[lit-ideas] Re: The 'Near-Eastern' influences on the Greek philosophy, sc...

  • From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 13:12:19 -0400

Scribe1865@xxxxxxx writes:

: In a message dated 4/10/2004 10:50:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: 

I did not write any of the following material apparently ascribed 
to me.

: The question is, how the Old Testament's Jehovah, 
: : an extremely temperamental Deity inclined to all sorts of (from a human : 
: perspective) arbitrary nastiness (see, for example, the Book of Job) : become
:  
: tamed into the Deists' watchmaker, who then wanders off stage, : leaving 
: Natural Laws in his place
: _____
: In my first post, I suggested in passing that it is due to the three Western 
: religions' attempt to view the world as an artifact, something shaped and 
: created, along the lines of a clay figurine or bowl shaped by a creator god. 
: Viewing the world as an artifact, as the religions of the ancient Near East 
: do, rather than as organic process, as for example the Taoists do, allows it 
: and its creatures to be subject to all kinds of limitations specific to 
: artifacts. Here are a few of the limitations implied by the universe seen as 
: artifact:
: 
: (1) It sets up a spirit/matter dichotomy in which people COME INTO the world 
: rather than GROW OUT OF the world. 
: 
: (2) It sets an unbridgeable gap between creator and created. In such a 
: situation, all knowledge comes from the Lord, and attempts at individual inqu
: iry 
: succeed or fail on the basis of appeals to a creator existing outside its 
: creation.
: 
: (3) It encourages a view of the world as something that exists for the sake 
: of something else. Therefore the universe can be made war on (we conquer spac
: e) 
: used up (we cut down all the forests) or managed as if by an outside agency 
: (we are stewards of the planet for God).
: 
: Cause/effect is thus one of the implications of (2) where simplified aspects 
: of the natural world are broken into sets believed to be responsible for each
:  
: other.
: 
: When it became obvious that the fire-demons Yahweh or Allah were not active 
: in the world except by extension, what was presumed to remain were the RULES 
: set up by these Creator of Artifacts, hence natural law, the limits imposed o
: n 
: the artifact by the nature of its form, i.e., pottery, figurine making.  
: 
: 
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--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu   
        NOTE: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx no longer exists
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