Beyond the Need for a House Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Beyond the Need for a House - Essay Example From these numerous studies, "I'm Tired of Being a Slave to the Church Floor" by John Stackhouse, "The Homeless: Are We Part of the Problem" by Jack Layton, "Life on the Streets" by Thomas O'Reilly Fleming, and "No Room of Her Own" by CMHC, Sylvia Novac, J. Brown are used to support the arguments of this paper. One common theme of these articles is the identification of what causes homeless as well as how it can be solved. Meanwhile, in the pursuit of resolving homelessness, various sectors of the society are determining the root cause of homelessness often attributing it to structural problems like uneven wealth and power distribution, poverty, lack of employment opportunities, and housing shortages. This is often due to the widespread belief that problems in shelter are more economic and structural in nature. However, homelessness should not be looked at just the lack of a permanent physical structure to settle into but the individual's lack of belongingness and comfort. The real root of homelessness goes beyond the broad economic and societal issues present in the community to more specific and deeper needs for emotional shelter. The National Coalition for the Homeless cites seven major causes of homelessness four of which are structural problems. ... Unemployment on the other hand limits the ability of an individual to generate income in order to afford a decent house. People who are unemployed generally lack money to rent a place to stay that's why they prefer streets and shelters. Homelessness is also blamed to the inadequate or lack of social intervention from the government. Declining welfare is also synonymous with only few people benefiting from it. These aforementioned structural issues and the respective explanation on how they contribute to the problem of homelessness fail to tell the true story. It is partly true that homelessness can be explained by the imperfections in the economic structure. However, if that is the case, we should expect countries which are more economically developed like the United States to have less or no occurrence of homelessness. Furthermore, the articles under consideration reveal that the cause of homelessness goes beyond these structural issues. Stackhouse, Layton, O' Reilly Fleming, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) provided support to the argument that homelessness is also caused by individual factors unique to each homeless. Stackhouse's account which relates the situation of BJ disproves the assumption that all homeless cannot afford a home. It should be noted that BJ, a panhandler living in the streets of Toronto, has a two-story home in Newfoundland (230). Also, being unemployed is not always a reason why people seek shelters. Stackhouse recounts the story of an "overnight guest" who earns $600 to $700 each week by hauling scrap metals to dumps. The support from the government may well be useless as some homeless like Jake do not collect their welfare. Thus, using structural

Cosmological Argument. The forms of cosmological arguments Essay

Cosmological Argument. The forms of cosmological arguments - Essay Example Cosmological arguments usually strive to explain the existence of God in many forms. Many philosophers in the past, from Aristotle and Kalam to Aquinas, tried to argue the existence of God in different ways (Taliaferro 21). The several forms of cosmological arguments usually explain the existence of God in the following ways: that there is the existence of things, that it is possible for the same things not to exist and that those that are non-existing, yet they exist, must have been caused to exist. On this note, it is an illogical fact that things cannot bring themselves into existence since they must exist to bring themselves into existence. The argument shows that an infinite number of causes that can bring something into existence cannot exist. This is because there is no initial cause of an infinite regression of causes, meaning that the cause of existence is not there. Cosmological arguments try to prove that the universe has a cause since it exists. This shows that all things have an uncaused cause, and the uncaused cause must be God (Craig and Moreland 52). The most successful cosmological argument is Thomas Aquinas’ argument of contingence. Aquinas (1225–1274) was a theologian born in Medieval Europe. ... One has to use all the five arguments since all of them form the basis of his argument (Craig and Moreland 56). The Argument from Motion Using the works of Aristotle, Aquinas through observation, concluded that any moving object is able to move because another supreme object or supreme force makes it move. He observed that there must have been a mover that was making the objects move. This mover must have been unmoved and it must have been God. Aquinas believed that of all the things that were moving, none could move itself. This means that nothing can move itself. He also noted that in order that all objects to be in motion, the first object to be in motion needed a mover. He also said that the mover was unmoved and was God and that movement cannot last forever. Aquinas believed that all things must be at rest and motion is unnatural. According to him, motion is any change that occurs, for example, growth, rotation, etc. He concluded that a supernatural power must have put the state of motion (Craig and Moreland 61). The Argument of Causation of Existence In the argument of causation of existence, Aquinas said that it was logical that nothing can create itself. There must have been a previous object, which created it. This first object must have been uncaused cause and it must have been God. He concluded that causation of all things that exist, are other things and that nothing can be the cause of itself. The things that cause other things to exist cannot be an endless string of objects; therefore, the first uncaused cause is God (Craig and Moreland 63). The Argument of Contingence The argument of contingence is the modal argument. Aquinas argued that an uncaused