God's Changing Vision Part 2

One might venture to say that most people believe in God or a god of some kind. This appears to have been the case throughout the history of human beings. But with the birth of the sciences and the growth of scientific intellect, there are many who reject these very spiritual ideas and feel the existence of God is a delusion. One such person is the author Richard Dawkins who defines the “God Hypothesis” as the existence of a super-human, super-natural intelligence that designed the universe and everything in it. He goes on to counter that belief with his own theory that any creative intelligence comes into being only as the “end product of much involved and extended process of gradual evolution”[1]. He feels that seeing and trying to understand the reason for life and man’s existence in it are what initially created the concept of the “all-powerful being” (Dawkins, 2006).

Rodney Stark, a professor of social sciences at Baylor University feels that Dawkins and his ilk (atheists) claim that religion and the belief in God are survival tactics. They feel that faith is ambiguous and obstructs man’s natural power to reason. Stark argues that it is the human’s capacity to reason that allows man to understand and appreciate more about the truth of God than was comprehended in earlier times (Stark, 2007). Harold E. Lurier and others cited the teachings of the German Philosopher, Rudolf Otto, in A History of the Religions of the World. Otto coined the term “Numinosum” in his book Das Heilige (The Idea of the Holy). This is loosely defined as the intense, ingrained feeling of knowing that there is something powerful that cannot be seen. And this “It” led to the varying beliefs in deities, the supernatural, the sacred, the holy, and the transcendent (Lurier, 2002).

[1] Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006, pg 31

God's Changing Vision through the Eyes of Man

INTRODUCTION

With the acceptance of God as the creator of all things comes the trust, without viable proof, of His existence. To believe something does not necessarily take faith, but faith cannot be reached without belief. Faith is trusting in something. Belief is regarding something as truth. On these two concepts hang the very idea of God. The different religions centered upon His presence require both of faith and belief. But herein lays the grey area that differentiates one religion from another. Though the faith in God as the “all powerful” exists, the beliefs vary exponentially.

To grasp the nature of the different religions and to comprehend the varying ideas that abound in each, one must study how man’s need for God affects the beliefs in the different doctrines. But before one can assimilate these different beliefs, one must explore the intellectual growth of man and how it parallels with the changes in the idea of God. One must go back to the beginning when God created man, or man created God, and follow the chronological history of the both Man and God to truly grasp the understanding of what belief and faith entail.

School Continues

I have been busy with my education so I have not "blogged" in awhile. I also haven't painted but I will return to that shortly. I have, however, been writing. I am working on my final paper for my Advanced Writing course and I would appreciate critique and criticism, so as I write I will publish what I have done thus far here.

First is the outline of my writing project. It is following a template provided by my instructor and I hope to follow the path I've laid out as I write my paper.

My second post of the day are the introductory paragraphs and thesis. Please feel free to make suggestions. As always, Caroline

I. Introduction
A. To ascertain the distinction between belief and faith
B. To explore the nature of religion and how it affects man’s need for God
C. Following the path of man’s intellectual growth, the parallel of who God is and what He represents has altered to fit the needs of man at the time.

II. The understanding of man’s need for a religious experience.
A. Seeing and trying to understand the reason for life and man’s existence in it, the concept of an all powerful being(s) grew (Dawkins, 2006).
B. The invention of transcendental beliefs to express the necessity of “It” (Lurier, 2002).

III. In the earliest civilizations, the path of man’s belief in magic led to the worship of many gods.
A. The history of religion was an orderly development in which all people passed from magic to religion through stages, each progression taking place when a proper intellectual level had been attained.
B. Though little is actually known of these people and it is more speculation from findings than certainty, we do know that for thousands of years burial sites have included grave images. One belief is that these images are the discovery of gods in primitive societies (Stark, 2007). From 1600 to 900 BCE the careful study of the Axial people has given rise to the fact that they needed to give divinity to common place things: e.g. fire in the hearth is Agni, thunder, lightning and rain is Mithra, creator of the world is Dyas Piter, etc. (Armstrong, The Great Transformation , 2006) and these gods needed to be appeased or fed in order for prosperity to occur or be maintained.

IV. Many gods eclipsed into the rebirth of monotheism which was born throughout the land at approximately the same time.
A. There was a rapid transition into a monotheistic society and that conversion quickly and simultaneously spread throughout the Near, Middle and Far East.
B. From southern Italy to China, this rapid alteration happened around the sixth Century BCE and has been recorded in the writings of Confucius, Zoroaster, Mahavira, the principle authors of Hindu, Pythagoras, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Stark, 2007).

V. With this rebirth of monotheism came the introduction of Yahweh and Judaism in ancient Israel.
A. Yahweh was borne out of the deities at the time.
B. Yahweh clearly came out of a world of the gods of the ancient Near East, so that kinship relations to these other deities are there from the beginning. The development and typology of convergence and differentiation is a major contribution to the possibility of a complex but coherent understanding of the origins of Yahweh and the place that deity had in the extended history of Israel up to the exile (Smith, 2002).

VI: As foretold in the Old Testament, the need for a savior as well as a kinder, gentler, forgiving God led to the birth of Christianity.
A. By 30BCE Jews were devout monotheists who did not expect the Messiah to be divine but rather an ordinary person.
B. At the same time as Philo was expounding his Platonized Judaism in Alexandria and Hillel and Shammai were arguing in Jerusalem, a charismatic faith healer began his own career in the north of Palestine (Armstrong, The History of God, 1994).

VII: Seeing other people who had not experienced Monotheism, God spoke to the Arabs and Islam was born.
A. Although Muhammad had definitely never read the Bible, he had a dream similar to those experienced in earlier years by prophets of the Old Testament.
B. In about the year 610, an Arab merchant of the thriving city of Mecca in the Hijaz, who had never read the Bible and probably never heard of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had an experience that was uncannily similar to theirs. He had a vision of an angel telling him to recite the words of God but when Muhammad refuse the angel hugged him taking the air from his body. The angel requested he recite again and still Muhammad refused. This happened three times before Muhammad found the first words of a new scripture (Armstrong, The History of God, 1994).

VIII: Today, thanks to education in science and logic, many fundamental obstacles stand in the way of understanding and believing in God.
A. The inability to understand the true lessons of God prevents the three major religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam from accepting each other for the similarities and differences found in each teaching.
B. God has taken his three major religions of today and put them in the holiest place on earth to see if they have actually embraced his teachings. Unfortunately, man still places himself above God and they have yet to learn to live together. It is a test that we are failing.

Works Cited
Armstrong, K. (2006). The Great Transformation . New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Armstrong, K. (1994). The History of God. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Dawkins, R. (2006). The God Delusion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Lurier, H. (2002). A History of the Religions of the World. Westchester, NY, USA: Xlibris.
Smith, M. S. (2002). The Early History of God. Grand Rapids: William E Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Stark, R. (2007). Discovering God. New York: Harper Collins.

Celebrate!

I have a definite cause for celebration in that I have finished my Algebra course with the completion of my final exam today! I missed two answers giving me a grade of 97 which made my class average 94%. I am both elated an exhausted with this accomplishment. Algebra took up the better part of my life for these last 8 weeks and I am not sad to see this completion. It will be good to wake up tomorrow and not have the onus burden of another batch of numerical homework and the dark cloud of an exam hanging over my head. I may actually get a full night's sleep tonight as I cannot count the number of times I awakened at 4:00 am to do math. Why? I was dreaming about it, of course. I will enjoy these next 10 days of nothing but Nutritional Science and writing in my blog. Yes, it is time for the happy dance, so until next time I post I will be twirling wildly about my bedroom!

Over a HUGE Algebraic Hump

Well, it took me over a week, but I finally passed my Algebra exam and I can move on to...well, more algebra. I don't know what had me so befuddled and confused, besides all the a's, c's, j's, h's, x's, etc. and how I was supposed to find their lines after putting them in proper order then doing actual math. All I do know is I was stuck, plain and simple, and I was ready to pull out my own teeth with tweezers. After three days of intense studying I finally braved the 20 problems put forth by my teacher. Low and behold, after saying prayers to the Algebra gods, I only missed two problems...and they were typos, my typos. By the time I checked my work the third time, I was cross-eyed. But I'm very happy with my 90%.

I am sure there are times I have had to use basic algebra in my life. Figuring out percentages, for example, when I was in retail. Also, there is quite a bit of math in cooking. But can someone please explain to me why I need to know how to figure out 1/9(x-3)+1/3(x-12)=x-7? Or why I need to find Y if given four numbers? And what is the use of a quadratic equation in everyday existence?

But, alas, now I can concentrate on Nutritional Science. Did I mention there are only 3 1/2 weeks of this left? No? Well, thank the heavens above that I'm halfway through with this grading period. I look forward to the next one when I can take another creative writing course. Then I'll be using the side of my brain I understand and to which I can relate!