1.
William Miller (preacher)
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William Miller was an American Baptist preacher who is credited with beginning the mid-19th century North American religious movement known as the Millerites. After his prophecies of the Second Coming did not occur as expected in the 1840s, new heirs of his message emerged, including the Advent Christians, later movements found inspiration in Millers emphasis on Bible prophecy and the Bahai faith believes his predictions of 1844 events to be accurate. Miller was born on February 15,1782, in Pittsfield and his parents were Captin Miller, a veteran of the American Revolution, and Paulina, the daughter of Elnathan Pelps. When he was four years old, his family moved to rural Low Hampton, Miller was educated at home by his mother until the age of nine, when he attended the newly established East Poultney District School. Miller is not known to have any type of formal study after the age of eighteen. In 1803, Miller married Lucy Smith and moved to her hometown of Poultney. While in Poultney, Miller was elected to a number of civil offices, in 1809 he was elected to the office of Deputy Sheriff and at an unknown date was elected Justice of the Peace. Miller served in the Vermont militia and was commissioned a lieutenant on July 21,1810 and he was reasonably well off, owning a house, land, and at least two horses. Shortly after his move to Poultney, Miller rejected his Baptist heritage and they put into my hands the works of Voltaire, Hume, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, and other deistical writers. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Miller raised a company of men and traveled to Burlington. He transferred to the 30th Infantry Regiment in the army of the United States with the rank of lieutenant. Miller spent most of the war working as a recruiter and on February 1,1814 and he saw his first action at the Battle of Plattsburgh, where vastly outnumbered American forces overcame the British. The fort I was in was exposed to every shot, bombs, rockets, and shrapnel shells fell as thick as hailstones, he said. One of these many shots had exploded two feet from him, wounding three of his men and killing another, but Miller survived without a scratch. Miller came to view the outcome of battle as miraculous. He later wrote, It seemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over the interests of this country in an especial manner, so surprising a result, against such odds, did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man. After the war, and following his discharge from the army on June 18,1815, shortly after his return, however, he moved with his family back to Low Hampton, where he purchased a farm. Throughout this time period Miller was deeply concerned with the question of death and this reflection upon his own mortality followed the recent deaths of his father and sister, and his experiences as a soldier in the war
2.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
3.
Zoroastrianism
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Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, as its Supreme Being. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633-654, recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million, with most living in India and in Iran. Besides the Zoroastrian diaspora, the older Mithraic faith Yazdânism is still practised amongst Kurds, the religious philosophy of Zoroaster divided the early Iranian gods of Proto-Indo-Iranian tradition. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, in Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda, through the Spenta Mainyu is an all-good father of Asha, in opposition to Druj and no evil originates from him. He and his works are evident to humanity through the six primary Amesha Spentas, Spenta Mainyu adjoined unto truth oppose the Spirits opposite, Angra Mainyu and its forces born of Akəm Manah. In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to be among those who renew the world. to make the progress towards perfection. Its basic maxims include, Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean, Good Thoughts, Good Words, there is only one path and that is the path of Truth. Do the right thing because it is the thing to do. The full name by which Zoroaster addressed the deity is, Ahura, The Lord Creator and he proclaimed that there is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe. He also stated that human beings are given a right of choice, Zoroasters teachings focused on responsibility, and did not introduce a devil per se. The contesting force to Ahura Mazda was called Angra Mainyu, or angry spirit, post-Zoroastrian scripture introduced the concept of Ahriman, the Devil, which was effectively a personification of Angra Mainyu. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the name Zarathustra and he is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which combines Mazda- with the Avestan language word yasna, meaning worship, in English, an adherent of the faith is commonly called a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustrian. An older expression still used today is Behdin, meaning The best Religion | Beh < Middle Persian Weh + Din < Middle Persian dēn < Avestan Daēnā. In Zoroastrian liturgy the term is used as a title for an individual who has formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony. The term Mazdaism /ˈmæzdə. ɪzəm/ is a typical 19th century construct, taking Mazda- from the name Ahura Mazda, the March 2001 draft edition of the Oxford English Dictionary also records an alternate form, Mazdeism, perhaps derived from the French Mazdéisme, which first appeared in 1871. In older English sources, the terms Gheber and Gueber were used to refer to Zoroastrians, however, Zoroastrian philosophy is identified as having been known to Italian Renaissance Europe through an image of Zoroaster in Raphaels School of Athens by Giorgio Vasari in 1550. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the term Zoroastrianism in 1874 in Archibald Sayces Principles of Comparative Philology, Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord
4.
Stephen Jay Gould
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Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of science of his generation. Gould spent most of his teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1996 Gould was also appointed as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University, Goulds most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. The theory proposes that most evolution is characterized by periods of evolutionary stability. The theory was contrasted against phyletic gradualism, the idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth. Most of Goulds empirical research was based on the land snail genera Poecilozonites and he also contributed to evolutionary developmental biology, and received wide praise for his book Ontogeny and Phylogeny. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans and he campaigned against creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields whose authorities do not overlap. Gould was known by the public mainly from his 300 popular essays in the magazine Natural History. In April 2000, the US Library of Congress named him a Living Legend, Stephen Jay Gould was born and raised in the community of Bayside, a neighborhood of the northeastern section of Queens in New York City. His father Leonard was a stenographer and a World War II veteran in the United States Navy. His mother Eleanor was an artist whose parents were Jewish immigrants living and working in the citys Garment District, when Gould was five years old his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered Tyrannosaurus rex. I had no idea there were such things—I was awestruck, Gould once recalled and it was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist. Raised in a secular Jewish home, Gould did not formally practice religion, when asked directly if he was an agnostic in Skeptic magazine, he responded, If you absolutely forced me to bet on the existence of a conventional anthropomorphic deity, of course Id bet no. But, basically, Huxley was right when he said that agnosticism is the honorable position because we really cannot know. Id be real surprised if there turned out to be a conventional God, though he had been brought up by a Marxist father, he stated that his fathers politics were very different from his own. In describing his own views, he has said they tend to the left of center. According to Gould the most influential political books he read were C. Wright Mills The Power Elite, while attending Antioch College in the early 1960s, Gould was active in the civil rights movement and often campaigned for social justice
5.
New religious movement
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NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges posed by the world by embracing individualism whereas others seek tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs now number in the tens of thousands worldwide, with most of their members living in Asia, most have only a few members, some have thousands, and only very few have more than one million members. New religions have often faced a hostile reception from established religious organisations, in Western nations, a secular anti-cult movement and a Christian countercult movement emerged during the 1970s and 1980s to oppose emergent groups. In the 1970s, the field of new religions studies developed within the academic study of religion. There are now several organisations and peer-reviewed journals devoted to the subject. Scholars continue to try to reach definitions and define boundaries, there is no singular, agreed upon criteria for defining a new religious movement. However, the term usually requires that the group be both of recent origin and different from existing religions, there is debate as to what the term new should designate in this context. According to him, NRMs constituted those religious groups that have found, from the perspective of the dominant religious community, to be not just different. This definition would mean that which religions were regarded as NRMs would differ from country to country and would be open to change, as noted by scholars of religion Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein, new religions are just young religions. Melton has stated that those NRMs which were offshoots of older religious groups, tended to resemble their parent group far more than each other. One question that faces scholars of religion is when a new religious movement ceases to be new, some NRMs are strongly counter-cultural and alternative in the society they appear in, while others are far more similar to a societys established traditional religions. There are also problems in the use of religion within the new religious movements. Since at least the early 2000s, most sociologists of religion have used the new religious movement to avoid the pejorative undertones of terms like cult. These are words that have used in different ways by different groups. For instance, from the nineteenth century onward a number of sociologists used the terms cult, the term cult is used in reference to devotion or dedication to a particular person or place. For instance, within the Roman Catholic Church devotion to Mary and it is also used in non-religious contexts to refer to fandoms devoted to television shows like The Prisoner, The X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the United States, the term began to be used in a pejorative manner to refer to Spiritualism
6.
Utopia
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A utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia and you could also say that utopia is a perfect place that has been made so there are no problems. The term has been used to describe intentional communities, the term utopia was coined from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. The word comes from Greek, οὐ and τόπος and means no-place, however, in standard usage, the words meaning has narrowed and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society. Eutopia, derived from Greek εὖ and τόπος, means good place, in English, eutopia and utopia are homophonous, which may have given rise to the change in meaning. Chronologically, the first recorded utopian proposal is Platos Republic, part conversation, part fictional depiction, and part policy proposal, Republic would categorize citizens into a rigid class structure of golden, silver, bronze and iron socioeconomic classes. The golden citizens are trained in a rigorous 50-year-long educational program to be benign oligarchs, plato stressed this structure many times in both quotes by him and in his published works, such as the Republic. The wisdom of these rulers will supposedly eliminate poverty and deprivation through fairly distributed resources, the educational program for the rulers is the central notion of the proposal. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, during the 16th century, Thomas Mores book Utopia proposed an ideal society of the same name. Some maintain the position that Mores Utopia functions only on the level of a satire, but the homophonic prefix eu-, meaning good, also resonates in the word, with the implication that the perfectly good place is really no place. Ecological utopian society describes new ways in which society should relate to nature and these works perceive a widening gap between the modern Western way of living that destroys nature and a more traditional way of living before industrialization. Ecological utopias may advocate a society that is more sustainable, according to the Dutch philosopher Marius de Geus, ecological utopias could be inspirational sources for movements involving green politics. Particularly in the early 19th century, several ideas arose. These ideas are often grouped in a utopian socialist movement. A once common characteristic is a distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money. Citizens only do work which they enjoy and which is for the good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts. One classic example of such a utopia was Edward Bellamys Looking Backward, Another socialist utopia is William Morriss News from Nowhere, written partially in response to the top-down nature of Bellamys utopia, which Morris criticized. However, as the socialist movement developed, it moved away from utopianism, in a materialist utopian society, the economy is perfect, there is no inflation, and only perfect social and financial equality exists
7.
Second Coming
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The Second Coming is a Christian concept regarding the future return of Jesus to Earth after his first coming and ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The belief is based on messianic prophecies found in the gospels and is part of most Christian eschatologies. Views about the nature of Jesus Second Coming vary among Christian denominations, most English versions of the Nicene Creed include the following statements. he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Several different terms are used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ, In the New Testament, the Greek New Testament uses the Greek term parousia twenty-four times, seventeen of them concerning Christ. The word is used six times referring to individuals and one time referring to the coming of the lawless one. The etymology of the Greek word parousia is related to para beside ousia presence, in English parousia always has a special, Christian meaning. The Bauer-Danker Lexicon provides the definition. of Christ, and nearly always of his Messianic Advent in glory to judge the world at the end of this age. The Catholic Encyclopedia article on the General judgment states, In the New Testament the second Parousia, the Saviour Himself not only foretells the event but graphically portrays its circumstances. The Apostles give a most prominent place to this doctrine in their preaching, besides the name Parusia, or Advent, the second coming is also called Epiphany, epiphaneia, or Appearance and Apocalypse, or Revelation. The time of the second coming is spoken of as that Day the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, the day of the Son of Man, and the last day. Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared, from this we know that it is the last hour. The position associating the Second Coming with 1st century events such as the destruction of Jerusalem, some Preterists see this coming of the Son of Man in glory primarily fulfilled in Jesus death on the cross. They believe the signs are already fulfilled including the sun will be dark. Will be shaken, and then they will see, moreover, Jesus was reported to have told his disciples, Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Some, such as Jerome, interpret the phrase this generation to mean in the lifetime of the Jewish race, however, other scholars believe that if Jesus meant race he would have used genos not genea. Most English versions of the Nicene Creed in current use include the statements about Jesus. he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come
8.
Book of Revelation
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Its title is derived from the first word of the text, written in Koine Greek, apokalypsis, meaning unveiling or revelation. The Book of Revelation is the apocalyptic document in the New Testament canon. The author names himself in the text as John, but his identity remains a point of academic debate. Modern scholarship generally takes a different view, and many consider that nothing can be known about the author except that he was a Christian prophet, Some modern scholars characterise Revelations author as a putative figure whom they call John of Patmos. The bulk of traditional sources date the book to the reign of the emperor Domitian, the book spans three literary genres, the epistolary, the apocalyptic, and the prophetic. It begins with John, on the island of Patmos in the Aegean and he then describes a series of prophetic visions, including figures such as the Whore of Babylon and the Beast, culminating in the Second Coming of Jesus. The title is taken from the first word of the book in Koine Greek, ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis, the author names himself as John, but it is currently considered unlikely that the author of Revelation was also the author of the Gospel of John. All that is known is that this John was a Jewish Christian prophet, probably belonging to a group of such prophets and his precise identity remains unknown, and modern scholarship commonly refers to him as John of Patmos. 70 AD is the date of writing according to Martha Himmelfarb in the recently published Blackwell series. Revelation is an apocalyptic prophecy with an epistolary introduction addressed to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, Apocalypse means the revealing of divine mysteries, John is to write down what is revealed and send it to the seven churches. The entire book constitutes the letter—the letters to the seven churches are introductions to the rest of the book. While the dominant genre is apocalyptic, the author himself as a Christian prophet, Revelation uses the word in various forms twenty-one times. The predominant view is that Revelation alludes to the Old Testament although it is difficult among scholars to agree on the number of allusions or the allusions themselves. Revelation rarely quotes directly from the Old Testament, almost every verse alludes to or echoes older scriptures. Over half of the stem from Daniel, Ezekiel, Psalms. He very frequently combines multiple references, and again the style makes it impossible to be certain to what extent he did so consciously. Revelation was the last book accepted into the Christian biblical canon and it was considered tainted because the heretical sect of the Montanists relied on it and doubts were raised over its Jewishness and authorship. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, disciple of Origen wrote that the Book of Revelation could have been written by Cerinthus although he himself did not adopt the view that Cerinthus was the writer and he regarded the Apocalypse as the work of an inspired man but not of an Apostle
9.
Society
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In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant and this is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology. The term society came from the Latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the noun used to describe a bond or interaction between parties that are friendly, or at least civil. Without an article, the term can refer to the entirety of humanity, Society, in general, addresses the fact that an individual has rather limited means as an autonomous unit. Cultural relativism as an approach or ethic has largely replaced notions of primitive, better/worse. Societies may also be structured politically, in order of increasing size and complexity, there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. These structures may have varying degrees of power, depending on the cultural, geographical. Thus, an isolated society with the same level of technology. A society that is unable to offer a response to other societies it competes with will usually be subsumed into the culture of the competing society. Sociologist Peter L. Berger defines society as. a human product, and nothing but a human product, according to him, society was created by humans but this creation turns back and creates or molds humans every day. This is similar to the earlier developed by anthropologists Morton H. This system of classification contains four categories, Hunter-gatherer bands, tribal societies in which there are some limited instances of social rank and prestige. Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments, in addition to this there are, Humanity, mankind, upon which rest all the elements of society, including societys beliefs. Virtual society, a society based on identity, which is evolving in the information age. Over time, some cultures have progressed toward more complex forms of organization and this cultural evolution has a profound effect on patterns of community. Hunter-gatherer tribes settled around seasonal food stocks to become agrarian villages, villages grew to become towns and cities. Cities turned into city-states and nation-states, many societies distribute largess at the behest of some individual or some larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen in all cultures, typically
10.
Pacifism
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Pacifism is opposition to war, militarism, or violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud, a related term is ahimsa, which is a core philosophy in Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, in Christianity, Jesus Christs injunction to love your enemies and asking for forgiveness for his crucifiers for they know not what they do have been interpreted as calling for pacifism. In modern times, interest was revived by Leo Tolstoy in his late works, Mohandas Gandhi propounded the practice of steadfast nonviolent opposition which he called satyagraha, instrumental in its role in the Indian Independence Movement. Its effectiveness served as inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. James Lawson, James Bevel, Thich Nhat Hanh and many others in the Civil Rights Movement. Pacifism was widely associated with the much publicized image of Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 with the Tank Man, historians of pacifism Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat define pacifism in the sense generally accepted in English-speaking areas as an unconditional rejection of all forms of warfare. Philosopher Jenny Teichman defines the form of pacifism as anti-warism. Teichmans beliefs have been summarized by Brian Orend as, a pacifist rejects war and believes there are no moral grounds which can justify resorting to war. War, for the pacifist, is always wrong, in a sense the philosophy is based on the idea that the ends do not justify the means. Pacifism may be based on moral principles or pragmatism, principled pacifism holds that at some point along the spectrum from war to interpersonal physical violence, such violence becomes morally wrong. Pragmatic pacifism holds that the costs of war and interpersonal violence are so substantial that better ways of resolving disputes must be found, some pacifists follow principles of nonviolence, believing that nonviolent action is morally superior and/or most effective. Some however, support physical violence for emergency defence of self or others, by no means is all nonviolent resistance based on a fundamental rejection of all violence in all circumstances. Many leaders and participants in such movements, while recognizing the importance of using non-violent methods in particular circumstances, have not been absolute pacifists, sometimes, as with the civil rights movements march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, they have called for armed protection. The interconnections between civil resistance and factors of force are numerous and complex, the principle is described as difficult to abide by consistently, due to violence not being available as a tool to aid a person who is being harmed or killed. It is further claimed that such a pacifist could logically argue that violence leads to undesirable results than non-violence. Although all pacifists are opposed to war between states, there have been occasions where pacifists have supported military conflict in the case of civil war or revolution. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, French pacifist René Gérin urged support for the Spanish Republic, Gérin argued that the Spanish Nationalists were comparable to an individual enemy and the Republics war effort was equivalent to the action of a domestic police force suppressing crime. Advocacy of pacifism can be found far back in history and literature, during the Warring States period, the pacifist Mohist School opposed aggressive war between the feudal states
11.
Jonestown
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Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project formed by the Peoples Temple, an American religious organization under the leadership of Jim Jones, in northwestern Guyana. It became internationally notorious when on November 18,1978, a total of 918 people died in the commune, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations, the poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including United States Congressman Leo Ryan, an act that Jones ordered. Four other Temple members committed murder-suicide in Georgetown at Jones command, while some refer to the events in Jonestown as mass suicide, many others, including Jonestown survivors, regard them as mass murder. All who drank poison did so under duress, and more than a third of victims were minors and it was the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until September 11,2001. In recent years, the Jonestown massacre has been the subject of conspiracy theories. The Peoples Temple was formed in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the mid-1950s, though its roots and teachings shared more with biblical church and Christian revival movements than with Marxism, it purported to practice what it called apostolic socialism. In doing so, the Temple preached that those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism. In the early 1960s, Jones visited Guyana – then still a British colony – while on his way to establishing a short-lived Temple mission in Brazil, after Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views, the Temple moved to Redwood Valley, California in 1965. In the early 1970s, the Peoples Temple opened other branches in California, including Los Angeles, in the mid-1970s, the Temple moved its headquarters to San Francisco. With the move to San Francisco came increasing political involvement by the Peoples Temple, unlike many other figures who are considered cult leaders, Jones enjoyed public support and contact with some of the highest level politicians in the United States. Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally, and Assemblyman Willie Brown, among others, the plan listed various options, including fleeing to Canada or to a Caribbean missionary post, such as Barbados or Trinidad. For its Caribbean missionary post, the Temple quickly chose Guyana, conducting research on its economy, in October 1973, the directors of the Peoples Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there. The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of its own socialist politics, former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temples view of a perceived dominance of racism and multinational corporations in the U. S. government. Jones also thought that Guyana was small, poor, and independent enough for him to obtain influence. The site was isolated and had soil of low fertility, even by Guyanese standards, the nearest body of water was seven miles away by muddy roads. As 500 members began the construction of Jonestown, the Temple encouraged more to relocate to the settlement, Jones saw Jonestown as both a socialist paradise and a sanctuary from media scrutiny. In 1976, Guyana finally approved the lease it had negotiated with the Temple for the over 3,000 acres of land in Northwest Guyana on which Jonestown was located, in 1974, Guyanese government officials granted the Temple permission to import certain items duty-free
12.
Terrorism
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Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. It is classified as fourth-generation warfare and as a violent crime, in modern times, terrorism is considered a major threat to society and therefore illegal under anti-terrorism laws in most jurisdictions. It is also considered a war crime under the laws of war when used to target non-combatants, such as civilians, neutral military personnel, a broad array of political organizations have practiced terrorism to further their objectives. It has been practiced by both right-wing and left-wing political organizations, nationalist groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments, there is no universally agreed upon definition of the term, and many definitions exist. According to data from the Global Terrorism Database, more than 61,000 incidents of non-state terrorism, Terrorism comes from the French word terrorisme, and originally referred specifically to state terrorism as practiced by the French government during the 1793–1794 Reign of Terror. The French word terrorisme in turn derives from the Latin verb terrere meaning to frighten, the Jacobins, coming to power in France in 1792, are said to have initiated the Reign of Terror. After the Jacobins lost power, the word terrorist became a term of abuse, although terrorism originally referred to acts committed by a government, currently it usually refers to the killing of innocent people for political purposes in such a way as to create a spectacle. This meaning can be traced back to Sergey Nechayev, who described himself as a terrorist, Nechayev founded the Russian terrorist group Peoples Retribution in 1869. It is a form of state-terrorism, the concept was however developed long before the Second Gulf War by Harlan Ullman as chair of a forum of retired military personnel. The definition of terrorism has proven controversial, various legal systems and government agencies use different definitions of terrorism in their national legislation. Moreover, the community has been slow to formulate a universally agreed. These difficulties arise from the fact that the term terrorism is politically and emotionally charged, in this regard, Angus Martyn, briefing the Australian parliament, stated, The international community has never succeeded in developing an accepted comprehensive definition of terrorism. The international community has adopted a series of conventions that define. U. S. Bruce Hoffman, a scholar, has noted, experts and other long-established scholars in the field are equally incapable of reaching a consensus. Four years and a second later, Schmid was no closer to the goal of his quest. Walter Laqueur despaired of defining terrorism in both editions of his work on the subject, maintaining that it is neither possible to do so nor worthwhile to make the attempt. Hoffman believes it is possible to some key characteristics of terrorism. A definition proposed by Carsten Bockstette at the George C, such acts are meant to send a message from an illicit clandestine organization
