To successfully complete this discussion, you will need to use the Strayer University library and/or the Internet to conduct independent research on the legal drinking age in the United States as compared to other countries.

The current legal drinking age in the United States is 21. After turning 21, people may lawfully consume alcohol. However, prior to 21, purchasing, possessing, or consuming alcohol is considered a criminal offense. Conversely, the legal voting age in the United States is 18; the legal driving age is 16.

Your reading this week introduced you to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the reticular activating system (RNS). These arousal systems, centered in the brain, influence our behavior. Medical science reports the brain does not fully develop until the age of 25. Specifically, “brain imaging studies show that in adolescents, the region of the brain implicated in decision making and risk assessment is still developmentally immature. At the same time, the part of the brain that plays a role in regulating pleasure and reward is relatively more active than in other periods of development.”

CNN reporting suggests findings consistent with medical science: “Teenagers are much more likely to take serious risks, especially when they are with their peers. They’re also less able to control their impulses in stressful or heated situations.” (1)

With this background information about adolescent brain development and the independent research you’ve conducted in mind, please respond to the following in a substantive post:

Determine whether the selection of the legal drinking age in the United States was an arbitrary decision or one based on facts.
Compare/contrast:
The legal drinking age in the United States with that of other countries.
Alcohol-related crimes in the United States with those of other countries.
Recommend what you think about the following and provide the rationale for your recommendations.
What should be the legal drinking age in the United States?
What constitutes an appropriate punishment for those who violate your recommended drinking age?
Provide full citations and references, formatted according to Strayer Writing Standards.
For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course.
Please respond substantively to at least one other post. Choose to respond to those who have few or no responses.

If possible, select someone who recommended a different legal drinking age from you:

What are the merits of your classmate’s argument? The criticisms?
What is something you still have a question about related to your classmate’s post?
What additional information could you recommend to your classmate about this issue?

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.

God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

This question has been answered.

Get Answer