The connection between the Jedi Order in Star Wars and Christianity Essay Example for Free

The connection between the Jedi Order in Star Wars and Christianity Essay For thirty-one years, the Star Wars franchise has brought people infinite hours of entertainment with: movies, video games, comic books, toys, and non-fiction books. However, one recurrent theme that is constant throughout the movies and books is a belief in a higher power. In Star Wars, the Jedi and the Sith believed in the Force. The Jedi believe in using their faith in the Force for the greater good. Most of their belief structure is closely based on some aspects of early and modern Christianity. One Jedi aspect that is closely tied to early Christianity is the rule of two. In the fictionally adaptation of George Lucass Star Wars Episode 1: the Phantom Menace, the Jedi Grand Master Yoda states, Always two there are.a master and an apprentice (Brooks 320). Master Yoda is referring to the order of the Sith, but the same reference can also be made about the Jedi. A Jedi Knight handpicks a Padawan (apprentice) to pass on all their knowledge, to protect each other, and to grow in the ways of the Force. This aspect can also be found in the Bible, in the book of Mark 6:7, Jesus called the twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs (Qtd in Peterson 1834). Dick Staub suggests that Jesus did this so that the disciples could unlearn what they have learned to this point in their lives, so that they could fully rely on God for everything; much like the Jedi rely on the Force (Staub 118). Jesus sent six pairs of his disciples, He gave them the authority and power to deal with the evil opposition (Qtd in Peterson 1834). This is just like to Jedi Order. The Jedi came to serve the Galactic Republic as guardians of peace and justice (Lucas Online). The disciples had almost the same mission. The disciples went and preached peace to everyone, They sent demons packing, they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits (Qtd in Peterson 1835). The Jedi did not heal people, but they did bring messages of peace. Two Jedi played a instrumental role in the blockade of Naboo (plant) placed by the Trade Federation, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi faced a Sith apprentice name Darth Maul. Darth Maul killed Qui-Gon during the battle, but Obi-Wan was successful in slicing Darth Maul in half; this could be compared to the disciples casting out demons. In the book of Luke 11:14, Jesus delivered a man from a demon that had kept him speechless. The demon gone, the man started talking a blue streak, talking the crowd by complete surprise (Qtd in Peterson 1891). However, the greatest relationship between the Jedi Order and Christianity is the belief in a higher power. Even Darth Vader, the image of evil and devastation, believes in a higher power. Darth Vader displays his beliefs during a meeting on the Death Star. Darth Vader raises his right hand as Commander Tagges eyes start to swell; Tagge raises his hands to his throat, while Darth Vader says, I find this lack of faith disturbing (Lucas 31). Proverbs 3:6 says Trust God from the bottom of your heart, dont try to figure out anything on your own (Qtd in Peterson 1091). This holds true with what Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn said to a young Anakin Skywalker, Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel, dont think. Trust your instincts. May the Force be with you, Annie (Brooks 164). Now, to me, these two quotes sound completely different, but their meanings are the same. The Bible quote tells believers in God, to fully trust him and that God will provide everything that we need to survive. God will show us the right path to travel down after we spend time fasting and in prayer. While, Master Qui-Gons quote tells us that when you take a quick step back from the situation you are in, the Force will reveal the right course of action, and the accurate path to walk down to complete its will; much like God will reveal to us what the accurate path for us is to complete his will. Both the Jedi and Christians are showing an immeasurable amount of faith (trust) in their particular higher power. The Force (and a Lightsaber) is a Jedis most powerful ally; this can equally be said regarding Jesus with Christianity. The Force and Christ are one in the same, Dick Staub referrers to God as the Lord of the Force (Staub 5). Now, Christ doesnt grant us the power to move objects just by raising our hand like the Force does, but Christ does bestow clairvoyance to us. Psalms 119:35 sates, Guide me down the road of your commandments (Qtd in Peterson 1052). Psalms 119:105 states, By your words, I can see where Im going, they throw a beam of light on my path (Qtd in Peterson 1056). So, that we recognize the correct path to walk down. Works Cited Brooks, Terry. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Brooks, Terry. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. New York: Del Rey, 1999. 320. Lucas, George. Star Wars: Databank. 5 January 2008. 5 June 2008 http://www.starwars.com/databank/organization/thejediorder/. Lucas, George. Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. Lucas, George. Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. New York: Del Rey Books, 1976. 31. Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Remix: The Bible In Contemporary Language. Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Remix: The Bible In Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2003. 1834. Staub, Dick. Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters.: Staub, Dick. Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Art and Republicanism :: Government Republican Essays

Art and Republicanism ABSTRACT: Republicanism is contrasted with liberalism with special reference to the notions of presence, absence and representation. The contrast is more conspicuous in the Platonic tradition of republicanism than it is in the Aristotelian tradition, the former being more likely to degenerate into some form of totalitarianism. Examples thereof are given in accordance with the distinction between a strong and a soft iconoclasm, as it is found both in Antiquity and in Eastern and Western Europe’s quest for absolute presence or—as in avantgarde art of modernity—for absolute self-presence of the work of art. Having left such political and artistic utopias behind it, the pendulum is now swinging back in the direction of representation, but no longer in the illusionist sense which has dominated Western art form the Renaissance to the beginning of our century. Tied to the question of iconoclasm is the debate about the end of art inaugurated by Hegel in the general intro duction to his Aesthetics and resumed in our days. There are two traditions of republicanism, one predominantly Platonic and the other predominantly Aristotelian. Both have several characteristics in common which set them off apart from the tradition of liberalism, such as the paramount concern for morals in politics, or the priority of politics over economics, or the mistrust of growth and riches as well as the preference for poverty over luxury, proximity over distance and—most important from the point of view of arts—direct presence over mere representation and immediacy over mediation. Still, surely the overarching characteristic is that of giving the common good of the res publica absolute priority over private interests with consequences such as the rejecting of factions and—in the last analysis—even of political parties. But there are also differences. The most important of these is that in the Platonic as opposed to the Aristotelian tradition the issue of self-government of all citizens is, to put it mildly, not prominent. If only for this reason, the danger of sliding into totalitarianism is greater in the Platonic than in the Aristotelian tradition of republicanism. Nevertheless, one could, on the whole, say that totalitarianism is the perversion of republicanism in the same sense that anarchy is the perversion of liberalism. To realize this, one need only bear in mind that, republicanism being fundamentally suspicious of political parties as potential factions, it more naturally leads to one-party rule than liberalism does. In addition, the

The Role of the Nephron

The Roles of the Nephron of the 120 ml of blood that is filtered by the kidneys each minute, only I ml (that's less than I%) turns into urine that will eventually leave the body (after approximately 300 – 400 mis of it accumulates to fill the bladder! ) That leaves 119 ml of fluid called filtrate to be returned back to the blood stream. Good thing, otherwise you would have to micturate (pee, urinate) once every 3 minutes and drink 1 L of fluid every 10 minutes in order to maintain Homeostasis!!!The one million nephrons in each human kidney are amazingly efficient at selectively removing wastes from the blood while at the same time conserving water, salt ions, glucose and other needed materials. The nephrons accomplish this task in 3 main steps; these 3 steps are also called the 3 main roles of the nephron: Filtration, Reabsorption and Secretion. Fiftratffln Filtration is aecomplished by the movement of fluids from the blood into the Bowman's capsule. Beabsorpttort Reatuorptias wolves the selective transfer of essential solutes and water back into the blood.Secretion Secretion Involves the movement of wastes from the blood into the mphron. 1. Filtration The renal artery carries blood into the kidney (approximately 600 mis of blood enters a kidney each minute). The renal artery then branches into arterioles which then branch intoaspecialized capillaries called the glomerulus. Because of the great difference in diameter between the renal artery and the glomerul us, blood entering the glomerulus is under very high pressure. This pressure forces about 20% of the blood plasma (about 120m1 of the 600 ml) out of the glomerulus and across the membrane of Bowman's capsule.Bowman's capsule acts to â€Å"filter† or separate some of the substances that are located in blood plasma from others. This is because some substances are small enough to fit through the pores of the membrane of Bowman's capsule and some are too large and thus do not enter Bowman's capsul e with the rest of the blood plasma. Water, salt ions (sodium, potassium and choride), glucose molecules, amino acids and urea molecules are all small enough to go through the membrane pores into Bowman's capsule. Blood cells (rbc, wbc and platelets) and proteins on the other hand are too large to leave the capillaries or enter Bowman's capsule.The fluid inside of Bowman's capsule gets a name change; it is now called â€Å"filtrate† because it is blood plasma that has been filtered, This filtrate is identical to blood plasma minus the blood cells and proteins. Filtrate is said to be isotonic to blood plasma with respect to its concentration of water, salt ions, glucose, amino acids and urea. The filtrate will then proceed from Bowman's capsule through the rest of the nephron in the following order: proximal convoluted tubule, loop of henle, distal convoluted tubule and finally the collecting tubule.From the collecting tubule, the filtrate will enter the pelvis of the kidney a nd be called urine. 2. Reabsorption Useful materials such as sugars and salt ions are reabsorbed back into the blood stream. That is, materials that could still be used by the body are sent back to the blood. Reabsorption happens as filtrate passes sequentially through the nephron. Materials re-entering the blood stream do so through the capillary network surrounding the nephrons. In short, â€Å"good† stuff is sent from the nephron back into the blood. A.Proximal Convoluted Tubule (PCn: As the filtrate enters the PCT approximately 80% of the salt ions (sodium and potassium), glucose and amino acids are ACTIVELY TRANSPORTED out of the PCT and back into the blood stream by special â€Å"pumping† cells located in the walls of the PCT. The process of active transport requires energy. Energy in the form of ATP is supplied by the numerous mitochondria that are embedded in the walls of the PCT. Because of ionic attraction, negatively charged chloride ions (CI-) will flow pas sively out of the PCT as they are attracted by the positively charged sodium and potassium ions (Na+, K+).As the concentration of the above mentioned solute molecules drops inside of the PCT, water then diffuses out of the PCT and into the capillary network passively by the process of OSMOSIS. The lining of the PCT contains microvilli to increase the surface area over which this reabsorption can occur. B. Descending Loop of Henle: As the filtrate travels into the descending Loop of Henle, both sodium and potassium ions passively diffuse from the salty tissues of the surrounding medulla BACK INTO the Loop of Henle. (Although this is eabsorption of materials, the materials are not going back into the blood stream at this point). At the same time, water continues to move out of the Loop of Henle and into the capillary network by osmosis. The filtrate at this point is more concentrated (hypertonic) with respect to salt ions than it was in the PCT, both because water has been removed fro m it, and because salt ions have been again added to it. C. AscendineLoop of Henle As the filtrate proceeds up into the ascending Loop of Henle, the choride ions are actively pumped back out of the nephron.Because of ionic attraction, sodium ions then passively follow the chloride ions out of the tubule and into the tissues of the medulla. These ions only move into the medulla and not back into the blood stream. Since the ascending Loop of Henle is impermeable to water, water cannot leave this part of the nephron. Because of this, the filtrate gets more dilute again. Because the opposite happens in the ascending and descending Loops of Henle, the process is called the COUNTER CURRENT MECHANISM. The process is also known as the CHLORIDE SfUFT.D. Distal Convoluted Tubule (DCT) As the filtrate passes through this part of the nephron, water continues to passively diffuse out of the nephron and back into the blood. Water continues to diffuse out of the DCT because the surrounding tissues of the medulla are now very salty due to so much sodium and chloride ions accumulating there. The salty tissues attract the water out of the DCT because the medulla is hypertonic with respect to salt concentration when compared with the salt concentration of the filtrate (now hypotonic).Water that enters the medulla will then diffuse back into the blood stream. Because of the continual re-absorption of water, the filtrate becomes more and more concentrated with wastes, mainly urea. The amount of water that diffuses can be regulated by a hormone called ADH. The amount of water that diffuses from the DCT back into the blood depends on the needs of the body; if the body is dehydrated, more water will go back into the blood, and less will be left in the nephron to make less urine.The opposite occurs if the body is over hydrated. E. Collectin g Tubule C The same thing that occurs in the DCT also occurs in the CT 3. Secretion Occurring at the same time as reabsorption is a process called secretion. Secretion is when a cell releases a substance to its outside†¦ in this case, non-useful and toxic substances are ACTIVELY TRANSPORTED from the blood into the nephron – usually in the regions of the distal and proximal convoluted tubules.Substances which are secreted include excess acid (H+) or base (OH-) ions, excess glucose (high glucose levels are found in diabetic urine or urine of someone who has recently consumed a large amount of sugar-this is the kidney's way of helping to ensure that the blood sugar level doesn't get too high), ammonia, and drugs (this is why urine is used from many drug tests – the breakdown of many drugs including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, sleeping pills, codeine and many other medications can be detected even in minute amounts in the urine).The process of secretion ensures that materials that are potentially harmful to the body are quickly disposed of by being â€Å"dumped† into the fluid that is about to become uri ne. Secretion happens mainly in the regions of the DCT and CT but some also occurs in the PCT. In short, secretion involves â€Å"bad† stuff being removed from the blood being sent to the urine. of the loop after chlorine. The sodium rushes The Counter Current Mechanism of the Nephron out by diffusion because of its ‘fatal attraction' to chlorine.The chlorine and the sodium ions collect and dominate the fluids outside the loop The loop of Henle works toward the goal of water conservation. Animals that live in a terrestrial environment need to be careful not to waste water. It is clearly a waste,if water is in short supply, to release too much water with the urine. As a result there needs to be a mechanism to encourage water out of the urine and back into the blood. The loop of Henle creates that animals.There i s no way of actively capturing water in the urine that is passing through the collecting ducts. It would almost seem too late to capture the water that is alread y on its way out of the body. However, the nifty nephron creates a trick with its loop of lienle to get the water out of the collecting duct before it leaves the kidney, kidney. The ascending loop of Henle actively transports chlorine ions out of the filtrate with carrier proteins. Chlorine builds up in the fluids of the medulla by active transport.Because it is a negative ion, it creates a cause for the sodium ion, which is positive, to rush out It does so by creating a salty environment in the medulla area of the mechanism in terrestrial of I-fenle creating a salty environment. This salty environment catches the attention of the water that is passing through the nearby collecting duct. salt. The collecting duct is permeable to water but not permeable to the Water can. not resist moving into the The salt creates an osmotic salty medulla. pressure that pulls the water out of the collecting duct by osmosis. Water has a ‘fatal attraction' to salty solutions. ) Once the water is out of the duct it is no longer destined for elimination but can' now be picked up by the nearby. ,Mood capillaries and returned to be used by;. body systems. Meanwhile, back at the loop of`-†¢Henle, trouble is starting. The ascending loop is running out of salt. There is no need to worry. The salt trick can continue because the descending loop in its wisdom is stealing back the salt that the ascending loop is so generously releasing.This helps to keep a constant flow of salt inside the loop for the ascending lope to pump out . Because of the generosity gfthe ascending loop and the stinginess of the descending loop a salt trade or salt current is established as the salt moves ouc of the ascen ding loop and into the descending loop, This salt current established by the loop of lienle maintains an environment that attracts water out of the ducts containing urine and back into the blood.This process is called the counter current mechanism. (ER 25 EXCRETION AND WE BALANCING OF WATE R AN Cl ruti†n i Tubular secretion Nctwp -i> Urea _, How Materials Move Into and Out of the Nephron As Urine Forms. As a Al. nephron extends through the kidney's cortex and medulla and dumps urine into the collecting duct, various substances enter and leave the filtrate. Broken lines represent segments of the nephron wall that are permeable to water, while solid lines represent wall segments impermeable to water.Narrow arrows represent passive diffusion of materials into or out of the nephron tubule, while wide arrows represent active transport against concentration gradients. Filtration activities are shown in blue, tubu. l ‘eabsorption activities in green, and tubular secretion in yellow. U ne is shown as yellow. traces nephron function and material movements step by step. The t FU†,t. Ic r1

Health Care Reform and How the United States Got There.

Health Care Reform and How the United States Got There. For over a decade our healthcare system has been flawed, and for over a decade several Presidents have tried to reform the health industry with little success. Advocates of health care reform have been met with great controversy and resistance since as early as 1854 when President Franklin Pierce vetoed the â€Å"Land-Grant Bill for Indigent Insane Persons† that would benefit the indigent insane, â€Å"by arguing that the federal government should not commit itself to social welfare, which he believed was properly the responsibility of the states† (Senate Debates On the Land-Grant Bill for Indigent Insane, 1854). Those apposed to change have fought diligently to cease the passing of any†¦show more content†¦The topic of major healthcare reform would not come to pass again, until the 1992 Election, when President Clinton â€Å"made health care reform a centerpiece of his campaign.† (Bok, 1998). After winning the election he quickly formed a committee to address the multitude of problems healthcare was having. After appointing Mrs. Clinton as the head of the task force and months of speculation, a 1000 page document was presented to Congress on September 1993 outlining the guarantee of basic healthcare for all Americans. â€Å"In a forceful tone, he urged the lawmakers to fix a health care system that is badly broken†¦ giving very American health security --- health care that is always there, healthcare that can never be taken away† (Bok, 1998). Like his predecessors in the past, his plan would come to a standstill on September 26, 1994 â€Å"when Senate Leader George Mitchell announced that the health care legislation was dead† (Bok, 1998). By the time President Bush took office there was change in the air, but overall healthcare reform for all was not one of them. 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