Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Charles Schulz

2009-01-13T03:48:22Z

Enatai:

'''Charles M Schulz''' (1922 - 2000) was an American Cartoonist and creator of the successful nationally syndicated comic strip [[Peanuts]]. Born in [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], he was the only child of Dena and Carl Schulz. From an early age illustration and comics were an important part of Schultz's life. He would serve in the American Army during [[World War II]]. On October 2, 1950 the Comic Strip Peanuts debuted in 7 newspapers. Featuring the stories of [[Charlie Brown]], [[Snoopy]], [[Linus_Van_Pelt|Linus]] and [[Lucy_Van_Pelt|Lucy]], and a whole cast of characters, Schulz would show the world a depth and humor that was not often seen in the comics. In his career Schulz was awarded the Reuben Award twice for his talents and Peanuts strips would be read in over 2600 newspaper. Schulz annonced his retirement for health reasons in 1999 having drawn, inked and created the Peanuts stories for nearly 50 years. Schulz passed away shortly thereafter, on Saturday, February 12, 2000, just hours before the final Peanuts Sunday strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz was a member of the Anderson Church of God. He was a universalist and believed that the way to worship God was to love others. His comics frequently quoted the bible, as made famous by the speech Linus gave at the climax of the film ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'', where Linus quotes the Gospel of Luke 2:8-14 to explain the true meaning of [[Christmas]].

==References==
*[http://www.schulzmuseum.org/ Charles M Schulz Museum]

[[category:cartoonists]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulz, Charles}}

Human reproduction

2009-01-13T03:43:56Z

Enatai: Removed an incorrect assumption from the page regarding abortion. God, at least take the time to think this stuff through.

[[Image:Sperm-egg.jpg|thumbnail|Sperm cell hitting an egg cell]]

'''Human reproduction''' is the process by which children are conceived and born. In order for human reproduction to occur under normal circumstances, male and female must engage in [[sexual intercourse]]. Exceptionally, reproduction may take place without intercourse via procedures such as [[in vitro fertilization]].
==Spiritual aspects==
[[Image:Soul_Conception.jpg|thumbnail|Artist's conception of soul joining the fertilized egg at conception.]]

Human reproduction serves to create new human beings and with these human beings comes a [[soul]]. The soul appears with the person at the moment of [[conception]], making him a complete human being from the very start. This is why [[abortion]] is considered [[murder]]: the abortionist has rent the soul from a living human body, the soul being the source of a full life for human beings. If there was no soul present in the human at the time of conception and it entered the body at some later stage, then until that moment the [[fetus]] would hypothetically be nothing more than an animated body, similar to how animals and plants are alive but without souls. Thus, if this were the case, abortion would not be murder, but rather a termination of a non-human entity, at least until the soul finally joined the body.

There are many religious beliefs, even within [[Christianity]], on the origin of the soul that accompanies a new human being. Some believe portions of the souls of the parents combine to form the new soul. Some believe a free-floating soul becomes trapped within the body. Some believe a soul is created with the fusion of the gametes, in a meta-chemical process. Believers of [[reincarnation]] would say that the soul of a previously deceased person or animal (this religion believes animals have souls too) would enter the new body, so that there is a spiritual [[memory]] of the previous life.

==Biological aspects==

The ultimate act of intimacy serves to unite the male and female [[gamete]]s, the [[sperm]] and [[egg]], respectively. These gametes carry just one half of the [[gene]]tic material ([[chromosome]]s) from each parent, and when they combine the new [[embryo]] contains a full set of chromosomes. The process of the gametes combining is called [[fertilization]], and takes place inside the woman's body, in the [[Fallopian tubes]] or [[uterus]]. The embryo then attaches itself to the uterine lining, and is nourished by the placenta (which in turn receives its nourishment from the mother's body) while it develops. This development takes roughly nine months (see [[Naegele's Rule]]).

At the end of this process of protected development, what was once an embryo is now born as a new baby. Human babies are relatively helpless, and depend on the care and love of their parents in order to survive to maturity themselves.

Humans are not able to reproduce alone by [[budding]], [[parthenogenesis]], or [[self-cloning]] as some species are capable of. In addition, human [[gender]] is fixed at conception, unlike some species'; females are not able to become male or vice versa to deal with homogeneous populations of one gender.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Sexuality]]

== External Links ==
*[http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/when-does-life-begin Opposing Views: When Does Life Begin?]

Paganism

2009-01-13T03:42:16Z

Enatai:

'''Paganism''' is a broad group of religions in which practitioners worship a deity, or deities, usually based on the earth or nature, and not [[Christian]], [[Muslim]], or [[Jewish]]. Though generally any non-Abrahamic religion can be considered a pagan religion, the term is almost certainly referring to the paganism of Europe, the middle east, and north Africa. Paganism, from Latin paganus, literally means (as a noun) "country dweller," referring to the small-town worshipers of various little gods and deities. Alternatively, pagan is used as a pejorative to describe anyone not of a certain faith (usually Christianity), similar to the pejorative '[[heathen]]'.

==Subdivisions==

Pagan subdivisions coined by Isaac Bonewits:
*'''Paleo-Paganism''': coined to contrast with "Neopaganism", denoting a Pagan culture that has not been disrupted by other cultures. The term applies to [[Hinduism]], [[Shinto]], pre-Migration period Germanic paganism as described by [[Tacitus]], Celtic Polytheism as described by [[Julius Caesar]], the Ancient Greek religion and religion in ancient Rome.

*'''Meso-Paganism''': Groups begun as an attempt to revive, recreate, or perpetuate what their founders believe(d) to be original Paleopagan beliefs and practices, which is, or has been, significantly influenced by monotheistic, dualistic, or nontheistic worldviews, but has been able to maintain an independence of religious practices. This group includes Native Americans and Australian Aborigine Bushmen, Viking Age Norse paganism. Other examples include: [[Freemasonry]], [[Rosicrucianism]], [[Theosophy]], [[Spiritualism]], as well as [[Sikhism]], early (pre-1970) [[Wicca]], and the many Afro-Diasporic faiths like Haitian Voudou and Santería.

*'''[[Neo-Paganism]]''': Groups begun as an attempt to revive, recreate, or perpetuate what their founders believe(d) to be original Paleopagan beliefs and practices, but consciously attempting to avoid monotheistic, dualistic, or nontheistic influences. This definition may include anything on a sliding scale from reconstructionist to [[New Age]] and non-reconstructionist groups such as [[Asatru]] and [[Wicca]]. Gods from ancient [[mythology]] may be worshipped in this context.

The terms may be spelled with or without hyphens after the prefixes.

== See also ==

*[[Philosophy]]
*[[Anthropology]]
*[[Religious Studies]]

[[category:Paganism]]