The three biggest problems facing our world today are perception, selfishness, and poverty. I believe the biggest of these is perception. According to American Heritage dictionary perception in Psychology is the recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory; the neurological processes by which such recognition and interpretation are effected; and insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving and the capacity for such insight. Perception spurs from the mind and the way we think. The mind is at the root of every problem and every solution. Every action, reaction, creation, word, emotion, feeling (and the list could go on and on) begins with a thought. In psychology one may learn the theory of nature versus nurture, which argues that one acts and thinks the way he or she does because they were either born that way or taught that way. Our thoughts and thus our perceptions are influenced by both nature and nurture. We are moved by internal as well as external forces, and whether it be genetically, historically, or selfishly these forces are past down from generation to generation. Our senses and emotions are a reflection of our surroundings and our desires; yet our surroundings and desires are just a reflection of someone’s thoughts and perceptions turned into action whether they be one’s own or someone else’s. Negative thoughts and perceptions lead to negative actions and results. We must transform our thinking and perception into positive thinking and perception that will change the world for the better, producing positive and fruitful living. Throughout time people have accepted negativity, assimilating and following the example and desires of those in power, falling victim to selfishness the second major problem facing the world. According to dictionary.com selfishness is devoting to or caring only for one own self; concerned primarily with one’s own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others and is characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself. This is exactly what has occurred in our nation and in the world abroad. Throughout history people have been harmed, oppressed, exploited, mistreated and denied basic human and civil rights based on the selfishness and greed of others. The sad part is over time people are becoming more comfortable with society and the way things run. Because of selfish desire, ambition, and thoughts people do things that hurt others and sometimes even themselves, displaying a lack in self control. Negative things are hid behind the fact that as a whole we are prospering and advancing in knowledge, skill, understanding and money as a nation, but moral and the average individual is forgotten, living between minimum and middle class wages. This leads to poverty the third problem I feel is affecting our world. Poverty defined as the state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts; it is deficiency in amount; scantiness; and it is also unproductiveness; infertility. Poverty is definitely an issue world wide, and it’s sad. It is even worse that poverty exists in the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Poverty is high ,and a small percentage of the population holds most of the wealth due to selfishness. We not only have economic poverty such as the case for those without material needs for every day living but also physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual poverty as well. A lot of people live with poverty in more than one area at a time, and the root of poverty is selfishness. The root of selfishness is desire which is controlled by ones thoughts and perceptions. The control center for all of this is the mind. The mind is powerful and if you could change the mental state of a being, you can change their reality. By changing the mental state of a group of people, society is changed. I think I could personally do the most about perception. More specifically with aiding young African American women transcend our culture in a more positive way. I fully understand this courses plagiarism policy. No plagiarism will be tolerated under any circumstances, and if one is caught plagiarizing he or she will fail the course. According to Answer.com, the Merneptah Stele is a granite, stone, and standing tablet inscribed by Merneptah. Merneptah was the ruler of Egypt around the early 1200s BC. On the stone Merneptah basically states the nations he had defeated, including Israel. The stone describes Israel as, “wasted, bare of seed.” The stone is the first record of Israel cited by Egypt and in history. For this reason, Merneptah Stele pertains to Biblical Studies. The Israelites are God’s chosen people, which are talked about extensively in this course. The point of the Babe Ruth movie clips was to show how different people can have different accounts of the same event. This is based on their frame of reference, memory, and location. People describe and view things different based on their perception and background. For another real life example a person may see an 8 ounce glass filled with 4 ounces of water as half way full. Meanwhile someone else may see the same glass as half way empty. If the person is far away from the glass they may not think the glass is at the halfway mark at all but more or less. In the same way different persons seeing Babe Ruth hit a home run from different sides of the park with different frame of references and sense of perception describes it differently. There is no such thing as The Bible because The Bible is different for different groups. Depending on which religion and denomination one follows, the bible is composed of different books. The Jewish Bible consists of the strictly the Old Testament. The Christian Bible consists of the Old and New Testaments. The Catholic Bible includes the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha. The Muslim Bible is the Quran. Also the interpretation may vary among translations. Some meanings of words and thus passages are different among the Hebrew, Greek, German and other translations. The word bible simply means little books; and as stated above the number, name, and contents of the books a “Bible” may enclose is different for different religious sects.

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