Section I: Population around the World
A. List the 10 Countries with the largest population (rank from largest to smallest) for 2020
(5 points)
Country Population (in millions)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
B. List the 10 Countries with the largest population (rank from largest to smallest) for 2050
(5 points)
Country Population (in millions)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
C. Please list and describe at least five changes you see across time in the above tables. (10 points)
Section II: Fertility Rates around the World
Highest and Lowest Fertility Rates
D. List the Total Population (2020) and Total Fertility Rates (TFR) for the following continents/regions (10 points)
Region Total
Population
(in millions) TFR
2015-20 TFR
2025-30 TFR
2045-50
Ex Africa 1,341 4.44 3.89 3.07
1. Asia
2. Europe
3. Latin America and Caribbean
4. Northern America
5. Oceania
E. Are there regional/continental patterns to the total fertility rate list? If so, what are they? (10 points)
Section III: Africa Population Characteristics
We will discuss these troubling times for Africa in terms of health and low life expectancy, but when we examine specific regions of Africa, there are vast differences between regions (and even within countries in those regions).
Please complete this table.
F. List the Total Population (2020) and the other population statistics (2015-20) for the following regions as well as the USA. (5 points)
Region Total
Population
(in millions) TFR IMR CBR
CDR
Ex Africa 1,341 4.44 47 33.6 8.2
1 Northern Africa
2 Sub-Saharan Africa
3 Western Africa
4 Eastern Africa
5 Middle Africa
6 Southern Africa
7 United States of America
*TFR = Total Fertility Rate; IMR = Infant Mortality Rate;
CBR = Crude Birth Rate; CDR = Crude Death Rate
G. Please describe and discuss at least three surprising results from the table above. (5 points)
H. When viewing the rates of family planning methods, where you surprised at the percentages? Why or why not? (1 points for first answer, 4 points for reasoning)
I. Which region of Africa listed above, would you want to see a population campaign target and why? Think about the various campaigns that were posted (India, South Korea, or even suggest your own ideas!) along with the data that you have from the population sheet. (10 points)
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 Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
