Judaism

Today we learned about the fifth most important religion which is Judaism. Here are my notes from class:
Judaism:
number of adherents: 14-18 million (9th largest)
call them Jews
geographic location: Israel
founder: Abraham
holy books: 1. Talmud
                    2. Torah (first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
                        Deuteronomy)
beliefs: ethical monotheism- God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind
1. Ten Commandments
2. 13 Principles of Faith

In 8th grade in English class, we read a story about a Jew who survived the Holocaust. From that novel, I leaned a lot about what Jews went through during that time. I know how they were captured, put into concentration camps to be worked to death; they were gassed and some were burned alive in human ovens. After reading that story, it made me want to learn more about Judaism and what Jews are really like.

Presentations

Today in class we presented our projects on how to take down ISIS. I saw a lot of good ideas, but some weren't too good, or they had many holes in their plan. I think one of the best solutions was to stop their income and then 'take out' their oil supply. That would be a sufficient plan because that is what they make most of the money off of. If we take that away from them, they won't have money to buy and make guns, bombs, and other things. I think my group had a good idea with a lot of details, but after hearing the classes' questions and their problems with it, it made me realize how hard it actually would be to send spies and military personnel over to Syria as an ISIS member. If we were able to pull it off, I think we could definitely take down ISIS. I think this project really got us thinking about how dangerous they are because of all the research we had to do; how we had to actually put our heads together and create a well thought-out plan.

ISIS and Refugee Solution

Today, my group came up with a solution to the refugee problem, and the ISIS problem. For the refugees, we thought we should split them up into groups by last name so that they are with their families, and send them to a number of different safe countries, so a single country doesn't have to take them all in. Our solution for ISIS, is to send a couple military members over to Syria to capture one of their high ranking members, and bring him back here. While he is in the U.S, we will interrogate him, and with whatever information we get, we will send to the military members that took his spot in Syria. The military member that was sent to Syria is going to try to find out information and send it back to the U.S. With that information, we can take down ISIS once and for all.

ISIS

Today in class we were told to find a solution for ISIS. Unfortunately, my group couldn't come up with a solution because it's so hard to take them down when they aren't a nation, we don't know their leader, and we're not exactly sure where they are located. But my group did come up with some facts to get more informed on ISIS. The facts that we found are:

Where Did They Come From?

• “While extremist groups are generally amorphous organizations, ISIS can trace its history directly back to the Sunni terrorist organization al Qaeda, specifically the Iraq faction, al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was responsible for scores of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq following the U.S. invasion there.” (Ferran and Momtaz)

Who is ISIS?

• “Born from an especially brutal al Qaeda faction, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has grown from relative obscurity in recent years to overshadow its extremist patrons. It now terrorizes large swaths of Syria and Iraq, has become the target of the largest U.S. military operation in Iraq in years and, with the public, cold-blooded execution of multiple Westerners, dominates headlines the world over.” (Ferran and Momtaz)

ISIS’ Goals

• "Since at least 2004, a significant goal of the group has been the foundation of a Sunni Islamic state. Specifically, ISIS has sought to establish itself as a caliphate, an Islamic state led by a group of religious authorities under a supreme leader—the caliph—who is believed to be the successor to Prophet Muhammad.[166] In June 2014, ISIL published a document in which it claimed to have traced the lineage of its leader al-Baghdadi back to Muhammad,[166] and upon proclaiming a new caliphate on 29 June, the group appointed al-Baghdadi as its caliph. As caliph, he demands the allegiance of all devout Muslims worldwide, according to Islamic jurisprudence"

ISIS Information

• Western officials only have rough estimates on ISIS’s total fighting force, but in late 2014, the CIA said the group was believed to be up to 30,000 fighters strong including local supporters, and growing. Most disturbing to Western security officials, they say, is the huge portion of foreign fighters who left their homes and at times traveled halfway around the world to join the terror group.
• “Social media accounts associated with ISIS have published disturbing videos purportedly showing ISIS fighters taunting, torturing and executing scores of unarmed prisoners."  (Ferran and Momtaz)

 

All these facts came from reliable websites. Here are their URLs.

• http://abcnews.go.com/WN/fullpage/isis-trail-terror-isis-threat-us-25053190
• http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
• http://abcnews.go.com/WN/fullpage/isis-trail-terror-isis-threat-us-25053190

P.S- this is not my work, I got all these stats from these websites, so I made sure to cite them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save the Children

Today in class we watched an extremely deep video about the children in Syria. It definitely changed my perspective on the topic, but I still have a strong opinion on why we shouldn't let all the refugees into the United States. I think that we should help them, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they have to come to our country. Because in all honesty, I'd rather keep myself and my country safe rather than have them be safe in their own country. That sounds selfish, I know, but we can't always help others even when we want to. If all the refugees split up and some went to each different country that is safer than their own, a lot of lives would be saved that way. I don't understand why the United States is always the place people look to go. Who knows, just because they're white and not Muslim doesn't mean they can't still be a terrorist. I think it's extremely racist to say that people of a different color and religion are more of a threat to you than someone that looks like you, but that's just my opinion.

Paris

Today in class, we talked about the terrorist attacks in Paris, France. I think it's extremely sad, and such an awful thing that happened to these people. I wish that there was something I could do to help them, but the only thing I can do is pray for them. We live in such a sick world, it's awful to see something like this happen to them. This is like Paris's 9/11. But another thing that is awful is discrimination against Muslims. Just because some of them are bad does not mean they are all sick people. I read this social experiment on Twitter where an American girl put a hijab on her head and went to the mall to experience first-hand discrimination.  She said that people totally ignored her: cashiers, vendors, random citizens. She said that she was in one store and a little girl looked at her then asked her mom, "Mommy, is that a terrorist?" And the mom glared at the girl and grabbed her daughter's hand and pulled her out of the store. Just because this girl wore a hijab, she got treated differently. That makes me so upset because not all Muslims are bad. People need to stop stereotyping.

Religion and Babies

Today in class, we watched the TED Religion and Babies video. Here are my notes:

•  3 billion people in 1960- 7 billion people in 2014
• the map is divided into Abrahamic religion and Eastern religion
•  India and China- Eastern religion
•  Southern Europe and Indonesia- Islam
•  Europe, America, Africa, and Asia - Christianity
• number of babies per woman is decreasing
• women with a lot of babies usually have a low income
• countries with the highest mortality rate have the highest population growth
•  the babies per woman decrease when:
• 1. children survive
• 2. many children are not needed for work
• 3. women get education and join the labor force
• 4. family planning is accessible
• the average number of children per woman in Columbia is 2.4 per woman
• studies show that religion has very little to do with the number of babies per woman

I think that the chart was very interesting, but a little confusing. There were a lot of dots moving all at once, and I couldn't really understand the guy so I was having a hard time understanding what was going on. I think that Christianity had the most dots and that didn't surprise me. After watching the NOVA video, I realized that poorer woman do tend to have more children, and that was showed in this chart.

I think the world that I will soon inherit is kind of scary but also good. The video shows that there will be around 10 billion people by 2100. I think that is an overwhelming number of people, but who knows, maybe since there are more people, more jobs will open up and there will be a better economy. But more people could also mean that more people are out of work, the economy is bad, and there will be more families living on the streets which is not a good thing. I guess I will just have to wait and see how this world changes.

The quiz on sporcle is not working for me, it keeps freezing then it exits out of it.

Hinduism and Buddhism

Today in class we learned about two new religions: Hinduism and Buddhism.
Hinduism:
* number of adherents- 1.1 billion
* call them Hindus
* geographic location- India, Nepal
* holy book- the Vedas- eternal truths revealed to ancient sages; composed in verse form (meant to be sung and easily memorized.)
* founder- no distinct founder: oldest religion, it's less of a religion than a way of life.
* example of this- "as a person puts on new clothes and discards old and torn clothes, similarly an embodied soul enters new material bodies leaving the old bodies." this represents reincarnation.
* sentient being- one who can make a decision for oneself

Buddhism:
* number of adherents- 500 million to 1.5 billion ( estimates vary quite a bit)
* call them Buddhists
* geographic location- southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan (there are 1.2 Buddhists in the United States)
*founder- Siddhartha Gautama
*four noble truths:
1. there is suffering
2. attachment to desire is the origin of suffering
3. there is a cessation of suffering
4. the Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of suffering

* Eightfold Path:
1. right view
2. right intention
3. right speech
4. right action
5. right livelihood
6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right dedication

5 Major Religions

Today in class we looked at a powerpoint on the 5 major religions. We only got to look at 2 of them because we ran out of time, but we looked at Christianity and the Islamic religion. Christianity was founded by Jesus Christ. We call these people Christians. Their beliefs are that Jesus is both man and divine; that he suffered; died; resurrected; and ascended into heaven. Our clergy is the Pope, and the priests are other authorities. The Islamic religion was founded by Muhammad. They are called Muslims, and they call their God "Allah". (I have more facts on both of these religions but I left my notebook in school so this is all that I can remember).

Reviewing the Test

Today in class, we wasted 15 minutes doing absolutely nothing. Mr. Schick was late, so we just sat around and talked, and played on our computers. Then once he got here, we went over the test from yesterday. I was very disappointed with my grade because now I am failing this class. And I feel like it's going to be very hard to bring it up because we only do blogs and tests. The thing that bothers me most is that I really did study for the test, but no matter how much I study, I still seem to fail it. The only thing that made me a little happy is getting 3 extra points on the test. Even with the extra points, I still am failing the class :)

NOVA Test

Today in class we took the test based off of the information we learned in the NOVA video. I think that it was fairly easy, and it was helpful that we could use our blogs. But I think I need to start taking better notes, and put those notes in my blog more. A few of the questions I don't even remember hearing in the video, but I wish I would have paid a little more attention. Other than that, the test was pretty easy, and I'm glad I studied for it. I think the easiest part of the test was the questions with statistics in them. I felt like those were the questions I remember most when studying because they/re just straight facts that are easy to remember. Some of the questions I don't think I did well on were questions regarding the GDP per capita because honestly, I don't remember seeing that in the video. I thought the question about the desert was tough but then I remembered what the video referred to as Africa. I remember them calling it the Sub-Saharan nation, so that is what helped me with that question. Overall , I think this test was a lot easier than the last test we took.

Test Review

Today in class we reviewed for our test tomorrow. I think that if I study my notes, then I should do fine. Some of the questions we went over in class were things like "Which country has a TFR of 1.4" and then the class would answer, "Japan" I think that was a good way to review as a class. But what struck me as extremely shocking is when Mr. Schick told us that someone in his other class said that to solve India's problems, we should drop a nuke on them. I think that is an awful idea and anyone who agrees with that is crazy. Unless we are in the middle of a war, there is no reason to totally wipe out a nation like that. At the end of class, we watched some interesting videos on youtube... They were really funny but it made me think, who has the time to make these? and who has the time to look them up.. and why???

NOVA part 5

Today in class, we finished watched the NOVA video. The last 10 minutes were definitely the saddest part of the video. After we finished the video we had a long discussion about it. We were saying our opinions on whether we should use our money to help their country get introduced to birth control. I think we should at least introduce it to them, and that way they at least have some knowledge about it. We should then leave it up to them to decide whether they want to use it or not. But I also agree with some of the students when they said it starts with the economy. If the economy was better, the women could have jobs and get money that way instead of having to become a prostitute to provide for her family. I think that the stuff that goes on over there is extremely sad.