The future of Nuclear Medicine Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The future of Nuclear Medicine - Research Paper Example Nuclear medicine provides Pico molar understanding and exclusive tracer specialty in the in-vivo learning of human pathophysiology for example intake of glucose, somatostatin expression and tissue perfusion. (Peter, 2002, 630) In contrast to anatomic imaging technology nuclear medicine has made great strides in the expansion of new radio-pharmaceuticals but has made little progress in imaging devices. One can define a Nuclear medicine technologist as an expert health care professional, who plays a fundamental part in the field of nuclear medicine or molecular imaging department and find ways to diagnose and treat illnesses. (Peter, 2002, 638) A nuclear medicine technologist works together with doctors, patients, nuclear pharmacists, computer experts, nurses and a number of other health care personnel. In some cases they may keep a direct contact with the patient; where they arrange, standardize and administer radiopharmaceuticals to the patient; they may also carry out different types of imaging procedures with the patient; for example, they may control imaging, lab and computer instrumentation; and looks after radiation protection of the surroundings. Technical progress in technologies such as ultrasound and multidetector CT are remarkable. Harmonic imaging of native tissue (without added contrast) with ultrasound is an example of this. Harmonic imaging detects the second harmonic of the transmitted ultrasound pulse rather than imaging the fundamental frequency. Harmonic imaging provides better contrast than fundamental imaging. Harmonic imaging has been applied to the heart to enhance delineation of lesions and perfusion. Strauss (2007) compared harmonic ECHO (with added echo contrast) to myocardial perfusion imaging with 99mTc–sestamibi at rest and pharmacological stress. In addition to ultrasound improvements in multidetector X-ray-computed tomography has made CT angiography a standard practice and enhanced the

Analysis Of Rayleigh Step Bearings Biology Essay

Analysis Of Rayleigh Step Bearings Biology Essay According to importance and application of slider bearings in industries, investigation and analysis of this type of bearings are significant and inevitable issue. A widely used bearing type is the slider bearings with application in many cases such as different types of engines, compressors, turbines, electric motors and electric generators. To ensure that no contact occurs between the opposing surfaces, the dimensions of the bearing surface are chosen, such that a lubricant film of sufficient thickness is available under all operating conditions. The classical theory of hydrodynamic lubrication assumes that the inertia forces in the fluid film are negligible. For large bearings using low kinematic viscosity lubricant or for high speed, the inertia forces could be important. So the inertia terms should be entered in the calculations. This increases the accuracy of obtained responses and closes them to reliable results. Rayleigh bearing is designed in 1918 by Lord Rayleigh. He was first person who considered the concept of optimization design in lubrication applications and obtained an optimum design for an infinite-length stepped bearing by the use of a variation technique (Lord Rayleigh, 1918). Since then, there have been some studies on the characteristics of step bearings. Dowson (1962) introduced the generalized Reynolds equation, which allows for cross-film temperature variations. Then, this equation solved with realistic THD boundary conditions by Ezzat and Rohde (1973) using the finite difference method. Boncompain, et al. (1986) improved the numerical model by considering reverse flow, fluid-film rupture and elastic deformations (THD solution). Auloge et al. (1983) studied the optimum design of Rayleigh step bearing and determined the relationships between step location and height along with non-Newtonian lubricants. The same method was used by Fillon and Khonsari (1996) in tracing design c harts for tilting-pad journal bearings. Jianming and Gaobing (1989) have presented the optimum design of one-dimensional Rayleigh step bearing with non-Newtonian lubricants. Tello (2003) has theoretically studied the regularity of the solution to the Reynolds equation in Rayleigh step type bearings for both compressible and incompressible fluids by employing a rigorous mathematical approach. Besides, there are many research works in which the well known Reynolds equation was solved by different numerical schemes in predicting the lubricant pressure field in step bearings (Hideki, 2005; Dobrica and Fillon, 2005). Rahmani et al. (2009) comprehensively studied the Rayleigh step slider bearing including the effect of variations of pressure at the boundaries on the optimum parameters. The bearing is also optimized considering the lubricant flow rate, friction force and friction coefficient. In all of the above studies, the Reynolds equation was solve as the governing equation for calculation of lubricant pressure distribution in bearing lubricant flow. This equation is a simplified form of the momentum equation by neglection of fluid inertia terms. It is clear that under the condition of low lubricant viscosity and high runner surface velocity, this equation may lead to unreliable results. In the present study which a numeric one, the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes and energy equations are solved by CFD method with considering the variation of lubricant viscosity with temperature. By this technique the THD characteristics of Rayleigh slider bearings running under different steady conditions are explored. 2. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION The schematic and coordinate system of Rayleigh slider bearing is shown in Fig. 1. The bottom wall of the step bearing moves with constant velocity U (runner velocity). The sudden change in film thickness generates a hydrodynamic pressure field that supports an applied load W. At the inlet section, the oil film is entered at 40oC with combination of Poiseuille and Couette flows. The total length of the bearing is and the film thicknesses before and after the step location are and , respectively. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSgeometryasli.wmf Fig. 1: Sketch of problem geometry Two important geometrical factors in step bearings are (1) (2) In these explanations, and represents the bearing length ratio and the bearing height ratio, respectively, which are two important bearing geometrical factors. 3. THEORY 3.1. Governing equations For lubricant flow in bearings, the governing equations which are written for a two-dimensional, steady, incompressible, laminar and variable viscosity flow consist of the continuity, Navier-Stokes and energy equations. These equations in non-dimensional forms can be written as: (3) (4) (5) (6) Where and represent the dimensionless viscous source terms: (7) (8) And is the dimensionless viscous dissipation term: (9) Also the dimensionless oil viscosity based on Vogel equation can be calculated as follows: (10) In this expression, is the temperature-viscosity coefficient of the lubricant. The value of can is determined using two given viscosity values at and as follows (Khonsari and Booser, 2008): (11) In equations 3 to 9, the following non-dimensional groups are used: (12) In these definitions, is the thermal diffusivity of the lubricant and is the inlet lubricant viscosity. The main physical quantities of interest in lubrication study are the load capacity and friction force that can be computed using the lubricant velocity and temperature fields. The load capacity of the step bearing per unit width is obtained by further integration of lubricant pressure distribution on the runner surface as follows: (13) The friction force of the step bearing per unit width is calculated by the shear stress on the bottom wall as follows: (14) Where: (15) 3.2. Boundary conditions The entire domain is fully flooded, such that oil pressure at the inlet and outlet sections of the bearing is set to zero atmospheric gauge pressure. Also the no-slip condition is employed on all boundary solid walls. At the inlet section, oil enters into bearing with uniform temperature of and a specified velocity distribution which is a combination of the poiseulle and cuette flows whose pressure gradient is determined by numerical solution of the Reynolds equation. At the outlet section, zero axial gradients for all dependent variables are employed. Finally, the adiabatic condition is imposed on all of the bearing solid surfaces. 4. SOLUTION PROCEDURE Finite difference forms of the continuity, momentum and energy equations were obtained by integrating over an elemental cell volume with staggered control volumes for the x- and y- velocity components. Other variables of interest were computed at the grid nodes. The nondimensionalized governing equations were discretized by using the hybrid scheme and numerically solved by the SIMPLE algorithm of Patankar and Spalding (Patankar and Spalding, 1972). Numerical solutions were obtained iteratively by the line-by-line method progressing in axial direction. The iterations were terminated when the sum of the absolute residuals was less than for each equation. Numerical calculations were performed by writing a computer program in FORTRAN. mesh asli11 Fig. 2: A schematic of grid generation As shown in figure 2, the computational domain is divided into three blocks, each having Nx points in x-direction and Ny points in y-direction. The mesh is non-uniform in x- and y- directions, because the grid refinement around the step is necessary to capture the occurrence of the recirculation and other flow changes due to the sudden change in geometry. As the result of grid tests for obtaining the grid-independent solutions, an optimum grid is determined in grid study. Five different numbers of grid size inside the total rectangular computational domain including the blocked-off region with their related numerical results are listed in Table 1. According to this grid study, an optimum grid of 640120 is used in all of the subsequent test cases. Table 1: Grid independent study, Grid size Bearing friction force (KN/m) Bearing load capacity (KN/m) 45080 0.231 16.45 540110 0.217 17.17 590110 0.231 17.48 640120 0.239 17.51 680140 0.241 17.52 5. VALIDATION OF NUMERICAL RESULTS To test the validity of the present numerical results, computations were carried out for a test case and the computed results were compared with the theoretical findings by other investigators. The lubricant pressure distribution on the bottom wall and the temperature distribution on the top wall of the Hideki bearing (Hideki, 2005) are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayervalidation with Ogata(temprature)Plot validation with OgataCJS.wmf Fig. 3: Lubricant pressure distribution on the bottom wall of the Hideki bearing (Hideki, 2005), The generated hydrodynamic pressure by the sudden contraction in flow domain is clearly seen in Fig. 3, such that at the entrance of narrow gap of the bearing, the maximum lubricant pressure occurs, and at the inlet and outlet sections, lubricant flow in at atmospheric pressure (zero gauge pressure). D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayervalidation with Ogata(temprature)Plot validation with OgataCJS temp.wmf Fig. 4: Temperature distribution on the top wall of the Hideki bearing (Hideki, 2005), Fig. 4 shows that the lubricant temperature increases along the flow direction because of the viscous dissipation in both domains upstream and downstream of the step. Such that, the rate of temperature increase in upstream region to the step is very greater than that is in downstream domain. It is due to this fact that the viscous dissipation in lubricant flow with small film thickness is high in comparison to lubricant flow with large film thickness. However, good consistencies are observed between the present numerical results with theoretical findings by Hideki (Hideki, 2005) about computations of both lubricant pressure and temperature distributions. 6. RESULT AND DISCUSSION In this research work, the THD characteristics of Rayleigh step bearings are obtained by numerical solution of the Navier-Stocks and energy equations using the CFD technique. An attempt is made for obtaining the effects of important parameters including the runner surface velocity, bearing length ratio and bearing height ratio on thermal and hydrodynamic behaviors of Rayleigh step bearings. All of the subsequent figures are about a Rayleigh step bearing whose properties and geometrical parameters are given in Table 2. Table 2: Bearing parameters and lubricant properties Parameters Units Values in present work b m 0.08-0.12 h1  µm 480 U m/s 10-30 Tin 40 Ï  860 Cp 2000 Kf 0.13  µ at 40 C 0.03  µ at 100 C 0.0045 0.28-0.98 1.2-2.5 First the oil flow pattern inside the bearing is shown in figure 5 by plotting the fluid velocity vectors. The adverse pressure gradient in the upstream flow domain before the step location which leads to hydrodynamic pressure generation causes a concave shape for velocity distribution. Such that the velocity distribution changes to convex shape after the step where there is a favorable pressure gradient. Behind the step surface near to the stationary wall, a circulated flow domain happens which is due to the effects of both viscous friction and positive pressure gradient in this region. As another result that can be seen from Fig. 5, one can notice to almost stationary flow region in block 1 (see Fig. 2). Therefore, the lubricant average velocity across blocks 2 and 3 remains approximately constant. C:UserszahraDesktopUntitled.png Fig. 5: Velocity vectors in step bearing lubricant flow, In Fig. 6, the lubricant pressure distributions along the bottom wall at five different values for the runner surface velocity are shown. It is seen that the velocity of moving surface has considerable effect on the value of generate hydrodynamic lubricant pressure, such that oil pressure has an increase trend by increase in velocity under a unique pattern. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of PKcompare of speed runner.pkspeed runner.wmf Fig. 6: Effect of runner surface velocity on lubricant pressure distribution along the bottom wall, A similar study is done for investigating the effect of runner velocity on thermal behaviour of step bearing in Fig. 7. It is seen in this figure that bearings with high runner surface velocity operate under high temperature condition. Besides, it is depicted in Fig. 7 that in both domains before and after the step, lubricant temperature increases along the flow direction because of the viscous dissipation. Also, it is seen that the oil temperature at the outlet section is affected strongly by the runner velocity, such that the bearings with high velocity have high temperature lubricant flow at their outlet sections. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of TPcompare speed of runner.TpTshaftTshaft.wmf Fig. 7: Effect of runner surface velocity on lubricant temperature distribution along the bottom wall, D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of PKcompare of epsilonepsilon.wmf Fig. 8: Effect of bearing length ratio on lubricant pressure distribution along the runner surface, The lubricant pressure distributions along the runner surface at four different values of the bearing length ratios are illustrated in Fig. 8. It is evident that the location of maximum pressure moves toward the downstream side by increasing in bearing length ratio, because the step location moves toward this sense when increases. Besides, it can be found from Fig. 8 that there is an optimum value for bearing length ratio to obtain the most value for lubricant maximum hydrodynamic pressure. It is depicted in Fig. 8 that this value for bearing length ratio in this test case is. Therefore, is an important parameter in step bearings that has great effects on lubricant pressure and consequently in bearing load capacity. The effect of bearing length ratio of thermal behavior of step bearing is studied in Fig. 9 by plotting the lubricant temperature distributions on the runner surface for bearings with different length ratios. This figure shows that the effect of on temperature distribution is less than its effect of the hydrodynamic lubricant pressure. However, this figure depicts that bearings with length ratio greater that run cooler than the bearings with small less than. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of TPcompare of epsilonCompare Tshaft of epsilonTshaft.wmf Fig. 9: Effect of bearing length ration on lubricant temperature distribution along the runner surface, The variations of lubricant maximum pressure and temperature with bearing length ratio are presented in Fig. 10. This figure reveals the same trends for THD characteristics of step bearing those have been shown in the previous figures. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Epsilon moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)compare of ep.P.T.wmf Fig. 10: Variations of lubricant maximum pressure and lubricant maximum temperature with bearing length ratio, In order to study more about the effect of bearing length ratio on THD characteristics of step bearings, the variations of bearing load capacity and friction force with are plotted in Fig. 11. This figure presents that there is a maximum value for load capacity that takes place at =0.718. Besides, it is revealed from Fig. 11 that in bearings with high length ratio, low friction force exists in comparison to bearings with small values for . D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Epsilon moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)compare of ep.w.f.wmf Fig. 11: Variations of load capacity and friction force with bearing length ratio, Similar study is also done for investigating the effect of bearing height ratio on THD characteristics of step bearings by plotting the lubricant pressure and temperature distributions and also the variations of load capacity and friction force with various values of the parameter . According to Figs. 12 and 13, it is revealed that the values of lubricant pressure and temperature increase by increasing in bearing height ratio. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of PKcompare of ksiksi.wmf Fig. 12: Effect of bearing height ratio on lubricant pressure distribution along the runner surface, D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of TPcompare of ksiCompare Tshaft of kesiTshaft.wmf Fig. 13: Effect of bearing height ration on lubricant temperature distribution along the runner surface, This behavior is also presented by Fig. 14 in which the variations of maximum lubricant pressure and temperature are plotted with bearing height ratio. It is seen that both and have increasing trends with increase in the value of , such that the rate of increase in maximum temperature is greater than that is in maximum pressure. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Kesi moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)compare of ksi.P.T.wmf Fig. 14: Variations of lubricant maximum pressure and lubricant maximum temperature with bearing height ratio, Fig. 15 shows a similar trend for bearing load capacity and friction force with the variation of height ratio. Such that it is seen in this figure that both load capacity and friction force increase with increasing in bearing height ratio. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Kesi moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)compare of ksi.W.F.wmf Fig. 15: Variations of load capacity and friction force with bearing height ratio, In the following figures, an attempt is made to verify the influences of bearing length, b, on the THD characteristics of step bearings. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTScompare of PKcompare of length bearingcpmpare b.wmf Fig. 16: Effect of bearing length on lubricant pressure distribution along the bottom wall, D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Lenght moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)TshaftTshaft.wmf Fig. 17: Effect of bearing length on lubricant temperature distribution along the bottom wall, It is seen from Figs. 16 to 19 that in long bearings, the values of lubricant pressure and temperature and consequently the amounts of maximum pressure and temperature are high that leads to have high bearing load capacity and bearing friction force. D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Lenght moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)compare of length.p,T.without point.wmf Fig. 18: Variations of lubricant maximum pressure and lubricant maximum temperature with bearing length, D:payanameThermohydrodynamic with subroutin.mesh moteghayerPLOTSplot Lenght moteghayer(W.F.eta.etam)compare of length.w,f.without point.wmf Fig. 19: Variations of load capacity and friction force with bearing length, 7. CONCLUSION This paper deals a numerical study for investigating the THD characteristics of Rayleigh step bearings running under different steady conditions. The set of governing equations consisting of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations is solved by the CFD technique and the variation of lubricant viscosity with temperature is also considered into account. This mathematical model and numerical method lead to more accurate numerical results in comparison to those obtained before by other investigation with numerical solution of the Reynolds equation that neglects the fluid inertia terms. It is found that the thermal and hydrodynamic behaviors of step bearing are affected considerably by the runner surface velocity and the bearing geometrical factors. Nomenclature B bearing length dimensionless velocity components upstream bearing length load capacity of bearing downstream bearing length horizontal and vertical coordinates Cp heat capacity dimensionless coordinates friction force of bearing upstream film thickness Greek symbols downstream film thickness friction coefficient step height modified friction coefficient Kf thermal conductivity dynamic viscosity width of bearing dimensionless dynamic viscosity origin of coordinate  µ1 dynamic viscosity at pressure  µ2 dynamic viscosity at pressure at the inlet kinematic viscosity pressure at the outlet density dimensionless pressure shear stress Pr Prandtl number Pe Peclet number Subscripts Re Reynolds number fluid Temperature inlet Tin inlet temperature maximum dimensionless temperature surface runner velocity velocity components

Abington VS/ Schempp :: Free Essay Writer

Abington School District vs. Schempp Required School Prayer   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1949, a state-wide law was passed in Pennsylvania that required public school students to read scriptures from the Bible and recite the Lord’s Prayer everyday in class. This law stayed intact until Edward Schempp challenged it nine years later. Pennsylvania wasn’t the first or the only state to enforce law making it mandatory for students to read from the Bible during school. Twenty-five additional states had laws allowing â€Å"optional† reading for the Bible. But in eleven of the twenty-five states, courts had decided those laws were unconstitutional.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mr. Schempp took the case to court in to 1958, claiming that required reading for the Bible and recitation of the Lord’s Pray prohibited free exercise of religion for his children, and was therefore unconstitutional, under the First Amendment. Mr. Schempp son, Ellory, stated under oath, that he didn’t not believe in Jesus Christ, or the Christian beliefs. He testified that ideas opposing to his were presented to him while he was at school in Abington High. He received punishment because he refused to stand at attention during the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and when requested to leave during the exercise, his demands were denied.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the greatest witnesses was Rabbi Dr. Solomon Grayzel. Dr. Grayzel explained the psychological harm that could come from reading the New Testament without explanation. The context of the New Testament, without explanation of the work, had caused grievances in Jewish children while in similar required situations. This also came to show that if a Jewish child could be offended and upset by the Bible reading, any child of a family rejecting the principles of the Trinity and Jesus Christ would be equally offended, to the point that reading the Bible could be considered blasphemous.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In argument for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, they said that reading the Bible not only was essential to the building of good morals and development of the minds of impressionable school children, it was free to be interpreted anyway because of lack of comment and explanation. They claimed that the Bible was not a religious work, but when viewed from the eyes of a Christian, it did express the message of Christianity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This case bounced back and forth between Supreme Court and district court before eventually ending in 1963. Abington school district appealed to the Supreme Court after it was not satisfied with the verdict at district court level.

Corruption in Malaysia

I have oral test with my group on next weak and I have found this text on internet? Composition of Forum Example Essay Title: Corruption Chairman of the Forum: greetings. The teachers and classmates. As of this morning we are thankful for another opportunity to discuss social problems which I think is more chronic in the absence of drastic measures taken to address them. Without delay time, let me introduce the panel members, which left me was his right split B and C are the relative Title of the forum this morning is â€Å"the problem of corruption inMalaysia. † Next, I call our first panel, the relative B provides definitions of corruption and its characteristics. Brother B: hi and thank you chairman. Web-based anti-corruption commission (MAC), corruption is an act that involves giving and receiving of money or specific goods with intent to prevent the action taken or receive privileges. Corrupt practices involving all levels of society whether in public or private sector. W hich kind of support will be in the form of material, such as money, cars and houses, and forms of entertainment such as women.Brother C: According to the Prime Minister, Dates Series Abdullah Madam Bawd described the corruption as a cancer and if left unchecked will cause a government collapse and thereby tarnish the image in the eyes of the international. Chairman: We have been clear on the issue of corruption. Now what are the opinions of our panel members about the causes of corruption? Brother B: My chairman. Let me put in a bit. The main cause is peer influence. When I saw my colleagues being corrupt and enjoy the luxuries of life without any action, a person would be tempted to accept bribes.Stress at work is able to interfere with feelings, especially if senior officers were also involved. Without thinking, one that will be easily affected and were corrupt because they want to quickly enjoy the luxury of living in this mortal world. Chairman: C Maybe you want to add an opini on on the cause of corruption? Brother C: Chairman, I agree with you B. In addition, the law in our country are causing many poor people are not afraid of the punishment imposed.For example, legal action is considered a light punishment to the culprits of corruption as impaired with the number of corruption are taken by them have given a negative outlook on the capabilities of our Judicial system to address this issue. In addition, the lighter sentence is said to be motivated to certain parties to take the risk of corruption because the recipient is aware that coffee money they are able to enjoy Chairman: Thank you C, I hope we can all work together to prevent corruption and do not embarkation rooted in the minds of the people of Malaysia. Moreover, the problem is more serious.What is his relation to B steps to overcome? Brother B: Government should Meghan attitude of civil servants and the private for more trust and responsibility. The slogan â€Å"Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy † introduced by former Prime Minister Tuna Dry. Empathic Mohammad should be embraced by all public and private sector. Service counters have been introduced in all government offices to avoid the practice of giving and receiving â€Å"coffee money. † Bureaucracy should also be reduced or eliminated to create more efficient and effective. This was never raised by the Honorable Prime Minister in his speech in Parliament recently.Chairman: Thank you B. It appears that you have something to C is pronounced. Please. Brother C: The government should enforce laws for the public aware of how dangerous and serious problem of corruption, if not eradicated, and are confined to national security. Penalties are more severe Jail terms provided in the Anti- Corruption Commission (MAC) 2009 Parliament passed the new recently slogan can be daunting. The court also suggested that the maximum punishment. More power to act against people who refuse to cooperate den the MAC also can change the attitude of the hemp that has refused to cooperate.Whistler's should be rewarded. They should also get protection from the authorities. Chairman: Thank you C, and I think we are at the end of the forum. In summary, I think the problem of corruption in our country is a serious problem and needs to be addressed immediately. Therefore, I urge all parties to helping the government address this problem. In addition, let me express my gratitude to the highest members of the panel. However, what could I do not allow us time to talk further. Thank you. Is there any wrong word or sentences in this essays? Please help me.. BTW I'm from Malaysia

David Hocking’s book The Nature of God in Plain Language Essay

It has to be said that the concept of trust has taken quite a hammering in society in the past twenty years.   During this time we have seen a host of previously considered â€Å"credible† people such as politicians, priests, childcare workers, teachers, babysitters and more exposed in the media as liars, cheats and criminals so is it any wonder that we might have trouble believing in an entity that has never actually been seen by anyone – someone like God for example.   David Hocking examines this issue of trust in relation to faith in his book The Nature of God in Plain Language.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the key factors illustrated in Hocking’s book is the fact that the Bible clearly states that God made man â€Å"in his own image†, so therefore God should be viewed as we might view other people around us, or perhaps more specifically in the way we view ourselves.  Ã‚   Hocking makes it clear that God is not some form of â€Å"force† but that instead he can be viewed to be a person like us, and therefore if we want to learn more about God then we can learn about him through looking at ourselves.   Hocking writes, â€Å"He possesses life, self-consciousness, freedom, purpose, intelligence and emotion† (65). One of the problems that stems from this viewpoint is that many people walk around with a very low opinion of themselves so it might be difficult to understand that while God is not ‘better’ than us, and therefore be considered as some paragon of perfection, he is an image of the very â€Å"best† that we could be to ourselves, for ourselves and to others. Hocking reinforces the fact about being a â€Å"friend of God† and points to the example of Abraham in the Old Testament who is cited as being a person who did look upon God, and did consider God to be his friend. We are not capable of being friends with a force, or source of higher power, which is why it is important for non-believers to understand that God does have elements of humanity, which we as humans share.   But the distance that is often perceived between God and man does help perpetuate the elements of mistrust about God as a creator of life, God as a loving father and God as the keeper of all men, especially if our own experience with trusting other human individuals has left us so cynical or jaded about the good in mankind Hocking believes that our growing cynicism is why trust is such an important concept when discussing a relationship with God. We should be able to trust our friends, our partners, and our family and this same trust needs to be found in God if he is to provide a positive influence in our own lives. Hocking illustrates the common problem we have as trusting individual’s when he explains about a woman that had been abused and let down continually by the significant people in her life including her parents that placed her in an institution, to friends and significant others she met throughout her life.   If she had been let down by so many people in her life it would be virtually impossible for her to consider that an unseen and unknown friend like God could care for a person he had never physically met, at least in her eyes, and is apparently unknown to her. Hocking believes this lack of trust can be overcome through three main factors that should be indicators of a whether or not a person might be trustworthy.   These three elements, telling the truth, doing what is right and fair, and being reliable, should provide the standards we measure the trustworthy nature of our friends and family, and Hocking explains how these same three factors can influence the level of trust we might have in God. The Bible illustrates countless examples of where God has proven himself in terms of these three measures of trustworthiness.   Hocking describes God as being â€Å"morally pure† and therefore it would be impossible for God to lie, to be unfair or be someone that could not be depended on.   Hocking refers to the Old Testament that showed how the people of Israel came to trust in God as they walked through the desert, and the New Testament that supported the fact that God could be counted on as a faithful being and one who is always with us.   If these ideas can be understood by an individual then with the passage of time it would be possible for all of us to trust in the one being that will never let us down. Hocking’s viewpoint on God being an accessible, trustworthy and righteous being, who can have influence on an individual in modern life is not a new concept, but understanding the importance of understanding ourselves so that we may understand God more clearly is not a common idea.   Many religious based Churches strive to create a distance between God and man and use concepts such as man’s inclination to sin on earth and generally be considered unworthy in God’s eyes as a way to maintain that distance. The fact that this distance between God and ourselves only serves the purpose of the Church as a governing body, rather than the individual is often overlooked by many theologians, but Hocking, despite his own religious affiliations, seeks to strip away the negative perceptions that the Church has upheld about man and God throughout the ages and instead paves the way for a life that can be had by any individual who could understand that God can be a friend in every sense of the word. The one stumbling block to this level of understanding is the level of mistrust that is perpetuated in modern society between individuals and groups.   The central premise of Hocking’s book is that to know God we have to know ourselves; to understand God we have to understand ourselves as individuals and to trust in God, we need to trust in others and ourselves.   Stripped of religious hype and forewarnings of doom and gloom that is often manifested by Church groups worldwide, Hocking’s book shows us that it is possible to have a relationship with our Lord, and that this relationship can be based on trust, regardless of the actions of others in our lives. Works Cited Hocking, David.   The Nature of God in Plain Language, Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1984