Saturday, February 22, 2020

Must Atheology Prove Gods Nonexistence (Willian L. Rowe Evil is Essay

Must Atheology Prove Gods Nonexistence (Willian L. Rowe Evil is Evidence against Theistic Belief) - Essay Example Rowe considers the view of the theists that there exists an all powerful, all-knowing, perfectly good being (God) as ‘restricted theism’ as it â€Å"does not include any claim that is not entailed by it† (183). To find out whether the occurrence of evils in the world lower the likelihood of God’s existence, Rowe brings out two premises based on which he concludes that God does not exist. The two premises are, Rowe points out that theists have to reject either one of these premises if they have to prove the existence of God, and that they mostly accept the second premise, thereby rejecting the first one. Therefore, the theists will have to accept the fact that for every horrendous evil that takes place, there has to be an outweighing good for which God has no way of materializing without permitting the evil. Rowe provides two analogies to counter the argument that there is a justifying reason for God to permit horrendous evils. One is of a fawn horribly burned in a forest fire caused by lightning. It dies only after five days and has to undergo intense suffering until then, lying on the forest floor. The second analogy is of a five year old girl brutally beaten, raped, and strangled in Flint, Michigan, on New year’s day a few years ago. In both the cases, it cannot be argued that the suffering inflicted on the fawn and the girl are justifiable for some reason, as they personally do not benefit anything from the suffering and die without getting any relief. Rowe goes on to analyze two theistic responses to these analogies that point to the non-existence of God. The first one addresses the first premise and argues that the fact that we fail to understand the good that is meant by God when seemingly meaningless suffering is inflicted on us. The analogy of a child that is put to suffering by its parents for an unavoidable surgical procedure

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

My Account of Second Language Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

My Account of Second Language Learning - Essay Example The course I undertook at King Khalid University for four years was a specialization in English. Much of skills on both pronunciation and writing at this level were acquired due to the interaction with a lot of people from various parts of the world who communicated mostly in English. Similarly, I put my own effort and did personal studies. I got employed as an English teacher in a primary school in Al Jubail Industrial City. This was a good opportunity for growth from the basic level with the primary school children, most of whom depended on visual aids for understanding. This being an industrial city, many inhabitants came from different parts of the world and would interact with the students outside of school. English being a common language among most of them, learning English among these students was not a major challenge. After a year, I moved on to teach adults from varied technical faculties in a technical college. It is here that I got the opportunities to improve my teachin g skills through the regular training sessions organized by the institution. Through this process of learning, there are two factors that greatly influenced my personal outcome; these are motivation and my learning strategies. Learning of the second language varies from one individual to another (Slevc & Miyake, 2006). One of the factors that influenced my proficiency in learning English as a second language is my motivation since my experience with my Bangladeshi teacher who could converse only in English.... One of the factors that influenced my proficiency in learning English as a second language is my motivation since my experience with my Bangladeshi teacher who could converse only in English. According to Csizer and Dornyei (2005), motivation refers to the desire for achievement of an ideal language through reduction of the variation between the actual and the ideal states. It encompasses the subject that provokes action in a person, the period that such a person is willing to sustain it and the effort put towards its pursuance. This could be instigated by the desire to later attain some reward which pushes the learner towards the attainment of the anticipated reward. In my case, the desire was in reducing the gap between the actual incompetence in English language and the ideal state of being proficient in the language so as to communicate well with my teacher. There was a desire in me to excel academically through achievement of English proficiency which made me proceed to even spe cialising in the language at university level. Dornyei (2002) also points out that there is a reward that sustains motivation. Some of the rewards that second language teachers could use include encouragement and applause for achievement, which in general push the inner self of the learner towards attainment of the set goals. Having observed the close ties that Saudi Arabia had with the Western world, it was obvious that English would be an advantage to me when interacting with the people from those nations even in learning institutions. The Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia was introduced in 1942 and since then, English language has been taught among its citizens (Al Sadan, 2000). This language has been given a second priority after the