1. Why is Spinoza such a controversial figure in the history of
One person sees order in a garden and therefore assumes it is made by a gardener at work. ... At first these two types of experience appear affective in proving God's existence but with further analysis they too are affected because they are highly subjective. ... Descriptions are often offered but these are meaningless to the listener who has not had a first hand experience. ... The advantages of trying to prove the existence of God from a conversion experience is the fact that the change in a person's life is evident and the change can be verified by the people who are close t...
"The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings," by Olaudah Equiano, is a memoir written to detail the story of his travels around the world from mid to end 18th century. Written by Equiano himself he tells of many of the interesting events of his life including how he was sold into slavery, his voya...
Antonio believes the power of God is so potent, that "all you have to do is to lift your right hand and cross your right thumb over your first finger and form the sign of the cross. ... Just as a person may grow away from another when they feel neglected, Antonio begins to slowly pull farther and farther away from the traditional beliefs that he had nurtured in his heart for so long when he feels as if God does not reciprocate the faith and love he gives to him. He further doubts the might of God when he first sees the golden carp, and thinks of how "the power of God had ...
Furthermore, the foundation is based upon the reality of the person reflected in; upon their religious experience, particularly what we call conversion. ... The subject of the Theology, then, is the person undergoing conversion to God. ... He points out how Karl Rahner found a distinction between fundamental theology and a "formal theology of foundations"; concluding that Rahner names it a first-level reflection of Christian faith." ... To persons untouched by a grace-filled Christian experience, I submit, Christian faith can only appear as exorbitant and irrational. ... Whoever accepts s...
Religion was the first social establishment to set moral principles, and represented God as a pattern for the world as the ultimate enforcer of the rules. ... The experience obtained by a full use of the senses allows a person's mind get the image of an experience, therefore lets the person to attempt to comprehend the meaning and the value of one's own sense of self. ... First core principle of spirituality is ultimate reality, which is described as "The ultimate reality was not a personalized god, therefore, but a transcendent mystery that could never be plumbed" (29). ...
To begin our discussion, we'll focus first on Hinduism. ... With the knowledge that a person (or myself), desires to ascend into heaven with the ultimate holy, living a life consistent with achieving this is the same state of consciousness as the eastern religions attempt to achieve as their endpoint. Thus, when the Buddhist for example, achieves nirvana within oneself, essentially that person is done with their religion. ... But as I mentioned at the onset of this report, if one was asked which religion was most consistent with the ultimate holy, their response would ...
In its first decades, Christianity was regarded as a doctrine of sectarian traditions more between Jews and Israelites, like other bodies of ideas and beliefs of that part of world. ... The first concerns the death of the body, i.e., cessation of physical life. ... According to Christianity, God, however, possesses an inner dynamic that occurs in three divine persons who are nothing more than the one God, is the doctrine of the Trinity believes that the one God is manifested in the role of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. ... For example: if a person lived or lives in a dysfunctional family (pro...
Introduction Christianity has existed in Australia since the arrival of the first fleet dated in 1788, and was basically the most dominant religion as there was only a minor of other religious followers such as Islam and Judaism. ... History of Christianity in Australia Christianity first came to Australia in 1788 with the Reverend Richard Johnson, a Church of England (Anglican) minister, who sailed with the First Fleet. ... On 3 February 1788 he conducted the first Christian service in Australia under a gum tree. With his wife, Mary he administered to 1,100 convicts, soldiers and settl...
Though the first prohibitions separated a man from his animal condition, others can be more harmful. ... The extent to which coercion has become internalized shows the moral level of a person. ... Adding on to the moral level are the assets of such a culture, where the first achievements are to be held ideal, and to be used to look down on other cultures. ... Eventually God turned into a single person, and one to where the man could relate to it as his father. ... Freud negates the first reason with the fact that many other things that our ancestors did and believed we do not accept today....
St Anselm introduced the first form of the argument in his book Proslogion and claimed that God was "aliquid quo nihil maius cogitari possit" which means nothing greater can be conceived. ... He said that in the same way, if you don't accept the concept of God in the first place, it is a useless argument. ... However, it would seem that Anselm was writing specifically for those already instilled with belief and had no intention of preaching to the unconverted: "I have written the following treatise in the person of one who seeks to understand what he believes." ...
When one intends to send a curse or realize a certain enchantment with regard to a particular person through such rites, it is thought that the best moment is found in the night within a certain period of time in which the person is asleep (for example, two hours before awakening). ... Concentrating now on the phenomenon of satanic rites, it is good to remember how varied are the circumstances which can lead a person to engage in these practices, as; well as what varied forms and names they assume according to the trends and means to which they refer. ...
At first, Crusoe can be characterized as a man who is in large part a product of his environment and the ideals of current society. ... Crusoe claims he "was very seldom idle; but having regularly divided my time, according to the several daily employments that were before me, such as, first, my duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart some time for thrice every day." ... He states, "In the first place, I was remov'd from all the wickedness of the world here. ... Being alone on the island has enabled him to become a better person and to find God, as there ...
We first must understand that the reference of God is a subjective term for the individual or religious organization, it may be used to acknowledge an entity or a essence and it may speak of one God, many Gods or one God that is many, these will be the basis for monotheism, polytheism, and pantheism. ... Our first stop is the monotheistic religion of Sikhism. ... This is done through self-discipline and meditation, the person must overcome their ego to gain a new understanding and by following Ik Onkar's divine word, you will be granted spiritual union through Jivanmukta, which is salva...
In order to create an appropriate response regarding the proclamation above, the statement itself requires analyzing due to its problematic ambiguity, for example it must first be established by what we mean by the word 'miracle'. ... These contrasting views make it imperative to first establish what we mean by the term 'miracle'. ... The first argument that Hume used to refute the concept of miracles is concerned with the lack of probability involved in their occurrence. ...
As Eve is the first woman to struggle with the forces of God and with manipulative men, she sets the stage for centuries of ill-fated women who must also face the challenging forces of the men they love and the God they worship. ... Fuller says that "the woman looks for a smart but kind' husband, [and] the man for a capable, sweet tempered' wife- (Fuller 766), keeping in mind that men and women search for each other, thus alluding to the reader that marriage is a two-person ordeal. ... As the fire begins in the first few lines, Bradstreet calls to God "To strengthen me in my...
This shows that both characters are able to go through a period of unhealthy rage and even plot against the other person, but can come out on the other side of things and let themselves release this anger so that they may once again prosper. ... Ariel, a majestic and spectacular being is also a slave of Prospero who does his bidding, but also represents the more kind and gentle side of Prospero that the audience does not get to see at first. ...
Ultima's style of teaching implies that she is more interested in helping Antonio develop into an independent person than in teaching him any particular moral outlook on life. ... Ernie's mean-spirited teasing is Antonio's first real taste of this phenomenon and represents simply another obstacle on his path to wisdom and adulthood. ...
Reply to Lodahl's Response to my Critique: Michael Lodahl (Professor of Theology at Point Loma University) replies to my published critique of his notion that God is the "body of the world"1 in the same edition of the Wesleyan Theological Journal. His reply is called "A Response to Rodney Ender...
