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The role of free will in the Bible is perhaps the most basic definition of how God wanted to relater with mankind.
Name
Professor
Course
Date
Number 3
Free Will
Introduction
The role of free will in the Bible is perhaps the most basic definition of how God wanted to relater with mankind. The sole purpose of giving humankind free will was to crate that sober atmosphere where the people would not feel pressured to abide by God’s laws. The book of Genesis narrates a various instances where the free will was bestowed on mankind and its implications on the final relationship with God. Key individuals like Adam, Cain, Abel who forms the early stages of God’s creation are the best persons to show how free will operated and its impact on man-God relationship. Another way Scripture reveals that humans are free is by depicting them as the originators of their own free actions. Free will was a major element tat was pinned on the core relationship that Gid wanted to establish with man.
The Bible is emphatic on its teaching that humans possess free will and are capable of originating evil. One of the key aspects of the noted elements in the Bible is the way God perceived sin and his will in defining man as a being with the capacity to choose right or wrong (Kahn 102). The concept of sin is what is defined within the told stories that depict how man and God related and the core reason for the free will. The early days where God wanted that close relationship with man has always been the pillar of the mercies and pardon on sin that is found in almost all key characters in the book of Genesis. The major aspect of sin and its scope and impact on the man-God relations is best described through Adam’s story (Peters 8). In the beginning, God pout Adam and even in the garden of Aden where he was truly seeking that personal relationship with his first creation.
God was not interested in punishing sin but forgiving and reconciling with man. Human free will is manifested in the fact that, throughout Scripture, God gives us choices and calls on us to choose the way he knows is best (Westbrook 13). This is clearly narrated in the way Adam was given free will to choose whether to do right or wrong in God’s eyes. Although the two chose to sin, God was still offering them a room for confession that defines God’s approach to sin. Free will manifests in the way Adam was permitted to choose what to do and even given the right to control and subdue all other creations. The excessive freedom given to Adam and Eve is what defined and paved way for sin and abuse of free will (Sölle 12). The early Biblical stories in Genesis define how free will was the cordial bond that allowed man to access God and focused less on sin. God was trying to show mankind that his major focus was the strong relationships the two would have to be sure they moved together with a strong relationship. The bible thus narrates a vital aspect of the role of man in God’s creatin where he was placed at the top and given free will. Many religious scholars have stuffed and found that free will the pillar to God’s perception on man and the nature of sin (Kahn 109). Free will therefore was God’s own choosing to allow man to act freely and have the liberty to choose the right things in life.
The major debate that lies within the whole Biblical setting is God who is all-knowing give man free will (Peters 15). The answer to this question lies in analyzing the nature of sin and what God counts as an offense to his holiness. The Bible is clear on how sin has been the barrier that exists between man and God that derives the need for repentance. However, whole idea of free will is far-fetched when looking at key stories like Cain’s arrogance and murder of his brother Abel. These elements of sin that are defined in the early stories in the Bible have been a major stepping stone in understanding how God relates with man. The other aspect of God’s free will on man is to look at both the nature of sin and the power to overcome it in all environments (Westbrook 7).
Looking at God’s place and holiness, it is clear that there existed a huge difference in what man saw as right or wrong. Free will was a major element that was pinned on the core relationship that Gid wanted to establish with man (Kahn 119). One of the key aspects of the noted elements in the Bible is the way God perceived sin and his will in defining man as a being with the capacity to choose right or wrong. The concept of sin is what is defined within the told stories that depict how man and God related and the core reason for the free will. To be precise, the nature of free will was always relative and dependent on man’s intellect ability to choose between right and wrong (Westbrook 3). Most importantly is the way the book of Genesis as the foundation to God’s creation defines right and wrong. The aspect of temptation that is the root to sin when mankind gives shows that free will was a recipe to allowing mankind choose the path to take. However, God did not interfere with free will and allowed mankind to choose right or wrong in all his ways. The book of Genesis narrates very interesting instances where man deliberately chose to test God by acting contrary to his laws(Sölle 7) . For example, Cain chose to murder his brother knowing that God would not put up with such sin.
Free will and the liberty given to mankind in the early days of creation was greatly abused. Cases of sin and ignorance to God’s instructions and laws is noted throughout the book of Genesis. For example, Adam chose to disobey God by eating from the forbidden tree that sparked the barrier of sin between mankind and God. The Bible points key areas where man was deliberately acting on free will but unfortunately chose the easier path that led to sin. Free will was therefore abused and those whom it was accorded failed to take advantage of God given freedom to choose right and wrong. The free will did not mean that God would overlook sin but it was a chance to allow mankind to act freely and develop that culture of avoiding sin and copying his creator in goodness. The Bible thus points that mankind abused free will and tested God’s patience and response to sin by choosing the wrong in place of right or righteousness.
Works Cited
Kahn, Victoria. “What Original Sin? Political Theology, the Jewish Question, and the Work of Metaphor.” Telos 178 (2017): 100-120.
Peters, Ted. God in Cosmic History: Where Science & History Meet Religion. Winona: Anselm Academic, 2017.
Sölle, Dorothee. Thinking about God: An introduction to theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2016.
Westbrook, Perry D. Free will and determinism in American literature. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2020.
The results of the study indicate that most students that were enrolled in civic advocacy course were very active and were mo
Findings and results
The results of the study indicate that most students that were enrolled in civic advocacy course were very active and were mostly thoughtful in their daily class activities. However, not all the students of civic advocacy were not undergoing through the same experience. Among the sample of 13 advocacy students observed; three students often put their heads down during class meetings, some were busy doing their homework for other courses; nevertheless most concentrated and participated in advocacy course activities. During the 1st making period, 9 students accomplished projects that were aimed at increasing public awareness about a certain concept or issue, but in the second making period 11 students accomplished advocacy projects that were directed towards their institutions; however 2 students did not pass the course because of inadequate projects. Of the 7 students interviewed, 4 were motivated to take the course because of their interest in learning about civic involvements while the other 3 were motivated by other factors such as; mentor’s suggestion, a free-test class or need for graduation course. Generally, those students that did the projects because they were very interested in civic involvement created a more advanced and ambitious projects and they were more occupied in learning about related concepts. A few students that enrolled in civic advocacy course basically to attain elective credits were not enthusiastic about their projects. Their interests were limited and they did not engage on issues other than those that affected the projects. Thus, even though students took the civic advocacy course and seriously engaged in their projects, this positive approach was not true to all. However, almost all the students, including those who never develop suitable projects, actively participated in some skill-development activities that were meant to develop and strengthen their civic advocacy efforts. Additionally, students were characteristically very active when their classmates, particularly their friends, were the once leading discussions concerning their own projects and importuned feedback. Therefore, through learning and discussions about public issues limitations, mounting a sense of civic community with their classmates, and jointly focusing on their community based actions, many students were thoughtfully engaged in course activities.
The participation of students in civic advocacy projects positively affected their political efficacy and this enabled them to increase their knowledge about challenges once faces in his/her quest for civic action activities. For the reason that most projects never achieved their full objectives before the end of the class, few students articulated absolute satisfaction with their achievement. Overall, however, the experience they gained taught them about the likely challenges and effects of civic action and stimulated many of them to plan for their future efforts as shown on the table below
Table 1
Students’ Characteristics (N=39)
Variable Students in Advocacy Class NHS Students
% Ethnic Minority 8.3 7.7
% Mothers with college degrees or more 50.0 64.0
% Fathers with college degrees or more 41.7 56.0
Mean Age 16.7 16.4
***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05, ~p<.1
Both the qualitative and quantitative analyses results indicates that students engaged in the civic advocacy projects developed a greater belief about their abilities to influence political procedures compared to students in the comparison group. The t-tests and cross-tabulations analysis also shows that students that conducted advocacy projects and those who never conducted advocacy projects were alike demographically. Regardless of, these similarities, the ANOVA and t-test results showed that students undertaking civic advocacy course gained growth both external and internal political efficacy while students in the National Honor Society did not as shown in the table 2 below
Results of T-tests Examining Students’ Changes on Civic Engagement Factors (N=39)
Variable Beginning of Semester End of Semester
NHS Students Model UN Students NHS Students Model UN Students
Internal Political Efficacy 4.8 4.8 4.4 5.3*
External Political Efficacy 4.8 4.5 4.3 5.2*
***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05, ~p<.1
The results of ordinary least square regression show the same situation. Taking factors such as; internal political efficacy, parental interest, age, grade level, race and political interest, the OLS regression shows gives a much clearer results.
Effect Sizes (Unstandardized B) of OLS Regression Model Examining Changes in Political Efficacy (N=39)
Independent Variables End-of Semester
Internal Political Efficacy End-of-Semester
External Political Efficacy
Participation in Advocacy Class .876*** .731*
Internal Political Efficacy, Time 1 .621*** .236
External Political Efficacy, Time 1 -.050 .279*
Political Interest, Time 1 .148 .210
Parental Education -.060 -.240
Persistence Self-Efficacy .074 .127
Age -.263 -.445
Grade Level .080 .640
Race/Ethnicity (White) .522 -.095
Constant 5.703 7.043
R2 .732*** .562**
The change in political efficacy is a reflection of an assessment of their recent experience learning and most concern is about community concepts and achieving small success in determining other factors. Overall, the participation of students in the advocacy projects helped them to develop ambition of how to influence their political process. The quantitative analyses indicate those who participated in advocacy project can persistence to be a challenging task. The OLS regression analysis, civic advocacy negatively influence the student’s awareness of their own determination, race, political interest, controlling for political efficacy, parental education and grade level. Comparing these results with those who never undertook civic advocacy; students who undertook civic advocacy course in the end of the semester 0.565 standard deviation with a p-value of <.05.
Independent Variables End-of-Semester
Persistence Self-Efficacy
Participation in Advocacy Class -.565*
Persistence Self-Efficacy, Time 1 .587**
Internal Political Efficacy, Time 1 -.008
External Political Efficacy, Time 1 .076
Political Interest, Time 1 .117
Parental Education .036
Grade Level .061
Ethnicity/Race -.083
Constant 1.350
R2 .561**
Discussion
It is very challenging to prepare high school students to assists in conducting civic advocacy within their own society or community. Student’s empowerment will give the students an opportunity to appreciate and realize their full potential. The idea of civic advocacy is to courageously get out in the world and discus with people the issues that affect them in one way or the other hence making shift or change something in their life. The flexibility of the projects assignment is attributed to difficulties by the students. However, some students seemed to benefit from this independence. Although the high degree of independence seemed to increase some student’s motivation, it gave other students too much freedom that they assumed the importance of the start stage of their projects. Evidence from observations and interviews indicates that students have different engagement concepts towards their projects based on their reasons for taking the class. No matter how hard civic advocacy might seemed, the study aimed at providing students with the necessary guidelines that will facilitate their reflection and learning from the process. The best results were achieved by first developing a flexible curriculum plan that adapted to the students’ interest and projects. The study was on three main objectives that were mutually related and supported. The objectives were; student’s broad understanding of social challenges, students’ progress of civics skills and the development of two projects by the students which could either be developed in groups or individually: one project focused on influencing the position of policy makers regarding power while the other designed to increase public awareness about an issue. By making the students to dominate the projects, I managed to introduce the students to sociopolitical limitations that helped them establish their own research questions to explore civic skills that will see them succeed on their projects. In order to help the students increase their interest in civic advocacy projects, I managed to engage the students academically in the concrete and ethical challenges contained in taking social action. To strength the students’ motivation and moral conviction, it is necessary to advocate for roles challenge the students thinking. For example, after presentation of basic principles of Hume’s moral relativism, students were challenged to take their own independent positions. This prompted students to an animated debate about how it is not necessary to violate another’s physical space. By learning about major sociopolitical challenges together with their associated ethical dimensions, students were able to develop convictions and purposes for being implicated in social issues. From the study, students who engaged in civic advocacy projects were significantly involved in political efficacy as compared to students in National Honor Society despite of their background characteristics and political attitudes. These findings have two main implications; first, it shows that students might become civically engaged when they conduct projects in their societies. Secondly, it further supports the augments that numerous claims that society involvement has a strong effect on civic outcomes if at all accompanied by a focused instructional component.
Conclusion
Through learning a variety of political skills, students were also prepared to implement advocacy projects. These political skills helped the students to strengthen their ability to build up an action plan that will help develop the project. Students also assessed themselves experimentally to determine their own civic action. After completing the projects, the students also engaged in discussions that mainly focused on their work and their future plans towards the projects. Students need guidance and opportunities to successfully conduct and complete their projects. Effective civic action is sometimes an interactive procedure which necessitates assessments of strategies and goals. Social studies teachers have been greatly involved in advocating for students to become active especially in democratic related issues. Political efficacy is the best practice that determines how active a student is in relation to political participation. Therefore, it is necessary that this concept is fully developed and encouraged not only by the social studies teacher but with all related stakeholders.
The relationship between the United States federal government and the state governments has always attracted a lot of attenti
Author
Tutor
Course
Date
Federalism
Introduction
The relationship between the United States federal government and the state governments has always attracted a lot of attention. This is defined as federalism, a relationship that means a shift or change of power or authority from the state governments to the national government. Federalism, as a theory, underlines the federal principles that divide powers between the common institutions and member units. Unlike in the case of unitary states, there is non-centralization of sovereignty of federal political order between the varied levels, in which case the units in all levels have the final authority on the varied areas. While there are a number of events that may be tantamount to federalism, the “Race to the Top” program is arguably the most explicit example of federalism in the United States. This refers to a $4.35 billion grant program that was established as a stimulus package. In this program, the states were supposed to submit a proposal on how to improve their educational systems to the federal government. If the proposals were approved, the federal government would provide the funds with which they would implement their plans (Metzger, 19).
There are various aspects that make the program a representation of federalism. First, it is worth noting that the program had a clear outline as to the powers of the states and those of the federal governments. The states have a significant discretion over how the funds would be spent. In fact, the state can spend 50% of the funds won as it deems fit, guided by rules so loose that the state would still comply by using the money on almost any program. In these programs, the states would set the policies governing the learning standards even in cases where uniformity was crucial. The states received a maximum of forty points for joining a conglomerate of states that establish and adopt uniform K-12 standards (Metzger, 19). It is worth noting that the federal government was not involved in the writing of the standards, or even establishing the body that wrote the standards.
The federal government, on its part, has relative autonomy as to how much money would be awarded to which state. In essence, “Race to the Top” does not obligate the federal government to award a proportionate sum of money on all states and would not be bound by contentious congressional votes.
Evidently, this is a shared responsibility since both the state and federal governments have a bearing on the progress of the program. The state government provides the proposals and is responsible for the implementation of the plans. The federal government on its part is responsible for funding and ensuring that the state governments operate within the set guidelines. However, it is worth noting that the program has been moving towards state control rather than federal control. This is especially having in mind that the states have a considerable space for shaping their participation in the federal initiatives, not to mention the expanded resources and enhanced regulatory authority for their participation (Ralston, 4). This, however, does not in any way imply that the program allows for general power devolution, rather it serves the progressive policy. It is worth noting that the states have real choices pertaining to their accomplishment of the federal policy priorities, instead of just having them as administrative go-betweens that only write reports and issue checks. In essence, the program reaffirms the status of the states as sovereign entities with responsibility for and authority over the welfare of their citizens (Ralston 6).
Works cited
Metzger, Gillian, E. Federalism under Obama. Columbia University. 2011. Print
Ralston, Sonja. Race to the Top Embraces Federalism. American Constitution Society. 2010. Web retrieved 3rd June 2012 from, HYPERLINK “http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/race-to-the-top-embraces-federalism” http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/race-to-the-top-embraces-federalism