Today there was a lot of back and forth discussion spanding from our topic, Plotinus.
Plotinus believed that Christianity to be an offensive, mythic cult. Plotinus' god was very similar to Aristotle's, no personality, did not know us, had not created the world, took no interest in it, and would never judge it or anyone. Plotinus's creation of Neoplatonism is noted as one of the single most powerful ideas by which monotheism drew upon philosophy.
With this, Neoplatonism is considered by some to be philosophy and others as religion.
We spent a little bit of time distinguishing the two from one another. What makes them different? Can you have one without the other?
All of us were really uncertain when pondering exactly where the line is drawn that separates the two.
From this our discussion question:
What defines God? Where do our personal views of God come from (at least from a theological perspective)? Could God be a person without being either male or female?
Some religions view their God as supreme, loving, perfect being.
How can this hold true in the world we live in? It seems as is many religions/ viewpoints of God come from emotionally satisfying ideas.
Does simply believing that there is some power greater than oneself make one a theist?
Forgot our factual question.
ReplyDeletePlotinus took who's idea of "emanation" and said that in a sense, God emanated the world into being and was the world.
Answer: Plato
I think the belief that God is a perfectly loving being continues today because, the way our society is declining, people have to have something to believe in. Evidently that is the thought that God has some master plan that will make everything better. This thought does stem from the need for something more pleasant to keep us moving on to (hopefully) better things in evolving society. (I try to be optimistic.)
ReplyDeleteAs far as simply believing in one power making one a theist, I don't think so. I think you have to have one specific entity to believe in before you can be considered a theist, not just one policy (like, say, reincarnation). I think that's what the question meant.
Not everybody who claims to believe in God is a theist. For example Plotinus and Plato's God. Their God was not some alright supreme being but more rational claim for them.Not all those who believe in what they call God believe in the same entity. If someone believes in "god" then it probably means they believe in your sense of the word. When using the word I think you have to specify what kind of being or idea you are denoting by it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that everyone has their own definition god, regardless of beliefs. God is just something that is undefinable.
Our views of god are created in our mind and are just hypotheses that no one can know. Is god a man or a woman? Is god a human? Is god a being? I think that is common to imagine an overseer as a human because we are humans. Like we heard earlier in the semester: if we were horses, we would praise horse gods, if we were pigs we would praise pig gods... and so on.
10-12 Hypatia
Hypatia was murdered by Cyril for the spread of her philosophical ideas. After this there starts a kind of shift towards religion/philosophy in the area. Philosophy stops at the questions of god
How important to a society is it that we question this and(are allowed to) can question god?
*out right
ReplyDeleteI think our views of God mainly come from what we are taught in church and throught our lives and personal experience. Could GOd be a person without being male or female.... possibly i guess i think we just view god as a man because in the bible it says he created man in his image and woman came from man. but who can say for sure? Simply believing in a higher power could i suppose make one a theist but not in the christian sense of the word no one has to believe in the christian faith and live life in a christ like manner to be a christian... when i say christ like i dont mean without sin and godlike i simply mean believing the christian word trying to live it to the best of your ability be the best possible person you can be and always trying to do well by your fellow man.
ReplyDeletediscussion q for next class... well this one i guess: why would the Suda's version of hypatias story leave out the parts of cyril and oresles?is it simply because they thought her to be pagan opposition or some other reason?
I think people formulate their views on the nature of God according to their own experiences. These can be what they heard in church, what their parents told them, what they want to believe, or what they feel while on their knees in prayer. Some people feel that he sadist without justice, and some people believe that he is a loving God who would do anything to heal his people even when they are responsible for most of the horrible things that they blame him for.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Williams
I agree with what Matt said. I think that whether or not we were raised in church or "forced" by our parents to go, we base our own experiences on what we believe about God. If we feel we have been burdened with bad "breaks" in life, we may not feel he is an ultimately loving God. If we are burdened, and we pray for a solution and we receive one, we would ultimately believe God is loving. I really think your idea and faith is based on your own experiences.
ReplyDelete