World Religions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

World Religions - Essay Example There are also several differences on the level of dogma as well. For example, people who have adopted the approach of Reformation Christianity do not share the idea of a saint in a traditional meaning of this word. Thus, the pious figures who acted in the Bible are respected, but they are not prayed to, as it is in Roman Catholicism. Reformation Christianity suggests that a true believer should only pray to God and not intermediary is needed so that the prayer is heard by the All Mighty. Finally, the idea of purgatory – the place when souls of the sinner might stay temporarily in order to purify themselves – is characteristic to Roman Catholicism only. Reformation Christianity argues that the after life is divided into two separate worlds – Heaven and Hell – and there is no need for a third one as the above-mentioned concepts are perfect and a true Christian should work hard on getting into Heaven and ending up in a purgatory is not an option. Just like any other religion, Islam has several fundamental principles that define its spiritual tradition. They received the name of Five Pillars of Islam. The first of them is called Shahadah and is largely focused on the key ideas of the Muslim faith: there is no God, but God (Allah is simply the Arabic word for God) and Mohammed should be regarded as the only Messenger from him. These two simple statements from a set of coordinates that Islam operates within. That is why there is no wonder that the above-mentioned statement is repeated several times during a day by true believers.

Environmental Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Environmental Studies - Essay Example We shall look at the influences that science has made in the energy sector, climate change and agriculture among others. In the scientific world, agriculture is a more recent human activity that humans experimented. Human beings were originally hunters and gatherers who survived by killing wild animals in the jungle. Then agriculture was accidentally discovered through man’s scientific exploration. Man began cultivating land in order to get food. Studies have shown that hunters and gatherers were more healthy, well nourished than the latter farmers. In fact, agriculture did not improve the lives of humans and the skeletal evidence revealed that hunters and gatherers were healthier than the farmers were. Agriculture needed vast amounts of land for cultivation, and this led to the destruction of forests and animal’s natural habitat. The energy threshold of plants then decreased as most natural vegetation was destroyed and cleared to make way for cultivation. This interfer ed with the natural energy cycle since animals get energy from plants, which in turn obtain the necessary energy from the sun for photosynthesis. Most of the percentage of the world’s energy relies on plants. If plants are destroyed, the energy needed by most organisms is decreased, and this can have devastating effects. This causes animals to face extinction as the energy cycle is affected by man’s activity, which in this case is agriculture, a scientific invention. Therefore, there is evidence that as much as science has helped the environment, it also hurts the same environment by altering nature’s normal activities (Rees, web). The clearing of natural vegetation gives way to soil erosion. In today’s world, oil is the only form of energy that humans have resulted to use. It is interestingly hilarious that man secures oil more than food. This is because energy is vital for most activities and oil is the usual form of energy used to meet the demands of m an. Research in America has shown that for every 2.3 calories of food energy produced there is a calorie of fossil energy used (Manning, web). This is devastating to the human life because as more oil is used to produce food energy that is required by a growing population, levels of pollution in the environment continue to increase. All this is attributed to science inventions among other factors such as population growth and industrialization. The more industrialized we get, the more scientific inventions are discovered which continue to damage the environment in an attempt to meet the needs of man. In the 20th century, engine fueled cars dominated the roads which made transportation and communication easy. However, these advancements usually have a negative impact on the environment. For example, the greenhouse effect is caused by emission of gases into the atmosphere, which comes from combustion of fossil fuels and oil. Scientific advancements in chemistry have also had a profoun d effect on man (Griffith, web). For example, in the cultivation of wheat in leading countries, fertilizers containing nitrogenous compounds are used to speed up the growth and maturity of wheat. However, studies show that these chemical compounds have adverse effects on human health. A research carried out showed that a child born in rural places producing wheat based on nitrogenous chemicals has high chances of suffering birth related defects compared to a child born where wheat is not