Rea
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I was fascinated by Rea’s general thesis that God’s silence is not proof of His absence, but rather, an indication of his personality. This is interesting to me for a number of reasons.
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People look for signs of the divine, for proof that it is real, and for validation of their beliefs in God; and sometimes incurring great torment upon themselves in these religious (and also existential) conflicts. They expect (as Rea points out), a more familiar, human relationship with God, much like what they have with friends or family. The encounter with divine silence (i.e. the seeming absence of God or anything divine) is, for many believers,
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In other words, one can be told what good and evil are. One can be coerced into accepting one view of good/evil over another. But without freedom, one cannot verify for themselves whether another’s claims of good and evil are valid, or come to their own conclusions, through their own efforts. At best, they can only follow others and pretend to agree with them without having any personal reasons why, or personal involvement in their moral development. …show more content…
the seeming absence of God in our mortal lives), provides sufficient ground for the refutation of God’s existence. One point in specific which Schellenberg argues, against the proponents of God’s existence, is that if God was truly a loving God present in all our lives—He would have made himself known by now. There would be no room for ambiguity or doubt about His love, or by default, His existence. As Schellenberg writes, “...reflection on the concept of divine love shows that a perfectly loving God would necessarily seek personal realtionship with all individuals...as because such seeking [of God] entails the provision of evidence sufficient for belief in the existence of God (Schellenberg, 296).” Furthermore, “if God exists, evidence sufficient for belief in God is much more widely available than is in fact the case (Schellenberg, 297).” The lack of evidence, even slight evidence, of course, implies to Schellenberg that God does not exist.
In this quote, the theme silence is illustrated by God’s silence. As the Jews are heading to the left they are told by other prisoners they were going to the crematorium and the start to pray to God. Except, instead of answering their prayers with a miracle He answers with silence.
Throughout the Novel Silence, Shusako Endo depicts the cultural clash between Christianity and Japan. We feel the frustrations that this brings, and are provoked to ask questions such as, why is God silent in the midst of his people’s suffering? But the greater question it begs is what cultural implications have we placed on Christ? Do we expect him to act as a hero in our culture would? He transcends time and culture, but do our expectations and experiences cast a shadow on our impression of God? The theme of the silence of God, suggested by the title is brought to light throughout the novel, and perhaps the reader can see this as one cultural expectation placed on Christ by a particular group of people based on their perceptions or experiences. Their experiences in life cast a shadow on their impression of God, and Jesus is to be a cultural hero in their frame.
One burning and enduring problem in philosophy to which we have given considerable examination is the question of the existence of God--the superlative being that philosophers have defined and dealt with for centuries. After reading the classic arguments of St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas, the contentious assertions of Ernest Nagel, and the compelling eyewitness accounts of Julian of Norwich, I have been introduced to some of the most revered and referenced arguments for and against God's existence that have been put into text. All of them are well-thought and well-articulated arguments, but they have their holes. The question of God's true existence, therefore, is still not definitively answered and put to rest; the intensity of this
There is a difference in thinking God is gone, and in not wanting to continue believing in him and praying towards him. People can know God is gone and still continue believing that he will come back. This shows that Wiesel no longer cares if God does come back, on account of the his silence cannot be forgiven. This impacts the reader because they end up realizing just how painful the silence is. Readers with a God of their own, watching over them, know how important God is and how much they depend on Him, and it helps them understand what it would be like if their God had just disappeared into thin air with no warning.
Jim Morrison has once said, “The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.” We as human being are free from birth. We are given the ability to choose. This freedom makes us who we are as human being. Each individual make choices and learn through consequences. Through the consequences, we learn and the learning becomes experience. Through experience we slowly shape into who we want to be as human. This is the reason why we as humans are so special. Each individual is unique from others. Each of us has different ethical moral rights and wrong. Each of us has something we like and dislike. Each of us are different. Therefore,
There is humanly no possible way to merely or easily define what “freedom” truthfully is, as every distinct person and each social order has opposing restrictions for what this belief is. Bureaucrats and social researchers, for example, have vastly diverse philosophies of what institutes freedom. This primeval belief has been ingrained into mankind since the beginning of time. Century after century mankind has fought in numerous wars for this concept of “Freedom”.
Eliezer says “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprives me, for all eternity, of desire to live” (pg25). Eliezer and the other prisoners call out to God throughout their journey and he does not answer “where is God? Where is he?” (pg47). I also believe Silence is what allowed to Holocaust to continue for so long.
“Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?… I was not denying His existence, but I doubted his absolute justice” (Wiesel 33 & 45).
We typically consider freedom to be the capacity to exercise choice and as being exempt from authoritarian control
There are many viewpoints of ‘being free’ and the measures it takes for these restrictions to be removed for freedom. Immanuel Kant and Mary Wollstonecraft represent a separate matter of individuals being restricted within a boundary. They both stand for a particular group of people that exists within the world. Kant believes that the human population subconsciously feel that they have no ‘reason’ to express their emotions or think independently, and as a result they develop a fear of being criticised or judged upon in society by those who hold great power. He proposes that a person needs to gain ‘courage’ that is a requirement of ‘Enlightenment’ to think and act freely, but expressing one’s
In this paper, I will analyze Russell’s “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Specifically, I will examine the evidence that has lead me to my decision on if there is really a god or not. I will compare the works of Nancy Abram’s “A God That Could Be Real in the New Scientific Universe,” William Hasker’s “D.Z. Phillips’ Problem with Evil and with God,” and the works of Emma Goldman “The Philosophy of Atheism” in order to prove that there is no existence of God.
The existence of God has been in question for as long as mankind has existed and thought logically. Many questions have plagued the human mind in regards to God, and there have been many arguments drawn with the hopes of proving the existence of a supreme being whom we know as God. The “God” question has been presented to every individual at some point in their lives. It is a topic that will bring forth never-ending questions and an equal amount of attempted answers. Many philosophers have formulated different rationales when examining the topic of God, some of which include how the word itself should be defined, what his role is in human existence, whether or not he loves us, and ultimately, if he even exists at all. Mankind cannot
This would mean that we would have to take into consideration what the meaning of ‘Freedom” really means. According to Isaiah Berlin, Author of “Two Concepts of Liberty” in Isaiah Berlin (1969) Four Essays on Liberty. “He describes and defines freedom or political sense as either negative or positive. The negative freedom would be to have the ability to do something on your own recognizance to avoid harm to him or her self. The positive would be to have an entity control or interference to determine someone to do something that can be positive to their health” (Berlin, 1969, p2). This is what marriage equality activist try to use to coerce you to believing that the only way to make you accept their beliefs is to put into practice the use of negative freedom. When in reality it should be negative freedom that we need to execute to come to the
Wars, death, and other acts of violence have all been part of a process to attain true freedom. However, what is true freedom? John Stuart Mill and Georg Hegel tackle this notion of freedom. Mills states that freedom is when individuals have unlimited liberty, while Hegel says that is a false freedom. He states that freedom is when the individual’s morals align with external laws within the nation state. Despite what many say freedom is more similar in Hegel’s and Mills than different. We can see this through Hegel’s notion of absolute mind and Mill’s value of liberty and notion of diversity.
Freedom means, to carry out one own choices, actions without coercion or constraint by necessity or circumstances. Fate often take a hand in the distillation of freedom. When this distillation occurs at weaker levels, benevolent slavery begins. A benevolent master usually receives gratitude from those slaves who are aware of their good fortune and will, in turn, work willingly. This form of slave's future is relatively certain, assured and predictable. Their offspring, born into a benevolent slavery, find the thought of freedom disturbing.