Ashley's Lit Blog

To better understand Dante's concept of hell and the appeal of punishment and suffering in our modern age, we have to first understand what life for him and society were like when he wrote The Divine Comedy: Inferno . Dante Alighieri made the switch from writing love lyrics to writing about spiritual love when Beatrice a woman he had loved from afar died of one of the plagues in Florence. She then becomes his muse in the Divine Comedy. In his journey to the afterlife, he meets to talks to the souls of the dead. From hell, to Purgatory, then paradise.Those that are wicked are punished in hell: "There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud Resounded through the air without a star, Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat. Languages diverse, horrible dialects, Accents of anger, words of agony, And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands, Made up a tumult that goes whirling on For ever in that air for ever black, Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breat...

Jesus or Isa in Arabic (peace be upon him) is of great significance in both Islam and Christianity. However, there are differences in terms of beliefs about the nature and life occurrences of Jesus. Unlike the biblical interpretation, the Quran  teaches the Belief in all of the Prophets and Messengers of God as being a fundamental part of the religion. Thus, believing in Prophets such Adam, Moses, and Muhammad. The Quran states that Jesus is a Messenger:"The Messiah (Jesus), son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger before whom many Messengers have passed away; and his mother adhered wholly to truthfulness, and they both ate food (as other mortals do). See how We make Our signs clear to them; and see where they are turning away!" (Quran 5:75, pg 265) A person claiming to be a Muslim who, and believes otherwise is said to be committing blasphemy and not a Muslim. Moreover, the Quran does not view Jesus as the son of God saying "He is God[ who is] one,God, The Eternal re...

The Quran and Bible possess many similarities and differences respectively. They consist of narratives, teachings, poetry, and rebuking. Many narratives contain the same basic events and figures. They both teach the creation of the world by a single almighty, omniscient God who commands humans to follow the morality set out for them. Muslims believe God dictated every word of the Quran . The Quran, therefore, is perfect in every way as God is perfect. Most Muslims believe the Quran is applicable to every person regardless of context. Christians believe the Bible is completely true, but in a different way. The Bible is the record of God’s revelation to the Jews and through Jesus. It is written by humans together with God through a process called Divine Inspiration. Both the New Testament and the Quran have similar teachings. Both share the same belief in regards to resurrection and the accountability of our actions. In the new testament it says " Rejoice and be exceedingly glad: ...

A Government official should definitely lead by personal example and high ideals. When your practice what you preach or by walking your talk. You don't come off hypocritical to people and people start to see you as a leader and turn to you. But yet that is hardly the case, because we see government officials these days advocating for certain bills to be passed, or some new policy. But when we dig deeper, you will realize that they do not follow those same rules, or live that way. They do not have that health coverage or drive that energy saving vehicle. But when a government official who uses that health plan, drives that car, supports the Bill because it also affects he or she's life then that becomes a good form of leadership.

When it come s to the role of the US president, it is general knowledge and consensus that he or she is the Head of State, Commander and chief of the armed forces, and the Head of the Government. Both Socrates and Confucius  had similar beliefs. Confucius taught propriety which is perhaps a more socially-oriented equivalent of temperance and self-control. For Confucius the rules of propriety were the social controls for the proper behavior of a gentleman. They maintained the social graces and guaranteed appropriate refinement in manners and conduct which is exactly how we expect a president should act. In the Analects, it states that "Where the solid qualities are in excess of accomplishments, we have rusticity; where the accomplishments are in excess of the solid qualities, we have the manners of a clerk. When the accomplishments and solid qualities are equally blended, we then have the man of virtue"(349). In other words a person should have an equal blend of excellence and...

Ancient  g ods reinforced and created what was and wasn't moral. The gods in ancient stories also  demonstrate that they are in no way more divine or sensible than mortals. They too make mistakes and go through some of the problems mortals deal with such as love, hate, pride, jealousy and sometimes cruel nature . Take for instance the Epic of Gilgamesh , where  Gilgamesh and Enkidu discover, in some ways their divine powers make them even more childish and irrational and capricious than their human cou nterparts. Also  note how Ishtar tries to tempt Gilgamesh to sleep with her  when she is overcome with lust. Gilgamesh points out the irony of this in his open rebuke to her: the goddess of love has become enslaved by the passion that she herself is, in theory at least, in charge of: Modern In today's society we do not have gods like the greeks or Romans do. But we have those we deem as Super heroes or celebrities who many worship.Our modern day gods...

According to the council on foreign relations( cfr.org) , t he Bush administration argued that, in the 12 years since the end of the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein defied the will of the United Nations by failing to fully disclose his suspected arsenal of  weapons of mass destruction  and cooperate with U.N. weapons inspections. The administration also said Saddam had formed alliances with terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, that could use Iraqi weapons against U.S. targets. Yet to date no such weapons or ties have been revealed.  Based on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita’s teachings and moral of the story. The war in Iraq was justifiable because based on the Bhagavad Gita " to whom comes joy of battle, comes as now glorious and fair, unsought; opening for him and a gateway unto heav'n,but, if thou shunn'st this honourable field-a kshattriya- if knowing thy duty and thy task, thou bidd'st duty and task go by-that shall be sin!"( 479) The Bhagavad Gita teaches th...