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Islam

Islam is known as one of the fastest-expanding religions in history. Many methods were used in order to spread this religion at such a rate.. Muslims were very reasonable people. They were tolerant, and offered many alternatives to the other religions of conquered lands. Mohammed once stated that another religion can either believe in Islam, or pay to keep his own religion. He would give the religions protection in exchange for obedience. Mohammed, however, threatens the lives of children or elders related to those who did not obey. This was one of his most powerful methods of obtaining new lands. Another method used by Mohammed was that he offered many reasons to other religions as to why they should convert to Islam. First and foremost, he offered them direction and guidance to heaven, which, alongside Muslims, was an eagerly anticipated place by Christians and Jews. The writer of History of Arabs describes the Muslim people as those who consider each other equals under Allah, and who worship him to the fullest. They would rather be in heaven with him than a child under him on earth. The expansion of Islam was also obviously obtained by means of conquering lands around Arabia. The impression of surrounding lands on the Muslim army is that they were strong, determined, relentless fighters who conquered any land they pleased. They had countless weapons and a drive that could cut through thick steel. Despite these characteristics, however, they would only fight upon attack, in self-defense. The expansion of Islam was viewed by many as the most reasonable expansion of any religion. It was believed that the Christians were below the Muslims in that they fought whenever possible, and persecuted all other religions. Despite the belief of spiritual drive for conquest, some believe the expansion of Islam was due to the deep desire for a more modern life, they were driven to settle in the fertile crescent in order to obtain these modern luxuries, rather than make spiritual achievements in more primitive areas. There were many ways by which the Muslims conquered surrounding lands. Alternatives, benefits, and warfare were simply three such means of achieving such power and conquest.

Li Po and Tu Fu

Li Po and Tu Fu have reigned the literary world with their poetry. Their writing techniques and themes in their poetry allow them to stand out amongst other poets. With the unique aspects and images these poets write about, they distinguish the similarities between themselves and contain different intensities in their poetry. While Li Po has a more relaxed tone to his poetry, Tu Fu deals with the serious aspects of life such as war, poverty, and suffering. Li Po’s writing style is conventional and contains no new innovations. Li Po tends to look upon the past more than the future. Although Li Po suffered through exile and complicated political connections, he rarely expresses his grief through his poetry. Usually, his poetry contains the happier aspects of life and avoids being too personal and less revealing on his inner emotions. Perhaps one of the more notable aspects of his writing is his fondness of nature, especially with mountainous landscapes and celestial scenery. Tu Fu’s poetry illustrates more serious topics and contains more serious themes. It contains more creation, tu-tsao, and his writing styles have a modern twist to them. He also brought the chin-t’i form to popularity, making it a poetic statement. One characteristic of Tu Fu poems is that he incorporates and parallels two totally different topics together. Tu Fu also condenses and distorts his poetry, which leaves his poetry ambiguous and open to suggestion. However, this may be one of the reasons why Tu Fu’s poetry is harder to interpret or to understand. Li Po expresses Taoist beliefs, while Tu Fu portrays Buddhism through his compassion of the small motions of nature such as ripples on a pond, or the wings on a bird. Tu Fu pays attention to the little things that many readers don’t notice, which opens readers to a different perspective. Along with the natural aspect of his poetry, Tu Fu opens up his emotions and insight through his poetry. Tu Fu uses his literature to attack social injustice and the corruption of the government, but disguises his insults with vivid and illustrative words. “I find it ironic, however, that these two poets were such close friends. Perhaps, you could say, opposites attract. But both poets can be enjoyed depending on the mood of the reader and their desire to think.

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism

A Comparison Hinduism, as well as Buddhism, both came into existence in India. Both religions are similar in many ways. The religions both believe in reincarnation and that the specific purpose of their teachings is to escape this cycle. Buddhism is founded on the teachings of the Buddha. He lived about 2500 years ago in India. There is no Bible of Buddhism. The teachings of Buddha were never written down until about 300 years after his death. Therefore, his teachings have been handed down by word of mouth. Buddha was a noble man who gave up his riches to seek enlightenment. Buddhism is based on his experience of Nirvana or enlightenment. His teachings are shown in the four noble truths and the eightfold path. Buddhism has split into several sects by they have the same basic beliefs. Hinduism is an ancient religion. It has no known founder. It has several holy books. The most important of these is the Vedas, a collection of hymns. Hinduism like Buddhism believes in reincarnation. The goal of this religion is also to escape the birth-death cycle. Through Hinduism the entire Indian social structure was formed by creating the caste system. The major difference between Buddhism and Hinduism is that Hindus believe in a god. Brahman is the spirit that encompasses all living things. There are several lesser gods who are believed to be incarnates of Brahman. Confucianism is a religious philosophy formed by the Chinese philosopher K’ung-fu-Tsu. This philosophy came out of need during the warring states period of Chinese history. K’ung-fu-Tsu was a teacher at the hundred schools. His prime concern was the improvement of society. Confucianism has no gods, and the only written history of this religion is in the Analects, a collection of his responses to his disciple's questions. K'ung-fu-Tsu believed that the improvement of society was the responsibility of the ruler and that the quality of government depended on the ruler's moral character. This new way meant concern for others and adherence to the golden rule. Confucianism has had a greater and longer lasting influence on China than that of any other religious philosophy. All religions have a specific purpose, which is usually the betterment of society or of oneself. Religions grow out of need for greater understanding of what we are and how we got here. Most religions judge a man by his morality. Through this the man is either rewarded or punished for his deeds. Religion is used in all cultures to try and convince men of what is right or wrong and carries penalties that are greater than earthly treasures.

Roman Civil War And Caesar If anyone had hoped that the assassination of Julius Caesar would bring about the return of Republican rule, they must surely have been disappointed, for the political turbulence simply continued. Caesar’s assassins and his old commanders battled for control, while orators like Cicero labored to save the old Republic. In the end, Julius Caesar’s great nephew and adopted son Octavian known to history as Augustus Caesar outmaneuvered and outfought everyone. The year after his uncle’s death, Octavian and his allies of the Caesarian faction joined forces in an alliance called the second Triumvirate. By means of intriguer and threat, they coerced the senate into granting them and their legions the power to rectory peace to the Roman state. In the battle of Philippi, in northern Greece, Octavian and his allies defeated the conspirators who had assassinated Julius Caesar. However, peace was not at hand. In a climactic naval battle at Actium, Octavian defeated Mark Antony. Antony’s death and Octavian’s victory effectively ended the Roman Civil war. Octavian took power, and he was politically astute enough to adorn reality with palatable outward forms, replacing democracy with autocracy in a way that did not antagonize the public. He called on the services of culture, religion, literature, architecture, and the visual arts to help create a new picture of the world, with the result that there was a politically inspired aesthetic revolution, which led to the legalization of absolute power. Octavian formally divested himself of all authority. In response, the Senate and the people promptly gave it back to him, voting him the title Augustus. Although he was never officially emperor of Rome at all, within four years he had assumed complete power including the right of veto over any law. The Republic was formally dead. During the forty-five years that Augustus ruled, the Senate and popular assemblies continued to meet. However, the election of consuls, proconsuls, tribunes, and other officials required his blessing. As commander of the armies, he ruled all the vast territories of an empire that reached to the Rivers Rhine and Danube in what is now Germany. He commanded in the name of his uncle, Julius Caesar, and on the basis of his own military victories, claiming that he brought peace and order after a century of civil wars. He rebuilt temples to the Olympian gods, the “divine” Julius Caesar, and to “Rome and Augustus.” He built roads, bridges, and aqueducts, established a sound currency, nurtured honest government, and maintained peace, which lasted nearly two hundred years. |

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Separation of Church

The separation of church and state has become almost obsessive as of late, with state capitals removing all religious mementos from public buildings and schools not allowed to say prayers or speak of god. The funny thing is that even though we have removed any signs of favoring one religion over another we still hear politicians using God as a way to look favorably upon them. Now I’m not saying I disagree with this separation of church and state but if we are going to take prayer out of schools and god out of the public eye then we need to somehow control this new wave of using god in the political arena. Because saying we will squash terrorism in the name of god, or declaring that they do anything in the name of the lord is, well, going a bit far. But as we have become a nation of politicians basically doing anything for votes, bringing god into the equation seems like a winner from their standpoint. However, religion and god need to stay as far away as possible from this nonsense and remain where he belongs, in church. Know I don’t really know what the solution is, with freedom of speech and all, but maybe it’s up to us to let them know how we feel about this abuse. I know as a nation we have become so politically correct that we are afraid to offend anyone any more, but maybe we need to draw the line at god and let these politicians know, enough is enough and that separation of church and state needs to be just that.