Using Science to Understand God :: Science and religion

In this day, there continues to be a great deal of hostility promoted from the pulpits, the media, and visible scientists around the world in the area of science and religion. Some preachers suggest to their congregations that science is evil and opposed to morality and belief in God. Some visible scientists suggest that religion is an out-of-date mythological belief system that opposes progress and enslaves people to a lifestyle that brings them harm. The media seems to take delight in vilifying religion and promoting the inconsistencies of those who claim to be religious. Why do so many otherwise good believers in God and otherwise good believers in science get caught up in the science versus religion debate? Science is science, and religion is religion. Creationism is neither. Using bad science to back up bad literal Biblical translations is not scientific and not religious. How religious or scientific are you really when you have to use crap science (lies) to back up your religion? How religious or scientific are you really when you have to deny the facts of good science to support your religion. I don't see how changing the way you think about the Bible when science gives you a good reason to do so makes you any less or any worse of a Christian. In fact, I think it makes you a better Christian. Some scientists will tell you that discovering things about the Earth does not mean that God didn't create it. And some scientist will tell you that discovering things about the nature of the Earth does not prove that God doesn’t exist. A lot of religious scholars can tell you the same thing. Both will tell you that if God loves us as much as the Bible says so, then He doesn't want us to forever remain ignorant. If you find things in the Bible and read them literally to justify your refusal to use the reasoning abilities that God has so graciously provided for you (the same reasoning used in science), then you are the one going against God, not the scientists. Science is a gift from God to help us understand the world around us. Those who seek to unlock the secrets of the natural world around us through science are being led by God. Exploring our natural world to gain a greater understanding of it and to find better uses for the things around us is what God wants us to do.

A Semiotic Approach on How Meaning Can Be Created in an Audience

A Semiotic Approach on How Meaning can Be Created In An Audience â€Å"Human intellectual and social life is based on the production, use, and exchange of signs† (Danesi, 2002) As Danesi (2002) states, signs are an integral part of society; from watching television, listening to music, reading, writing or talking, we are engaged in sign based behaviour. This engagement with signs is known as the study of semiotics.Dating back to 460-377BC, with the founder of Western medical science, Hippocrates, coining the term, then known as semeiotics, he described signs consisting of three dimensions; the physical dimension, known as the signifier, the referent, or signified, and the signification (Danesi, 2002). These dimensions only have meaning when â€Å"it has someone to mean to† (Williamson, 1978). In the 20th century, semiotic theory was developed by a group of semioticians, linguists, psychologists and cultural theorists, based on the saussurean-Piercean paradigm (Danesi, 2 002).First introduced to the public in the 1950’s by Roland Barthes, to describe our mediated culture, semiotics is essential when creating an advertisement. Among other things, semiotics plays a significant role in engaging the intended audience- the buyer. Whether it is the elderly, teens, children, men or women, the placement of colours, text, images and other signs, play a key role in the success of the advertisement (Scott, 1994).By taking a semiotic approach, this essay will demonstrate how meaning can be created in an audience, by the analysis of two advertisements, and discussing how codes and context are central in the ‘anchoring’ of meaning. First introduced by Roland Barthes (1977), the notion of anchorage, discusses the linguistic essentials that can help anchor, or constrain, how a reader interprets an image: â€Å"to fix the floating chain of signifieds† (Barthes, 1977). The advertisements chosen are from differing and contrasting magazines; the first from iconic fashion magazine Vogue and the other from a men’s magazine, Men’s Health.These differing genres have been chosen to illustrate how contexts and codes within specific social relations, groups, classes, institutions, structures and things (Thwaites, Davis and Mules, 2002) play an integral role in creating meaning (Scribd, 2012). Much of what we have come to understand about society, is learnt from the texts that are presented around us; through Hollywood blockbusters, to novels and magazines. Chandler concludes that â€Å"life is thus lived through texts and framed by texts to a greater extent than we are normally aware of† (Chandler, 2001).This means that advertisements not only refer to ‘real world’ concepts that we deal with day to day, but they also make reference to other texts. The level of this ‘intertextuality’ (Fiske, 1987) is what influences social beliefs and ideals in the world we live in. The advertiseme nt from Vogue (See ad 1) features a sepia- colour scheme, with an alluring female to the right, and a bottle of ‘j’adore Dior’ perfume, to the left. Many signifiers are present in this advertisement; the female (Charlize Theron), is dressed in an elegant gold beaded dress, with a high beaded neckline, drawing the viewers eye to her strong jaw-line and bronzed face.Her pose is that of elegance and power, the background light shining around her slim figure. The colour of the clothing, and overall image, compliment the golden-sepia tone of the bottle of perfume on the left. Chandeliers are placed around the perfume bottle, and out of focus behind the woman. The signifieds present are; the gold dress giving an impression of the woman being a high profile member of society of, chandeliers are present in homes of the wealthy and the sepia tones represent warmth. By using a female of celebrity status, the advertisements appeal rises with the wider female audience, due t o her known status.The key connotations featured in this advertisement are; the gold coloured dress connotes wealth, elegance and popularity. The powerful and elegant stance of the woman connotes power a female will gain when wearing this fragrance. Due to her celebrity status, the audience can also feel empowered, with a ‘celebrity’ status. The sepia tones connote warmth, and invite the viewer to become involved with the advertisement. Along with the bronzed body of the woman, the French writing j’adore (meaning I love) adds an essence of romance, and connotes desire, and sex appeal.As the ad connotes power, it is open for both upper and lower/middle class woman to interpret. Upper class woman could strive to maintain power, whilst lower class desire to gain power, by using the product. The way the creators of the ad have placed the female in this position, in these surroundings, to represent the product, has been done deliberately to target the desired audience ; woman have a desire to feel beautiful, powerful, and sexy, therefore the creator has appropriately placed the advertisement in a women’s very well known and popular fashion magazine, to gain maximum results from the targeted audience.Leiss (1990) states that â€Å"at the core of advertising’s purposes now is not the message itself as a communicator of meaning, but rather its relationship to the audience† (Leiss et al. , 1990). With the development of the theory of marketing segmentation, it is logical to therefore conclude that creators of advertisements don’t focus on the product, but the signs and codes that connate particular meanings of positivity that are related to a certain lifestyle, culture, or social group (Scribd, 2012).The connotations pervade media representations, and symbolise psychological or social themes and situations that are familiar and understandable to the audience (Danesi, 2002), in order to successfully sell the product. The ad vertisement from the Men’s Health (see ad 2), is selling ‘Tom Ford Perfume’. This somewhat controversial ad has many key signifiers. The male figure lying on a bed is the predominant focus, followed by a female hand with red nail polish touching the male’s chest. The object that is being advertised is only shown as a half.The basic colour scheme is black and white, with the exception of the red nail polish and orange cologne bottle. The signifieds present are; the male is an essential selling point of the advertisement, therefore he takes up the majority of the page. Sex appeal is what the advertiser is trying to convey, and the glimpse of a female hand can be seen as elegant and flirty. The key connotations are; the male figure as desirable and powerful- every woman would want an intimate connection with him. The red fingernails connote passion, desire, lust, and a thirst for action (Danesi, 2002).By using this cologne, the advertisement connotes that the user will become the ultimate object of desire, playing in to the male want of intimate connections with females. As the male figure has ‘sex appeal’ the advertisement encourages the partner of a male to purchase the fragrance, so she could have a ‘sexy’ male partner. The orange tone of the cologne bottle connotes warmth, stimulating the senses. When producers try to convey certain meanings, audiences may or may not assign the same meanings (Littlejohn, 1996).As mentioned in the first analysis, the advertisement is open to other audiences, whilst the male cologne ad is more closed, but it is up to the reader to decide whether or not they belong to the context or not. Signs are combined in to texts, but a text has no meaning on its own (Smagorinsky, 2001). It draws value from surrounding elements and from reader association, but also from what it is not (Littlejohn, 1998). The amalgamation of these creates the context in which the text functions; if you are n’t a wearer of perfume or cologne, you will have no interest in what it is trying to sell you, hence the importance of context.Thwaites and colleagues (2002) mention that â€Å"the social situations in which a sign is used may determine the appropriate content, type of sign and coding; signs contextual functions indicate the context in which it operates (Thwaites, Davis and Mules, 2002). Chandler explains that Stuart Hall pointed to the role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups (Chandler, 2001). Hall also suggested three hypothetical models of interpretive codes or positions for the reader of a text (Hall, 1980). But what Hall and also Chandler miss, is what happens when you don’t understand an advertisement at all?Because, as Griffin says; â€Å"like chameleons that take on the colouration of their environment, words take on their meaning of the context in which they are used† (Griffin, 2000). The opinion that the usefulness of semiotics decreases and is above all dependant on the skill of the interpreter is not new. Leiss (1990) argues that a key drawback for semiotics is that â€Å"it is heavily dependent upon the skill of the individual analyst† (Leiss, 1990). Less skilful analysts â€Å"can do little more than state the obvious in a complex and often pretentious manner† (Leiss, 1990).As Littlejohn (1996) states â€Å"meanings of a message are affected by events outside the message itself†, therefore the most successful advertisements focus on making sure the audience understands the content being conveyed (codes) and the content lays emphasis on certain meanings over others (context). In this perspective, the kind of magazine reflects how meanings are emphasised. Bignell (1997) even argues that â€Å"as well as being a collection of signs, the magazine is a sign in itself† (Bignell, 1997), the magazine is therefore a â€Å"powerful ideological forceâ €  (McRobbie, 2000) in society.Even though some postmodernists believe that texts are endlessly polysemic (Barthes 1977, Fiske 1987), meanings are still able to be communicated. Leiss (1990) argues that â€Å"for advertising to create meaning, the reader or viewer must do some ‘work’, because the meaning is not lying there on the page, one has to make an effort to grasp it† (Leiss et al, 1990). When analysing both of these advertisements, this statement is correct- the creators of the ad have given the reader ‘A and C’ but the reader must fill in the blank, or as it is known in this example, B.The application of semiotics in advertising varies significantly depending on the product being sold. Common themes almost always stay the same- the sense of freedom or excitement you get from purchasing a specific car or the feeling of popularity when you drink a certain type of alcohol (Messaris, 1997). This is done by using specific images, which resonate with the intended audience. For example, if there is an advertisement for a new Jeep, images of it going through all types of terrain will be shown, or alcoholic beverages are advertised at a party scene, all to make the audience want to buy the product (Messaris, 1997).As Chandler and Bignell suggest, signs and codes can be a medium itself, and described by Leiss (1990) â€Å"an ad is a mediator between creator and reader, standing at the confluence of the double symbolic process in the marketplace, where producers of goods try to attempt to construct one set of meanings, and where consumers use these meanings (along with meanings drawn from other sources) in the construction of their own lifestyles† (Leiss et al. , 1990).This is why semiotics is significant, even on a basic level, as it can show us how meanings have the ability to both construct and maintain particular social attitudes and ideals of a specific society. On a multifaceted level, the notion of intertextuality is intriguing and should be studied more widely as it exposes the many intricate ways in which contexts transfer from each other, showing how the contexts migrate from one another and portray the uncertainty of meaning. Appendix Ad 1. Ad 2. Bibliography Barthes, R. 1977, Image-Music-Text, London. Bignell, J. 1997, Media Semiotics: An Introduction, Manchester: Manchester University Press.Chandler, D (2001), â€Å"Semiotics, the basics†, Routledge. Culler, J. 1985, Saussure, London. Danesi, M. 2002, ‘An Outline of Semiotic Theory’, In Understanding Media Semiotics, London, pp 28-53. Dior, 2012, (‘Dior Advertisement’), Vogue Magazine, June 2012, pp. 1-2. Fiske, J. 1987, â€Å"Intertextuality† in Fiske, J, Television culture, Methuen Griffin, E. 2000, Communication; a first look at communication theory, McGraw-Hill. Hall, S, 1980, Encoding/decoding, In Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (Ed. ): Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cu ltural Studies, London. Leiss, W. Kline, S. & Jhally S. , 1990, Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well-Being, 2nd Edn, London. Littlejohn, S. 1996, Theories of Human Communication, 5th Edn, Wadsworth. McRobbie, A. 1995, Feminism and Youth Culture, 2nd edition, Macmillan Press, London. Messaris, P. 1997, Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising, Sage. Scott, M. 1994, ‘Images in Advertising: The need for a Theory of Visual Rhetoric, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 252-273. Scribd 2012, Scribd, Date Accessed 25 May 2012, http://www. scribd. om/doc/22099314/Semiotic-analysis-of-two-ads? &lang=en_us&output=json&session-id=74ea6fd65172766fface3eec2d5bfb14. Smagorinsky, P. 2001,’ If meaning is constructed, what is it made from? Toward a cultural theory of reading’, Review of Educational Research, vol. 71, pp. 133-169. Tom Ford, 2010, (‘Tome Ford Advertisement’), Men’s Hea lth Magazine, March 2010, pp. 2. Thwaites, T. , Davis, L. & Mules, W. 2002, Introducing Cultural and Media Studies; a semiotic approach, New York. Williamson, J. 1978, Decoding Advertisements; Ideology and Meaning in Advertising, London.

Writing Effective Communications Essay - 862 Words

Phoenix Advertising Interoffice Memorandum DATE: May 5, 2013 TO: Moe Frands, Managing Director; Sasha Larr, Planning Director; Jane Dresser, Creative Director FROM: Janet Ribble, Vice President of Human Resources SUBJECT: Roanoke Branch Update In recent months, the Roanoke branch office has been experiencing difficulties. After a change in management, the graphic artists and copywriters have made it apparent that their work is no longer being received well. Although it is not completely clear, this employee upset may be the cause of the complaints that the branch has received by four of its clients. This matter demands immediate attention, as the Roanoke branch services some of the companies’ most valuable clients and thus†¦show more content†¦In order to ensure the success of the company it is imperative that I communicate effectively and efficiently with both the salaried employees and the hourly waged staff to. I also need to verify that the managers there are using their resources to accommodate the employees during this period of work overload. In order to do this I need you to provide me with payroll statements from the Roanoke branch for the last 12 months. I also need a summary of the agency polici es and the branch policies regarding overtime and compensation/ benefits packages. I would like to see you my office by 5 pm today with all the reports. Please understand the urgency of this request and feel free to assign Regina and Howard to this project only today. I am sure Devon can handle all the responsibilities in the department today so that we can work to resolve this matter quickly. Tomorrow I will review the documents and draft a letter to the manager there, directing him on how to proceed with his staff. I will want to meet with you and Theresa briefly tomorrow morning at 10 am in the main conference room. I am positive thatShow MoreRelatedWriting Effective Communication 05002100 Essay1339 Words   |  6 PagesPart A: Interoffice memorandum Step 1 †¢ How large is the agency? How many branches does it have? Where are the branches located? Phoenix Advertising has approximately 250 employees. We have six branches in addition to our Charlotte, NC office: Salt Lake City, UT; Roanoke, VA; New York, NY; Denver, CO; Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA. †¢ Whats the companys mission? How does each branch relate to that mission? Our Mission: To provide you with the highest quality marketing materials thatRead MoreWriting Effective Communication Exam 05002100799 Words   |  4 PagesPART A: INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM PHOENIX ADVERTISING INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM DATE: January 26, 2013 TO: Sunny Ray, Vice President Client Services, Grace Kennedy, Vice President Marketing, Summer Breeze, Vice President Creative Services FROM: Mark Hamilton SUBJECT: Roanoke Branch Update A situation has arisen at the Roanoke branch office whereby there has been some amount of discontent among the staff. The problem began after a recent change of staff at the management level; apparently someRead More7cs of Written Communication1327 Words   |  6 PagesC’s off effective communication (with respect to written communication): Written communication  occupies an important position in the communication sphere, so written communication has to pay adequate attention on certain principles of necessity. The essentials of every written communication are principles of unity, coherence and emphasis. These principles along with other essentials of effective communication, like language, planning and organization make the written communication effective. Read MoreEssay about Important Language Skills1735 Words   |  7 PagesLanguage Skill Out of the Four Language Skills Communication plays a vital role in our daily life. To acquire good communication, command on four language skills is important i.e. Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. I studied a few articles in which the authors specified the significance of each language skill. They found a strong positive relation between the four skills and stated that none of these is complete without the other. Effective communication is acquired after learning these skills wellRead MorePersonal Skills Inventory1070 Words   |  5 PagesRobersonI Face-to-Face and online communication skills: The most important skill in life is learning how to communicate effectively. Working in the business industry communication is important factor in the success of the business and daily tasks such as giving employees’ feedback, writing reports, giving presentations, conducting interviews and sending emails. How we communicate varies among each individual as well as how we perceive our own personal communication skills. While we may think thatRead MoreBusiness Communication Today Session 5 : Final Paper Essay1138 Words   |  5 PagesBusiness Communication Today-Session 5: Final Paper Effective Business Communication requires order, accuracy, organization, and significance. When the Business Communication class began, I felt that I communicate effectively in my current job. I learned some new ideas and practices that I will incorporate into my work. I also discovered some new ideas that I will use in future positions I hope to attain. â€Å"No matter what job you have in life, your success will be determined 5% by your academicRead MoreEffective Communication1354 Words   |  5 Pagesdiscuss how effective communication, leadership and writing style will be of use to me as I seek to further my education. Specifically, I discuss how these skills/ideas will enhance my success in my Masters degree. Pillars of Success: An Overview As I have already pointed out in the introductory section, for one to succeed in a specific undertaking, the relevance of developing a number of specific skills cannot be overstated. For instance, an individual who lacks effective communication skills orRead MoreGraduate Level Writing Analysis And Development Plan802 Words   |  4 PagesGraduate-Level Writing Analysis and Development Plan Communication in writing skills for the past six weeks were standards information on different sorts of sources for rapidly flowing needs of today’s writers. This form of writing shows the role of strategies in writing on subjects. It demonstrated contracts between oral communication and written communication. The main ideas in this course discovery, objectives, critical thinking, and tension, valuing course resources time managementRead MoreElectronic Communication and the Negative Impact of Miscommunication1370 Words   |  6 PagesElectronic communications, improve efficiency and productivity, but poorly written emails can cause internal strife, low morale, and loss of clients. Effective written communication will enhance internal communications as well as external communications. The ability to write effectively is a core skill that all employees, no matter what their title is, should master. If the content of an email is unclear, grammatically incorrect or is full of typos, the email will cause misunderstandings and theRead MoreGraduate Study Challenge Paper1128 Words   |  5 Pagesjourney pursuing MSN degree with much excitement and many challenges. In order to be successful in graduate study, I have to come up with strategies to overcome the anticipated challenges. The three main obstacles I face that would affect my study are writing, time management, and stress. Reason Health care industry has been evolved immensely over the past 10 to 15 years. When I graduated as a nurse 18 years ago, regular diploma or bachelor’s degree was what required. Health care professionals could