Reasons Why You Should Learn About Islam and Other Religions

There are many reasons why you should learn about Islam and other religions. I will talk about these reasons in this essay as well as why you should learn about other religions even if you do not follow in their beliefs.

One of the reasons that you should learn about other religions is that it is very educational. Even though you do not follow their religion at least you know where they are coming from. Plus, most of the wars that have happened are about religion and which one is going to overpower the other religion, so all of the religions connect to history in some way.  Personally I think everyone should get along no matter what religion you follow because I don’t think it is something worth fighting about. Therefore, that is one of the reasons that you should learn about other religions.

The second reason why you should learn about Islam religion is that they are one of the largest religions in the world. Wouldn’t you want to learn about why that is? I would! I think it is interesting to learn about another person’s way of life.  I grew up living my life a different way that other people may have with their religion and I think it is a useful thing to have an education about.  Yes, you might not agree with how Islam or other religions do things but so what? You are respecting their means by learning about them anyway.

Now me personally, I have friends that abide by a different religion and to me I learn from them on what their customs are and about their holidays. I think learning about that stuff is excellent!

Again, the expansion of Islam is connected to the countries of Europe that you learn about too so you would have to understand why right? Of course!

So that is some of the reasons why you should learn about Islam and other religions. I think it is interesting to learn about another person’s way of life and I hope you do too!

Clovis and France

Clovis was the first king of France to unite all of the tribes under one ruler. At the time France was known by another name though and that name was Gaul. Well those two names have basically no similarity at all so you must be wondering why that name has evolved to what it is now. In detail I will explain to you how that happened in this essay as well as what Clovis has accomplished while being King of France.

 Clovis had fought the Romans who owned Gaul at the time in 486 AD to conquer all of Gaul. That battle is known as the Battle of Soissons. Clovis and the Franks successfully defeated the Romans and had taken over Gaul. As for the Romans, they lost most of their power over now Clovis’s land.

The Franks are just one of the notable tribes of Gaul but there were many others. If you were wondering where Gaul evolved to the name France, well here is your answer. They got the name France from the much known tribe of the Franks. Now it makes sense right? I always love to know where places have gotten their names from because it is very fascinating to me.

Clovis then married the niece of the King of Burgundy. When he married he strengthened the kingdom even more. His wife had tried to get him to convert to Christianity because he was Pagan. But later on he did end up converting to Christianity and got baptized into the Catholic Church. The reason why I said that he became a member of the Catholic Church was because it was very significant that he did not become a member of the Arian Church because that church was most dominant at that time. His wife was also a member of the Catholic Church as well. When he converted to Christianity it also gave him the chance to bring Christianity to the rest of the kingdom.

Clovis died in 511. After Clovis died Burgundy eventually became part of France in 538. But as you can see he made lots of accomplishments while he was king of France including being the first king to bring all the France tribes together under one ruler.

 Personally I think that Clovis was one of the best Kings of France because of how much great things he has done for the country.

What Shelter Materials You Should Acquire

I have gotten a little bit of experience with building a shelter from going to Girl Scout camp so I understand the whole concept on what basic materials that you need. To me personally, I think the first thing that you have to consider is what flooring you should have in your shelter because you don’t want to be laying on a really cold or hot surface that can take away your natural body heat. You can use dead dry leaves, seat cushions, basically anything that is not wet, cold, or hot, and can elevate you from the ground.

 Building a shelter also depends on the inclement weather and temperatures in the area you are surviving in. If you are in a cold climate area and you have other people with you then you can use each other’s body heat to keep everyone warm. That could be a very useful way to keep warm in urgent situations if it means life or death.  If you are in moist hot climates you can create a lean-to so that if it rains you can be protected, and this shelter can also keep you cool. The desert for example, everyone looks at a desert as a very hot place. That fact is true during the day, but at night it can drop to 40 or below in freezing temperatures. Knowing that, you should put energy into working on anything for survival at night or in the morning when it is cool and then rest during the day when it is extremely warm. In cold climates a trash bag can be a good source of warmth as well. You can’t obviously put yourself in a trash bag without any way of getting oxygen, so you would need to cut a hole on the bottom of the trash bag just big enough to be able to receive oxygen to breathe.

 The only thing you have to be extremely aware of is little visitors (insects) that can come with the natural supplies that you use like leafs, sticks, etc. because you do not want to have a medical incident where you have been bitten by an insect and now you have to aid to an additional problem. To prevent that from happening, my tip is to search your supplies for any insects on them by brushing anything off your supplies or banging your material (not to hard for it to break!) so some bugs can fall off. My family has a wood stove and what I have simply learned is that when you bring wood logs from the outside is to drop the log from a reasonable height or bang the log on the ground so spiders and bugs would fall off.

 Before you take out what man made supplies you have in your day pack to build a shelter try to look around the area to use natural resources before you go to the supplies that you have right away. My group in Girl Scout camp used very simple materials to build our shelter. We used two trees as posts, twine, sticks, and trash bags. As you can tell we used a little bit of natural resources and a little bit of manmade resources. So those are my tips and materials that I think you should use for a shelter.

My Mentor

Assignment: The early church fathers shaped the early church by their teachings and the example of their lives. Who is someone you know who has shaped you by their teaching or example? Explain why this person has had such an important impact on your life.

The person who has shaped me by their teaching and examples is my Mom. I look up to her so much and she is the greatest mentor around! I learn a lot from her that can prepare me for my own future. There are so many reasons why my Mom has impacted my life.

One reason is that my Mom is independent, since I look up to her she starts to form me to be an independent women. She stands up to what she believes in and when I’m older I hope to be like her in that way too.

My Mom is so caring that even when she, herself isn’t feeling well she will still put a smile on her face so she doesn’t let anyone feel down as well. I think that is great in a way because she cares about how other people feel. That is why I try to give back to her for all the things she has done for me. But, to be honest, nothing can repay her for what she has done for me in my life. That’s why when I grow up I want to have kids that I can take care of to cherish and love just like she has done for me.

Another thing she is caring about is going out of her way for other people. One time we went out to eat at a local diner and there was this man that was eating right across from us. He looked like he wasn’t having the greatest day so my Mom paid for his meal as we were leaving the restaurant. But she didn’t want him to be told who paid for it, just hoping that one day he pays it back to somebody else. I hope to do that one day because I would love to do a random act of kindness to somebody because it makes me feel good that I helped somebody else out. You always want to treat people the way you want to be treated. Yes, there are some bad people in the world but we all can overcome that by bringing peace to each other. These are the types of life lessons that I learn from my Mom. 

Then there is homeschooling. Yep! She got me into homeschooling to help me excel in my academics because she wants me to be a smart, independent young lady just like she is, and I thank her for that. Yes, we do have some arguments here and there but we walk away from each other to regroup and then come back and apologize or recognize what we did wrong or compromise if there is a problem that we need to fix together. To be honest, I can never be mad at my Mom for a long period of time because she is so sweet and funny (in a good way) to hang out with, and I love her for that!

Another reason that my Mom is somebody that I look up to is that she calms me down. A few years ago my Grandfather passed away and I would cry over and over again for a long period of time because I was very close to him. My Mom would lay down with me and snuggle with me and tell me that he is still with us in our hearts. I still think about him all the time but again, I always have my Mom to go to for comfort.

These are the reasons why my Mom is the person in my life that is my mentor and has impacted me throughout every day. I could probably write a whole book about just her because that is how much she has done for me, but this was just a little piece in the puzzle about my amazing mentor!

Similarities & Differences of the Hopewells and Mayans

There are a lot of differences with the Hopewell civilization and the Maya civilization. They both are from different parts of the world. Keep reading to find out about both civilizations and what makes them both completely different but somewhat the same in some subjects.

The Maya civilization is located in Mexico. The Mayans are known for many mathematical and astronomical inventions. One of the inventions is the Mayan calendar which is very popularly known about today. It looks like this:

This Mayan calendar was the calendar that predicted the end of the world in 2012, which obviously that is not what it meant. All the Mayans did was end the calendar up to 2012, it wasn’t the END of the world, and they just did not continue the calendar because time goes on forever! That is not all the Mayans are known for. They were known for the great pyramids that they created that towered over the people of their civilization. This is what one of them looks like:

 This specific pyramid is called the Chichen Itza and it is very popular to this day.

Aside from the Mayan’s inventions their diet was a wide range of different foods. This is what they ate:

Maize

Beans

Squash

Chilies

Fish

Deer

Ducks

Turkey

Tomatoes

Sweet Potatoes

Papaya

And….

CHOCOLATE!!!! 

Yes, the Mayans invented chocolate made from the Cacao tree. So if it weren’t for them, we would not have chocolate today and that is a world I would NOT want to live in! So to stay on topic about the Mayan’s lifestyle the clothing was very simple, the Men wore Loincloth and the Women wore sack dresses and long skirts. Their homes were made out of either Limestone or Adobe. The Mayan’s religion was all about worshipping all of the nature Gods. And those Gods are:

God of Rain

Lady Rainbow

God of Maize

God of Sun

The Mayans also believed in the afterlife.

The writing style of the Mayans was very popular throughout other ancient civilizations, Hieroglyphs. Mayan Hieroglyphs look like this: 

Now for the Hopewell civilization. The Hopewells are known for their amazing architecture and their burial mounds. One of their mounds look like this:

Doesn’t it look like a snake?

The Hopewell’s diet wasn’t as exciting as the Mayans (only because there is no chocolate involved ) But this is what they ate:

Sunflower

Squash (ooohhh! Look! The Mayans ate squash too!)

Goosefoot

Maygrass

Deer (And the Hopewell’s hunt for deer just like the Mayans!)

What the Hopewell people wore was made out of textiles. They also only worshipped one God and that would be the Mood Goddess (that is a difference with the Mayan civilization!).

So, as you can see there is a slight similarity with some topics with both civilizations and differences. But personally, I like the Maya civilization because they invent CHOCOLATE!!! YUM! THANK YOU MAYANS!

The Mycenaean Civilization

The Mycenaean civilization is very different from the Minoan civilization that you know. You see, the Minoan civilization is very peaceful, while the Mycenaean civilization is warlike. They thought of themselves as great warriors. Even though they thought of themselves as great warriors they had to think of a plan to protect themselves in their villages from any harm. So to solve that problem they built great fortresses on mountain tops to protect them from any means of danger.

As for entertaining themselves the Mycenaean’s did all different things. But the one thing they had to do was pottery work. They would of course have to do that because they need a method to carry items around, or to simply eat their food in a container. You probably know that different civilizations follow a certain religion. But not much is known regarding the religion means of the Mycenaean civilization, although they did worship many gods.

Oil and Wine were used frequently for the Mycenaean diet. They rarely ate meat; however they did eat meat around holidays and celebrations. For that reason the Mycenaean’s are considered vegetarian.

Some studies say that the reason for the disappearance of the Minoan civilization is because of the Mycenaean’s.  Although for the fall of the Mycenaean civilization there is no clear reason as to why that happened. The reasons for the fall are scattered. It might have happened from natural disasters, a sickness, or another civilization took over, etc. The Mycenaean’s might have fell possibly from the Dorian’s taking over the civilization.