Should Mothers Kill Their Children?

There are a few reasons some mothers commit the act of maternal filicide. Maternal filicide is the act of  mothers killing their own children. Mothers would normally not kill their children unless they are mentally disturbed. One reason that a mother may kill her child is that she rationalizes and believes that killing her child is in the child's best interest. Maybe if the child has some sort of disability or mental disorder, this could be an option. This is called "altruistic filicide." Another reason a mother would commit maternal filicide is if she is hearing voices or has some other non-understandable reason. This is called "acutely psychotic filicide." This is due to a mental and psychological disorder. Another reason, called "fatal maltreatment filicide," is where a mother kills her child accidentally, but the child is killed due the sum of abuse. "Unwanted child filicide" is when a mother kills her child because the child is a nuisance in the mother's life. Lastly, "spouse revenge filicide" is when a mother kills her child to hurt the father. This is similar to what happens in Medea. She kills her children only to hurt Jason. She learned this from Aegus, who promised a lifetime of protection and safety. Again, these only really occur if the mother is seriously mentally ill. These acts may seem impossible, but they do occur in real life.

Early Chinese History and Taoism

Taoist texts can help us to understand early Chinese history. Taoism was initially different from normal Chinese culture, or Confucianism. Taos believed in celestial masters who supposed to establish a new political structure. One thing found out about the Taos was that they did not use physical objects for worship. This shows that maybe the early Chinese were not able to afford materials to build religious figures in a way to worship them properly. The Taos's writing was a religious canon, which is very hard to decipher.  Taoism was not really recorded yet it shies another aspect of Chinese society.  There is little philological tradition like this in China. The main philological work in Chinese Buddhism, for example, was done by Japanese and Western scholars. They dated the material and produced catalogs. There’s been very little work in Taoism or Chinese religion comparable to the work done on Christianity. For example, you can internally date texts and say this part is earlier than that part. This is common in the Bible, but very uncommon in Chinese texts. This shows that Taoism was not the most popular religion, yet it played an important role in ear,t Chinese culture because of the impacts it had. It's philosophies are still present in our society today and are widely used in many people's lives. 

Is Our World Real?

Today  in class we talked about the simulation theory. This says that we are all living in someone else's or a higher power's universe.  A recent article in scientific America says that there is a 50-50 chance that this is true. So really, we could just be controlled by something else out there. The possibilities are endless. We also  talked about how this relates to our old testament unit that we are studying.  In the Tower of Babel once the people have someone over ridden God he sets the back and confuses their language. Is it possible that when we make a technological advance one day that can prove this theory we will be set back. So what do you think is our world real?

The Holocaust and the Book of Job

Over the last couple of days, we have learned about the Old Testament and the Hebrews in class. Last night, we read the first part of the Book of Job. This is a hit a man named Job. He is very well off and successful until one day, Satan cursed him and he was tortured until he lost his faith in god. He was cursed with sores upon his body and his cattle died. Today, we read a story from the son of a Holocaust survivor. The Holocaust was when Adolf Hitler killed over six million Jews during WWII. In this story, Menachem Daum, the son of Holocausts survivors, tells what it was like for his parents during the hardships and how they stayed faithful to god. In the Book of Job, even when Job is cursed, he still has faith in god and he prayed to get better. In the story of Daum's parents, even when they were taken away, they tried as hard as they could to keep their faith. Even, when it was illegal to pray and be Jewish, they still put on tefillin and said their daily prayers. They are similar because they still had faith in god even in the worst of circumstances. What is different about these two stories is that when Daum's parents stopped praying, they were saved, yet Job was not. Even though it took years for Daum's parents and the Jews to be freed, they were still freed and were given opportunities in the future. Job was cursed and when he lost his faith in God, God lost faith in him. This is how a story of a Holocaust survivor is similar yet different to the Book of Job

The Book of Job

Today in class, we talked about the first part of the Book of Job. In this part of the story, we learn who Job is. He is a man who devotes all of his faith to God. He is very well off. He has a large family that he can support easily and he possesses many animals that help him survive. He was a successful man. That was until one day, God and Satan, the devil, had a conversation about Job. Satan stated, “why does Job fear you for no reason? Why have you blessed him so greatly?” Shortly after this, Job’s servants and cattle are murdered, yet Job still prays to god. Throughout the story, Satan “curses” Job, yet he still keeps his faith in God. That is until he was cursed with sores all over his body causing him great pain. Job cursed the day of his birth and wishes he died during birth. After this, God sees that Job has lost faith in him. This story is similar, yet different to the other stories we read from the Book of Genesis in class. It is similar because God is testing Job to see if he can keep his faith even through the worst of conditions. This also occurred in the story of Abraham and Isaac. In that story, you see Abraham being tested by God when he is told to sacrifice his son. In both stories, God is testing faith in his most trusted people. Although the Book of Job is similar to other stories in Genesis, it is also different. One thing that is different is that in the Book of Job, the “curses” are really aimed towards Job only. In some other stories, the “curses” or “tests” affect other people involved in the story. In the story of Noah, all of his fellow civilians were wiped off the face of the earth. In the story of the Tower of Babel, all of the people were affected because all of their languages got mixed up. This is how the Book of Job is similar, yet different to some of the other stories we studied in the Book of Genesis.

1 Down, 39 More Months of High School To Go!

Wow! I've already finished one month of high school! That's crazy to think that just 30 days ago, I had no idea about what high school was going to be like, and now I'm a pro. I've learned many things in my first few weeks here at RHS. I've learned that the work gets harder, but they give you more freedom. I have also learned that it is not easy to navigate your way around the school, but you figure it out sooner or later. I found out about how much fun high school is because they trust you with everything. Here they don't hold your hand, you're on your own. So far, the best thing about starting high school is meeting new people and making new friends through the various clubs I have joined. Being in clubs is fun because you make new friends and you really learn a new skill. I also loved meeting my teachers because they are great people and I have fun learning in their class. My least favorite part of high school so far is the work because I am not used to having this much homework in one night. Otherwise, high school is a pretty amazing place and I'm so lucky to be able to spend the next four years here!

One God, A Few Personalities, Many Characterizations

In the past couple of days, we have talked about indirect characterization and how any and every character can be characterized in an indirect way. One main character we have been talking about is "god." God is worshipped by many religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He is referred to as Hashem, Adonai, Allah, and Father. He is the center of many religions and has great power. He is capable of anything and everything and essentially, he was the creator of the universe and everything that comes with it. In class, we read the first 10 sections of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible. When we read the story of Adam and Eve, we realized that after Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God lost all trust in humanity and could never treat us the same way agin. This shows that he is not forgiving and that his main philosophy is learning from your mistakes defines humanity. We saw that god was stubborn in a way, yet he also cared about his two "children." We also studied the story of Noah. In this story, god wipes out the human race but saves one family and every animal, one of each gender. In this story, we see that God is capable of anything and everything. He wiped out all of humanity just to prove a point. This shows that he has insane amounts of power and that what he says goes. God is an interesting character in the way that he knows everything that will happen in the future, yet he still chooses to kind of mess with people's lives. If I had the power to know everything, I'd make the world a better place. This is what we learned and characterized about god.