Philosophy of Religion of Ancient Israelites - Essay Example

Philosophy of Religion of Ancient Israelites Part A The ancient Israelites considered the universe to be a flat disc-shaped earth that floated on water, with the underworld below it and heaven above it (Scott, 2009). At the time of Jesus or some time before, the Greek view that matter had been created by God replaced the older perspective that matter had always been in existence in a state that was chaotic. This idea is the accepted orthodoxy in majority of the denominations of Christianity and Judaism which claim that one uncreated God created the entire cosmos. In Genesis, there is a declaration of the revelation of the deliberate cause of the cosmos and this is complete contrast with the position held by atheism that the cosmos has always been in existed or that it developed out of nothing. Genesis states that God created matter, order as well as life within the cosmos and the first chapter reveals the order of creation supernaturally. Therefore, as far as Christianity is concerned, the Bible already reveals the aspects that science is discovering and the first verses of the book of Genesis are against seven of humanity’s false philosophies. Further, the teachings of Islam state that the universe, including man and the physical environment if the earth, was created by God. According to Islam, the ultimate goal is visualizing the cosmos like a book of symbols for mediating and contemplating an uplifting of spirits or a binding from which the soul of human beings have to escape in order to achieve actual freedom in their spiritual journey towards God (Tymieniecka & Muhtaroglu, 2010). On the other hand the Hindu timeline and cosmology can be considered as the closest to the contemporary scientific timelines and might demonstrate that the Big Bang was not the beginning but a commencement of the current cycle that came before an infinite universe that may be followed by other vast universes (Rinehart, 2004). In the Hindu concept, the Rig Veda questions where the cosmos originated from and is perception of the cosmos also considers one actual divine ideology that is self-protecting such as Vaak, which is a divine word that means “birthing the cosmos”. The Hindu concept considers Brahma as the creator, whom God created and the universe is seen as constantly expanding from the moment it was created and disappearing into a haze in billions of years. The Laws of Manu are a compilation response to the flood and sought to educate all the people in the society about the manner in which they can lead their lives in an organized manner and be in a position to deal with disasters in the future. Manu further sought to develop a description of the origins of the cosmos even though his Laws do not necessarily imply that the universe did not initially exist. On the contrary, it implies that from the start, the universe was in a state of sleep and was covered in complete darkness Monotheistic religions are required to address the issue of evil and suffering in the context of the mercy and power of God, and in Islam, there are two perceptions of suffering and evil which are similar to those held by Christianity and Judaism, where suffering is a test or a painful result of sin. As far as Islam is concerned, suffering is a test of belief and a true Muslim remains faithful even when going through life’s trials. Fabric is inherent in the fabric of existence in order to enable God to see the people who are really righteous, implying that God allows the struggles of life while at the same time having a purpose. Suffering and evil is supposed to make the soul more open so that it can be revealed to God in order to allow Him to test the character of human beings and correct those who do not believe. As far as Christianity is concerned, evil is any thought, action or attitude which is contravenes God’s will or character and is demonstrated through laws given in the Old and New Testaments. According to Christian worldview, evil is in conflict and in contrast with the character of God and demonstrates itself through deviation from this character. On the other hand, Judaism does not consider evil as real and is not a component of the creation of God since it exists through the bad actions of human beings. The Jews believe that human beings regardless of their faith are free to choose bad or good while stressing the adherence to God’s commandments. Additionally, in the faith, evil is not personified in satan as it considers satan as an angel serving as an accuser in the heavenly court, tasked with testing human beings. Further, the concept of absolte evil does not exist in Islam, particularly as a basic universal ideology that is autonomous from and similar to good in a dualistic view. In Islam, it is extremely important to believe that all things come from Allah, regardless of whether they are considered good or evil by human beings, while the things that are seen as evil are a result of individual’s liberty to be disobedient or as a result of natural occurrences. Lastly, in the Hindu religion, the ideology of righteousness makes a clear division of the world into good and bad while clearly explaining that wars should be waged in some instances as a means of establishing and protecting righteousness. This separation of good and evil is extremely significant in Mahabharata and Ramayana, but the key emphasis in the Hindu religion is evil actions instead of the people who commit them. Part B The cosmological ideology is that the perception that the existence of the cosmos is critical evidence that God who created it exists. According to the argument, the universe’s existence stands to be explained and the only sufficient elucidation of its existence is that God was responsible for its creation (Basu, 1997). Similar to majority of arguments that support the existence of God, the cosmological ideology exists in a number of forms with the main differentiating factor between them being the manner in which they evade initial objections to the arguments. The Buddhist faith seeks self-enlightenment without necessarily acknowledging that a god exists since the cornerstone of the Buddhist faith is the perception that life is entirely comprised of suffering. In Buddhism, everyone is subjected to the trauma of birth, illness, disrepair and death, particularly the body’s desire as well as the desire to become personally fulfilled. In this sense, happiness may be attained only when an individual is able to overcome this desires and this obligates the following of an eight-fold path (Gupta, 2000). Through following this path, a Buddhists is able to achieve nirvana which is a condition that has surpasses the limitations of feelings and mind, therefore providing a state of bliss. These are the critical dissimilarities between Christianity and Buddhism that make any endeavors to reconcile the ideologies of the two faiths difficult. The worldview of the Buddhist faith is fundamentally monistic where the existence of God and the personal creator is denied and the world is considered to exist by natural laws and power with any divine commands. Hinduism can be perceive as a philosophy and at the same time a religion, and among the different schools of the faith’s philosophy, Mimamsa, Samkhya and Yoga, while they do not reject Vedas, they reject a creator God, a personal God or a God who has attributes. Even though Yoga and Samkhya rejected the concept of a self-caused, eternal, creator God, Mimamsa argues that there is no way the Vedas were written by a deity being. Even though some schools of thought consider the ways of the atheist as being challenging to follow in regards to spirituality, it remains valid and the Hindu atheists take Hinduism more as a way of life than as a religion. According to Mimamsas, there was no need for postulation of a maker of the world, in the same manner that there was no need for the writer to come up with a composition of the Vedas. Furthermore, they perceived that the Gods who are mentioned in the Vedas did not exist physically apart from the mantras which mention their titles. In this sense, the mantras power was what was considered as the Gods’ power and Mimamsas thought that an intangible God was not in a position to write the Vedas since he does not posses any speech organs to speak words. In their view, an embodied God is not able to write the Veda since the God would have to contend with natural challenges of sensory knowledge and thus will not have the ability to come up with supernatural revelations such as the Vedas. References Basu, B. (1997). An introduction to astrophysics. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India. Gupta, N. (2000). Human values in education. New Delhi: Concept Pub. Co. Neusner, J. (2007). Evil and suffering. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. Rinehart, R. (2004). Contemporary Hinduism. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. Scott, E. (2009). Evolution vs. creationism. Berkeley: University of California Press. Tymieniecka, A., & Muhtaroglu, N. (2010). Classic issues in Islamic philosophy and theology today. Dordrecht: Springer. Read More