Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Conservapedia:American Government Fall 2012

2010-06-10T14:39:40Z

AJ4JQ:

Enroll by inserting your user name into this file: click "Edit this page" below, then position your cursor in the Enrollment section below, and then click 10th tab from the left above.

"American Government Fall 2010" is a 14-week course that teaches the basics of government, both federal and state. It covers the political process and operation of the U.S. government, and may be the most important course you will ever take. It includes review of the U.S. Constitution, including concepts like the separation of powers among the branches of government.

Students seeking to earn college credit can take the CLEP or AP exams upon successful completion of this course.

This course begins in September and already several dozen students have enrolled in person. Please add your user id. (as explained above) if you would like to participate in this course in any way, either as a student or as a teacher on this site.

The instructor is Andy Schlafly, who has taught over 15 courses, including one as an adjunct professor at a major law school.

== Enrollment ==

--[[User:Aschlafly|Andy Schlafly]] 10:39, 6 June 2010 (EDT) (instructor)

--[[User:MartinLXA|Martin Amrowski]] 13:11, 6 June 2010 (EDT) (student)

--[[User:Davidkon|Davidkon]] 15:04, 6 June 2010 (EDT) (student)

--[[User:Beardude1963|Beardude1963]] 15:00, 7 June 2010 (EDT) (student)

--[[User:PNarcisse87|Paul Narcisse]] 13:02, 8 June 2010 (EDT) (student)

--[[User:FloM|Florencia Miguez]] (Student)

--[[User:AJ4JQ|AJ4JQ]] 10:39, 10 June 2010 (EDT) (Student)

(add more names above)

== Special concepts ==

This course will include many concepts not included in most run-of-the-mill government courses, such as:

*the difference between politics and history, and the similarity between politics and team sports

*political cycles

*political factions, such as Big Labor, anti-war, pro-life, Second Amendment, etc.

*Tea Party: the decentralized political party

*the effect of low voter turnout

*free speech and campaign finance

*pending court cases concerning the structure of government

*[[media bullying]] (e.g., post=election interviews for [[Rand Paul]])

*famous expressions: "all politics is local," "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!" "coattails", "political capital," (add more)

*election process: various signature requirements to qualify for the ballot, use of convention rather than public elections in some areas, primary election, general election, concept of endorsements, term and qualifications for various offices

*correlations with voting patterns by "voting blocs"; "single issue" voters

*initiatives and referenda: how different states handle this differently, track record of various issues, effect on others on the ballot

(add to list)

Debate:Does History Matter?

2010-03-26T15:29:21Z

AJ4JQ:

[[Henry Ford]] said, "I don't know much about history, and I wouldn't give a nickel for all the history in the world. History is more or less bunk. It is tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's [darn] is the history we make today." [[George Santayana]] said "Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Who was closer to being right?

==Henry Ford: "history is bunk"==
If ''"...the only history that is worth a tinker's [darn] is the history we make today"'', than who's to say the history we make today will be cared about by our children? ;-). If we don't care about history now, than none of our descendants will care about us. Of course even if we do care about history, there's still a huge chance they still won't care about their past. --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 18:22, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

I say let the govrnment take the history books and make their own history, then preach it to us [[User:Albobsman|Albobsman]] 13:03, 10 August 2007 (EDT)

I feel it is relevant to note that Henry Ford was a Nazi.

Actually, Henry Ford was a Nazi sympathizer but not an actual Nazi. Also, the quote is "history is more or less bunk." Just FYI. [[User:Pecant|Pecant]] 20:45, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

==George Santayana: "condemned to repeat"==
The perfect example of this is the nation of Israel. Fortunately though, we've got a good God. Even when Israel was disobeying God and repenting again... over and over again, God was still faithful to His promises. And if we repent and put our trust in Him alone, we can avoid repeating those bad things in history. --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 18:35, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

==Napoleon Bonaparte: "a lie agreed upon"==
While this is the classic Wikipedia model, I hope Conservapedia can avoid being condemned to repeat this bunk. [[User:RobS|RobS]] 16:36, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

::"Vulgas vult decepi" -Phaedrus 15BC-50AD. Translated as "The people wish to be deceived."--[[User:Roopilots6|Roopilots6]] 10:40, 3 June 2007 (EDT)

==Other Perspectives==
If history doesn't matter, why don't we just make it so this wiki no longer stores the history of the pages that are created and edited ;-). --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 18:30, 12 April 2007 (EDT)

Who is this guy above?...what a joker :) my point is this:
History is a thing of the past hahahahahaha...seriously though, history is important and I think that if history is discarded then we not only remove the career option of archeologists etc, but also, people who have done great and brave things will be discarded also and things like the Holocaust should certainly not be forgotten as we must recognise this as a very terrible time.
What about things like the 'Tower of Freedom' and its purpose of marking the dreadful day of the terror attack on the Twin Towers...are we really going to discard that...are we going to discard the Somme, D-Day, Napoleon, Stalin, The Beatles, yes The Beatles were a rock group but they have had a massive impact on the world...think about it, Liverpool firmly on the map, Strawberry Fields...Penny Lane...yes, an impact they have made.
Also, to prevent disasters from happening such as the Mnt St Helens eruption, many lives could have been saved if only someone had looked at historical records of this volcanoe's previous eruptions and how they have occured and what happpened during the eruption.
History is important in court cases and such if something has just been uncovered even though it may have happened decades ago.
Are we able to discard history should be the question and the only answer to that is simple...NO!!!
[User: bealecr] 16:09, 30 August 2007 (EDT)

==Nobody cares about history==
Hell, look at Afghanistan. You can go back to the 1700s or 1980s to see that nobody can win there. Or, re Iraq, you can go back to the 1970s and Vietnam and see that you can't "liberate" a country that (with substantial justification in both cases) sees you simply as a self-interested neo-colonial oppressor.

Or you can just go to the local library, fire up the microfiche machine and look at the past 50 years of gun crime in the US. At least Australian Prime Minister John Howard outlawed assault rifles after Martin Bryant massacred all those people in Port Arthur in 1996.

What's the next blast from the past we can look forward to from the US? Witch burnings, perhaps, or simply some good, old-fashioned lynchings (though they'd be Mexican illegal immigrants this time, no doubt). Perhaps California, Oregon and New York should secede. --[[User:AppalledBystander|AppalledBystander]] 06:29, 18 April 2007 (EDT)

:What does it mean to "win" in Afghanistan? [[User:RobS|RobS]] 11:48, 18 April 2007 (EDT)

::I think he means essentially "conquer". Obviously, if no outside country can "win", the Afghanis must be "winning" the wars of invasion/colonization/conquest etc. [[User:Human|Human]] 13:27, 18 April 2007 (EDT)

:::If that's the meaning, then the basic premise is flawed. The US and NATO are not trying ot "conquer" Afghanistan. [[User:RobS|RobS]] 15:15, 18 April 2007 (EDT)

: Afghan history shows that any try from outside to conquer the country by military finally failed completely. Some success can definitely be reported regarding humanitarian support and building up basic infra structure, which surely needs protection through police forces and sometimes even military forces. Surely no perfect story and still much left to be done. The economy, i.e. farming is still mainly based on opium poppy. But even when slow, some progress has definitely been achieved. The number of children going to school sky rocketed, the number of girls in particular. So, history can teach you a lesson, but it cannot replace your own thinking. --[[User:Schifra|schifra]] 07:40, 24 May 2007 (EDT)

== Everything matters ==
How will you know where your going unless you know where you've been. Archaeological history, the history of the sun, moon, earth, ...etc. How else could people plan for the future unless they knew the history of the past. Which is why any historian worth their salt will get their information from multiple sources, archaeological artifacts and/or sites, and anthropological studies. History most definitely doesn't mean anything to those who try to rewrite it for selfish reasons. Such as political or assorted ideological purposes and used as propaganda to further their own agendas. Of which you will no doubt denote many examples of on this debate subject.--[[User:Roopilots6|Roopilots6]] 20:10, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

== Yes ==
We can learn from it.

Only from America could this question arise.
- of course context matters
- and of course we can learn from those who have gone before us

Mate...I totally agree!! In America, history is important too. Example: If someone had bothered to look at the history of Mnt. St. Helens' eruption, they would've realised that it will blow sideways. If they had but checked this, then many more lives would've been saved.
I can't believe that apparently nobody cares about their history, about the sacrifices people made so that we could be alive today. Just less than 100 years ago and again in 1939, thousands of brave men risked it all, laid down their lives so that we may speak English that we would retain our cultures, our pride, even so that we may live today and I'm sure they didn't do all this so that some idiot could say that they didn't care about history. Whoever that was is an ignorant pig and no I don't think that this view about the person is without evidence. I truly can not believe that someone thinks it appropriate to not recognise the importance of history, as history has shaped us, shaped whole cultures, whole countries, shaped the entire world.

==History *does* matter.==
There are things in history that should NEVER EVER be forgotten. If "history does not matter", this technically would encompass things such as the second world war, or the reasons that lead to it; also forgotten would be the sacrifices millions of people made during that war, and all the inhumane atrocities carried out by people of those times: Nazi Germany´s horrifying human experiments, the Japanese-carried out atrocities in China, Soviet Russia and all the "good" their communist ideals did to the world, or the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Actually, "history" would technically encompass even the events of the Bible.

Still some of you dare say "History does not matter?" [[User:FreakyM|FreakyM]] 07:22, 24 May 2007 (EDT)

Coming in contact with other cultures one will notice a lot of differences. Which way is right is often a moot discussion, in particular when neglecting the historical background of these differences.History matters because we can learn from the mistakes that the world has made and use it to our benefit.

==Yes!==
As Winston Churchill said, "If we do not study history we are doomed to repeat it". Also from a Christian's perspective, we can learn about God's grace, sovereignty, etc. from history, and it helps us understand other cultures and religions. [[User:Mschel|Mschel]] 11:25, 30 August 2007 (EDT)

NEVER FORGET. Seriously though, history is crucial to morality and civilisation - but only so long as it is accurate. So many conflicts in the world today could be resolved if only people had access to unfiltered accounts of their people's histories, as both victims and aggressors. When it becomes warped and distorted to suit an ideology, revisionist history can be every bit as poisonous as organised religion. [[User:Underscoreb|Underscoreb]] 22:01, 11 November 2007 (EST)

Yes history matters. Knowledge of one's own nation is very important. It is very important to realize though that history took place in a different place, and often times the tale from history that is widely disseminated is only a superficial recounting that leaves out many things that the historian does not agree with. For instance many people know that during [[Washington's farewell adress|Washington's farewell address]] he warned the nation to stay away from entangling foreign relations. In fact political parties have been created around this principal. But what is less well known is that he also warned about the dangers of political parties. So history is important, but so is actually researching the information yourself and not taking another person's word for it. [[User:Rellik|Rellik]] 20:02, 13 March 2008

"Thus says the Lord: 'Stand by the roads, and look. and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.'" - Jeremiah 6:16 We should study history because if we don't know why we have the freedoms we have, we will not realize what is at stake when those freedoms are threatened. [[User:AJ4JQ|AJ4JQ]] 11:29, 26 March 2010 (EDT)

Short answer, yes - ''see future''(EDT)

==Geography==
If history matters its only because geography made it so. History and Geography/Geology invariably linked. Look at any historical event or any current event.
:The city of Venice, founded in a swampy marsh because Milanese (descendent's of Romans) were being attacked by barbarians. Found the marsh easily defensible.
:Discover of America, Columbus searching for a quick way to Asia
:Liberation of Kuwait 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait seizing (then)25% of the worlds oil reserves.
:California, population quickly surged because of the Gold Rush, spawning statehood, more general westward expansion and a Trans-Atlantic railroad.
:The state of Utah, Mormons chased out of Missouri, settled at an 'oasis in the desert', would have likely been chased out of California.

People who don't know history don't know geography either, both are '''important''' even though their effects are so large they are not entirely self evident with regard to the daily lives of individuals.--[[User:Mitrebox|Mitrebox]] 19:11, 26 January 2008 (EST)

==Abysmal==
There are almost no historical articles on conservpedia. Sections regarding historical events or topics barely have a single paragraph. Users should focus on that more. The problem I see here is various religious fanatics focusing on defacing science and blaming everything on commies and liberals.
[[User:Intranetusa|Intranetusa]] 14:10, 16 March 2008 (EDT)

== We Are History ==
History is everything, and everything will become history. Without history, you know nothing. Those who control the past control the present. Those who control the present, control the future. It is for prcisely these resons that US power is waning, for there is no in depth understanding of world history, not in terms of facts, but in terms of applying the lessons of history to the present situation. --[[User:Krysg|Krysg]] 19:15, 28 November 2008 (EST)
[[Category:Conservapedia Debates]]

Samuel Morse

2009-12-11T01:43:54Z

AJ4JQ: Added last paragraph on his contributions to communication

[[Image:Morse.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Samuel Morse]]

'''Samuel Finley Breese Morse''' was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died on April 2, 1872. He was the son of Jedidiah Morse, a geographer and Calvinist minister, and Elizabeth Breese.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morsehistoricsite.org/history/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Samuel Morse went to Yale College to study religious philosophy, mathematics, and the science of horses. He made money at college by painting miniatures on ivory, and wanted to pursue a career in art, but his father did not want him to. He graduated from Yale in 1810, and became a clerk in a bookstore, but continued to paint. His abilities attracted the attention of several respected artists, and he went with them to England in 1811 to study painting. When he returned home in 1815, he worked as an itinerant painter, painting historical subjects and portraits. He opened a studio Boston, and in 1826, Morse helped to found the National Academy of Design, an organization that helped secure jobs for artists, taught the art of design, and displayed artists’ work in its gallery.

In 1825, Morse was in Washington D. C. to paint a portrait commissioned by the Marquis de Lafayette, when a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father telling him that his wife was dead. Morse immediately left Washington for his home, but by the time he got there, she had already been buried. The knowledge that he was unaware for days of her sickness and death made him pursue a means of communicating information rapidly over long distances. The following year, his father died. His mother died in 1828, and Morse went on a trip to Europe in 1829 to recover from the shock. He returned in 1832, and on the voyage home, he had discussed electromagnetism with an eccentric inventor and doctor named Charles Jackson. Jackson told Morse that electricity could be carried over a very long wire, which made Morse think that there must be some way to carry messages over long distances using electric impulses instead of the slow methods used in those days. He made some sketches of an apparatus that could be used to accomplish this.

==Work on the Telegraph==
Morse returned to painting and became a professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York twice. He had been working on his telegraph and had even taken out a patent. Morse had a working model of the telegraph by January 1836, and improved it with the help of a colleague, Leonard Gale. In 1837, Morse formed a partnership with Alfred Vail, who contributed money and mechanical skill. They applied for a patent, and Morse went to Europe to get patents there as well.

Morse’s first telegraph printed the message by printing a seismograph-like line on a thin strip of paper..<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse as MIT's Inventor of the Week |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> The dips in the line had to be decoded using a dictionary written by Morse, but decoding was hard if the line was not clear. By the following year, he had made a telegraph that used an improved dot-and-dash system of [[Morse Code]] that impressed dots and dashes on paper. Different combinations of dots and dashes represented letters and numbers. The paper was decoded later by an operator. This system was better because it was easier to decode, and eventually trained operators could decode it in their heads. In 1838, Morse exhibited his telegraph to the public in New York.

In 1842, Morse got a grant from [[Congress]] for $30,000 to build and experimental [[telegraph]] between Baltimore and Washington, D. C., a distance of 40 miles. The real first message was sent on this telegraph system when the news of the [[Whig Party]]'s nomination of [[Henry Clay]] for U.S. President was telegraphed from the party's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington. This was the first news ever dispatched by electric telegraph. Morse’s first public message, sent on May 24, 1844, was from [[Numbers]] 23:23, “What hath God wrought!” The verse had been picked out by the daughter of one of his friends who had publicized Morse’s invention and secured funding for it.

Morse had difficulty being recognized as ''the'' inventor of the telegraph, as similar devices had been invented by people such as William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. Cooke and Wheatstone’s device used multiple wires, however, and would be surpassed by Morse’s more superior method. Morse had been the first to combine the battery, electromagnetism, the electromagnet, and the correct battery configuration into a working telegraph. The United States government used Morse’s invention without being officially recognized for it, so Morse was awarded the sum of $80,000 dollars in 1858, in recognition of his invention, by the governments of France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Tuscany, and Turkey, all of whom used his telegraph. Morse was recognized in 1871 in the United States when a bronze statue of him was unveiled in [[Central Park]] in [[New York City]].

Morse was heavily decorated by many countries. His decorations include: the decoration of the Atiq Nishan-i-Iftikhar (English: Order of Glory) [first medal on wearer's right depicted in photo of Morse with medals], set in diamonds, from the Sultan Ahmad I ibn Mustafa of Turkey (c.1847[13]), a golden snuff box containing the Prussian gold medal for scientific merit from the King of Prussia (1851); the Great Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from the King of Württemberg (1852); and the Great Golden Medal of Science and Arts from Emperor of Austria (1855); a cross of Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur from the Emperor of France; the Cross of a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog from the King of Denmark (1856); the Cross of Knight Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, from the Queen of Spain, besides being elected member of innumerable scientific and art societies in this [United States] and other countries. Other awards include Order of the Tower and Sword from the kingdom of Portugal (1860); and Italy conferred on him the insignia of chevalier of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in 1864.

==Work on Photography==
Morse was the first American to write an eyewittness account of Daguerre’s new photographic technology.).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/samuel-f-b-morse |title=Samuel F. B. Morse on Answers.com|accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Daguerre was a Frenchman, and the inventor of the Daguerreotype, a type of photograph. Morse had been interested in photography, and had tried without success to take photographs of his own. Daguerre told Morse the secret of his new process, and Morse brought the technology back to the United States with him when he returned.

==Morse's Beliefs==
Morse was a devout [[Christian]] who was very generous and gave large sums of money to [[charity]]. He was not bitter when other people and companies made lots of money using his inventions, but did not pay him for the use of his patented telegraph. Morse was also interested in the relationship of [[science and religion]], and provided funds to start lectures on “the relation of the Bible to the Sciences.” Before his death, Samuel Morse wrote, “The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God's remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy.”<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-12-10&view=View |title=American Minute for April 2|accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref>

Morse defended the institution of [[slavery]], and was a leader in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement. He thought that the Austrian government and Catholic aid organizations were subsidizing Catholic immigration to the United States in order to gain control of the country.

==Contributions to Communication==
Morse made it possible to send messages across the world in a matter of seconds instead of the weeks it had taken before. He revolutionized communications and made the Pony Express obsolete. His invention was the first communications system to use electricity, a resource which is still used by all of our communications systems today.

== See also ==

*[[Polymath]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

==Resources==
[http://www.telegraph-history.org/samuel-morse/signature.html The story of the last message Morse sent before his death]
[[Category:Inventors|Morse, Samuel]]

Samuel Morse

2009-12-11T01:32:35Z

AJ4JQ: Added internal links

[[Image:Morse.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Samuel Morse]]

'''Samuel Finley Breese Morse''' was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died on April 2, 1872. He was the son of Jedidiah Morse, a geographer and Calvinist minister, and Elizabeth Breese.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morsehistoricsite.org/history/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Samuel Morse went to Yale College to study religious philosophy, mathematics, and the science of horses. He made money at college by painting miniatures on ivory, and wanted to pursue a career in art, but his father did not want him to. He graduated from Yale in 1810, and became a clerk in a bookstore, but continued to paint. His abilities attracted the attention of several respected artists, and he went with them to England in 1811 to study painting. When he returned home in 1815, he worked as an itinerant painter, painting historical subjects and portraits. He opened a studio Boston, and in 1826, Morse helped to found the National Academy of Design, an organization that helped secure jobs for artists, taught the art of design, and displayed artists’ work in its gallery.

In 1825, Morse was in Washington D. C. to paint a portrait commissioned by the Marquis de Lafayette, when a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father telling him that his wife was dead. Morse immediately left Washington for his home, but by the time he got there, she had already been buried. The knowledge that he was unaware for days of her sickness and death made him pursue a means of communicating information rapidly over long distances. The following year, his father died. His mother died in 1828, and Morse went on a trip to Europe in 1829 to recover from the shock. He returned in 1832, and on the voyage home, he had discussed electromagnetism with an eccentric inventor and doctor named Charles Jackson. Jackson told Morse that electricity could be carried over a very long wire, which made Morse think that there must be some way to carry messages over long distances using electric impulses instead of the slow methods used in those days. He made some sketches of an apparatus that could be used to accomplish this.

==Work on the Telegraph==
Morse returned to painting and became a professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York twice. He had been working on his telegraph and had even taken out a patent. Morse had a working model of the telegraph by January 1836, and improved it with the help of a colleague, Leonard Gale. In 1837, Morse formed a partnership with Alfred Vail, who contributed money and mechanical skill. They applied for a patent, and Morse went to Europe to get patents there as well.

Morse’s first telegraph printed the message by printing a seismograph-like line on a thin strip of paper..<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse as MIT's Inventor of the Week |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> The dips in the line had to be decoded using a dictionary written by Morse, but decoding was hard if the line was not clear. By the following year, he had made a telegraph that used an improved dot-and-dash system of [[Morse Code]] that impressed dots and dashes on paper. Different combinations of dots and dashes represented letters and numbers. The paper was decoded later by an operator. This system was better because it was easier to decode, and eventually trained operators could decode it in their heads. In 1838, Morse exhibited his telegraph to the public in New York.

In 1842, Morse got a grant from [[Congress]] for $30,000 to build and experimental [[telegraph]] between Baltimore and Washington, D. C., a distance of 40 miles. The real first message was sent on this telegraph system when the news of the [[Whig Party]]'s nomination of [[Henry Clay]] for U.S. President was telegraphed from the party's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington. This was the first news ever dispatched by electric telegraph. Morse’s first public message, sent on May 24, 1844, was from [[Numbers]] 23:23, “What hath God wrought!” The verse had been picked out by the daughter of one of his friends who had publicized Morse’s invention and secured funding for it.

Morse had difficulty being recognized as ''the'' inventor of the telegraph, as similar devices had been invented by people such as William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. Cooke and Wheatstone’s device used multiple wires, however, and would be surpassed by Morse’s more superior method. Morse had been the first to combine the battery, electromagnetism, the electromagnet, and the correct battery configuration into a working telegraph. The United States government used Morse’s invention without being officially recognized for it, so Morse was awarded the sum of $80,000 dollars in 1858, in recognition of his invention, by the governments of France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Tuscany, and Turkey, all of whom used his telegraph. Morse was recognized in 1871 in the United States when a bronze statue of him was unveiled in [[Central Park]] in [[New York City]].

Morse was heavily decorated by many countries. His decorations include: the decoration of the Atiq Nishan-i-Iftikhar (English: Order of Glory) [first medal on wearer's right depicted in photo of Morse with medals], set in diamonds, from the Sultan Ahmad I ibn Mustafa of Turkey (c.1847[13]), a golden snuff box containing the Prussian gold medal for scientific merit from the King of Prussia (1851); the Great Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from the King of Württemberg (1852); and the Great Golden Medal of Science and Arts from Emperor of Austria (1855); a cross of Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur from the Emperor of France; the Cross of a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog from the King of Denmark (1856); the Cross of Knight Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, from the Queen of Spain, besides being elected member of innumerable scientific and art societies in this [United States] and other countries. Other awards include Order of the Tower and Sword from the kingdom of Portugal (1860); and Italy conferred on him the insignia of chevalier of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in 1864.

==Work on Photography==
Morse was the first American to write an eyewittness account of Daguerre’s new photographic technology.).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/samuel-f-b-morse |title=Samuel F. B. Morse on Answers.com|accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Daguerre was a Frenchman, and the inventor of the Daguerreotype, a type of photograph. Morse had been interested in photography, and had tried without success to take photographs of his own. Daguerre told Morse the secret of his new process, and Morse brought the technology back to the United States with him when he returned.

==Morse's Beliefs==
Morse was a devout [[Christian]] who was very generous and gave large sums of money to [[charity]]. He was not bitter when other people and companies made lots of money using his inventions, but did not pay him for the use of his patented telegraph. Morse was also interested in the relationship of [[science and religion]], and provided funds to start lectures on “the relation of the Bible to the Sciences.” Before his death, Samuel Morse wrote, “The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God's remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy.”<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-12-10&view=View |title=American Minute for April 2|accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref>

Morse defended the institution of [[slavery]], and was a leader in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement. He thought that the Austrian government and Catholic aid organizations were subsidizing Catholic immigration to the United States in order to gain control of the country.

== See also ==

*[[Polymath]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

==Resources==
[http://www.telegraph-history.org/samuel-morse/signature.html The story of the last message Morse sent before his death]
[[Category:Inventors|Morse, Samuel]]

Samuel Morse

2009-12-11T01:26:51Z

AJ4JQ: Added lots of information on Morse including his work on photography and painting

[[Image:Morse.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Samuel Morse]]

'''Samuel Finley Breese Morse''' was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died on April 2, 1872. He was the son of Jedidiah Morse, a geographer and Calvinist minister, and Elizabeth Breese.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morsehistoricsite.org/history/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Samuel Morse went to Yale College to study religious philosophy, mathematics, and the science of horses. He made money at college by painting miniatures on ivory, and wanted to pursue a career in art, but his father did not want him to. He graduated from Yale in 1810, and became a clerk in a bookstore, but continued to paint. His abilities attracted the attention of several respected artists, and he went with them to England in 1811 to study painting. When he returned home in 1815, he worked as an itinerant painter, painting historical subjects and portraits. He opened a studio Boston, and in 1826, Morse helped to found the National Academy of Design, an organization that helped secure jobs for artists, taught the art of design, and displayed artists’ work in its gallery.

In 1825, Morse was in Washington D. C. to paint a portrait commissioned by the Marquis de Lafayette, when a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father telling him that his wife was dead. Morse immediately left Washington for his home, but by the time he got there, she had already been buried. The knowledge that he was unaware for days of her sickness and death made him pursue a means of communicating information rapidly over long distances. The following year, his father died. His mother died in 1828, and Morse went on a trip to Europe in 1829 to recover from the shock. He returned in 1832, and on the voyage home, he had discussed electromagnetism with an eccentric inventor and doctor named Charles Jackson. Jackson told Morse that electricity could be carried over a very long wire, which made Morse think that there must be some way to carry messages over long distances using electric impulses instead of the slow methods used in those days. He made some sketches of an apparatus that could be used to accomplish this.

==Work on the Telegraph==
Morse returned to painting and became a professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York twice. He had been working on his telegraph and had even taken out a patent. Morse had a working model of the telegraph by January 1836, and improved it with the help of a colleague, Leonard Gale. In 1837, Morse formed a partnership with Alfred Vail, who contributed money and mechanical skill. They applied for a patent, and Morse went to Europe to get patents there as well.

Morse’s first telegraph printed the message by printing a seismograph-like line on a thin strip of paper..<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse as MIT's Inventor of the Week |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> The dips in the line had to be decoded using a dictionary written by Morse, but decoding was hard if the line was not clear. By the following year, he had made a telegraph that used an improved dot-and-dash system that impressed dots and dashes on paper. Different combinations of dots and dashes represented letters and numbers. The paper was decoded later by an operator. This system was better because it was easier to decode, and eventually trained operators could decode it in their heads. In 1838, Morse exhibited his telegraph to the public in New York.

In 1842, Morse got a grant from Congress for $30,000 to build and experimental telegraph between Baltimore and Washington, D. C., a distance of 40 miles. The real first message was sent on this telegraph system when the news of the Whig Party's nomination of Henry Clay for U.S. President was telegraphed from the party's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington. This was the first news ever dispatched by electric telegraph. Morse’s first public message, sent on May 24, 1844, was from [[Numbers]] 23:23, “What hath God wrought!” The verse had been picked out by the daughter of one of his friends who had publicized Morse’s invention and secured funding for it.

Morse had difficulty being recognized as ''the'' inventor of the telegraph, as similar devices had been invented by people such as William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. Cooke and Wheatstone’s device used multiple wires, however, and would be surpassed by Morse’s more superior method. Morse had been the first to combine the battery, electromagnetism, the electromagnet, and the correct battery configuration into a working telegraph. The United States government used Morse’s invention without being officially recognized for it, so Morse was awarded the sum of $80,000 dollars in 1858, in recognition of his invention, by the governments of France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Tuscany, and Turkey, all of whom used his telegraph. Morse was recognized in 1871 in the United States when a bronze statue of him was unveiled in [[Central Park]] in [[New York City]].

Morse was heavily decorated by many countries. His decorations include: the decoration of the Atiq Nishan-i-Iftikhar (English: Order of Glory) [first medal on wearer's right depicted in photo of Morse with medals], set in diamonds, from the Sultan Ahmad I ibn Mustafa of Turkey (c.1847[13]), a golden snuff box containing the Prussian gold medal for scientific merit from the King of Prussia (1851); the Great Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from the King of Württemberg (1852); and the Great Golden Medal of Science and Arts from Emperor of Austria (1855); a cross of Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur from the Emperor of France; the Cross of a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog from the King of Denmark (1856); the Cross of Knight Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, from the Queen of Spain, besides being elected member of innumerable scientific and art societies in this [United States] and other countries. Other awards include Order of the Tower and Sword from the kingdom of Portugal (1860); and Italy conferred on him the insignia of chevalier of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in 1864.

==Work on Photography==
Morse was the first American to write an eyewittness account of Daguerre’s new photographic technology.).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/samuel-f-b-morse |title=Samuel F. B. Morse on Answers.com|accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Daguerre was a Frenchman, and the inventor of the Daguerreotype, a type of photograph. Morse had been interested in photography, and had tried without success to take photographs of his own. Daguerre told Morse the secret of his new process, and Morse brought the technology back to the United States with him when he returned.

==Morse's Beliefs==
Morse was a devout Christian who was very generous and gave large sums of money to charity. He was not bitter when other people and companies made lots of money using his inventions, but did not pay him for the use of his patented telegraph. Morse was also interested in the relationship of science and religion, and provided funds to start lectures on “the relation of the Bible to the Sciences.” Before his death, Samuel Morse wrote, “The nearer I approach to the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God's remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illumined with hope and joy.”<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-12-10&view=View |title=American Minute for April 2|accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref>

Morse defended the institution of slavery, and was a leader in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement. He thought that the Austrian government and Catholic aid organizations were subsidizing Catholic immigration to the United States in order to gain control of the country.

== See also ==

*[[Polymath]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

==Resources==
[http://www.telegraph-history.org/samuel-morse/signature.html The story of the last message Morse sent before his death]
[[Category:Inventors|Morse, Samuel]]

James Maxwell

2009-11-09T01:55:43Z

AJ4JQ:

[[Image:Hgter6754.png|right|thumb]]
'''James Clerk Maxwell''' (1831-1879) was an Scottish-born physicist who advanced the theory of [[electricity]] and [[magnetism]], and also the kinetic theory of gases.

In his youth, Maxwell enjoyed [[geometry]], and wrote a paper on [[ellipse]]s at the age of 14. While he was not the top student in his class in mathematics, he continued his geometric approach and applied it with great success to [[physics]]. Maxwell is considered one of the greatest physicists ever.

From the way in which changes in a [[magnetic field]] produce electric fields, and the way in which changes in electric fields produced magnetic fields, Maxwell deduced a set of equations that describe them, [[Maxwell's Equations]], in 1861. The equations predicted the possibility of electromagnetic waves. Other scientists looked for and detected these waves, which led both to the development of radio communication and to the discovery that light is a kind of [[electromagnetic wave]].

He also proposed a thought experiment that became known as [[Maxwell's demon]] which was designed as a challenge to the [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]].

Lorentz and Poincare relied heavily upon Maxwell's ideas, which were in turn mathematized forms of [[Michael Faraday]]'s work, to create the theories of [[relativity]]. In a very real sense, relativity is Faraday and Maxwell's field theory applied to the stars<ref> "Influence on the Development of the Conception of Physical Reality" by Albert Einstein, written for the centenary of Maxwell's birth (1931) </ref>.

==Quotations==
Maxwell wrote:
:No theory of evolution can be formed to account for the similarity of molecules, for evolution necessarily implies [[continuous change]], and the molecule is incapable of growth or decay, of generation or destruction. None of the processes of Nature, since the time when Nature began, have produced the slightest difference in the properties of any molecule. We are therefore unable to ascribe either the existence of the molecules or the identity of their properties to any of the causes which we call natural. <ref>http://www.sonnetusa.com/bio/maxbio.pdf</ref>

:Natural causes, as we know, are at work, which tend to modify, if they do not at length destroy, all the arrangements and dimensions of the earth and the whole solar system. But though in the course of ages catastrophes have occurred and may yet occur in the heavens, though ancient systems may be dissolved and new systems evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of which these systems are built—the foundation-stones of the material universe—remain unbroken and unworn. They continue this day as they were created—perfect in number and measure and weight; and from the ineffaceable characters impressed on them we may learn that those aspirations after accuracy in measurement, and justice in action, which we reckon among our noblest attributes as men, are ours because they are [361] essential constituents of the image of Him who in the beginning created, not only the heaven and the earth, but the materials of which heaven and earth consist. [ibid]

He also wrote:
:The true logic of this world is in the calculus of probabilities. <ref>http://www.gluegrant.org/cam.htm</ref>

and

:The only laws of matter are those that our minds must fabricate and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.<ref>http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_only_laws_of_matter_are_those_that_our_minds/323604.html</ref>

These quotations may be offered up in support of the idea that Maxwell was opposed to the theory of evolution, which was first made available to the world at the time. It should be noted, though, that biology was neither Maxwell's area of expertise, nor was evolution developed as a full scientific field at the time these comments were made.
==Bibliography==

Lewis Campbell and William Garnett, ''The Life of James Clerk Maxwell'',
London, Macmillan, 1882
*[http://www.sonnetusa.com/bio/maxbio.pdf www.sonnetusa.com/bio/maxbio.pdf]

== References ==

<references/>

== Resources ==
*[http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/bios/jc_maxwell.asp A biography of Maxwell from Answers in Genesis]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, James Clerk}}

[[Category:Physicists]]

Biblical Exegesis

2009-11-08T21:07:21Z

AJ4JQ:

{{Bible}}
{{merge from|Exegesis}}
'''Biblical exegesis''' is an explanation or critical interpretation of the [[Bible]]. The term is taken from the [[Greek]] word ἐξηγεῖσθαι, which means "to lead out."

Traditional biblical exegesis includes such things as the following: research the historical-cultural background, confirm the limits of the passage, be thoroughly acquainted with your paragraph or [[pericope]], analyze syntactical relationships and sentence structures, analyze the grammar, and analyze significant words. <ref>http://www.godward.org/archives/BS%20Notes/Basic%20rules%20for%20NT%20exegesis.htm</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Biblical Exegesis Resources==
*[http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/ Classic Bible commentaries]
*[http://www.biblearc.com A great tool for graphical Biblical exegesis]

[[Category:Bible]]

Exegesis

2009-10-26T23:08:14Z

AJ4JQ: Added external link to www.biblearc.com

{{merge|Biblical Exegesis}}
Biblical '''Exegesis''' is the critical (thorough) interpretation of texts in the [[Bible]]. The term is taken from the [[Greek]] word ἐξηγεῖσθαι, which means "to lead out." The primary reason for exegesis is to determine the meaning of the text, and this determination leads to discovering its significance or relevance. For conservative evangelicals, the meaning of the text is anchored in authorial intent. That is, the goal in exegetical analysis is to discover what the original author meant to the original audience in the time frame that it was written. After the meaning is determined, then principles are drawn from the meaning and applied to the present day and culture.

The process of exegesis include key word studies, analysis of grammatical and syntactical features, examination of the history, background and origins of the text, and determination of literary genre.

== External links ==

* [http://www.theologue.org/HERMENEUTICS-DMERKEL.html Hermeneutics - A Guide To Basic Bible Interpretation, By Darryl M. Erkel]
* [http://www.biblearc.com A type of Biblical exegesis called arcing]

{{stub}}

[[Category:Christian Terms]]
[[Category:Bible Study]]

Talk:Jonathan Edwards

2009-09-22T18:55:50Z

AJ4JQ:

There's a third JE; the 'medium,' Jon Edwards. Don't know if he's worth an article here or not, but it may be worth mentioning that neither of these JEs are him. [[User:Tsumetai|Tsumetai]] 10:17, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Hi.
Smallpox vaccination, which involves the administration of attenuated live virus, (and has well-recognized dangers) was not in use at this time.
Smallpox itself killed millions...the first successful preventative strategy, other than isolation, was ''innoculation'', which involved taking material from the pox of an ill patient, and injecting it into the skin of a healthy patient. One of the first successful human trials was done on this, and used actual statistics. Unfortunately, it was done on prisoners and orphans. It did, however, provide decent protection, but there was, by today's standards, a very high rate of illness and death (lower than the rate of smallpox, though, during epidemic times).

Eventually, vaccination was developed, which was actually more of a form of innoculation, as modern genetics had not yet been developed. An attenuated live virus (of Cowpox, not smallpox) was used. This had a much lower rate of complications than using smallpox itself, but still could lead to serious illness, especially in young or unhealthy people exposed to the virus, or to those recently vaccinated.

I'd be happy to share more, if anyone is interested.
[[User:Palmd001|Palmd001]] 14:52, 23 March 2007 (EDT)

Hi. I removed quote from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiograpghy because that passage refers to George Whitefield, not Edwards. See pages 104-108 of Franklin's autobio http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Fra2Aut.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all

While Edwards wrote the material for ''A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God'', he did not have it published himself. He wrote of it in a response to a letter from Benjamin Coleman, one of Boston's senior ministers, and Coleman passed on part of the reply to Doctors John Guyse and Isaac Watts. Watts's London congregation wanted more news of the revival, so Guyse wrote back to Coleman, who wrote to Edwards's Uncle, William Williams, for more information. Edwards wrote Coleman a much longer letter, which Coleman abridged and had printed as an appendix to a book of sermons by William Williams, Edwards's uncle. Coleman said, "Mr. Edwards is no altogether pleased with the liberty we have taken of so general an extract." The book was published in London in 1737. It was apparently the first printed news of the Great Awakening. [[User:AJ4JQ|AJ4JQ]] 14:55, 22 September 2009 (EDT)

Jonathan Edwards

2009-09-22T18:46:40Z

AJ4JQ: Added book "Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography" by Iain H. Murray

''For the former Senator from North Carolina, see [[John Edwards]]''

'''Jonathan Edwards''' (1703 – 1758) was a [[Minister]] of a [[Congregationalism|Congregationalist]] church in [[Northampton]], [[Massachusetts]] during the [[Great Awakening]]. He is best known as the author of the classic "fire and brimstone" sermon ''Sinners in the hands of an angry God''. However, his most important contribution to the awakening was his book, ''A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising work of God'' ([[London]], 1737), which provided guidance to other [[clergy]] as to how to conduct a [[revival]].

He began his advanced education when he went to [[Yale University]] at age 13 and graduated as valedictorian at 17. He was serving as the president of [[Princeton University]] when he received the [[smallpox]] [[inoculation]], having been assured it would be safe. However, it was very dangerous and killed him.

His inspiring preaching helped start the Great Awakening, which became a huge religious revival that helped unite the [[colony|colonies]] prior to the [[American Revolution]]. Like most eighteenth century Congregationalists (who were derived from the the seventeenth century "Puritan" church), Edwards was a [[Calvinist]]; however, traditional Calvinist maintain that only the elect, who had been chosen before the creation of the world, could achieve salvation.<ref>http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/four.html</ref> By the time of the Great Awakening, most Calvinist clergy had altered their views that one could alter their eternal fate (which was the point of most of Edward's sermons.)

[[Aaron Burr]] was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards.

==Quotes==

<blockquote>"Of all of the kinds of knowledge that we can ever obtain, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves, are the most important." -- Jonathan Edwards </blockquote>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Jonathan}}

see [[First Great Awakening]]

[[Category:Clergy]]

==References==
<references/>

Frank Lambert, ''Inventing the “Great Awakening”'' (Princeton University Press, 1999)

==Resources==
* Iain H. Murray "Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography" (Banner of Truth Trust, 1987)

[[Category:Puritans]]
[[Category:Revivals]]
[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:Protestantism|*]]
[[Category:Christian History]]
[[category:Theologians]]
[[Category:Enlightenment]]

George Whitefield

2009-09-22T18:40:53Z

AJ4JQ: Added link to John Piper talk on George Whitefield

'''George Whitefield''' (1714 - 1770) was an English Anglican clergyman and founder of the Methodist Movement. He came to the American colonies and led many successful revivals during the [[First Great Awakening]], and set the foundations of the [[United Methodist Church]]. He continued the revival movement started by [[Jonathan Edwards]], traveling across the colonies and preaching in a more dramatic and emotional style, accepting everyone into his audiences.

==Career==
Whitefield was educated at St. Mary de Crypt School in Gloucester and Pembroke College, Oxford University; in 1735 he was converted, while a member of the same Holy Club, in Oxford, to which [[John Wesley]] and Charles Wesley belonged. At the invitation of John Wesley, Whitefield visited Georgia in 1738, and on his return to England, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England. He found many churches closed to his "evangelical" ministry, but he preached where invited, as well as in the open air, and persuaded Wesley to follow the latter practice.

Whitefield was a preaching evangelist who could address thousands in the open air and command rapt attention. He was indefatigable, often preaching three and four times a day for hours at a time. He preached throughout Scotland, Wales, and England and in addition made seven journeys to America. He gave impetus to the [[First Great Awakening]] in the American colonies around 1740. He collaborated with his [[Jonathan Edwards]], who had started a revival in 1736 in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was founder and chief supporter of an orphanage in Oglethorpe, Georgia. As an imperial figure he united the people of the American colonies.
==Theology==
Whitefield, unlike Wesley, was Calvinistic in his theological views. The two differed on eternal election, final perseverance, and sanctification, but were reconciled as friends and co-workers, each going his own way. Whitefield was not primarily an organizer but a man of profound experience, which he could communicate through clear expression infused with passion. During his later years he was patronized by the Countess of Huntingdon, who was the center of a group of Calvinistic Methodists until her death in 1791. She gave generously of her time, energy, and means to build chapels and found a seminary and, to prove her loyalty, separated from the Church of England in 1779. Whitefield died in Newburyport, Mass., on Sept. 30, 1770, and was buried there.
==Technique==
The Anglican Church had not assigned him pulpit so he began preaching in parks and fields in England on his own, reaching out to people who normally did not attend church. Like Edwards, he had developed a style of preaching that elicited emotional responses from his audiences. However, Whitefield had charisma, and his voice (which according to many accounts, could be heard over vast distances), small stature, and cross-eyed appearance (which some people took as a mark of divine favor) all served to help make him the first American celebrity. Thanks to the use of print in colonial America, perhaps more than half of all colonists, heard about, read about, or read something written by Whitefield. Whitefield used print extensively. He sent advance men to put up broadsides and to distribute handbills announcing his sermons. He also arranged to have his sermons published (a common practice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries).

==Democracy==
Whitefield's reconciliation of humility and power contributed much to the creation of democratic thought in the American colonies. The First Great Awakening democratized religion by redressing the balance of power between the minister and the congregation. Rather than listening demurely to preachers, people groaned and roared in enthusiastic emotion; new divinity schools opened to challenge the hegemony of Yale and Harvard; personal revelation became more important than formal education for preachers. Such concepts and habits were a necessary foundation for the American Revolution.<ref> Nancy Ruttenburg, "George Whitefield, Spectacular Conversion, and the Rise of Democratic Personality." ''American Literary History'' 1993 5(3): 429-458. 0896-7148 </ref>
==Benjamin Franklin==
Franklin admired Whitefield, who first visited the colonies in 1738. Franklin saw Whitefield as a fellow intellectual, but thought Whitefield's plan to run an orphanage in Georgia would lose money. Franklin published several of Whitefield's tract. He was intrigued and himself moved by Whitefield's ability to preach and speak with clarity and enthusiasm to crowds ranging in the thousands. Franklin was a ecumenist and approved of Whitefield's ability to appeal to members of many denominations. Franklin was not moved by the Methodist evangelist's revivals, but did conclude that religiosity was a good thing for other people, so at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he proposed a prayer for divine intervention to aid the troubled proceedings.. After one of Whitefield's sermons, Franklin noted the:
:"wonderful...change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."<ref>''The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,'' p.104-108; Samuel J. Rogal, "Toward a Mere Civil Friendship: Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield." ''Methodist History'' 1997 35(4): 233-243. 0026-1238 </ref>

A lifelong close friendship developed between the revivalist preacher and the worldly, secular humanist. Looking beyond their public images, one finds a common charity, humility, and ethical sense embedded in the character of each man. True loyalty based on genuine affection coupled with a high value placed on friendship helped their association grow even stronger over time.
==Further information==
* Lambert, Frank. ''"Pedlar in Divinity": George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737-1770.'' (1994). 238 pp.
* Stout, Harry S. ''The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism.'' (1991). 301 pp.
* "I Will Not Be a Velvet-Mouthed Preacher!" The Life and Ministry of George Whitefield: Living and Preaching as Though God Were Real (Because He Is) by John Piper[http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/3573_I_Will_Not_Be_a_VelvetMouthed_Preacher/]
==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitefield, George}}
[[Category:Clergy]]
[[Category:Methodism]]
[[Category:Colonial America]]
[[Category:Revivals]]
[[Category:British History]]

Amateur radio

2009-03-20T20:46:33Z

AJ4JQ:

'''Amateur Radio''', also called "ham radio", is a hobby followed by people in most countries of the world, using internationally coordinated, specifically designated, frequency bands. Each country or jurisdiction separately allocates the frequencies and licenses its operators to use specific power levels or modes of communication. They are issued a personal callsign that has letters reflecting their country's international callsign area, a number reflecting the state or region, and letters that particularize the callsign to them. See examples below.

Operators set up their stations normally in their homes, and use antenna systems suitable for their domestic situation. This may limit the frequency bands on which they can operate, as longer wavelength transmissions normally require larger antenna. Also, larger aerial arrays are needed to achieve higher transmission gain on higher frequencies. Vehicle mounted radios and antennas can also be used.

The portable and "can-do" nature of Amateur Radio has meant that Amateurs have often been first-responders during or just after major disasters, establishing links using procedures tested during regular "field days" or emergency exercises.

The [[International Space Station]] has an extensive suite of Amateur Radio equipment, as did the Russian MIR spacecraft. Most cosmonauts and astronauts are licensed operators.

Frequency bands and modes of operation include:
* High Frequency (short-wave) through to microwave frequencies;
* voice (referred to by ham operators as "phone")
* CW ([[Morse code]])
* facsimile (fax over radio)
* television - slow-scan (similar to fax) and fast-scan (as for broadcast TV)
* satellites (over 20 operational in orbit)
* digital communications (various formats, the most common being PSK31)

==Amateur Radio and Christianity==
Until the widespread advent of [[telephone]] systems and the [[Internet]] in under-developed countries, Amateur Radio was widely used by [[missionary]] groups to communicate with people across the world. The missionaries operated their radios to talk to their home organsations and pass information to family members.

Additionally, they operated their radios to make contact with 'ordinary' Amateurs and give them highly prized "QSL contact card" with a country, state, province, or area where there were very few operators. Among Amateur Radio operators in developed countries the missionaries were, and still are, a very welcome and highly prized group of people, often supported with donations to support their ability to provide the much sought after QSL card, or through having someone manage their QSL card distribution. The usual form of exchange is for the Amateur to send a "green stamp" (a US$1 bill) in exchange for the QSL card. This pays for the mailing of the card, and normally left a little besides as a donation for the missionary.

==Famous Amateur Radio operators and callsigns==
Include:
* [[Walter Cronkite]], CBS news anchorman - KB2GSD
* Hussein, King of [[Jordan]] - JY1
* [[Bhumiphol Adulayadej]], King of [[Thailand]] - HS1A
* [[George Pataki]], Governor of [[New York]] - K2ZCZ
* [[Barry Goldwater]], Senator (US) (ret) - K7UGA/K3UIG
* [[Burl Ives]], singer - KA6HVA
* Dr. [[Alex Comfort]], author of "The Joy of Sex" - KA6UXR
* [[Donnie Osmond]], entertainer - KA7EVD (lapsed)
* [[Marlon Brando]] aka Martin Brandeaux, actor - FO5GJ
* [[Chet Atkins]], guitar player - WA4CZD
* [[Cliff Richard]] (Harry Webb), singer - W2JOF
* [[Joe Walsh]], guitarist for The Eagles - WB6ACU

==External links==
* [http://www.iaru.org International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)]
* [http://www.wia.org.au Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA)] - the first national Amateur Radio society
* [http://www.arrl.org American Radio Relay League (ARRL)] - hobby society body for USA
* [http://www.amsat.org The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation] of North America
* [http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Campus/4400/famous.htm famous Amateurs]
* [http://www.fists.org/ FISTS: International Morse Code Preservation Society]
* [http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/news/part97/ FCC Part 97] Rules governing amateur radio.
* [http://www.carf.net the Christian Amateur Radio Fellowship]
[[Category:Hobbies|Amateur Radio]]