Abram was born around 2166 B. C. We see God calling him into Canaan in around 2091. God began leading Abraham into a relationship out of an important belief system in Ur. Abraham's neighbors were associated with pantheistic beliefs in the region. An important library from his day in Mari had 20,000 books. This age was one of hero worship where the hero was part god and part human. We see this developing into king worship.
EPIC OF GILGAMESH
An important religious figure worshiped in Abram's day was Gilgamesh. Twelve
tablets were devoted to his epic which evidenced much about worship and theology
which had developed. Scholars say it was probably written down in the reign of
Sargon the Great [2371-2316 B. C.]. It was at its height of influence in
Abram's day.
Gilgamesh's name meant "father hero."
Tablet 1 included praise to this hero god as part divine, part human, great
warrior, who knew all things about on land and sea. This hero's success brought
the wrath of other gods like "Anu" who created another god man named
Enkidu to curb Gilgamesh.
Tablet 2 recorded the opposite result happened as the two heroes went on
together becoming even more victorious with Gilgamesh as victor.
Tablet 3-5 includes more journey's, wars and victories.
Tablet 6 has the marriage proposal of the love goddess Ishtar. When she is
rejected she sends a divine bull to kill Gilgamesh and Enkidu who instead kill
the divine bull.
Tablet 7 has the account of a dream about the gods "Anu,"
"Ea," and "Shamash" who decide Gilgamesh and his friend
must pay for killing this divine bull. Enkidu goes to the house of dust [death].
Tablet 8 shows Gilgamesh lamentation for his friend as well as the state
funeral.
Tablet 9-10 describe Gilgamesh journey to find Utnapishtim who was a victim of
the Babylonian flood. It was Gilgamesh's goal to learn how to escape death.
Tablet 11 has Utnapishtim relating his flood story as well as instructions for
finding a plant which renews youth. After Gilgamesh discovers the plant it is
seized by a serpent. He must return sadly without the plant.
Tablet 12 is an appendage relating the loss of important objects given by
Ishtar. Enkidu does return with a promise to help recover the lost objects.
Enkidu also gives a grim report about life in the underworld.
PANTHEISM MONISTIC BELIEFS
As we examine this epic we see evidence that the people of Sumeria were
pantheistic. They believed that matter, energy, time, space, all life as well
as god were equally eternal and united. They were monistic in often focusing on
particular local gods who each were connected into the main reality.
The prophet Daniel said the great civilization [the head of gold Dan 2:37-39] Abraham came out of as being the greatest in culture, power and influence. Later the Greek pantheon had roots from this epic of Gilgamesh. Many believe it influenced Homer's writings. What was God's purpose in drawing Abram out of Sumeria?
In contrast to these "hero gods" we see the God of the Old Testament as different in His person and work. Yahweh was not part of a pantheon of gods and goddesses who spent most of their time trying to defeat each other. In contrast we see Yahweh as the God of mercy and truth. After Abraham's day the world religious system saw Yahweh as being unique. Yahweh was not part of His own creation. He was holy and faithful in ways that were beneficial to His followers.
CONTRASTS TO PANTHEISM
In contrast in pantheism, Abram may have known the names of gods, but each was
connected to an impersonal force including both good and evil. Ethical behavior
and moral restraint are foreign terms in pantheism. Often it is the gods themselves
who lead the way in modeling the worst examples.
As Abraham grew in the Lord we see him also being associated with Egypt. At the time of his entry Egypt was either in its "Intermediate Period" [2181-2040] or in the "Middle Kingdom" period [2133-1786]. The Great Pyramids and Sphynx were already 500 years old. This nation was pantheistic. Many of the gods and goddesses from Mesopotamia were also in Egypt using different names. All were identified with one god in RA, Osiris or Isis. Similarly in Babylon, the other gods were associated in unity with Marduk.
OSIRIS PROMISED DEITY
The hieroglyph for Osiris is a throne atop an eye. The eye was related to the
sun god Ra. The oldest texts refer to him as the great god of the dead. He was once
human who after death was able to ascend to deity. Osiris was important because
he was believed to be willing to admit all into an after life including deity
who had lived properly and were buried properly with the appropriate divine
words of power with amulets. He said, "I am yesterday, and I am today, and
I have the power to be born a second time. I the hidden soul create the
gods." [Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, 115, 116].
Many scholars believe the Osirian Myth was rooted in an older more ancient worship of the river Nile. The Egyptians saw the rise and fall of their Nile as comparable to periods of change in their own lives. Osiris was first of all the Nile, then the water of the Nile, then the soil, the product of the waters of the Nile, and then Egypt, the Nile and all that it produced. Finally he became the national god of Egypt. In the Book of the Dead he is the greatest of the gods. After death he judges all men as to their future destiny. [Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, 139-140].
INDIAN PANTHEISM
While organized religion predated Abraham in Sumeria and Egypt if he traveled east instead of west what would he have found in the ancient centers of religion like India? Ancient India was the birthplace of the most ancient form of Hinduism called Vedic Hinduism. Religion in India was a blend exported from Persia and from local Dravidian religion. Dravidians worshiped of the universal goddess 'mother earth." Like much of the rest of the ancient world, their religious system was pantheistic. Their local gods were understood to be part of a universal pantheon complimentary to other gods.
While Abraham left a culture with libraries containing 20,000 books, as we examine the evidence about the earliest Vedic writings we see Hinduism still in the future as a world religion. The earliest writings of Hinduism were hymns called the Rigveda [Veda of Verses] which scholars say were written over a period of ten centuries from 1500 to 500 B. C. Because of a lack of early writing, we can only speculate about religious activity going on in India when Abraham was called to leave Sumeria.
Many loyal to Hinduism would say its early beliefs and practices did exist in Abram's day but only in a verbal unwritten form. They say had Abraham gone east instead of west he would have seen people practicing the Rigveda. But the Rigveda is different from modern Hinduism. Worship was associated with sky and nature. It included becoming inebriated by drinking sacred soma. Theological writings like the Aranyakes did not predate 600 B.C. The now famous Upanishads [with the Bhagavad Gita] were even later not becoming influential before 600-300 B.C.
EARLIEST DEITIES IN INDIA
The most ancient Rigveda texts consisted of a thousand hymns addressed to the
deities. Most of them address "soma" practices and instructions for
priestly families. The most important deities were "Agni" and
"Soma." Agni was the "fire" portion of the sacrifice. It was
associated with the light of the sun, lightening, and the light of fire hidden
in wood which men light for sacrifice. Soma was the deified portion of the
sacred drink
Another important early deity was Indra who was a warlike god able conquer human or demon enemies. He was also said to have power over the sun and was able to kill the dragon Vritra who had upheld the flow of waters and delivered cows.
The Rigveda offered no systematic creation account. But Indra is seen as creating part of the universe like the oceans and light. Indra had allies called the Maruts who were young men riding the clouds to make rain. Another friend were the Ashvins or Nasatyas who were two brothers famed for healing linked to the Greek myth Dioscuri. Another friend was Vishnu who was a giant so large he could cross the world in three strides. Vishnu evolved into becoming one of the three principle gods of Hinduism.
Another great deity was Varuna who was considered sovereign and distinguished from Indra who was god king. Varuna was said to uphold the moral laws of the universe. He is linked with Mitra who represents the judicial side of the universe. These gods were said to have descended from Aditi who was the mother earth goddess. Varuna was once the highest ranking god in the pantheon, but was deposed by Indra. This event happened at the victory of the devas or gods over the asuras who have been linked to the Titans.
In the background is the Father of the Heavens called "Dyaus" or Dyauh Pitar who is linked with the Roman god Jupiter and is generally seen coupled with the "earth goddess" in a pair of gods which demonstrate a male and female side in which the female side dominates. Female deities are numerous with the most important being Ushas who is associated with the dawn. Rudra stands apart as a forerunner of the later Shiva.
The universe is said to be filled with gods and demigods which are spirits of uncertain status like the Gandharvas with their female companions named the Apsarases who are later linked with the Vishve Devas. There is a group of demons led by Vritra the warrior demon.
Later in Hindu theology there emerged the idea of a universe attributed to a single underlying being or force. Names for this source are Prajapati [Lord of Creatures] and Vishvakarman [All-worker]. Hindu theology is pantheistic.
CHINESE PANTHEISM
BUDDHISM A LATE REFORM OF HINDUISM
By the time Hinduism was fully developed [600-500 B. C.] there arose a backlash
against prevailing formalism from Gautama Buddha [563-483 B. C.]. The Buddha
was born, lived and died in India. He never wrote a word so the earliest
written record does not come for 236 years following his death. His father
[Suddhodana] and his mother [Maya] were part of a noble family clan of Gautama.
He was a prince with a meditative mind reared in luxury. In his 29th year he
went in search of "Nirvana." As a monk he sought instruction and
extreme ascetic practices for six years with no result. He was only successful
in finding "enlightenment" through seated silence and meditation.
PANTHEISM IN THE FAR EAST
The China of Abraham's day was not a great religious center yet either. That
period saw the rise of ancestor worship. Many were burying items in their loved
one's graves that would help them in their afterlife. Spiritual leaders were
predicting the future with oracle bones by 2000 B.C. People believed in similar
mythological characters in China as elsewhere. Gods and demigods involved in
creation were "Kansu" and "Shensi" and the first man was
"Pan Ku" who was endowed with supernatural powers. Pan Ku was said to
be the first ruler of the world. Early hero gods were made of first emperors
and Sui Jen the fire producer. He learned the secret of fire by watching a bird
produce sparks while pecking a tree.
It was not until the Chou Dynasty [1100 - 249 B. C.] that schools of philosophy rose. Chou Hsin authored the I Ching [Canon of Changes] which many view with veneration including Confucius [551-479 B.C.] who canonized it as he sought to save people by returning to the ways of the ancients. He emphasized ethical behavior and a moral education. Confucius instigated ceremonies he said were from the past which would focus society on the past and bring in a golden age. Another school was started by Mencius [385-289 B.C.] who stressed the inherent goodness of human nature. Taoists were a later school who presented the Tao Te Ching which, in opposition to Confucius, claimed "the way of the universe" was the absence of all moral restraints advocating freedom from regulations. An important Tao writer was Chuang Tzu [369-286 B. C.] which advocated happiness being achieved by free development of the human nature. The best way to govern is not to govern. The Chin Dynasty [249-207 B. C. ] constructed the Great Wall and a great legal structure as well which included burning the books of those against government. The next Han Dynasty [207 B. C. - A. D. 220] made Confucianism in a modified form the orthodox belief system in China. Scholars devoted themselves to restoring texts lost in the past as well as in writing commentaries. Taoism however was espoused by many leaders. This dynasty spread westward having an embassy on the Persian Gulf to control caravan routes. The fist contacts with Buddhism began appearing around A. D. 10. Buddhists grow more popular in the centuries after the dynasties. In the time of the Tang emperors [618-907 A. D.] Buddhists monks begin producing books.
The Roman pantheon of gods and goddess contained no god that claimed to be Holy or Righteous. A study of the source material of writings of this period reveal the gods themselves were capricious, moody, sensual, and frankly dangerous to one another and their followers.
Most of these gods received sacrifices and offerings from their followers. But this worship was being done to secure or maintain relation with forces of nature such as sun and rain vital to next years crops. Worship was also focused on future births in flocks and herds. Most deities included shape like people or animals. Pagan people worship not to commune with the gods but because they believed those gods were able to do some practical things for them in their future economic benefit.
These pagan gods were pantheistic. Their substance was tied to the earth itself. While they often claimed to have roles in creation they did so as part of the earth or universe itself. Most were monistic which meant they were local and their worship did not require exclusive loyalty. It was expected that people worship other gods in other regions or areas of prayer needs.
The Hebrew God Yahweh which Christians adopted through Jesus Christ was different. At creation, Yahweh stood apart from all He created. Yahweh is a complex God in person as is evidenced by the Holy Spirit's work in creation and Jesus claim that He was creator. God created all matter, space, time and energy. His holiness is evident from the earliest chapters of the Bible where He stands opposed to sin, rebellion and the serpent energizing rebellion. His personal qualities are also evident in the creation of human beings. We see from the first two chapters how God wanted a relationship with His people. But His holiness had to keep sin far removed. From the third chapter of Genesis we see evidence for God's provision that provision was going to come in the form of a human Messiah. That Christ came as the finished offering on the cross is the substance of the true Gospel.
Many today have re-energized pagan and ancient gods and goddesses through the "New Age" movement in the western world. We see them enjoying many words of Jesus but denying the need for his sacrifice since their gods and goddesses are not holy and do not require cleansing before worship is possible. They are pantheistic in the way they can worship Osiris, Yahweh, Christ, Apollo, Allah, or Buddha.
PLOTINUS A. D. 204 - 270 NEOPLATONISM
EMANATIONAL PANTHEISM
Plotinus was born in Egypt, studied in Alexandria and taught philosophy in Rome. Both his religious and philosophical influence was great. He was a follower of emanational pantheism. He counted three levels of "being" in his cosmology. Prior to these planes of being Plotinus believed in the One. He believed the One was the absolute source of being. "One wishing to contemplate what transcends the intellectual attains by putting away all that is of the intellect." All that flowed from God has and will return.
The first level of reality is called Nous which means the Divine Mind. It is God but not the highest God. Of the emanations from the One, Nous is first. When the One emanates outward and looks back on its source it produces the simple duality of Knower and Known. This simple duality is Nuos. Nous in turn produces further emanations by bending inward upon itself. It produces particular intellects or forms in the World Soul and individual souls.
The second level of reality is the World Soul. This reality lies between the Nous and the corporeal world as a middle reality. The World Soul is more multiple than Nous. It is further from the absolute Unity of the One. The Nous reflects upon the World Soul which animates the universe in all its multiplicity.
The third level of reality is matter. The entire emanation process unfolds from unity to multiplicity. The last stage is one step away from non-existence which Plotinus describes as non-being. Matter is in an image of being. The absolute Unity is absolutely good but the further degree of multiplicity adds potential for evil.
Meister Eckhart 1260-1328
NEOPLATONIC
PANTHEISM
Dominican preacher, theologian and mystic, born about 1260 at Hochheim, near Gotha; died in 1327 at Cologne. He was a profound mystic. After a period of teaching he was made, in 1298, prior of the Dominican convent at Erfurt and vicar-provincial of Thuringia. Two years later he began to lecture at Paris, where in 1302 his order gave him the degree of Master of Sacred Theology. His favourite themes are the Divine essence, the relations between God and man, the faculties, gifts, and operations of the human soul, the return of all created things to God. His sermons and treatises were pantheistic being essentially Neoplatonic. He said all words about God are inexact. He believed from all eternity all creatures are in God. The church tried him for heresy because he confused God and the world. "Within that true essence of the godhead, which is beyond all being and every distinction, there I already existed. There I willed myself. There I knew myself. There I wished to create the man I am. For that reason, I am my own cause according to my being, which is eternal, although not according to my becoming, which is temporal." He fell into pantheism believing all creatures are part of the divine. His mysticism was widely popular being picked up by John of Ruysbroeck who passed it on to Gerhard Groote who influenced Ruysbroeck were known as brothers of the free spirit. They had a high view of a direct experience with God having no need of the church or the Bible. Groote founded the Brethren of the Common Life which produced The Imitation of Christ. Later scholars touched was Erasmus of Rotterdam.
The Roman Catholic Church believed dogma must be fully controlled by Roman leadership. We see the papacy and various councils of the church making important decisions for all. There was an intellectual revolt in some circles between 1300 and 1500. There was not far below the surface of western civilization a hunger to predict the future.
DEMONOLOGY ASTROLOGY
Demonology, sorcery, portents, magic, divination, astrology, relic-worship, and miraclemongering went on though unauthorized by the church. Historians say these additions to the religious life beneath the surface became more troublesome than unbelief. Even university professors at times were teaching classes in astrology which retarded the maturity and growth of genuine theology.
In Brescia more than 25,000 witches gathered for a special witches Sabbath. Many were in danger of falling away from orthodox worship being drawn more to spells, magic rhymes and curses. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII published a bull forbidding witchcraft. To many the fact that the pope would need to issue such a bull evidenced the reality of witches.
Giordano Bruno 1548-1600
Bruno was born in the town of Nola, located near Naples, Italy, in 1548. He was an outspoken youth and eventually became an outspoken Dominican monk. During his tenure as a Dominican, it was suggested that he had read some of the "forbidden works" of Desiderius Erasmus, and along with his unorthodox views of Christianity, this prompted the Catholic Church to issue an indictment of heresy against Bruno in 1578. On learning the indictment was imminent, Bruno fled to France, beginning a life as an intellectual nomad.
Bruno's outspoken critiques and attacks upon orthodox views made him welcome at these university centers only for a short time. He began his wanderings by going to Geneva, followed in turn by France, England, France again, Germany and then Venice.
Bruno returned home to Italy in 1591 and stayed in Venice at the insistence of Giovanni Moncenigo, in order to teach some of his "natural magic of memory training." Moncenigo, after not learning anything from Bruno, turned him over to the Venetian Inquisition. Bruno was held for over a year in Venice, and Rome insisted that he be turned over to them, which happened in February, 1593. Bruno was kept in imprisoned for over six years, without any writing materials and without an explanation for the delay in his trial. In January, 1600, he was handed over to the Grand Inquisitor, was convicted, and turned over to the secular authorities who were required to carry out the sentence imposed by the Inquisition.
Bruno and his works were largely
ignored until some of the 18th Century Deists started reading his works and
making him their champion. In the 19th Century, Italy's freethinkers also
adopted Bruno as a martyr to the cause of freethought. The exact reason why
Bruno was killed. Some scholars have attributed it to his knowledge of magic
and Hermetic philosophy. His errors in theology, which included the idea that
Christ was a master magician. After hearing the judgment of the Church, Bruno
is quoted as saying "Perchance your fear in passing judgment on me is
greater than mine in receiving it." "Time is the father of truth, its
mother is our mind"
Giordano Bruno, The Ash Wednesday
Supper.
This French philosopher was a mathematician and scientist who is known as the father of modern philosophy. He was educated by Jesuits, and remained a Roman Catholic. That church's authority on truth for the last 300 years had been Thomas Aquinas who Descarte rejected.
Descarte began by asserting all must approach any test with the assumption he called "universal doubt." Descarte used Cartesian geometric models to help him. He was confident that once he found something he could not doubt he could be certain of its truth. As he looked around the only thing he could not fully deny was his own existence. His formula was Cogito, ergo sum I think, therefore I am. His approach to God was humanistic and rational. He had thoughts of a "more perfect being" than himself. He felt these thoughts could not have come from his own mind so he concluded they evidenced the existence of God.
Descarte applied his Cartesian models to the relationship between spirit and matter in his own humanity. He began solving the problems of how the body and soul communicate by presenting three theories: 1) occasionalism, 2) monism, 3) preestablished harmony. Most of the heretical movements that rose in western civilization were energized by one of these choices.
OCCASIONALISM
This view held that the body and soul were unable to communicate at all which forced a divine element for every communication. Its defender were the Flemish philosopher Arnold Geulincx and the French priest Nicolas Malebranche. God moves on the body "on occasion" of the soul's decision. This view was difficult to explain God as being holy and righteous since he would be blamed for all events and thoughts.
MONISM
This view was defended by the Jewish Dutch philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza. Spinoza explained reality using Descarte methods concluding that communication of any other substance must be denied. Thought and physical extension are not two different substances but are different attributes of the same substance as "red" and "round" are attributes of a single substance. Spinoza concluded the same can be said of God and the world. These are really different attributes of the same substance the universe.
PREESTABLISHED HARMONY
This view was defended by German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz concluded that he saw evidence for an infinite number of substances which were all absolutely independent of each other. Leibniz named these substances "monads." He concluded they had no windows from which to communicate with other monads. He believed God created them like a "clockmaker" who created each to interact interdependently in a preestablished order. This view is hard to defend because it makes God fully responsible for every action committed by every human being. Human freedom is not allowed. A holy view of God is impossible.
DESCARTE HIMSELF CAME TO BELIEVE IN THE TRANSCENDENT GOD
"Having given the matter careful attention, I am convinced that existence can no more be taken away from the divine essence than the magnitude of its three angles taken together being equal to two right angles can be taken away from the essence of a triangle, or that the idea of a valley can be taken away from the idea of a mountain. So it is absurd to think of God [that is, a supremely perfect being] lacking existence [that is, lacking a certain perfection], than to think of a mountain without a valley …. I am not free to think of God apart from existence [that is, of a supremely perfect being apart from supreme perfection] in the way that I am free to imagine a horse either with wings or without wings. Whenever I choose to think of the First and Supreme Being, and as it were bring this idea out of the treasury of my mind, it is necessary that I ascribe all perfections to him. This necessity clearly ensures that, when I subsequently point out that existence is perfection, that I am correct in concluding that the First and Supreme Being exists."
Dutch Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza was influenced by Descarte. He used rational approaches to discover God and Nature are identical. He was known as a rationalist because he based his discovery on what he could deduce from self evident principles rather than on church, tradition or scripture.
MONISM
This view was defended by the Jewish Dutch philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza. Spinoza explained reality using Descarte methods concluding that communication of any other substance must be denied. Thought and physical extension are not two different substances but are different attributes of the same substance as "red" and "round" are attributes of a single substance. Spinoza concluded the same can be said of God and the world. These are really different attributes of the same substance the universe.
Rationalists in Britain were called Empiricists. Empiricism comes from the Greek word "experience." The founder of that movement was John Locke. While he agreed with Descarte much of the time he denied the idea that truth could be discovered by looking within oneself.
Locke believed that knowledge must be gained from experience. He defined three levels of experience. First is from ourselves, second is from outer realities which presently surround us, and last from God. Apart from these three levels there is no knowledge we can be sure about.
In 1695 Locke published his treatise titled The Reasonableness of Christianity which evidenced his feelings that Christianity was the most reasonable of all religions. Locke did not believe Christianity added anything of importance that could not be known through the use of reason and judgment. Natural faculties clearly expressed truth best.
"For if we examine the idea we have of the incomprehensible supreme Being, we shall find that we come by it the same way, and that the complex ideas we have both of God, and separate Spirits, are made up of the simple ideas we receive from Reflection; v.g., having from what we experiment in our selves, got the ideas of existence and duration, of knowledge and power, of pleasure and happiness, and of several other qualities and powers which it is better to have, than be without, when we would frame an idea of the most suitable we can to the supreme Being, we enlarge every one of these with our idea of infinity, and so putting them together, make our complex idea of God. For that the mind has such a power of enlarging some of its ideas, received from sensation, has been already showed."
This movement emerged out of the endless squabbles between the many sects and movements of the seventeenth century. This movement was made up of those who were too freethinking to accept orthodoxy but saw no reason to abandon God altogether. Deism opposed narrow dogmatism while refuting skepticism of those who advocated abandoning all religion.
He saw five theological points, 1) the existence of God, 2) the obligation to worship God, 3) the ethical requirements behind worship, 4) the need for repentance, 5) the reward and punishments associated with this life and the next. This movement claimed divine revelation was possible it could not contradict the basic five points and could not be considered exclusive as there was no reason to expect all to accept revelation.
After John Locke's works were published Toland authored, "Deism, Christianity Not Mysterious, or a Treatise Showing That There is Nothing in the Gospel Contrary Nor Above It, and That No Christian Doctrine Can Be Properly Called a Mystery" in 1730. His work presents Christianity as coincides with "natural religion."
Wrote in reaction to the struggles of his century was to present his own skepticism of about much of what the philosophers were saying. He said the knowledge produced by Locke's empiricism was wide. He said irrational mental habits were themselves producing knowledge with no basis. He said the empiricist knowledge based only on experience was flawed. He gave the example of the billiard game where motion of the balls moving in sequence were said to be the result of the first ball placed in movement. Hume said this was wrong as the real action began in the mind of the player.
Berkeley followed John Locke taking Locke's view further by pointing out that, if all our knowledge is of the senses we have no way of knowing whether any of them truly resemble external objects which are just collections of ideas.
"We know the truth, not only through our reason, but also through our heart. It is through this latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with this, vainly tries to refute them. The skeptics have no intention other than this, and they fail to achieve it. We know that we are not dreaming. Yet however unable we may be to prove this by reason, this inability demonstrates nothing but the weakness of our reason, and not the uncertainty of all our knowledge, as they assert."
Voltaire was a Deist who took Locke's writings into the practical realm of government. He was banished to Holland in 1713 and imprisoned in the Bastille between 1717-1718. He believed in the clockmaker view of God.
"This one mover is very powerful, otherwise he could not regulate so vast and complicated a machine [the universe]." "He is very intelligent, since we, who are intelligent, can produce nothing equal to the least of the springs of this machine." "I am forced to admit eternity, but I am not forced to admit that there is any such thing as infinity." "I know no reason why God should be infinite." He sees God as being finite in agreement with John Stuart Mill. Voltaire's God needed to perform miracles at creation, but God has not manifest providence since. He was very skeptical of the existence of the human soul quipping in 1752 "may God, if there is one, save my soul if I have one." Voltaire denounced all revealed religion. Voltaire loved the ethic example of Christ. He did see Christ as superior to Confucius who he also admired. But Voltaire's Christ was a humanist and deist. In 1763 he wrote that the Biblical idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of humanity was common to all religions as revealed in nature. The reason Voltaire rejected Biblical Christianity can be summed up in this statement, "Either God can remove all evil from the world and will not; or being willing to do so, cannot; or he neither can or will; or he is both able and willing." But if God is "willing and cannot, he is not omnipotent. If he can but will not, he is not benevolent. If he is neither willing nor able, he is not omnipotent nr benevolent. If he both wants to and can, whence comes evil over the face of the earth?"
Rouseau believed if a man were to be truly virtuous he should always obey his heart rather than his reason. Rouseau believed progress was not beneficial for human beings who were better off in more natural states. He said rulers are employees of the people. He rejected all religious dogma as part of the danger of progress. He believed in God, the immortality of the soul and moral order which should be the basis of natural religion. Both Rouseau and Voltaire paved the way for the radical French Revolution.
Kant was a full believing rationalist until he read Hume who awoke him from his "dogmatic slumber." He was not able to overcome the difficulties associated with the communicating substances using Cartesian principles. Empiricism led Kant to conclude that if knowledge can only be based on experience no valid knowledge is possible about critical substance. In 1781 Kant proposed a radical alternative which said there is no such thing as innate ideas. Instead he called them "fundamental structures of the mind" that provide mental structures to place sense data on. He named these structures, time, space and twelve other organizational categories. He declared there is no such thing as "objective knowledge" of Hume's Cartesians or of Empiricist, or Deists. All of these "experiences" were nothing more than illusions. For Kant and his many followers in the future this placed arguments supportive of Christian faith and practice into an invalid category. People who used the reality of their own existence as a datum from which to make proofs found "existence" itself removed from reality becoming one of the Kant's categories instead. If God, the soul or eternity are true Kant's form of reason can not know them just as the eye cannot hear and the ear cannot see. In 1788 Kant wrote Critique of Practical Reason which offered the moral life as evidence for God. "In the affairs of life, therefore, it is impossible to for us to count on miracles or to take them in consideration at all in our use of reason."
DEVELOPMENTAL PANTHEISM
Hegel followed Kant. He believed the mind stamps its seal on all knowledge. Kant saw reason as not something that exists in human minds but as being reality itself. Reason is reality and the only reality there is. Hegel does not use reason to refer to a way of coming to understanding but to the process of thinking. Hegel developed the idea of having a thesis which should be questioned by an antithesis. This whole process Hegel called reason or dynamic reason since it continuously advanced. He proposed the idea that this was beyond the human mind in what he called a universal reason or Spirit. While Hegel saw Christianity as the "absolute religion" he saw it in a pantheistic way that included other religions. Hegel saw Christianity as the latest in the process of natural religion evolving. Hegel's view of Christianity as the apex of history was free of all dogmatic narrowness of past religions. Hegel's view of the Bible is revealed in the way he presented a Jesus who performed no miracles but offered a Kantian ethic.
He developed the view of Absolute Idealism which was the view that matter is only an appearance or illusion with the only true reality being Absolute Spirit. Truth is expressed in a historical process of struggle and conflict out of which emerges Spirit toward a perfect society where all conflicts are resolved in a higher synthesis. This was later adopted by Karl Marx [1818-1883]. Hegel was also influential to the theistic existentialism expressed by Kierkegaard who said truth is lived not known. The atheistic existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre was also dependent on Hegel.
While Kierkegaard was himself a Christian his method of determining truth set aside the value of objective knowable facts. Dane Soren Kierkegaard was one of the most influencial Christian thinkers of the nineteenth century. Kant's third option was important for Kierkegaard. Reason was unable to penetrate ultimate truth without faith. While reason can either prove or disprove God's existence, faith knows God directly. For Kierkegaard the basis for Chrsitianity was not its reasonableness nor in Hegel's place of ultimate honor.
For Kierkegaard truth was not even feeling but a matter of faith in God whose revelation comes through Scripture. The kind of faith Kierkegaard spoke of was never easy leading to a tranquil life. He saw no value in either the objective storing of knowledge or the blissful mystical experience. Kierkegaard introduced an intensly subjective philosophy into Christianity in the nineteenth century.
Kierkegaard believed in three life stages with God. First was aesthetic, second was ethical and third was the religious life. His motive was an attack on the dialectical thinking of Hegel. He saw no real value in storing objective knowledge nor in blissful insights. For Kierkegaard faith was passion for the eternal that resulted in a new ethic. Questions he asked was "is it possible to base eternal happiness on historical knowledge? Another was "how can the transcendent God communicate with us? He believed humans could neither know or find truth unless God puts it into them by revelation. He said faith in God cannot be either rationally or empirically grounded. He said objective reason never finds existential truth and proofs can neither establish or overthrow Christianity. He said faith in religious facts such as the incarnation or the authority of Scripture is not true faith. True faith is the gift of God and unattainable b effort. He said eternal salvation can never depend on historical documents so he felt it unnecessary to defend the Scripture. "Faith does not result simply from a scientific inquirey; it does not come directly at all. On the contrary, "in this objectivity one tends to lose that infinite personal interconnectedness in passion which is the condition of faith." He said "faith does not need proof, faith in fact regards proof as its enemy." Men and women must be freed from the shackles of historical necessity.
His writings influenced Karl Barth who was also an existentialist. Both Barth and Emil Brunner were neo-orthodox existentialists. Both denied a historic view of revelation which is prepositional. It also led to the radical demythologizing of Bultmann. Kierkegaard believed that objective truth tests were impossible. He discounted the purpose of miracles. Kierkegaard also called for a suspension of personal ethics in a way that paved the way for situational ethics. Though he believed strongly in God's moral codes the end effect has been generations who lack any real authoritative guide for right and wrong.
SECULAR HUMANISM - NATURALISM
John Dewey at Johns Hopkins Dewey came under the tutelage of two powerful and engaging intellects who were to have a lasting influence on him. George Sylvester Morris, a German-trained Hegelian philosopher, exposed Dewey to the organic model of nature characteristic of German idealism.
Upon obtaining his doctorate in 1884, Dewey accepted a teaching post at the University of Michigan, a post he was to hold for ten years, with the exception of a year at the University of Minnesota in 1888. While at Michigan Dewey wrote his first two books: Psychology (1887), and Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding (1888). Both works expressed Dewey's early committment to Hegelian idealism, while the Psychology explored the synthesis between this idealism and experimental science that Dewey was then attempting to effect.
He later became professor at Chicago and Columbia; philosopher and educational theorist; pragmatist; designed progressive education; strong evolutionist; critical of traditional religion; humanist; emphasized science, intelligence and education. Wrote 1. A Common Faith, 2. The Quest for Certainty, 3. How We Think, 4. Reconstruction in Philosophy, 5. Human Nature and Conduct, and 6. Art as Experience. Note not related to Melville Dewey of the Dewey Decimal library classification system.
The Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed. The individuals whose signatures appear would, had they been writing individual statements, have stated the propositions in differing terms. The importance of the document is that more than thirty men have come to general agreement on matters of final concern and that these men are undoubtedly representative of a large number who are forging a new philosophy out of the materials of the modern world.
The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of a candid and explicit humanism. In order that religious humanism may be better understood we, the undersigned, desire to make certain affirmations which we believe the facts of our contemporary life demonstrate.
There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal, identifi- cation of the word religion with doctrines and methods which have lost their significance and which are powerless to solve the problem of human living in the Twentieth Century. Religions have always been means for realizing the highest values of life. Their end has been accomplished through the interpretation of the total environing situation (theology or world view), the sense of values resulting therefrom (goal or ideal), and the technique (cult), established for realizing the satisfactory life. A change in any of these factors results in alteration of the outward forms of religion. This fact explains the changefulness of religions through the centuries. But through all changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for abiding values, an inseparable feature of human life.
Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satis- factions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:
FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.
THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.
FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.
FIFTH: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of realities as yet undiscovered, but it does insist that the way to determine the existence and value of any and all realities is by means of intelligent inquiry and by the assessment of their relations to human needs. Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.
SIXTH: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought".
SEVENTH:
Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly
significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art,
science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation — all that is in its degree
expressive of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between
the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained.
EIGHTH: Religious Humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation of the humanist's social passion.
NINTH: In the place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being.
TENTH: It
follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of
the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.
ELEVENTH: Man
will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their
naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by
education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the
path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes
and wishful thinking.
TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.
THIRTEENTH: Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modern world.
FOURTEENTH: The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted. A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible. The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists demand a shared life in a shared world.
FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.
So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: There were 34 signers of this document, including Anton J. Carlson, John Dewey, John H. Dietrich, R. Lester Mondale, Charles Francis Potter, Curtis W. Reese, and Edwin H. Wilson.]
Copyright © 1973 by the American Humanist Association
http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto1.html 2/28/03 11:02:43 AM
It is forty years since Humanist Manifesto I (1933) appeared. Events since then make that earlier statement seem far too optimistic. Nazism has shown the depths of brutality of which humanity is capable. Other totalitarian regimes have suppressed human rights without ending poverty. Science has sometimes brought evil as well as good. Recent decades have shown that inhuman wars can be made in the name of peace. The beginnings of police states, even in democratic societies, widespread government espionage, and other abuses of power by military, political, and industrial elites, and the continuance of unyielding racism, all present a different and difficult social outlook. In various societies, the demands of women and minority groups for equal rights effectively challenge our generation.
As we approach the twenty-first century, however, an affirmative and hopeful vision is needed. Faith, commensurate with advancing knowledge, is also necessary. In the choice between despair and hope, humanists respond in this Humanist Manifesto II with a positive declaration for times of uncertainty.
As in 1933, humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to live and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith. Salvationism, based on mere affirmation, still appears as harmful, diverting people with false hopes of heaven hereafter. Reasonable minds look to other means for survival.
Those who sign Humanist Manifesto II disclaim that they are setting forth a binding credo; their individual views would be stated in widely varying ways. This statement is, however, reaching for vision in a time that needs direction. It is social analysis in an effort at consensus. New statements should be developed to supersede this, but for today it is our conviction that humanism offers an alternative that can serve present-day needs and guide humankind toward the future.
— Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson (1973)
The next century can be and should be the humanistic century. Dramatic scientific, technological, and ever-accelerating social and political changes crowd our awareness. We have virtually conquered the planet, explored the moon, overcome the natural limits of travel and communication; we stand at the dawn of a new age, ready to move farther into space and perhaps inhabit other planets. Using technology wisely, we can control our environment, conquer poverty, markedly reduce disease, extend our life-span, significantly modify our behavior, alter the course of human evolution and cultural development, unlock vast new powers, and provide humankind with unparalleled opportunity for achieving an abundant and meaningful life.
The future is, however, filled with dangers. In learning to apply the scientific method to nature and human life, we have opened the door to ecological damage, over-population, dehumanizing institutions, totalitarian repression, and nuclear and bio- chemical disaster. Faced with apocalyptic prophesies and doomsday scenarios, many flee in despair from reason and embrace irrational cults and theologies of withdrawal and retreat.
Traditional moral codes and newer irrational cults both fail to meet the pressing needs of today and tomorrow. False "theologies of hope" and messianic ideologies, substituting new dogmas for old, cannot cope with existing world realities. They separate rather than unite peoples.
Humanity, to survive, requires bold and daring measures. We need to extend the uses of scientific method, not renounce them, to fuse reason with compassion in order to build constructive social and moral values. Confronted by many possible futures, we must decide which to pursue. The ultimate goal should be the fulfill- ment of the potential for growth in each human personality — not for the favored few, but for all of humankind. Only a shared world and global measures will suffice.
A humanist outlook will tap the creativity of each human being and provide the vision and courage for us to work together. This outlook emphasizes the role human beings can play in their own spheres of action. The decades ahead call for dedicated, clear- minded men and women able to marshal the will, intelligence, and cooperative skills for shaping a desirable future. Humanism can provide the purpose and inspiration that so many seek; it can give personal meaning and significance to human life.
Many kinds of humanism exist in the contemporary world. The varieties and emphases of naturalistic humanism include "scientific," "ethical," "democratic," "religious," and "Marxist" humanism. Free thought, atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, deism, rationalism, ethical culture, and liberal religion all claim to be heir to the humanist tradition. Humanism traces its roots from ancient China, classical Greece and Rome, through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, to the scientific revolution of the modern world. But views that merely reject theism are not equivalent to humanism. They lack commitment to the positive belief in the possibilities of human progress and to the values central to it. Many within religious groups, believing in the future of humanism, now claim humanist credentials. Humanism is an ethical process through which we all can move, above and beyond the divisive particulars, heroic personalities, dogmatic creeds, and ritual customs of past religions or their mere negation.
We affirm a set of common principles that can serve as a basis for united action — positive principles relevant to the present human condition. They are a design for a secular society on a planetary scale.
For these reasons, we submit this new Humanist Manifesto for the future of humankind; for us, it is a vision of hope, a direction for satisfying survival.
FIRST: In the best sense, religion may inspire dedication to the highest ethical ideals. The cultivation of moral devotion and creative imagination is an expression of genuine "spiritual" experience and aspiration.
We believe, however, that traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species. Any account of nature should pass the tests of scientific evidence; in our judgment, the dogmas and myths of traditional religions do not do so. Even at this late date in human history, certain elementary facts based upon the critical use of scientific reason have to be restated. We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless or irrelevant to the question of survival and fulfillment of the human race. As nontheists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity. Nature may indeed be broader and deeper than we now know; any new discoveries, however, will but enlarge our knowledge of the natural.
Some humanists believe we should reinterpret traditional religions and reinvest them with meanings appropriate to the current situation. Such redefinitions, however, often perpetuate old dependencies and escapisms; they easily become obscurantist, impeding the free use of the intellect. We need, instead, radically new human purposes and goals.
We appreciate the need to preserve the best ethical teachings in the religious traditions of humankind, many of which we share in common. But we reject those features of traditional religious morality that deny humans a full appreciation of their own potentialities and responsibilities. Traditional religions often offer solace to humans, but, as often, they inhibit humans from helping themselves or experiencing their full potentialities. Such institutions, creeds, and rituals often impede the will to serve others. Too often traditional faiths encourage dependence rather than independence, obedience rather than affirmation, fear rather than courage. More recently they have generated concerned social action, with many signs of relevance appearing in the wake of the "God Is Dead" theologies. But we can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. While there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.
SECOND: Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful. They distract humans from present concerns, from self-actualization, and from rectifying social injustices. Modern science discredits such historic concepts as the "ghost in the machine" and the "separable soul." Rather, science affirms that the human species is an emergence from natural evolutionary forces. As far as we know, the total personality is a function of the biological organism transacting in a social and cultural context. There is no credible evidence that life survives the death of the body. We continue to exist in our progeny and in the way that our lives have influenced others in our culture.
Traditional religions are surely not the only obstacles to human progress. Other ideologies also impede human advance. Some forms of political doctrine, for instance, function religiously, reflecting the worst features of orthodoxy and authoritarianism, especially when they sacrifice individuals on the altar of Utopian promises. Purely economic and political viewpoints, whether capitalist or communist, often function as religious and ideological dogma. Although humans undoubtedly need economic and political goals, they also need creative values by which to live.
THIRD: We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life. Human life has meaning because we create and develop our futures. Happiness and the creative realization of human needs and desires, individually and in shared enjoyment, are continuous themes of humanism. We strive for the good life, here and now. The goal is to pursue life's enrichment despite debasing forces of vulgarization, commercialization, and dehumanization.
FOURTH: Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that humankind possesses. There is no substitute: neither faith nor passion suffices in itself. The controlled use of scientific methods, which have transformed the natural and social sciences since the Renaissance, must be extended further in the solution of human problems. But reason must be tempered by humility, since no group has a monopoly of wisdom or virtue. Nor is there any guarantee that all problems can be solved or all questions answered. Yet critical intelligence, infused by a sense of human caring, is the best method that humanity has for resolving problems. Reason should be balanced with compassion and empathy and the whole person fulfilled. Thus, we are not advocating the use of scientific intelligence independent of or in opposition to emotion, for we believe in the cultivation of feeling and love. As science pushes back the boundary of the known, humankind's sense of wonder is continually renewed, and art, poetry, and music find their places, along with religion and ethics.
FIFTH: The preciousness and dignity of the individual person is a central humanist value. Individuals should be encouraged to realize their own creative talents and desires. We reject all religious, ideological, or moral codes that denigrate the individual, suppress freedom, dull intellect, dehumanize person- ality. We believe in maximum individual autonomy consonant with social responsibility. Although science can account for the causes of behavior, the possibilities of individual freedom of choice exist in human life and should be increased.
SIXTH: In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct. The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized. While we do not appro