The End. Part one.

To begin series of presentations for this semester let's talk about... The End Time aka Doomsday event.

In nearly every religion one can find prophecies about the end of the world. Most of them foresee that at the end of time there will be a huge battle between good and evil. Let's have a closer look...

Christianity

Doomsday event is described as the "Last Judgement". It can be found in various places in the Holy Bible, such as Gospel of Mathew and books of Daniel, Isaiah and the book of Revelation.

According to them:

"When the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.".

This will be followed by a fight between God and Satan. After a swift battle evil is destroyed and the last judgement will take place:

"And they were judged, each one according to his works. And Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

Islam

In Islamic eschatology there are many signs for the coming of Judgement Day.

1. The coming of an Antichrist (one eyed with a sign on his forehead), Imam Mahdi and then Prophet Jesus.
2. The sun will swallow the moon.
3. Major earthquakes will destroy mountains and cause Earth's body to break.
4. The blowing of the first Trumpet killing all humans on Earth.
5. The blowing of the second Trumpet marking resurrection.

Gog and Magog, the foul creatures will destroy supplied of food and water.

After that the Judgement will begin: the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah, while the unrighteous are punished in Jahannam.

Judaism

The Holy book - Tora mentions very little about the end of the world. Book of Amos says that one should not wait for the judgement day. However it is said that when the day comes Messiah will battle with armies of Gog and Magog, after which the leader of their armies will be brought to mount Sinai, judged and killed. The world will be cleansed of all evil and a new house of God will be built.

The scroll of Tora

Who is Gog and Magog anyway?

Good question, they (it?) appear in Islam, Judaism, Christianity but it is not clear who or what they are. Some say they are a single character, whole nation, or even a land. All that is clear is that Gog and Magog will surface near the end of the world and lead theirs armies agains the forces of good.

Gog and Magog statues at Gaunt's clock in the Royal Arcade, Melbourne, Australia

Why do you think every culture contains a doomsday prophecy and how can you explain Gog and Magog appearance in three of the biggest religions? Coincidence or not...?

Stay tuned for part two to learn what will happen in year 2012 and how many comets are heading towards Earth...

Power of Nightmares- a film

Go to http://personalgrowthcourses.net/video/power_of_nightmares_bbc
and watch the film The Power of Nightmares. Comment on it please.

Do you believe it is true? Are we manipulated by our governments and first of all lobbyists standing behind them? Is there any way for ordinary people to react to it?

HOW TO LIVE 100+

Some time ago I had an opportunity to read Dan Buettner’s lecture about so called longevity. During his cogitation he is trying to answer how to live to be 100+.


He starts his research from finding the four demographically confirmed areas that are geographically defined areas where people are living to age 100at rates up to 10 times greater than we are - so called Blue Zones.

• 1.Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica


• 2.Sardinia outside Italy


• 3.The island of Okinawa in Japan


• 4.Loma Linda in California

And then he brings a team of experts there to go through exactly what people, who live in this areas, do to be able to reach the age 100. He’s theory of longevity contains 5 main points.
He starts from well known facts as plant-based diet accentuated with foods that people can carry into the fields, every day exercising, well organized life with constant points etc. nothing new in fact. But then he points the meaning of the way that society is organized –not so obvious. According to his research one of the most salient elements of the longevity society is how they treat older people – it gives you more chance to reach 100 if you live in society which treats older people with respect and love.

Then he returns to food aspect showing how the way of eating is associated with longevity. The clue is to stop eating when your stomach is 20 percent full. It takes about a half hour for that “fullness” feeling to travel from your belly to your brain it shows that most of the time you even do not notice that you are already full and you do not need food any more. He strongly points the term for the benefits of closely bonded community. The health and longevity advantages of, say, joining a live, knowing your neighbors, shearing your good and bad moments with people who are always next to you.

Does this really work? There are some people, whose life shows that following those points really works. The person that I found the most remarkable was not the oldest one of those interviewed by researchers, but still what he is able to DO at his age is just amazing. He lives in the only blue zone in the US, in Loma Linda. His name is Dr.Wareham from California, he is 94 years old and he STILL performs heart surgeries!!

And Dr.Wareham’s example brings me to another point. In Poland recently we have a public debate about retirement age and government plans to make people work longer. From ageing point of view that’s a good move. Retirement is a waste in today`s society of the knowledge older people have, it`s like they`re meant to just stop living at the age of 65 and wait to die. When there`s still so much left to do, and I`m sure the perfect recipe for getting older is just to sit down and do NOThing. THEN you for sure just fade away.

Buettner ends up his lecture with something that I find extremely interesting he says that the most important thing which is the key to longevity is to have the reason for which you wake up in the morning. I’ve noticed that with this simplest thing we have got the biggest problem, we are losing the point of our life, we are losing the REASON.

What do you thing about this? is it easy for you to give the reason why did you wake up today in the morning?

Week 1

Hello:)

Go to http://uwb2ms.blogspot.com/
read one of the presentations and comment on it in our blog.
cheers
ms

List of moderators

Choose a week of your presentation.Remember you cannot do it in pairs this term.

29-4.04 Adam Młodziejowski
5-11.04 s 3616
12-18.04 Marek Drob
19-25.04 Asia Engel
26-30.04 Maciej Bielski
4-9.05 Mateusz Brzeziński
10-16.05 Michał Abramczyk, Tomasz Frender
17-23.05 Mariusz Macieja, Szymon Gruszewski
24-29.05 s4297, Tomasz Bar
30-6.05 Andrzej Duś, Michał Klewiński
7-13.06 Darek Rojewski, Krzysztof Wawer

Profiles

Create your profiles.
You can use only your names or your student ID number (e.g. s4025)
No single nicknames, please (e.g. Anjo s4025)
Moreover, write something about youself we still do not know please.