Human and Aquinas Theories on God

Human and Aquinas Theories on God Can anything of God be known from our knowledge of the world? Answer with reference to Aquinas and/or Hume. Hume concludes in his writings that Gods existence cannot be proved, however he does not explicitly say that God does not exist he merely draws into question the reasons as to why people believe it so. He shows that we can know only discrete facts but not universal necessities. He linked causation to assurance based on the discovery of that relationship between cause and effect but adding that even if two events show a relatively contiguity and succession (Hume, 1739) that is not in itself enough for a causal connection. Therefore by denying that a fundamental feature of reality can be described by the causality principle he rejects a key element purported for the existence of God. Due to the lack of empirical evidence Hume shows his disdain for the cosmological argument. With regard to the creation of the universe he states that there is no direct evidence although in the Bible it states for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made (Rom 1:20, KJV). Hume felt that it was impossible to prove the existence of something that was unknowable. We can look at the vastness of the universe with its billions of stars and galaxies or peer through a microscope into the minute world of atoms and cells and in both cases we see order, yet the fact that order is seen within the universe is also not enough for Hume to prove Gods existence. There are of course many who claim that such order must have a source in line with the order that we ourselves set in place, and therefore conclude that God must possess similar yet far superior properties. Hume counters that order must come directly from design if this argument is true; and even if there is such design, how can we know the designer?  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   In addition Hume feels that design alone does not explain an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God due to the evil we see around us in the world. Though theologians would explain that evil is only temporary due to mans fall and the influence of the Devil whose time is limited. The Bible states; for every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God (Hebrews 3:4, KJV) leading many to understandable feel that if a house needs a designer and a builder then surely something as small but vastly more complex such as a human cell also needs a designer and a builder for the alternative would be that a cell came about due to the blind operation of forces bequeathed from some unintelligent, inanimate matter. Yet no scientist has been able to make something from nothing. The laws of physics state that existing materials can only be transformed giving rise to the conclusion of the Bible writer Isaiah; when using an analogy of a potter and his clay he said, for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? (Isaiah 29:16, KJV). We see a beautiful painting hanging in an art gallery and inwardly marvel at the artists skill; we read a book and recognise that it had an author. When we stop at a red traffic light we understand that a law has be en set forth. We may not understand why certain laws are there, we may not understand what the artist or author was trying to portray in their works yet we do not use that lack of understanding to doubt that they exist. Hume considers that same Bible text in Hebrews 3:4 when he has Philo tell Cleanthes, If we see a house, Cleanthes, we conclude, with the greatest certainty, that it had an architect or builder (D 2.8), yet for Hume the analogy fails arguing that we would need experience in the creation of a material world to justify an a posteriori claim as to the cause of any particular material world. Lacking such experience we therefore lack the needed justification for claiming that the material universe must have an intelligent cause. His argument fails however as we do not need to see a house being built to know that it was constructed by builders following a blueprint given to them by the architect. He further argues that even if the inference is justified between the similarities of the universe and say, a house, it would not therefore follow that there is a perfect God that created it. It may well have been a number of gods for likewise a house takes a number of people to build (D 5.8), nor would the inference justify the conclusion that this God would need to be perfectly intelligent or good. Hume held that the existence of God and other such metaphysical issues should stand up to the same examination as any investigation involving physical sciences. That one cannot assume the existence of God based only the existence of the universe. In his dialogues Hume uses the character of Cleanthes to posit an illustration of a machine that is divided into lesser and lesser machines to prove the existence of a deity yet Demea believes that rather than attesting to a creator the analogy in fact gives rein to the atheists by departing in the least, from the similarity of the cases is so doing he said you diminish proportionably the evidence (D 2.7). Hume feels that the cases of the universe and a house are too dissimilar to support such an inference citing the example of steps on a staircase and human legs that can climb as a certain and infallible inference. Then why not make the house and universe or to a greater extent the Earth itself more comparable as the similarities go way bey ond the fact that both needed a designer and builder. When puzzling over the purpose of the Earth one need look no further than the purpose of a house; somewhere to live that provides light, heat, protection with a source of food and water. Our houses have a plumbing system the earth has the water cycle. Or look no further than a birds nest; these intricate complex structures we see high in trees do not get there by the random collection of twigs that are blown about by the wind. Yet if the nest didnt come about by chance then what of the bird that built it. Can anything of God be known from our knowledge of the world? If were left with any doubt at all then one need look no further than life itself. The principle of uniformity is in effect the same as the analogy criterion. Therefore the past theories that have been postulated invoke similar causes to those we now have, in line with what Hume called uniform experience. Looking at the origins of life what is our uniform experience? It is that information in all its forms is generated by an intelligent agent. Where in the body is a plethora of information stored? In ones DNA. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that there must have been an intelligent cause for the first, the original DNA code. Whether we are looking at written language as in the example of the book earlier, or at a DNA strand, both exhibit the property and quality of specified complexity. We know of course that there is an intelligent cause for written language subsequently engendering a legitimate reason to posit an intelligent cause as the source of DNA and by extension life itself. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1896 ed.) [1739]

Cyberethics - Ethics in the Age of the Internet :: Internet Online Communication Essays

Cyberethics - Ethics in the Age of the Internet In every society we live, we have to follow the rule of that place. The Internet is growing, growing in the number of users and growing in public perception. The Internet is the new American frontier due to the new technologies is radically transforming almost every aspect of how we communicate and with whom, as well as just about any dimension of our lives. Most Internet users are convinced of its general utility and positive benefits. However behind it, the Internet, as well as its technological offspring’s the World Wide Web has been compared to the Wild West, because no one owns the network and there is no law and regulations. In consequence of the growth of the Internet, there have been increasing calls for its regulation from many sides. NEW MEDIA The new medium of the Internet has begun to create shadow versions of our older media (Crowley 303). William J. Mitchell likens computers as media to a frontier society (Crowley 303). New media technologies beckon more enticingly than ever. More than merely offering an improvement on existing forms of communication, new media technologies are creating what telecommunications scholar Frederick Williams calls a â€Å"virtually new medium of public communication† (Pavlik, 79). The Internet is a form of new media. Exploiting the Internet’s distribution channels will be an important challenge to publishing and other media industries in the next few years. The initial problem is that no one owns the network. The Internet continues to expand both in terms of audience and the range of its information services. Among other benefits, it offers American media companies an important channel for searching both old and new audiences. Until recently, Canada's broadcast and telecommuni cations watchdog is gearing up to tackle a potentially explosive issue -- whether it should try to regulate the Internet. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) said regulation could be used to promote Canadian culture or protect Canadians -- particularly youngsters -- from obscenities such as pornography and hate propaganda on the Internet (Brehl). However later, the CRTC announced that it will not regulate new media services on the Internet. After conducting an in-depth review under the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act beginning last July, the CRTC has concluded that the new media on the Internet are achieving the goals of the Broadcasting Act and are vibrant, highly competitive and successful without regulation.

Gulliver’s Travels Essay Essay

In this essay, on a pre-1914 novel, I will show how the main character changes emotionally, physically and mentally and also show how the novel was adapted into a film. I have chosen to study the classic Jonathan Swift novel, Gulliver’s Travels which was written in 1726. It is about a ship surgeon who goes on many voyages that change his life, his views on it and others around his. The novel is written in the past tense from the author’s point of view which makes it more believable that Lemuel Gulliver went on these expeditions. The book begins with a short account about the main character in Gulliver’s Travels, Lemuel Gulliver. He says about his family, how and where he got the money to be able to study, and eventually onto why he became a surgeon on a ship. It says the few friends he had left him and he ended up friendless with only a wife to help support him. This makes Gulliver feel lonely and depressed because he has no-one to talk to and so stays at home alone. As he stayed at home, his only friends those inside the many novels of the best authors he was reading, he was running low on money and so had to do something to be bringing in some sort of a salary. He decided to go on another adventure as a surgeon on a ship, to bring in some money to support his family, and ends up being shipwrecked and having to swim for his life. As he reaches land, scared, still depressed and even more alone, he lay still for hours on end resting and eventually falls asleep on the immensely short grass. As he awoke he found he was bound to the floor by many miniature ropes that were tied to his hair, arms, legs and face. As he lay on his back, Gulliver could only see towards the sky and so could not distinguish what the noises, that he could hear, were. He felt a strange movement over his leg which moved onto his breast and up to his chin. He looked downwards, without moving his head, to find a human not six inches high. He shouted Hekinah degul, which was repeated by the other small creatures around Gulliver. Now Gulliver feels frightened, puzzled and restricted, to both movement and communication due to the unknown language the small humans spoke. Throughout Lilliput, Gulliver feels superior to the â€Å"little people,† due to his size and it feels like a joke is being played on him- because of the stupidity of the situation. He felt inferior because he couldn’t speak the language- until he began to learn later on- and also because he was seen as a monster that noone wanted anything to do with. The Lilliputians were frightened of Gulliver, because of his size, and so Gulliver still felt lonely and vulnerable-because he could have had thousands of little arrows shot at him, could be tied down and murdered. As Gulliver began to learn the language he felt less restricted-because he could now partially communicate- and less alone because he could have an intelligent conversation with a Lillputian. He began to learn about the Lilliputian ways of government and life and the situation made Gulliver feel badly about the British way of politics. He found out that the Lilliputians were having a war with the small people of Blefuscu over which end to break an egg. This made Gulliver think that- normal sized- people have wars over things almost as silly and idiotic as which end to break an egg such as skin tone, religious beliefs and the fact that they are not speaking your language. Gulliver then started to belittle the- normal sized- human race, and had many ideas about how our world could be changed for the better. As time went on Gulliver became closer to the Emperor of Lilliput, after helping them in the war by stealing the Blefuscu armada’s warships. Gulliver stopped the Emperor and Empress from being burned alive, in their palace, by urinating on the imperial building. After this act Gulliver felt ashamed that he urinated onto the Imperail palace, even if it was to save the royal family’s lives, and scared because he had his eyeballs threatened to be gouged out. Gulliver fled to Belfuscu- after taking a small sheep with him to show his wife when he returned home-, found an abandoned ship, and used the Blefuscians bedsheets-sewn together- as a sail and returned to England to his family. As he was leaving, Gulliver felt happy that he was on his way back to his family, yet sad and scared- of himself- because of the stupidity of the situation he was in and that he must have been losing his mind and going insane. He stayed in England with his family for a while and then left for another journey as a ship’s surgeon. The film started with Gulliver sneaking around outside his home whilst his ex-wife-who was remarried to an old friend surgeon of Gullivers- and slept in the stable across the road. His son found him in the morning and told Mary- Gullivers ex-wife. Gulliver then told his son the whole story about Lilliput and the film showed what was happening as he was narrating it. He told the whole story to his son until Dr Bates- Gullivers old surgeon friend- took him to a mental institution to try and â€Å"help† Gulliver. Gulliver was kept in a cell and thought to be insane by the doctors. Whilst Gulliver was in the mental hospital, his son found the little sheep but it got loose as Dr.Bates shouted at Gullivers son and told him to leave his office. The film shows Gulliver to be a lot more eccentric than the novel and he also seems to be a lot more confident with himself and what he saw at Lilliput. As Gulliver retells the story- partially once inside the hospital- he notes that he didn’t return home after his voyage to Lilliput he went straight onto the next island and his next adventure. The film has a few slight adaptations from the novel, such as Gulliver not returning home, but has stuck to the novel pretty closely. The film shows that Gulliver tells his story back to everyone from the mental hospital whereas the book says nothing about where Gulliver is as the story is told. This is the main change from novel to moving picture so far.

Homeland and Corporate Security - 581 Words

The protection and preservation of artifacts of historic purposes and value have been a concerned of the government and the people to learn about the past to help understand the future. To carry out this need the museum was created as a place built to have high valuable artifacts in one secured convent place. Eventually these high valuable artifacts will become high valuable targets. This would result in a security system to prevent and protect these artifacts. Museum security is an important form of security because they have to be able to protect and care for many historic items which a majority of them are priceless. Their job is pretty simple being a security guard. They have to protect the contents inside of the museum including paintings, sculptures, artifacts, the employees, and especially to protect the people who travel and visit the museum. They also are responsible for keeping a stock of all items in the museum as well as the items going in and out of the museum. Museum se curity’s main goal is to be able let the people experience history closer while making sure they remain a reasonable distance away from the piece of work so that it remains safe. While this is their main goal they have to also maintain the status of protection, safety, preservation, and prevention to ensure a stable security network. Over time the value of the contents of the museum has changed which means security within the building would also have to change. With time technology hasShow MoreRelatedThe Plan And Budget After The Homeland Security792 Words   |  4 Pagesinvolved in developing a Homeland Security Plan and Budget after the Homeland Security Assessment of the organization has been completed is to first develop the Vision statement The Vision statement is XYZ organization will be the industry leader in providing â€Å"Best Practices† that support homeland security among employees, suppliers, partners, and customers. 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