells Quixote that the farmer has not been paying him. Don Quixote hearing this thinks that the farmer is a knight and tells the man to pay the boy. When the boy tries to explain that the farmer is not a knight Quixote ignores him and asks the farmer to swear on his knighthood that he will pay the boy and once Quixote leaves the farmer continues to beat the boy but this time more severely. We will write a custom essay sample on Don Quixote Response or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Cervantes here gives us a perfect example of why the modern term Quixotism was coined from the novel Don Quixote. The definition of quixotism is when someone has succumbed to misguided idealism. In this scene Don Quixote because of his misplaced faith in the old stories of chivalry intervenes in a situation and only succeeds in making things worse for the boy he had originally tried to help. Another example of this Quixotism in the novel is when Don Quixote attacks a windmill believing it to be giants and ends up making himself look foolish in front of his squire who for some reason tries to ignore the fact that his master is clearly unhinged mentally. This brings to mind that although Quixote’s actions are admirable they are doomed to fail because he is out of touch with the world he lives in. Both of these situations show that our intentions however admirable may succumb to failure if the onsequences of our actions are not considered. Opposingly it was G. K. Chesterton a British journalist of the time that claims that by writing from this perspective it made it difficult for â€Å"modern† men and women (of their time) to take the values of chivalry seriously. Don Quixote can be looked at from many different angles whether they be as a commentary on chivalry, a comedy, or even a more philosophical way considering the idealism Don Quixote is so known for.