Why Evolution is True, by Jerry A. Coyne Essay -- Why Evolution is Tr

Why Evolution is True is a book by Jerry A. Coyne about how modern man slowly evolved from single cell organisms. This book has changed my whole perspective of evolution. Before I read this book I was a strong believer in creation but while reading this book I realized that there are to many connections between all of earths animals. I am unable see a scenario where we could share so much of our genes with other creatures and still say that we did not evolve from other animals and were just created by a god. What is evolution? Evolution in modern terms is fairly easy to understand. Evolution is the theory that life on earth began with a single celled organism that lived more that 3.5 billion years ago that slowly evolved into many diverse creatures over time. When you break down this theory into sections you get 6 factors: evolution, gradualism, speciation, common ancestry, natural selection and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change. The first part of the evolution theory is evolution itself. Evolution itself is the idea that a species undergoes a genetic change over time to evolve into something that is very different. These differences are seen in our DNA and are considered mutations at first but slowly become the norm. The second part of the theory of evolution is gradualism. Gradualism is the idea that it takes many generations to produce a substantial evolutionary change. An example of this change is birds gaining the ability to fly. The third part of the evolution theory is speciation. Speciation means that different groups of creatures that cannot exchange genes with one another cannot interbreed with one another. The fourth part of the evolution theory is common ancestry. Common ancestry is the... ...ion is very minor. Chapter nine is Evolution Redux. Creationists find evolution very convincing but at the same time they still don’t believe it. There is no lack of evidence that points toward evolution being the truth. Every day there is hundreds of observations and experiments that point to evolution being true. Every fossil and piece of DNA observed points to evolution being a fact. The evidence point to evolution being true is so overwhelming it is hard to believe people still believe in a creator. Evolution is neither moral nor immoral it is just the truth. Once people understand that we are the only creatures that natural selection has created with a brain complex large enough to understand the laws that govern the universe, which is the amazing product of evolution. Works Cited Coyne, Jerry A. Why Evolution Is True. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.

O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones Essay -- O’Neill Emperor Jones Race Black

O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones In Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, Emperor Brutus Jones is an African American male who has risen, â€Å"from stowaway to Emperor (of Haiti) in two years† (343). Jones looks down upon his subjects, viewing them as nothing but animals, even though they are African just like himself. As payback, Jones himself goes through a transformation which dehumanizes him and gives him very primal, animal related characteristics. Through this juxtaposition, O’Neill makes his play a critique of the dehumanizing effects people in power have had over the black race. One of the first characters introduced in the play, the old native woman, has been completely dehumanized by the Emperor’s reign. When she realizes she cannot escape or reason with the regime, which is represented in her scene through Smithers, she immediately dehumanizes herself. The woman, â€Å"seeing the uselessness of struggling, gives way to frantic terror, and sinks to the ground, embracing his knees supplicatingly† (340). The woman is no longer a human being. She is not on an equal playing field with those that have oppressed her. Words like uselessness, frantic, sinks, and supplicatingly, all serve to show she believes she has no other option but to allow the regime to dehumanize her. The fact that she sinks to the ground, shows that she is tired and has been dehumanized for so long, treated as property for so long, there is no point in hoping for anything different. She just accepts the dehumanization now. Struggling to be viewed as a human being is equ ated with a useless action. Later in the scene, the woman further proves the Emperor has complete control over her. She states, â€Å"Him sleep† (341). The use of the word Him is intere... ...anization has been completed. The scene directions of scene seven state, â€Å"Jones’ voice is heard from the left rising and falling in the long, despairing wail of the chained slaves† (359). He is unified with the slaves. His ability to speak along with the slaves has been taken away. They have been dehumanized to a wail, a sound or noise, much in the same way animals are reduced to speaking in noises. Jones does not fight or try to kill these rowers. He realizes this is his history, and how wrong he was to enslave and dehumanize his fellow members of the black race. This realization is shown when he states, â€Å"Oh Gorry, I’se skeered in dis place! I’se skeered. Oh Lawd, pertect dis sinner!† (359). He is afraid just like all blacks would have been in the slave ships. He no longer is trying to exert power over those members of his own race that are less fortunate than him.

Nothings Changed :: Papers

Nothing's Changed When you phoned last night I was clipping my nails. I stood at the window of my bedroom; the phone cradled between my chin and shoulder, and clipped my nails as I listened to your voice. It had, after all, been some time since I heard it and I was, as ever, mesmerised. "I'm coming to town on Friday. I thought we could meet for a drink or something," you said, as if we were and always had been quiet, calm friends. "Sure. Sounds good." I watched the tiny clippings, brittle slivers of dead cells, fall to the floor. We arranged a meeting and you hung up. I remained at the window, the phone burning the palm of my hand. Eventually I replaced it on the hook and sat on the table overlooking the street below. I placed my hands palm down, feeling the cold on my skin. To drown the memory of your voice I looked at them minutely. My nails were short and functional, with sharp edges, not the perfectly soft rounded ones of before. My hands. The lifetime of hands; the language of hands. Here were the scars of a lifetime spent trying to unearth something, what I wasn't sure. My hands have aged with me, the knuckles have become red raw from the years of slave driving manual work, scars from unforgotten accidents, a story behind each one. I turned them over to look at the palms, lined now, the heel roughened by years. There was a scar beneath my ring, whitened by time. The silver mood ring, which flashes golden in the sun, and burns red whenever you are near. Do you remember the night you gave it to me? The first time you whispered in my ear that you loved me, and the expression on your face when I said it back? These hands, they had held starfish and crabs, caught by my brother and father on the long summers days spent at the beach down in Sussex where my grandmother lived by the sea.

Qualities of my grandfather Essay

Introduction: My grandfather, Osman Dedic, was born on November 26, 1929 in a small village in Bosnia called Gorne Dubrave. During this time, Bonsia was an undeveloped nation affiliated with Yugoslavia. The village my grandfather lived in was an immense distance away from several major cities and airports. The town did not have a sewage system, and the cement streets were unfinished. Most houses in the village did not have electricity and phone lines. The village also lacked streetlights and a water supply system. Moreover, the villagers were forced to obtain water from a nearby river and pump out the water from an aquifer using a well. The town contained few stores, transportation facilities, and educational institutions. Most stores would sell need-based goods such as clothes, food, and labor equipment. In the village, government control and influence affected many town people. The government controls the production of crops and the amount of farmland given to the villagers. Unfortunately, the villagers would sell most of their crops for a low price to the government. Villagers did not even have passports and wouldn’t receive the documents because the government wouldn’t allow people to emigrate. Without a passport, one could not get a visa for another country and without visa; one could not find a job. This governmental system forced many people to settle in the same village their entire life. Nevertheless, my grandfather had different opinions. â€Å"I always had my own thoughts and rules on how life should be. For this reason, I encountered many difficulties in my life.† As a young child, my grandfather loved to pursue law and justice. He did not follow the role of an influential leader, but rather treated everyone with respect and equality. When my grandfather was eight years old, he would play with his friends in the playground. One day, however, a child from the neighboring area decided to come over to the playground and take advantage of the other children. My grandfather immediately seized action and resolved the problem by telling the foreign child to play fair and respect everyone. Several years later, my grandfathers choose to serve and protect. In his eighteenth year, my grandfather decided to join the military army. As a military soldier, he had the duty of war . One day at military camp, he was ordered to dig holes by seniority soldiers. He refused the job and wouldn’t allow his pride fade away his few of the seniority soldiers told him to before him wanted to take over the youngest once, as they called them, by making them obey. They had very high expectations, that where not possible to accomplish. They asked my father to dig out a hole that would be two by two meters and two more meters deep. He had to be done by the end of the night. He started digging till he became very tired and could not even move. They warned him once to start digging again but he refused. One of them came closer and punched him right in face. My father got very angry. He raised the digger and broke it on his shoulder. He kept on hitting him until all the rest of the group gathered up and put my father in circle. They started hitting him all together. My father, full of blood running from almost every part of his body, barely broke the chain of their bodies and run into the forest where they lost his site. In the general of the army, while calling the names of the soldiers, noticed that Ruben Aslanian was missing. At that time my father was at a corner spying on them. The general asked where he is. Someone from the two-year-served group stretched the truth and when explaining what had happened. The general said that everyone of the two-year-served group would go to prison if they will not find Ruben Aslanian by the end of this day. When my father decided to appear they were all in panic. The general asked where he was. My father, realizing that the future of all those soldiers was in his hands, said that he fall through a crag and lost his consciousness. After that situation he never had a problem in the army again, for the rest of his serving period. When my father came out of the army, he went to the military school. He was working as a police man while studying to become an interrogator. He was always very just, no matter what the status of the prisoner was. Once he found the nephew of a Georgian minister, with two Moldavians, guilty about a drug deal. He wrote a conviction for all three of them, while they warned him to leave the nephew of the minister out of the deal. After that they let the nephew leave illegally and were searching for a way to put my father in the prison. My father understood that they had launch a was against him and  it was time for him to resign. One year latter, the real war began. During 1995, after the disintegrate of the Soviet Union, Abkhazians asked for their independence for the Georgians. Georgians did not like agree and they tried conquer Abkhazians. All the prisoners were freed and walking on streets armed. They purpose of that was to have a bigger army but criminals never change. Their goal was to revenge the people that put them in the prison and ruined their lives. Unfortunately, one of those people was my own father. Like a picture in my mind, I still remember the criminal with a mask holding a gun against my father’s head. I remember my father begging them to not do anything in front of his children and my mother trying to pull us away so we would not be witnesses of the murder of out own father. Fortunately, they did not kill my father. I do not now the reason. I still think that it was the God’s will, because otherwise I just can not explain it. The next day, I found myself in a plain flying out of my motherland to be safe. â€Å"I always remember my house, my garden, my neighbors, and every single city of Abkhazia, where I spent a long time of my life. I want to admit that I live much wealthier life now in America, than back in Abkhazia. The point of our life is not about been rich; the point if this life is, in my opinion, is to wake up in the morning and be able to see beloved relatives and friends. This is not only my misfortune; this is the disaster of every human been that, in his or her middle ages, looses his or her surroundings of a life time.†

Griswold’s concept of “Culture” from a sociological viewpoint Essay

Griswold explored the concept of â€Å"culture† through two different perspectives, namely through the humanities and anthropology’s viewpoint. With reference to different philosopher’s interpretation of â€Å"culture†, Griswold defines culture broadly as â€Å"a complex whole†, including everything in a social world. Since culture and social world are related; to achieve a fuller understanding of â€Å"culture†, we have to examine the connection between them, and how the two come together. The conceptual tool she uses to investigate the connections between cultures and societies are the â€Å"cultural object†, and the â€Å"cultural diamond†. Cultural objects are given meanings shared by members of the culture, and it is through those meanings that those objects are linked to the social worlds. Therefore, we need to decipher how the meanings came by- Griswold introduces and compares different versions of reflection theory in fu nctionalism, Marxism and Weberian Sociology, whereby culture is seen as a reflection of social life, or vice versa. The mirror theory is based on the assumption that culture is the mirror of social reality, reflecting the social world. This is an idea central to the functionalist and Marxist reflective theory; however, she points out that while they share the same reflection model, the essence of the two is opposites. Under Marx’s view, everything, even human consciousness, starts from and has the history as a product of human labor (homo faber). Culture is a concept largely based on the material forces of production and economic foundation of a society. This â€Å"historical materialism† , and the production relations of society is the true root of culture, therefore , it is the social being that determines men’s existence. However, for Functionalism, culture is based on mutual interdependence of one another to meet the needs of a society. Every component in a society is reflective of others. There are no class struggles, as opposed to Marxist theory. As for Weber’s view of the mirror theory, Weber takes into account that the culture and society relationship is two- way: social actions reflects cultural meanings. He argues that while material interests are still being pursued, the way men pursued their interests shows cultural causes in his famous â€Å"switchman metaphor†. The above modern sociological theories illustrates now culture is related, in many different ways, to the social world. Modern music is an example illustrating how societal actions reflects our changing culture- music has always been a vehicle by which we express our values. In recent years, lyrics containing profanity or vulgar language are so common and are very popular among youngsters. It reflects that our culture has became more outspoken and less censorious. Conservatism is no longer something valued. Take another example- women these days are obsessed with slimming as thin is now commonly regarded as beautiful. Women would go at great lengths to achieve their ideal body shape, just to conform to social pressures. This is an example showing how social phenomena can reflect culture, even though this culture is not necessarily beneficial to the society. Bibliography: Griswold, Wendy. 2004. Cultures and Societies in a CHanging World. CA: Pine Froge Press. Selections.

Bean Trees Essay

Most authors convey an important message or idea throughout their noevls to give a greater understanding to their readers. In Barbara Kingsolvers novel, ‘The Bean Trees’, a strong idea that was developed was the possiublity of new beginnings. ‘The Bean Trees’ is the story of the protagonist Taylor Greer, who starts off on a journey from her home town of Kentucky to Arizona. Along the way she she is given an abandoned child which is the start to her learning about motherhood, becoming a women, the power of friendships and also learns to be capable. The idea of new beginnings is the ability for characters to start over and leave their past behind them. It was mainly developed through Taylor, Turtle, and also a Guatamalan couple Estevan and Esperanza. The first person who helped develop this idea is Taylor. At the beginning of the story Taylor was called Marietta before she decided that she wanted to have a clean break because she had never been crazy about the names which she had been called previously. I didn’t have any special name in mind, but just wanted a change’ this fitted into the theme of new beginnings because she was capable of leaving behind her old life and things that surrounded her name and had the opportunity to have the chance to create a new destiny for herself. As well as giving herself another chance to start her life and live it the way that she wanted through the changing of her name she also left her home town, house, friends, and mother all in search of somewhere new to live her life. She used chance to decide where she was going to stop with the use of her car. Wherever it ran out of fuel or something happened to it, she would stop there. With the ambition of leaving her old Kentucky life behind her, she started a journey which led her to Oklahoma. this just happened to be the place where she was given an abandoned child. This was another new beginning for Taylor. ‘Can you talk?†¦ What am I supposed to do with you tonight?†¦ What do you eat?†¦ ‘ This series of questions that Taylor asked the abandoned child showed that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing and still had to learn the first steps of becoming a mother. It was a new beginning for her to take on responsibility for someone else. She had to grow, learn and understand in order to take care of the child that she had suddenly gained to take on her journey. She may not have understood what to do or how to do it, or even truly wanted this new beginning, but all in all she was given the chance. Kingsolver suggests through the use of Taylor that often life presents us with unexpected occurances, but if grasped correctly can lead to a possible great change, and therefore future. Through the use of Taylor as a character Kingsolver helps to show us that around the corner, in every situation, if something as small as a car journey, can lead to amazing opportunities to start afresh in our lives. Turtle is another character that helps develop Kingsolver’s idea of new beginnings. Turtle is an abandoned 3 year old Indian child, who was abused when she was younger. After her mother died she was left to an unexpected Taylor who was just someone passing through the town, but turned into the receiver of a child who she had no clue what to do with. On later inspection of the child which she named Turtle she noticed that her body was covered in ‘bruises and worse’ as Taylor said. When Taylor realised that turtle was a girl she said ‘that fact already burdened her short life with a kind of misery that she could not imagine’. Through this you can picture just how horrible the life this young child must have had. However this was the end of her bad story and the beginning to a new one. Just like Taylor she is given a new name, but also a new mother, new friends, and a new chance. With the opportunity Turtle is now able to grow. ‘Turtle had managed to get through her whole life without a book, I suppose, and then she had two of them bought for her in one day. ‘ This quote shows the beginning if Turtles chance of recovery. She was a 3 year old stuck in an 18 month old body. She was a child with a horrible past, but a chance to start over. The development of Turtle made you understand that the majority of people are at some point given the ability to have a new beginning, no matter how terrible their life was before hand. Estevan and Esperanza are a Guatamalan couple who are also given the opportunity to have a new beginning and therefore helped develop the idea of new beginnings. Estevan and Esperanza are people who are illegally living in Tucson. Esperanza and Estevan live in Mattie’s sanctuary that she has set up for people like them. After becoming good friends with Taylor they decide that they need to move on from Tucson and constantly running from the law. With Taylor and Turtle they set off to go to a safe house in Oklahoma. They were considered ‘illegals’ and needed to be taken out of the country. however there should not be people judged as legal or illegal. There is only a difference between people who are good or bad. Because of this they are taken to a safe house where they are unlikely to be taken away. Instead of focusing on the negative once at the church Estevan says ‘don’t think of us stuck here forever. Think of us back in Guatemala with our families’. His optimism in their new ability to have a clean break and go back to their home country showed the idea of new beginnings in a different light. It'[s not always physically being somewhere that gives people their new beginnings. Sometimes it is just a chance that makes believing in what was, or what could be, possible again. This is how Estevan and Esperanza helped deleop new beginnings as an idea in the novel. In conclusion, everyone has a chance at a new beginning, whther big or small. Three different sets of characters showed this throughout the novel ‘The Bean Trees’. Taylor helped the idea become present in the story as well as develop in as not only the physical actions that allow the new beginning to happen, but also a state of mind. Turtle developed the idea so that it showed the readers that just because someone’s life starts out badly, it doesn’t mean their opportunity to have a new beginning wont come along. Estevan and Esperanza developed the idea so that you realised sometimes all that you need is faith to have the chance at a new beginning. In the end new beginnings was an idea that many characters showed their their own stories and therefore developed into their own way of showing the idea and allowing readers to understand it.

A Mixed Type

Everybody study hard for being successful in their business lifes. They have to finish their grades to graduate and to play role in business show. There is no need to say it is the matter of earning money for surviving. But we must also say that it is the rule: the more you work hard the more you earn. We can also say the information era has made the people work harder and learn much more knowledge since two decades. They find themselves in a manner of learning, searching and getting more information while they have to work harder in order to succeed in business life. The word â€Å"businestudentman† is used to describe the people who work while they are studying. So the businestudentman was born in such conditions which had covered his life. Moreover the economic problems are the key effect to the way which make the students to be a businestudentman. The problematic starts with the personal feelings of a businestudentman. He would never classify himself in his whole life as a student nor a worker. Because of his position is being changed in his environmental society he always have to live the diffucilties of this dilemma. This situation often makes him confused while playing his society roles. Acting as a student or as a worker is not properly being applied during this period. For instance, he can not accept an invitation to a gathering after school because of the necessity for going to work. On the contrary he can not find leisure time to play cards with his colleagues during the lunch-break because he must go to school. Especially if he lives in such a beautiful city like Istanbul, he has to work at the afternoons so that he can not attend to a meeting which is arranged by his school friends nearby the Bosphorus in spring months There are also some advantages of being a businestudentman. Taking into his hands of his economical freedom, he has a charming status beyond his schoolmates. He can offer meals to his schoolmates, pay the bills and act as a boss in front of them. Sometimes it would be harmful for his budget but the students like this kind of helpful friends who make them feel better. Also he would be an idol for his friends because of achieving both status. They think there are lots of things to learn from the businestudentman which will be useful for their future. Despite the fact that a businestudentman can not entirely feel and live his both status, having had the determination to be successful in playing both his roles and indispensability of the survival of such competitional challenges, his maintainability takes the most effective part of his personality for the businestudentman. So that he has strong personality with good merit and moral values which make himself as a sample in the society. As in the phrase emphasized â€Å"You can not teach an old dog new tricks†, the businestudentman is like the young dog who finds himself earlier against the diffulties of a man’s life.