Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2013
Almah: Young woman or a virgin?
In the bible we read the Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin. But, do we understand what was written? Not really.
The word virgin was a translation from Hebrew, and the Hebrew word was almah, which can mean several things, including young woman as well as, literally, virgin. We also must remember that this was not originally written in Hebrew. The original text was in Aramaic, an even older language. We have to ask ourselves, was this truly a supernatural event, or a natural occurrence which was purposely poorly translated to meet the needs and objectives of people seeking temporal political power?
We also have to ask ourselves whether Jesus was his historical name, or was it Immanuel (also spelled Emmanuel)? Although He is most often referred to as Jesus, Immanuel is also a frequently used name for, presumably, the same person!
Just some things to consider.
If you are interested, you can read more about this at:
http://theresurgence.com/2012/12/13/why-a-virgin-birth
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The difference between science, theology and philosophy. Lesson 110
We digress, momentarily, from our inquiries to recognize some definitional differences.
In science, one formulate a hypothesis and then evaluates the data to refine, modify or disapprove that hypothesis based on observable mathematical or scientific data. Science seeks to document provable facts.
Theology is the study of one or more organized religions. A theology represents the belief systems of one religion. One of the basic tenants of most, if not all theologies is that at some point, humanity reaches a point where we must believe on faith. We must believe because God, or the gods, command us to believe without understanding. Theology/religion is often at odds with scientific inquiry and loath to modify its belief system based on science.
There is a difference between pure theology and religion. Theology is a study of the nature of God, and usually his (or, if multiple, there) interaction with humanity. Religion is a temporal/man made construct. A religion as a person or Council at its head followed by serious casts of preachers/teachers. A religion is evidenced by an organization of people who believed in a theology. Theology can be thought of as one fairly narrow branch of philosophy.
Philosophy is the inquiry into the thought processes and ideas. One can think of it as the search for truth on many levels. Philosophy is the study of that which occurs largely in ideas and processes of the human mind.
Our objective is to delve into science and philosophy, and maybe theology, but to avoid purely religious systems because they rely upon accepting something on faith.
Monday, October 18, 2010
An interesting philosophy. Lesson 120
Most of us have some understanding of one or more organized belief systems. Often, we referred to these belief systems as religions. There are the large organized religions of the Protestant faiths, Roman and Orthodox Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, etc. They all have in common a belief in a single deity or creator. They also have in common the belief that we as mere mortals cannot possibly comprehend the motivations of the divinity.
I digress however, into this religious discussion, because of the belief system of one, uniquely American religion -- the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints also know to its members as the LDS church and to the rest of us as the Mormons. I do not espouse any particular religious belief, for a lot of reasons. And, I am certainly not a Mormon. They do however have one believe that is particularly interesting.
The Mormons are best known for their missionary pursuits, young men and women in white shirts and dark pants and knocking on doors. They are also known for their belief that Jesus Christ visited the New World after visiting the Middle East. Those beliefs, however, are not nearly the most academically interesting portion of their belief system.
They believe in one God that we must worship and pray to, as do most of today's monotheistic religions. They believe in the Christian Trinity -- God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. However, they also have the belief that God, our God, the God worshiped by earthly humans, may be but one of many number of gods! God, by their definition, is at the top of the human pyramid! If there is life on a planet circling the sun Alpha Centauri, and that planet is populated by living beings, the Mormons could absolutely believe that those beings have their own God who created and nurtured them! They believe that every population of living, intelligent beings has its own Creator/God! This is definitely not classical Eastern or Western belief.
Historically, we categorize religions as monotheistic -- believing in one God, polytheistic -- believing in many gods, or adiestic -- believing in some force, or some transcendence of death, which may not necessarily have the name of God. I think the Mormons represent a new category which we shall call multi-theistic which means that any given population worships or believes in one God, but does not discount the possibility that other beings and other gods may exist. The Mormon belief system holds that God is inherently good.
I raised the point because it is a consideration not often evaluated in the study of either Eastern or Western philosophy. As we shall see, this one particular belief may influence our philosophical inquiry just as much as the classical Eastern and Western belief systems.
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ1nweotz-8MZGNiNHB6YzhfNjRkcG40ZHg4eA&hl=en
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