Arguing the Existence of God What is God? Where did God come from? While I am sure no one can know, without a trace of doubt, of how what we know as God came to be; I can, at the very least, examine what knowledge we've collectively gathered of the history of the human race and make assumptions based upon my own sense of logic. Now to begin, we shall start at the first sculpture of a “god”, the Aurignacian Lionman of the Hohlenstein Stadel, which is the oldest known zoomorphic sculpture in the world and which is believed to represent a deity. This sculpture dates back to 38,000 BCE meaning that the species of human which were showing signs of a god were neanderthals and the newly established race of the Cro-Magnons. So now we know at least of the people who were the original (to our knowledge) creators of the concept of a god; they were incredibly primitive, the concept of fishing being the major technological advance of their age. It can be assumed that these primitive human beings were not endowed with vast intellectual capabilities nor armed with the concept of the scientific method. If you can try, to place yourself in the position of a Cro-Magnon, part of a small tribe of Cro-Magnons, constantly moving from location to location in the search of food. Imagine, if you will, of how the results of your next hunt would determine whether your small tribe would starve, imagine if your day to day life was a constant struggle of survival, you could assume that you would not have a lot of time to dedicate towards understanding the natural phenomenon you would see every day. You can see that the sun rises every day and that it sets, but what is the sun? It is an intangible object that you can only see from a distance, you have no concept of what drives the sun, why it is what it is. You would begin to question the sun, to wonder why you can never catch up to it yet always see it. Once you've realized that the sun is simply out of your reach you may feel the need to ascribe a history to the sun, if only to give cause to what otherwise would be a great unknown. So you decide that perhaps the sun is owned by another Cro-Magnon, a great Cro-Magnon, one powerful enough to control the sun.
You tell your children that this great Cro-Magnon lives in the sun and moves the sun each day, and so you give reason to the natural phenomenon, so that you may answer the questions of your children when they ask of the world in which they live. Now a god has been born, or at the very least the germ of a god, the first thought that would lead to people the world over worshiping a God. This god, unlike the God our world is currently familiar with, is merely a human representation of a natural phenomenon, in this case the sun. When the thunder and the lightning first crashed overhead on primitive man they too were assigned deities, beings over which man could hold some accountability towards. Someone they could pray to, to change the course of events over which man had no control over. As humans developed, religions developed as well. The singular deities, with their natural phenomenon, began to grow in character. They began to be assigned personalities, and as they gained personalities they also gained power. Gods began to dictate how humans would function, how they would be ordered in a group. The first forms of social control sprung up around religion, for who could dare consider themselves mighty enough to challenge a god? Priesthoods of all sorts began to form, and they gained massive power in their primitive tribes, for they had the power to call upon the gods, now themselves far more powerful than any human could be. Through oral tradition the gods grew and grew in strength, with each exaggeration more firmly embedding the idea of their power into the minds of the youth of each tribe. Over thousands of years the gods eventually lessened in number, or had one or a few of their number elevated to a status above the rest. It is believed
straightforward) Khetuvium/ Writings (KH) Modern scholars identify as Historical Fiction Ruth Ester Daniel Variety of books from different genres Poetical Books Psalms Proverbs Job SONGS OF SOLOMON Lamentations Ecclesiastes Catholic Bible Has Some Text in Greek Pentateuch (law) Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Historical books Joshua judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles CHRONICLES AND KINGS PARALLELS 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Tobit Protestant…
approximately 15% of exam Multiple Choice Items:2 Taken from the readings and lectures. Word bank for Fill-In the Blank: Common Era Covenant- yahwehs choosen people believed that hessed( faithful covenant love) defined the character of god Dispensationalism Exegesis- process of bible study Exegesis- audience-focused, not author focused Essenes- essenes lived in self contained communities that emphazied shared foods, common life,and observance of the torah Form criticism-…
Reliability of Scripture- Walter J. Harrelson Debates have raged within the churches with regard to the reliability of this biblical text in its various forms The bible can be said to be reliable if it can be reasonably claimed that is contents as preserved through centuries are what the original writers spoke and said The consensus of biblical scholarship is that readers do indeed have reason to accept current translations of the bible as close approximations to what the biblical authors said and…
Natural Transcendent Immanent Something beyond the ordinary Typically religion speaks of something beyond the ordinary. It connects people to and binds them to this something This something is complex and difficult to define. Often referred to as God It is the something that helps people to amp a course through the life and its obstacles. This something looks beyond limitations of human existence and helps the provider meaning both in the world 'beyond' and the world 'here'. Supernatural…
Life of Pi by Yann Martel Concept/Vocabulary Analysis Literary Text: Life of Pi by Yann Martel Organizational Patterns Life of Pi is divided into three parts with a total of 100 chapters. Part 1 consists of chapters one to thirty-six and tells of the author’s initial meeting with Piscine Molitor Patel, also known as Pi. Pi retells his life in India before his family’s departure to Canada when Pi is sixteen years old. Part two tells of Pi’s experience being stranded along the Pacific Equatorial…
him as a result. The basic principles of Islam are the polar opposite of what most people believe about Muslims and their faith. The fundamentals of Islam are the five pillars of Islam. The first pillar shahada, is an affirmation that there is no God except Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet and messenger. The second pillar is prayer or salat. Muslims pray to Allah five times per day. The third pillar is fasting, which is called sawm and includes fasting during Ramadan, a time of spirituality…
known as modestly Augustine, respected as a surpassing inspirational figure for both medieval and modern philosophy motivated the church through premises approaching the obstruction of evil, free will, body and soul, and the probability of assurance to name a few.0 Theologians examine his immense quantity of literature in order to modify their comprehension regarding the descants of his vernacular and the eddy of his conviction.0 AUGUSTINE’S LIFE In order to recognize the extensive imprint Augustine formed…
Each of these cultural texts is summarized, ranging from the Eridu Genesis to Nineteenth Dynasty Egyptian love poetry. The selections are all annotated so readers can easily find copies of the texts under discussion. In summary, Part 2 is also a fine survey of ancient Near Eastern literature, but it could have benefited from having excerpts from each of the examples…
and he developed a philosophy which included metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. His writings include: the Short Treatise on God, man and his well being, the principals of Cartesian Philosophy, which is the only work publish under his own name, the Theologico-Political Treatise, which he published unanimously, and the Ethics, which was published after his death. Some other writings we have from Spinoza are incomplete. His philosophy…
start out with god he is the core and the foundation to this entire religion. God is an all seeing all knowing and always existed god. In Christianity there is just one true god that is supreme ruler the creator of the universe. The tool God has used mostly to spread this religion is the bible. However in the early stages of Christianity the on a mountain called Mount Calvary. This is where he died for every human sins to give them a clean slate and the opportunity to follow God his Father. Next…