Clouds Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Clouds - Research Paper Example This paper explores why this phenomenon is common. That it is a common experience is a fact reflected in the number of jokes about the interpretation of clouds. Here is an example (British Council) : Actually, a common term to describe a sky that is covered with lots of cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds, which appear in a regular wave pattern with blue sky showing in between, is a mackerel sky. It is called that because the clouds resemble the skin of a mackerel. But in Germany and France, the popular designation is interpreted as sheep cloud, because it reminds their people of a flock of sheep . (Sometimes a Bit Fishy). This is an example of how people in different cultures might see the same or a similar cloud formation differently. Individuals of the same culture may see the same cloud images together, or may see them differently, like a Rorschach ink blot. But why do human beings look at a cloud and see animals or faces or other very specific imagery? One research study conclude d that â€Å"uncertainty following a positive event prolongs the pleasure it causes and that people are generally unaware of this effect of uncertainty† (Wilson, Centerbar and Kermer 5). ... So if children find pleasure in lying in the grass and exercising their imaginative capacities, then continuing to see shifting cloud images might be a way to prolong their pleasure. The same might be true for vacationers on a camping trip or elderly people on a porch or in the garden. But when a busy schedule intervenes and prevents the mood of pleasurable uncertainty from continuing, or when scientific logic enters the picture, reminding them of the objective details of the cloud and the understanding that it is a cloud and not a parade of magical animals, after all, then the pleasure is cut short. In his book, Faces in Clouds (Guthrie), Guthrie offers a different kind of theory about why people see images of animals and faces in clouds. Guthrie argues that humans are hard-wired toward anthropomorphic interpretation. Humans see their own attributes in gods and spirits, but also in other animate and inanimate things and events (Guthrie 193). Humans search for signs, symbols and mean ing everywhere, constantly (198). When the natural world is close by, like a tree or the wind, then humans are able to apply language and logical analysis that rises above their natural inclination toward anthropomorphism. But as people gain distance from the natural event or object, when things or events are on the periphery, humans are less able to resist anthropomorphic inclinations (204). Human portrayal of gods is an extreme example of this. Clouds are not as distant as God, but they are in the periphery, in the sky of our world. Although we access scientific explanations about clouds, about mist and ice crystals and wind and rain, we find no satisfaction in these explanations. The natural inclination to interpret

What does the bible mean to me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

What does the bible mean to me - Essay Example The word â€Å"Bible† comes from Greek and can be translated as a â€Å"book†. Though Bible consists of more than seventy books, which have been written in different times and by different authors using various genres, literary styles and even languages, they all are perceived as one united and undivided continuous text that recreates life experience, moral norms and sources of human wisdom. People who have not read this book can not consider themselves as educated. However, I am confident that everyday the number of such people decreases constantly. Being written by inspired people, Bible is not merely work of fiction, but it is the greatest book of human history that contains magnificent and philosophic studies about our world, inhabitants, and eternal morality along with spiritual values. Urgency of this book is undisputed, because with its help we are able to find answers and explanations of such notions as life and death, fate and human soul, good and evil and others. Bible teaches us how to live, what we should do, what things should be unacceptable in our conscience, what kind of people we must strive to become and which negative traits of our characters ought to be changed. Bible gives us a great hope for bright and serene future persuading to believe in a life after death and Heavens. Reading this Holy Book, I comprehend that person can insure calm and happy life only with a help of conceiving thoughts and apprenticeships of Jesus Christ who persistently invites to open our hearts for God that manages to touch the most remote depths of human soul. Bible makes us believe that God is real. Every person is given life to prepare own self for eternal life on the Heavens. Bible propagandizes ethical and esthetical experience of humanity. All disappointed people refer to this book and keep on searching for the point of life that lies in religion. Hence, our trust in God helps us to live dignified lives on the Earth before being