Current Relationship With The Gods

The common ground of religions in the world is that they claim the existence of god/gods who holds the power beyond human ability. Each religion explains its existence in their own unique ways and implement it to people’s lifestyle. The film, 330 Million Gods, seeks to understand the Hinduism way of explanation. This documentary mainly focuses on the Hindu concept of divine, religious practices, and the stages of life. Also, the documentary illustrates how Indian lifestyle blends into its religion in the big cities – city of Benares and rural areas – village of Bhith Bhagwanpur. The most interesting points of this film presents to me are the idea of many gods with different sets of ability, how the Hindus practice the religion, and the concept

Hello my Christian friends, welcome to my father Okonkwo funeral for the converts of the church. I will not stand here in front of you today in a Christian church and tell you of the man the ibo people of Umoufia saw. Yes, I will tell you that my father had a prosperous life, but I will mainly tell you of the man I saw who killed good people before killing himself. I was told to write about the great Okonkwo’s life, and I will tell you nothing but the truth through my eyes.

Throughout the course of humanity’s history many questions have risen that have posed a problem to us as a species. Questions such as the following: What is the proper relationship between individuals and society? What is beauty, and why is it important? Is there purpose in human existence?, and many others have caused enough trouble in humanity’s short existence on the earth to cause a near identity crisis. However, all of these questions fall under the shadow of the main question that has been asked since the creation of Adam- “What exactly is the real relationship and purpose of humanity towards the divine?”

Starting with the first effect of imperialism, the introduction of Christianity in Umuofia, Okonkwo’s fatherland. Four years into Okonkwo’s exile, his good friend Obierika payed him a visit, informing Okonkwo of the arrival of missionaries in Umuofia. The Christian followers had to come to Umuofia to build a church and to convert locals into their anomalous religion. Most importantly, “what moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter’s son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia.” (Achebe 143) The introduction of Christianity was one of the many effects set upon the African villages. Locals were becoming

As Hephaestus is notified of Thetis’ arrival, he explores what their relationship has meant to him. Hephaestus recalls that “Thetis saved my life when the mortal pain came on me after my great fall…” (P. 480) After Hephaestus falls out of Zeus’ good graces, Thetis is able to lend her helping hand, displaying the hierarchical dynamic between the gods. The gods are indebted to each other, the likely reason that Hephaestus felt as though he needed to make Thetis the ornate shield. The duty and obligation to each other fuels the mutualistic relationships between the gods. Thetis’ motivation to help Hephaestus was not solely out of kindness; rather Thetis saw the opportunity to make a strategic move and put Hephaestus in her debt, knowing that she very well could use his services in her future. Hephaestus describes the pain that he felt as “mortal pain” signifying a distinction between the discomforts and vulnerability of mortals and gods.

The relationship between the gods and humanity in The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey are the same. In each saga, the gods seem to live nearby and are always present. Both epic poems portray humans as simply at the mercy of the gods. The gods feel that it is their duty to intervene if they feel that man is traveling off course from his destiny. However, the gods are not all powerful.

Throughout The Iliad, Homer offers us a glimpse into the lifestyles of the ancient Greeks and their beliefs. They are a very spiritual and in many ways superstitious people. The main thing to note throughout The Iliad is the interaction between the gods and the humans. Any way one looks at the situation, they can immediately see that humans are mere pawns to the gods in their game of chess. The success and failures of the humans depends on what god would be helping which group and at what particular time. This essay will explain the three main reasons the gods in The Iliad intervened with humans: Firstly, gods who act on their own personal motives, secondly, gods who act as favors to other gods, and finally gods who act as favors to

The relationship between gods and mortals in mythology has long been a complicated topic. The gods can be generous and supportive, and also devastating and destructive to any group of humans. Mortals must respect the powers above them that cannot be controlled. The gods rule over destiny, nature, and justice, and need to be recognized and worshipped for the powerful beings as they are. Regardless of one's actions, intentions, and thoughts, the gods in Greek myth have ultimate power and the final decision of justice over nature, mortals, and even each other.

-After Nwoye is lured into the Christian religion and abandons his culture and family, Okonkwo is ashamed and states, "you have all see the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people" (172). Nwoye's father disowns him only because he chooses a path untraditional to his culture. The serious, frustrated, and unhappy mood that is created in Okonkwo's statement gives the reader an idea of how much the Ibo culture values tradition, choice, and family.

Introducing a new religion has the potential to bring a society to its demise because it has the ability to break apart families. This is evident when Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, converts to Christianity, going against his father’s will. In Umuofia, abominations are taken very seriously. Okonkwo wants to be seen as the perfect role model of Umuofia; when he discovers that Nwoye becomes a convert, which is an abomination in his society, he gets frustrated because he is afraid of losing people’s respect.; he desires to command respect because he does not want to lose his authority within society. As a result, he warns his children by saying “ ‘You have all seen the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my

Rarely do you find a film both intelligent and entertaining like “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. The film is a collision of the individual journeys of three separate groups: the journey of Xi, the bushman, traveling to the end of the earth to get rid of a Coca-Cola bottle; the growing relationship between Kate Thompson, a school teacher, and Andrew Steyn, a clumsy scientist; and the actions of a band of terrorist led by Sam Boga. One day, a Coca-Cola bottle drops from the sky and lands unbroken near the temporary home of the bushman. The bushman family, completely isolated from humanity, has never seen such a thing and perceive it as a gift from the gods. Although the object proves to have many

A major aspect of one’s society is religion. Without it, the way people hold themselves accountable would be nonexistent. In addition, many moral standards that exist today are values taken directly from religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Currently, there exists a feud between people who believe in a god, and of those who do not. Eventually those who believe in a higher power will fight against each other. In “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe brings to light the differences and similarities of Christianity and Animism in order to demonstrate the effects of religion upon one’s society, which is exemplified by Okonkwo and his people. This is noticed in the lives of the Ibo, the missionaries, and

The Greek gods and goddess carry many attributes, most human. They are very much like humans in the way that they have weaknesses and strengths. Even though the gods display their characteristics much more drastically than humans do, the similarities are obvious. In Rosenberg and Baker’s book, the Greek gods have many human characteristics such as vengeance, jealously, and love.

Ancient Greece was filled with so much character, from their religion to even the stories that followed them through generation to generation. One important thing to remember is how they took their religion very seriously and believed very much in their goddesses and their gods. This strong belief carried out into their everyday lives, where they began to believe that everything that happened within their day, was from the gods. With such a love and respect for these gods, they held them up on a pedestal and gave them all their respect and looked at them only as positive. These gods that play a role in their life, often act more as a spiritual guide more than anything. They take on mortal disguises to allow them to help the world without becoming noticed. As we can see in The Odyssey, the relationship between gods and mortals is close knit, but the main difference that is evident, is the power between the two. The gods may not be able to cause death upon a mortal, but they can do everything to lead towards that. In the book, the gods can make or break your day. We see within several relationships between the gods and mortals, that the power from the gods can be not only positive, but also negative. Each mortal has been influenced in some way by the gods, for either the greater good, or bad. Which goes without saying, that the Greek take their theology in believing in the gods, very seriously.

1. Based on the course material, how “just” is the world and the relationship that exists between man and god that is envisioned in the different myths you have read? Based on the course material there's a hierarchy in the world where gods are above all human kind due to the fact they created them for the purpose to serve. For instance, in the "Enuma Elish" myth it's widely expressed the gods created the human race. The gods are divided up into two groups younger and older gods. Each group shared the interest of having the human kind worship them and become loyal servants. In this myth, gods are viewed above humans and humans are viewed to be beneath gods. In fact, they're viewed in the lowest form possible and shed in a very good light in relation to the gods. This is the first aspect of where we see hierarchy in the world and unjust world. Another example of this is suggested in this myth when the gods comment on how unjust the humans are to each other. In fact, in this myth, the humans are so unjust and unruly towards each other that the gods contemplate what to do with them. As a result, the humans were flooded by the gods. Also in the Enuma Elish, the relationship that exists between man and god is as I mentioned before man was meant to be a lowly, worshipping servant and the gods were to be high, powerful, mighty, and worshipped with great importance. In several other myths such as the Sumerian version of this one, the concept is similar. Both versions are similar in