Why Humans Need God
Why is there a God, deity, or higher consciousness in all cultures found around the world? Why won't the concept of God go away? Do humans need God? Is there even a God, by any religious standard? These are all interesting questions that spur a topic for me that may appall some Christians, but may make sense to a lot of other people. I started out a few years ago when I was evaluating my beliefs and asked myself "Why is there God?." I could not at that time believe without proof that there was a God, and I had no proof. I never got any real proof, just self realization upon self realization that there has to be a God, or at least the thoughts in my mind that corresponded with the thoughts of others in the past and in the present have been dubbed "God" to me. So I go on this journey of writing a paper questioning why in every culture from the first signs of ceremonial burials among Neanderthals to today's highly sophisticated rituals, rights and ceremonies of evolved religion, there seems to be something beyond us, higher than us, something we do not understand, but comforts us on dark, cold lonely nights when we are most vulnerable.
In the book, Why God Wont Go Away, by Andrew Newberg, it seems that we are psychologically built to alleviate the existential fears and comfort us in this confusing and perilous world through invention and myths. From the earliest weapon to the latest technological revolution we are trying to make ourselves more secure in this world. That's one reason why it seems that in Christianities' earlier years it was either science or religion; you could not have both. Not only because they had conflicting goals and views, but also because when you had science, the human mind's ...
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8- McDermid, Douglas. "God's Existence." PHIL 1000H-B Lecture 9. Trent University, Peterborough. 21 Nov. 2013. Lecture.
One focal point in this book is to discuss “integrative approaches in a well-conceived Christian world view” (p.63), with concentration on the history of psychology, the relationship of faith and science, and controversial matters in science and psychology. He states “in many ways the foundations of science were paved in part by a Christian world view that allowed for the universe to be seen as an orderly place in which laws could describe the regularities found within it, based on the premise that the world was created by a powerful, rational, and personal Being” (p. 33). The book introduces the assorted integration models, the five paradigms, or ways of relating psychology to Christianity. The first one being enemy paradigm, meaning psychology and Christianity cannot be integrated in any way, “the belief that ps...
Friedrich Nietzsche certainly serves as a model for the single best critic of religion. At the other end of this spectrum, Jonathan Edwards emerges as his archrival in terms of religious discourse. Nietzsche argues that Christianity’s stance toward all that is sensual is that grounded in hostility, out to tame all that rests on nature, or is natural, akin to Nietzsche’s position in the world and his views. Taking this into account, Edwards’s views on Christianity should be observed in context targeted at those who agree with his idea, that G-d is great and beyond the capacity of human reason.
Fridreich Nietzsche writes in The Gay Science "God is dead....And we have killed him," (99, Existentialist Philosophy) referr...
“Has he got lost? Did he lose his way like a child? Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Emigrated?” No the madman says; “we have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers” This exchange encapsulates the aphorism that underpins much of Nietzsche’s thought; that “God is dead”. But what does this mean - What is Nietzsche telling us by claiming that we have murdered God? This essay is going to attempt to try and understand what Nietzsche argues has changed and what hasn’t with the death of God and to examine his critique of 19th century morality in the context of the 21st century politics and see if he offers a constructive alternative to the way we engage in political discourse.
Throughout our course we have read and considered many ideas, however for the duration of this paper I will focus on two core ideas. These are the ideas that God is the first efficient cause and whether God is good. For the duration of this paper I will look at Aquinas’s five ways, Hume’s refutation of God being the efficient cause. Also Dostoevsky’s and Hume’s explanation that God is not good because of the abundance of pain. Throughout the class what I have come to learn and was most impacted by is that God is not what we prescribe him to be in our different religions. Also the arguments that always stood out for me were the arguments of Hume and his skepticism. It is my goal through this paper to explain that God is not the entity
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In 1887, two years before succumbing to utter madness, existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche writes his ethical polemic, On the Genealogy of Morals, in search of a man with the strength to evolve beyond humanity: But from time to time do ye grant me. one glimpse, grant me but one glimpse only, of something perfect, fully realized, happy, mighty, triumphant, of something that still gives cause for fear! A glimpse of a man that justifies the existence of man. for the sake of which one may hold fast to the belief in man! Nietzsche, 18.
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...eveloped, and especially during the Enlightenment, God and religion were relegated to a lesser role because it was thought that science could explain everything. Now, though, the farther we plunge into science, the more questions we find that can only be answered by religion. When science and Christianity are both studied and well understood, especially in the context of their limitations, it is possible to integrate them, or at least for them to complement each other, in my view of the world.