The 's View Of Gods Essay

Many authors have employed the religious beliefs of their cultures in literature. The deities contained in Homer’s Odyssey and in the Biblical book of Exodus reflect the nature of the gods in their respective societies. Upon examination of these two works, there are three major areas where the gods of the Greek epic seem to directly contrast the nature of the God of the Israelites: the way problems are solved, the prestige and status that separates the divine from the masses, and the extent of power among the immortal beings.

The Gods fail to deny this either, “From [the Gods] alone, come all their miseries”, but they attempt to dodge some of the alleged accountability by claiming, “[mortals’]…reckless ways compound their pains” (Homer 2006: 75). Heroic and venerable characters like Odysseus and Telemachus set a tone for their society that piety is valuable because of the social utility gained from not only being pious but also the result of being revered with glory. However, critics may arouse arguments surrounding the effects of a contrasting relationship that handles delayed divine intervention. It is blatant that mortals become helpless without the assistance of their Gods: Both Phaedra and Hippolytus succumb to death as a result of Aphrodite and Poseidon, leaving Theseus–a heroic and glorified individual alive; meanwhile, in The Odyssey, Telemachus, Odysseus, and Penelope remain alive by the distinct nature of Athena’s more consistent involvement. In fact, pious mortals, like Phaedra and Hippolytus, who eventually die seem to demonstrate that without divine intervention, piety and glory are

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.

In his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens dissects and criticizes the various claims of religions and the tragic events that have been caused by various religions. The title of the book sums up the arguments of Hitchens in this book in the fact that he makes many arguments of why “religion poisons everything.” The majority of the chapters in this book discuss why he believes religion to be a manmade notion that has led to more trouble than anything else in the world. Most of his focus is on the three Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism but he does fit in criticism of other religions as well. The topics he chooses to discuss range from the sketchy origins of Mormonism to the

a) Christians believe many different things about God’s nature; due to the huge spectrum of Christians that there are. However, as a general rule they perceive God as being one of the following four things:

In Uys’ (1980) film, The God’s Must Be Crazy, a tribal community of South African Bushmen who live independently away from any contact with the outside world. When a Coke bottle is dropped from a plane, this “beautiful” and “useful” thing becomes a tool that is adopted into a variety of uses by the family (Uys, 1980). When the family begins to fight over the bottle, Xi, decides that although the bottle has been given to them by the gods, this now “evil thing” must be thrown off the edge of the world (Uys, 1980). The film then captures Xi’s experiences and interactions with other people and modern society as he sought to accomplish his task.

But no god, however much he might suffer, was ever tragic. .... Heracles, whether hero or glutton, was always superhuman and therefore essentially untragic.

Are we at the whim of the gods, or the gods at ours? The Ion, written ca. 420 and 415 BC, is normally interpreted as a criticism of ancient Greek religion. Though this true, it is an incomplete description of Euripides’ play. Apart form unfavourably criticizing a Greek deity, it deals with exploring the dual nature of reality, with deep metaphysical and moral problems. It sheds a light humanity’s conception of reality in its search of truth, all while struggling within the confines of religion. This essay will discuss these topics through the interpretations of three commentators, as well as offer my own interpretation of the play.

Genesis is the first book of the Bible.  It begins with the story of God’s creation of the universe.    The Lord is the Almighty Creator of the world, skies, heavens, seas, animals, man, and woman.  He governs the universe and develops relationships with man.  Throughout Genesis, God acknowledges the fact that human beings make mistakes, and accepts their imperfection.  Throughout Genesis, God changes from one who does not tolerate disobedience, to one who shows clemency.  Early on in Genesis, God punishes Adam and Eve for disobedience.  After making the mistake of flooding the world, the Lord realizes that even He is not perfect, and does not allow Jacob’s deceit of his father to taint his future.

Regardless of the time frame, Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s epic the Iliad share both a copious amount of similarities and differences. For example, many common themes such as heroism, fate, and destiny are apparent in both works. Within the Aeneid and the Iliad, it is seen that the wars going on during that time were glorious that is why the role of gods were significant in leading both Aeneas and Achilles and influencing fate. In both texts, it is clear from the beginning that the role of the gods is to make Aeneas and Achilles fulfill their journey The Iliad focuses on the end of the Trojan War and the damaging power, while the Aeneid is focused during the aftermath of the war and underlies the foundation for the new civilization. This paper will address and argue the comparison of the role of gods and how each of the authors representation of the gods have influence on the lives of mortals.

in this world, and they are effects derived from a cause. The effects in turn

The Gods Must Be Crazy 1 is a South African comedy film which tells the story of Xi, a Bushman from the deep Kalahari Desert. He lived happily with his family and tribe because he thought the god provided them with plenty of things. The film contains various elements about cultural differences and intercultural communication concepts. In this essay, I aim to analyze the film in the light of the concepts of ethnocentrism and values. The literature review of the concepts will be discussed in the first two paragraphs, and a description of the segments relevant to the chosen concepts, followed by analysis and discussion on how these segments informs the concepts and what could help viewers to understand.

The existence of God has been questioned since the beginning of time. Religions thrived on answering the unanswerable questions of the universe and people were able to find solace in the answers. As science has expanded and been able to answer these questions with natural, as opposed to supernatural answers, many people stopped looking to God and religion for the causes of things and started looking towards science. God was dead, according to many scientists and people of all professions. Many philosophers, however, have different conclusions.

The bible was written as an account of what many viewed that God had accomplished so his actions and words could be passed on for generations. Some believe it is a literary account and some believe it is a historical account. The word of God in the bible comes in many forms and is left up to interpretation by the reader. Some believe that the word of God should be the only word and should be strictly followed. Some believe that the words are meant as a guideline to help us through life. Whatever your belief is you can always seem to find the meaning behind your belief through the word of God in the Bible.

In Herakles, Euripides teaches the reader of the idea of holding onesself to a higher standard than that which is described of the gods, in doing this he expresses ideas concerning myths consistent with Plato, Critas, and presumably other contemporaries, yet unfortunatly his play may fall into a phenominon described by Gorgias. While Euripides along with an eliete cadre of philosphers may hold the aformentioned beliefs themselves, it seems evident that these beliefs as presented in the play lay in the trap of being percieved as only an arousal of fictive passion.