Darkthorn’s Blog

Christianity – Logbook Exercise 5.3

In what ways is fundamentalism a response to modernity? Is it accurate to say the fundamentalism is only a defensive and negative response to modernity? If not, in what ways does fundamentalism respond to modernity?

It is clear that fundamentalism is a way in which conservative and evangelical groups are emerging into political action. What issues are typical issues for such groups to be drawn to? What are the positive concerns in such political issues? Are there any reasons for thinking that groups that might have been slower than others in beginning political engagement must remain slower?

The development of fundamentalist Christianity in response to modernity has both positive and negative aspects. While repression of new ideas prevented integration of Christian beliefs into modern society, use of the Bible’s teachings for problem solving and preserving freedom provided a more positive aspect of fundamentalism.

Christianity has encountered many social and political upheavals, the greatest change being that of modernity (Walls, 1998). Christianity’s fundamentalist response maintained cultural isolation and took a defensive position in order to protect the Church’s authority from various nations’ evolving government’s influence (Weeks, O’Toole & Crowe, 2005). Pinnock (1990, p. 44) states that “[strict] fundamentalism arose in order to defend the authority of the Bible”, whilst open fundamentalists are using a more modern and moderate fundamentalism which is accepting of change (such as intellect’s place in Christianity) (Cox, 1984 as cited in Pinnock, 1990).

Pius X rejected modernity in the 20^th century as undermining the scriptures and reducing the Church’s all-important dogmas to interchangeable teachings (Weeks et al., 2005). This led to a repression of research into the newer applications of the scriptures and suspicion for the new methods of thinking (Weeks et al., 2005). Fundamentalism’s response to modernity was negative, its defensive position impeding important change, and integration of Christianity into current society (Weeks et al., 2005). However, use of the Bible for problem solving, as well as preserving freedom and providing a moral example for humanity are three positive aspects that have arisen from fundamentalist belief (Walls, 1998; Pinnock, 1990).

Groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention typically interpret and follow the Bible strictly as it serves their purpose. Archetypal views, such as of the wife being inferior to her husband and acting as his servant are upheld, as well as opposing sexual immorality (such as homosexuality) and speaking on behalf of the unborn (against abortions) (Southern Baptist Convention, 2008). While these views may be negative and old-fashioned by today’s standards, the outcry by fundamentalists brings these important issues to the attention of the media (Allan, 2008).

Other more obvious political influences of conservative and evangelical Christians include the leadership of USA president George Bush and Reverend Jesse Jackson on abortion and homosexuality (Pinnock, 1990). More positive motivations include a love of democracy and support for Israel and Jews (not rejecting it as outdated as in traditional Christian doctrine) (Pinnock, 1990). These fundamentalist Christians demonstrate clearly to liberal Christians that the Bible’s message does not need to be overturned and reinterpreted radically in order to be a good, moral Christian in today’s society (Pinnock, 1990).

There is no logical reason that religious groups that were initially slower to engage politically would remain slower. Reverend Jerry Falwell progressed rapidly from condemning pastors who involved themselves politically in society, to interfering large scale (via his leadership of the Moral Majority, a fundamentalist movement) on issues such as abortion (Pinnock, 1990). While Falwell protests that the Moral Majority is not a political party in the sense of wanting to control America, they do desire to influence government rulings (Pinnock, 1990).

The response to modernity by development of fundamentalist Christianity, like many other religious movements, has both positive and negative aspects. Fundamentalism’s relative political progress has demonstrated the practical implications and applications of the Bible as being current in today’s changing society.

Word Count – 545 words

Sound is a wave of pressure travelling through an elastic medium by mechanical disturbance of the molecules of the medium.

External ear – pinna and other appendages

- funnels sound into ear canal and modifies the sound

Middle ear – tympanum (eardrum), mallus/incus/stapes and Eustachian tube

- optimizes delivery of air-born sounds energy

o ossicles act as a lever to amplify sound

o complex tympanum vibrations

Inner ear – coiled, fluid-filled tube, completely encased in bone except for two membrane covered openings.

- Sound energy transduced into action potentials

- Vestibular and basilar (cochlear partition that contains the organ of corti) membranes

o Haircells possessing steriocilia (contain ion channels) are covered by tectorial membrane (jelly-like)

Transduction

1. Vibration of stapes footplate against oval window causing vibration of cochlear contents

2. Vibration of the cochlear partition increases in size, reaches a peak, then rapidly declines

3. Some ion channels in the steriocillia are open

4. Vibration of cochlear partition moves steriocillia, causing cyclic opening/closing of ion channels

5. Receptor membrane potential is affected by hair cells all opening/closing

Transmission

1. Deoplarisation causes transmitter release to underlying afferent nerve and produces action potentials

2. Opening channels (with sound) increases numbers of action potentials

3. Cochlear vibration at each point corresponds to a different frequency (therefore different nerve fibres)

4. Damage to OHC’s causes hearing loss due to less sensitivity

Sound à accessory structures à vibration of cochlear position à displacement of steriocillia

outer hair cells contract opening of more ion channels

brain modulation of action potentials modulation of transmitter release depolarisation

Organization of the Nervous System

- one of the two control systems of the body (endocrine system)

- maintains homeostatis through control of the other body systems (first communication system, responsible for higher function)

PNS – nervous system outside the brain/spinal cord

- somatic – innervates skin, muscle, joints

- visceral – innervates internal organs, blood vessels, glands

- Dorsal root ganglia – clusters of neurosn outside spinal cord contain SS axons

Protection of the CNS

- bone – cranium and vertebral column

- meninges – outer dura matter, middle arachanoid matter, innermost pia matter

- cerebrospinal fluid and blood brain barrier

- blood brain barrier – series of capillaries regulating exchange, limiting number of substances allowed into brain, brain damage if brain lacks oxygen or glucose

- ventricles and CSF – cavities inside brain that produce fluid that surrounds and floats the brain

The Brain

- brain stem and cerebellum

- cerebral hemispheres and diencephalon

Cerebral Cortex

- two hemispheres with bilateral symmetry

- language on left side, mental activities well distributed

- grey matter – contains cell bodies and dendrites, reticular formation

- white matter – collections of nerve cell fibres or axons

- corpus callosum, internal capsule, corticle white matter,

- information superhighway, 300+ neuronal axons

- prefrontal association cortex – decision making, creativity, personality

- parietal/occipital/temporal or limbic association cortexes

Dienchephalon – hypothalamus – homeostatic function

- thalamus – primitive sensory processing, relay station

Brain Stem – midbrain/pons/medulla – controls breathing/digestion

Spinal Cord – conducts from skin/joints/muscle

Cerebellum – maintains balance, muscle tone, coordinates voluntary movement

- several parts of the brain are always working together

- ventricular system and CNS – CNS forms the walls of a fluid-filled neural tube, inside of that tube becomes ventricular system, formation of neural tube from ectoderm (tube = CNS, crest = PNS)

- telencephalon – cerebral hemispheres, olfactory bulbs, basal telencephalon

- diencephalon – thalamus, hypothalamus

- forebrain – telencephalon, diencephalon, retina

- cerebral cortex – analyse sensory input and command motor output

- thalamus – axons from thalamus to cortex, carry information from body

- hypothalamus – connected to ANS, brainstem, telencephalon, pituitary gland à control of autonomic nervous system, motivation, neuroendocrine

- midbrain – information conduit from spinal cord to forebrain

- tectum – superior colliocus (information from eyes) vs inferior colliocus (information from ears)

- tegmentum – substancia nigra to control voluntary movement

- hindbrain – cerebellum – movement control

- pons – massive switchboard connecting cerebral cortex to cerebellum

- cochlear nuclei – project axons, auditory nerve terminal

- taste and touch motor neurons

- pyramidal decussation – crossing of axons from one side to another

- brain maturation in adults

- reduction in grey matter

- reflects increased myelination to improve cognitive processing (response inhibition, emotional regulation, planning and organization

- frontal cortex projects to striatal areas involved in learning

This blog/novel/creative writing collection has now been kept for a year! I haven’t got anything in particular planned, but if all goes well, there should be a nice surprise for you all in the making.

Thanks for reading.

~ Darkthorn

prosimian primates

- humans – have a large proportion of white matter – better connections

- large pyramidal cells, more dendritic cells – specific to association cortex

- a number of unique areas, particularly language areas

- Short term memory – a collection of mental processes that permits information to be held temporarily in an accessible state, in the service of some mental task.

- Short term store – interpret information selected for transfer into sensory store, maintain information, transfer and review information from long term memory – capacity of 7+/- 2 items, improved by chunking

- Serial position effect

o Primacy effect – improved recall for items at the start of the list (these items are sufficiently rehearsed for long term memory)

o Recency effect – improved recall for last items (eliminated if rehearsal is prohibited)

o Sternberg’s four stage process

§ Encode probe à compare with memory à binary decision à execute motor response

§ The more items required to recall, the more reaction time required

§ Method of search is self-terminating or serial exhaustive

o Duration of about 18 sec

- Working memory – maintains notion of a limited capacity store used to hold information needed for current problem solving

o Phonological loop – inner ear and inner voice – visuospatial sketchpad

- Control processes – attention, rehearsal, coding, retrieval, decision making

Islam – Logbook Exercise 6.3

How do the Five Pillars express islam, submissiveness?

The basic activities in which a Muslim demonstrates his commitment and submissiveness to Allah are the Five Pillars. These include the profession of faith, payer, alms giving, fasting in Ramadan and Pilgrimage.

Shahada, the first pillar of Islam, is the profession of faith by the Muslim (Crotty, 2005). It stems from the proclamation that Allah is God above all and that Muhammad is his Prophet; the kalimah recited by Muslims daily to show their submissiveness to the one God, Allah (Crotty, 2005). This phrase is repeated by Muslims throughout their lives, from the moment of their birth to their death, forever declaring their trust and faith in Allah and Muhammad to guide them correctly through life.

The second pillar is salat, the prayers said five times a day to Allah (Crotty, 2005). Salat is intended to focus the Muslim’s mind on Allah, and express their gratitude, surrender and devotion to him (Crotty, 2005). The devotee’s actions and words to Allah express their absolute surrender, a main part of this being bowing and prostrations on the floor as well as asking for his forgiveness (Welch, 1998). This prayer and submission to Allah is said to ‘restrain [one] from shameful and evil deeds’ and to have ‘remembrance of Allah [as] the greatest’ (Qur’an 29:40). Allah is the greatest, the Muslims must bow to him in submission.

The annual alms giving by Muslims, zakat, is an essential part of islam (Crotty, 2005). It is the personal responsibility of a Muslim to help others less fortunate than themselves, in order to eliminate inequality within the Islamic community (Welch, 1998). Although initially alms giving was limited to donating the surplus in a Muslim household, eventually it became a fixed proportion of a Muslim’s income (Welch, 1998). This donation of goods to the needy is an expression of submission and equality, no one household is more worthy of wealth, especially in today’s society of materialism (Welch, 1998; Watt, 1987). Voluntary charity (sadaqah) is a way to achieve further divine reward (Encyclopaedia of Islam).

During Ramadan, Muslims must fast (no drinking, eating, smoking or sexual intercourse between dawn and sunset) to uphold the fourth pillar of Islam, saum (Crotty, 2005). It is said that during the month of Ramadan, the Qur’an was revealed to the Muslims for the first time (Crotty, 2005). This period of fasting shows the Muslim’s submission to Allah’s rules, forgoing earthly pleasures in order to please him (Welch, 1998).

The pilgrimage to Mecca, hajj, is expected of a Muslim at least once in their lifetime (Crotty, 2005). It needs to occur during the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar, but it is not expected that females should make the pilgrimage (Welsh, 1998). The pilgrim’s community honours them for making the pilgrimage, but this should not be the primary reason for making the journey – it should be an expression of devotion and submission to Allah (Welsh, 1998).

The Five Pillars of Islam are present in throughout a Muslim’s life. The daily prayers and expressions of kalima, the annual fasting and alms giving, as well as the pilgrimage to Mecca, communicate the devotion to Allah and submission to Muhammad’s teachings.

Word Count – 525 words

- Long term memory – Tulving

o Procedural – skills, unconscious, automatic

o Semantic – factual knowledge, impersonal

o Episodic – autobiographical, time and place

- Encoding processes

o Repetition

o Rehearsal – maintenance vs elaborative rehearsal

o Elaboration – engaging in processes that enhance understanding

o Organisation – structuring and restructuring of information as it is stored

o Imagery – mentally picturing a stimulus to form a memory – verbal vs imaginal code

- Retrieval processes

o Determine what is actually remembered about an event

o Encoding specificity principle – whatever is stored is determined by what is perceived and how it is encoded (state/context dependant learning)

o Cued recall is greater than free recall

- Sematic Network Accounts

o Knowledge organised in a network on interconnected nodes

§ Node – concept or idea

§ Linked nodes show a semantic relationship

§ Spreading activation

Forgetting

- A decrease in ability to remember a previously formed memory

- Assumptions – effective prior encoding – issue is retrieval of information

- Complications – the reconstructive nature of memory

Synapse – Speed and Efficiency

Presynaptic – neurotransmitter ready for release (release mechanisms present)

Synapse – effective communication pathway (where transmitter removal occurs)

Postsynaptic – receptive molecules (five sub units, each with 4 membrane spanning regions)

Neurotransmitter – synthesized in advance, then stored in vesicles

Within a bouton – similar numbers of neurotransmitter per vesicle, vesicles anchored to filaments (and docking sites)

Postsynaptic receptors become ion channels when a transmitter binds the TM2 helices move apart to allow ions through (ionotropic channels), then close. The neurotransmitter is able to bind to a large extracellular domain.

- sodium enters cells as potassium leaves

- net positive influx, depolarization

- graded fast response

each release site dispenses only one vesicle per action potential

quantal release results in EPSPs (ESPs) of approximately equal value

- amplitude depends on number and properties of receptors

- reaches threshold and increases probability of opening Na+ channels

Cl- inhibits the action potential, preventing it from reaching the threshold

Glutamate & Acetylcholine – excitatory ionotropic receptors

GABA and Glycine – inhibitory ionotropic receptors

Australian Aboriginal Religion – Logbook Exercise 4.3

Outline and comment on three functions of ritual in Aboriginal Societies. Refer to examples of rituals.

Australian Aboriginal rituals are impossible to categorize simply, partially because of the wide spread of different tribes across the continent (Stanner, 1976). Stanner (1976) discusses the failed attempt to classify major rituals into four categories; commemorative, increase, initiation and death rites. Religious rituals of the Australian Aboriginals have been classified under two broad headings instead: those for individual progression through life and those for meeting the needs of the community (Edwards, 2005). Although it is difficult to exactly define ritual types, the functions of ritual are relatively simple, if overlapping. For example, the Central Australian initiation rites to impart knowledge to adolescents as well as induct them into adulthood, the Northern Australian mortuary rites which also function to provide a social event within the community and the increase rituals to augment food supplies and fertility (Edwards, 2005; Colless & Donovan, 1998).

Through ritual initiation, young Aboriginal men are introduced to the mysteries of the Ancestral Spirit Beings and the knowledge of the tribe (Edwards, 2005). Indeed, some of the ‘senior rites are more revelatory than initiatory’ (Stanner, 1976, p. 27). Initiation rites are functionally important for ensuring that the right people have the knowledge required for the continuance of life, and instate a boy as a man of the tribe (Stanner, 1976). Although data about rites is restricted from the uninitiated, it is known that for the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes of Central Australian, there are four specific initiation ceremonies: painting and throwing the boy into the air, circumcision, subincision and the fire ceremony (Spencer & Gillen, 1899).

Mortuary rites, at death and burial, allow a dying/dead clansman’s ghost to break earthly ties and shepherd this soul towards the clan country, where it can remain or go on to fill another human host (Stanner, 1976). These rites are generally prolonged more than those of other transition rites (such as puberty initiations) to make certain that the spirit has passed on, and will not remain to haunt or disturb the living (Berndt & Berndt, 1988).The gradual detachment from the deceased in ritual, and the similar treatment of their belongings (destroying intimate possessions) is an integral part of Northern Australian rites (Widlok, as cited in Venbrux, 2007). A person’s values and worldview are conveyed in death rites, completing their life journey (Metcalf & Huntington, 1991, as cited in Venbrux, 2007).

The maintenance or increase rites are performed to ensure that sacred sites remain filled with the specific kind of life associate with them, and to enhance food supplies, fertility or love between a man and woman (Stanner, 1976). Some rites are believed to assist in maintaining and sustaining the fertility of the countryside in which the Aboriginals hunted their food (Berndt, 1974). These rituals were also important for bringing together different clans to share knowledge and find mates (Spencer & Gillen, 1899).

Ritual in Australian Aboriginal religion, although difficult to categorize by European standards, functions to bring together different Aboriginal clans for events such as birth, death and initiation, and promote the important sense of community within the tribe.

Word Count – 507 words