Spinoza Superstition Essay

Who among them does not know that God 's hand did all this? Of course, they do not know it consciously. The point, as with the heavens, is that their nature and existence proclaim this message to us. Observing them should convincingly demonstrate the truth, so these are lessons we can learn from them. Acts 17:24-19 Paul taught heathen idol worshipers that there is a true and living God who made the world and rules over it.

First Corinthians 8:6 states, “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom all things… and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by Him”. This verse backs up one of the main claims of this God being the Prime leader. The idea of the “God of the gaps”. Easily counter’s this claim.

Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs . In international relations, religion is a main aspect which is substantively sensitive. As a sensitive aspect in international relations, religion itself has a huge effect as an important role for groups. Some groups of people assume that religion occurs in the place where the religion belongs to do spiritual activities. Some groups also assume that society and religion as completely separate entities.

This is a wholly different picture compared to Homer’s idea of a direct communication between man and god which is based on the principle of perceptual and epistemological uniformity, connecting the human and the divine level of existence. The Platonic interpretation of communication through divine visions (the only ‘Homeric’ element in his argument) will be further developed and modified by Porphyry and in the theurgy of Iamblichus who once more recurs to Homeric examples of human and divine

Perceiving one’s timidity and limitations, a person tries to handle his own limit by doing such things that adds up his own guilt as well as worsens his fretfulness. This only means that by alienating ourselves to our essential self is a form of sin, with the standpoint of Kierkegaard, in which it magnifies our difficulty by increasing our own doubts, nervousness and anxiety. Through these ideas he analyzes the Christian comprehension of man, as he

The Divine Command Theory (DCT) explains which actions are moral based on whether or not God commands it. The theory is difficult to support due to its flaws, arbitration, and even due to the essence of God. While Divine Command Theorists may completely support this theory, I will argue why the theory is impractical and cannot dictate what is morally right or wrong. In understanding if this theory holds ground we must question what God commands. Instead of uncritically accepting a theory we must put it to question and eliminate any flaws.

Firstly, hard postmodernism denies the existence of God, and it springs from atheism or pantheism. This is non-Christian mainly because it denies the existence of God and all that is holy. Soft postmodernism, on the other hand, are only suspicious and very careful with the acceptance of a truth. Uncertainty is the most common characteristic of soft postmodernists. This kind of postmodernism is also what constitutes what people call the “emerging Church” which is open to everything that people used to call divisions of beliefs.

Then we look at the second argument of Aquinas, The Argument of Causation- everything that is caused has to be caused by something else, there cannot be an infinite number of causes, and same as argument number one that must mean there is a God since all effects have causes. The Argument from Contingency asks if everything already exists contingently has a reason to do so, does the universe exists for a reason and if the universe has a reason for its existence that that reason must be God. The Aquinas fourth argument the Argument from Degrees Aquinas says in order to compare two things in the terms of good or bad, we must have something to compare it to, this would have to be an absolutely perfect thing aka God. Aquinas’ fifth and final argument is The Teleological Argument-

The Trinities of Power and Modification re-expresses Substance within itself through production of natura naturata (attributes and modes). Spinoza continues to build his proof of God’s necessary existence to prove that God is causa sui, a self-caused immutable being on Descartes’ absurd argument of quantities of reality. The Cartesian hypothesis claims that if I have the power to create myself, it would be much easier to give myself properties of which I have an idea; and it would be less difficult to preserve myself than to create myself. What can do more can do less. So if it is more difficult to create or preserve a substance than to create its properties, substance would have more reality than the properties themselves.

1) This essay aims to firstly analyse and explain Descartes’s God argument in Meditations three, specifically on the idea that perfection precedes imperfection. Then I will introduce possible oppositions to his view and attempt to defend it from his position. Lastly, I will provide my own view pertaining to his argument. Firstly, the idea of perfection here is an assumption of God’s trait that also relates to being infinite.

Firstly, predestination is understood as a theological concept in terms of God controlling everything that happens through history. Not only does God know what will happen to each of us, but as well cause all things to occur. Furthermore, predestination is a lot like fatalism in a sense that it does not rely upon any precise antecedent conditions. As previously mentioned, the Islamic and Western religious views have stated their own conceptions of predestination. The Islamic view has two alike, yet slightly opposing sides, the Mu’tazilites and Ash’arites.

He argues myth takes place in the individual’s own reading and interpretation of the passage. Myth’s value lies within the conveyance of how to experience God and His actions within a sacred and empirical dimension. Myth is a synonym for the real while not being verifiable. Furthermore, individual ideas, needs, and experiences are not needed in order to validate the empirical.

Christianity has always been subjective and ambiguous, which allows for theories and speculation to develop regarding the religion’s values and characteristics. A key matter in theology seeks to understand those values and to identify a model of living that guides people away from corruption to remain in God’s image. Athanasius of Alexandria’s On the Incarnation and Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Anti-Christ address this issue with viewpoints that directly contradict each other. Athanasius examines the Incarnation to defend his position that natural human desires corrupt mankind and suggests there is nothing to prevent evil and sin other than God’s salvation while Nietzsche asserts that corruption occurs from a loss of instinctive nature and proposes

These beliefs depend on a fear of God rather than sole worship, as He is portrayed to be a spiteful, all-powerful being. In my teaching, the fear of God was not placed within me. Instead, a deeper trust in God’s saving powers was instilled upon my beliefs, which attempted to draw belief from love rather than fear. God was portrayed as an all-loving being attempting to free us from the control of sin, which quite evidently contradicts the image of a vengeful God. Religion has shaped the way the