Perfection Genetic engineering is neither good nor bad, but the outcome could be judged as one or the other (Dawkins, 1998). We, as a species, have been manipulating nature's gene pool since before recorded history, intentionally selecting for specific traits in food crops, flowers, trees, race horses, pets, our romantic partners, and for many of us, our friends. This human-mediated selection process represents a mechanism of evolution, one with significant

striving perfection. MUST To err is human. Although somewhat of a cliche, the aforementioned aphorism, like most aphorisms, contains a great deal of truth. Humanity is rooted in fundamental flaws whether they are of body, mind, or perhaps even of spirit. This notion is explored in detail in masterful raconteur Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birthmark." There is an innate striving of perfection on the part of a couple in

Hard Times In his novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens is not shy in confronting what he sees as the paramount social evils of his day, particularly when those evils come in the form of ostensibly beneficent social movements themselves. In particular, Dickens satirizes Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism through the characterization of Thomas Gradgrind and Josiah Bounderby as men of cold reason and hard facts, and uses the fates of the various characters

Com). There was nothing obscene about the beauty of David, not even in the eyes of Catholic Italy, and long after the wars of the Italian city-states have ended, the glory of David lingers in the mind. Chapter 3: Islamic detour It must not be forgotten that many great, artistically-inclined civilizations existed beyond that of the borders of West: for example, remember the Islamic world during the Middle Ages. But upon gazing

Walks in Beauty Perfection in Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" George Gordon, Lord Byron was a British poet and a founding leader of the Romanticism in literature. Byron's works are infused with his dichotomous persona. Byron has been described as, "[dark] and brilliant, melancholy and vivacious, overtly sexual and sexually ambiguous [whose] shadowy side…has attained the stature of such dangerously attractive figures as Casanova, the Marquis de Sade, and Rasputin" (Pesta

The extent of the good works achievable by humans is not enough in the eyes of God. However, justification by faith does not negate the role of the law. Indeed, Chapters 4-7 of Romans are devoted to explaining the role of the law in defining sin and consequently how Christ had to fulfill the letter of the law absolutely. Results of Justification One of the most important consequences of God's justification