The Place of Rationalism in Greek, Buddhist Philosophies and Hebrew Scriptures - Assignment Example

Answer a) According to Hebrew Scriptures, God is One and He is the creator of this universe. He existed before all his creation and created heaven and earth from nothing. Therefore, Jehovah the Hebrew God is all powerful and omniscient. He is timeless and exists through his creations everywhere. He is immortal and has the sovereign power over all his creation (Genesis 1-2). They all are governed by His set of rules. While He demands that his orders be obeyed and punishes them for sinning but at the same time, He is also compassionate and forgives those who repent. God created man ‘in his image’ (Genesis 1.1) so that his beautiful creation, the earth could be inhabited. Man is mortal and must live by the God’s covenants. He is liable to be punished if he goes against God’s wishes and rewarded when he spreads Gods wishes. Though man can make rules but his rules cannot override that of God. Answer 1 (b) In Homer’s Iliad there is more than one God. Though the Gods are immortal but they have all the failings of a man. They are ambitious and greedy. They also intervene in human relationships and take part in wars. They can be easily called for help by their followers where their participation can wreck havoc on the enemies. In Iliad, Achilles is the son of Goddess Thetis. God Apollo is incensed and sends plague against the Greeks, when his priest’s daughter Chryses is given away as prize to Agememnon in the battle of Troy. Achilles withdraws from the battle on the advice of his mother, when his concubine Briseis is taken by Agamemnon. Hence, through Homer’s Iliad, one can surmise that divine powers of Gods can be called by men as and when required when the man makes regular sacrifices to his God. The only difference between The God and the Man being that the man is mortal and meets his death whereas Greek Gods are immortal with divine powers. Answer 3 Covenant is normally an agreement or contract between two parties involved. In religious context, covenant refers to the promise of God to Abraham that he would have a land to himself (Genesis 12) and he would be blessed to have numerous descendents to carry on his name and traditions. God said "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be"(Genesis 15). They are unique among the nations of Abraham’s day in the sense that Abraham represented God’s wishes and carried them by being a good leader and disbursing justice to his people. His sense of justice can be seen when he tell King of Sodom “I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share" (Genesis 14). Moses was a descendent of Abraham and Abraham’s Covenants were being fulfilled through Moses. Moses had brought his people safely from Pharaoh’s wrath to a land, across the sea, which was later granted to him and his people. Moses received Ten Commandments on the Mount Sinai, which were also known as moral and ethical code of conducts for the people to follow in their life. The Ten Commandments comprised of the existence of only One God; respect for parents and neighbors; no idol worship; no work on Sabbath day; no adultery or stealing or false testimony against anybody; no killing of people and sinners would be appropriately punished (Exodus 20). The Ten Commandments thus provided basic principles of living while Abraham’s Covenants were God’s agreement to provide Abraham with a land and numerous descendents. Answer 5 In Hebrew Scripture, God is a supreme being who is not only The Creator of the universe but He also exemplifies the innate goodness and righteousness. The God has created Man in His image, He, therefore, wants man to follow in his steps of being a pious and good person. The Ten Commandments are His way of providing the humanity with a set of moral and ethical codes of conduct through which the human beings can lead a good life. The God represents perfection and hence every man strives to follow the Ten Commandments in order to come as near to God as possible. Buddhist philosophy emphasizes on the fact that everything on this earth is transitory. Life is a cycle of birth and death and death is the only truth in life. Lord Buddha was extremely disturbed by the sufferings of the man in the endless cycle of life and death. He therefore, meditated and attained enlightenment and delivered his first sermons which told the human beings, how to overcome the sufferings and attain eternal happiness. According to Boddha preachings, a man desiring happiness ends with being unhappy because of his selfishness and ego. A man with evil thoughts begets unhappiness and a man whose actions speak of his good thoughts and selflessness is bestowed with pleasure and joy. It therefore follows that any man who emulates a good man in his thought and actions, is relieved of his sufferings and attains Nirvana or enlightenment. Contrary to above two religious philosophies, the Greek Gods do not epitomize ideological Goodness and perfection. The Greek Gods, apart from being immortal with divine powers, seem to encompass all the shortcomings of a mere mortal and are not averse to participating in their individual war of vendetta. They are also easily pleased when their followers make sacrifices to call them for favors and the Gods bestow them irrespective of merits. One can therefore surmise that so far as Greeks and their Gods are concerned, it is possible for individuals to have ethical codes of behaviour without basing them on the ideologies represented by deities. Answer 7 Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher who advocated the philosophy of constant change and the unity of opposites. He said that everything is in the process of change and the changes are based on certain reasons or logos as Heraclitus called them. According to Heraclitus’ logos of unity, everything on earth is actually made up of two opposite things which together appear as one single entity and they are constantly changing places so as to appear as two different things. It is significant to note that two faces of the same things cannot appear at the same time so they seem as two different entities. It is thus an illusion that we call one single entity by two different names. An important example is that of day and night. One appears only when the other vanishes. We cannot see both day and night at the same time so in effect, one single event, under the process of constant change, is known by two different names. The concept of ‘logos’ was transcendent in nature and even though not explained by Heraclitus, appealed to the religious theologists especially Jewish philosopher like Philo of Alexandria who frequently used the word ‘logo’ in his treatises on Hebrew Scriptures and connected the word with the wisdom of God. The author of fourth Gospel also uses the word ‘logo’ with reference to God and His angels. “On those who step in the same river, different and different waters flow…”(internet) is the most famous saying of Heraclitus. It has been interpreted in various ways but basically implies that the world is like a river which though constant, is perpetually changing due to its constant flow. The world too, appears to be constant but in effect, it is constantly changing. Parmenides, another Greek philosopher, strongly contradicts Heraclitus and espouses the theory of rationalism and says that the world is unchanging and indestructible. His philosophies are explained through his poem ‘On Nature’ which is narrated by a person who walks down a trodden path in search of nature of reality which is revealed to him by an unknown Goddess. “..And, if it came from nothing, what need could have made it arise later rather than sooner? Therefore must it either be altogether or be not at all..” (internet). Parmenides rationalizes the existence of things and says that one can only talk about things which exist. One can ‘Think’ about things, that is. ‘Thinking’ cannot think about nothing because thinking must have an object to think about so it infers that one cannot think about things that do not exist. According to Parmenides, world is unchanging because if something comes out of something else, then it comes because it was already in existence and if it comes into being from nothing then it’s very existence is in doubt because ‘nothing’ does not exist so the new thing that has supposedly come into being from ‘nothing’ also does not exist. He therefore concludes that if things exist then they have existed eternally and will do so in the future also. In other words, things that exist are indestructible by nature and therefore, unchangeable. Parmenides philosophy conforms to the scientific theory of matter being indestructible but his arguments to support the scientific truth of the theory lack conviction and proof. It is equally true that Parmenides, while expounding on his philosophy was doing so in context to the meta physical existence of the ‘being’ and not necessarily trying give a scientific base to his philosophy. Heraclitus’s theory, also has some scientific truth regarding the composition of matter but as explained earlier, both the philosophers were talking about things which are beyond the realm of scientific explanations. I personally agree in part with Heraclitus theory that everything that exists is actually made up of two opposite entities that together give the impression of a single identity and it is equally true that the world is in the process of constant change and one needs to adapt to the changing environment in order to live happily. Reference Hebrew Scripture: Exodus. 10 October 2007 Hebrew Scripture: Genesis. 10 October 2007 Greek Philosophy: Heraclitus. 10 October 2007 Parmenides. 10 October 2007 Read More