1. Introduction to Religion
Humanities
February 15, 2013
Review of Wednesday
Existentialism & Postmodernism
Small Groups: I Am A Spiritual Seeker

2. Zoroastrianism Rooted in Nomadic, Indo-Europeans, 3000 BCE
1st & 2nd Wave of Traveling Tribes
600 or 1200 BCE ~ Zarathushtra
Dualism: Good & Evil; Light & Dark

3. “God, Zarathushtra taught, was the wholly Good Creator of all things
“God, Zarathushtra taught, was the wholly Good Creator of all things... of the spiritual and material worlds... He is in no way responsible for evil in the world; this comes from the Destructive Spirit (Angra Mainyu) whose nature is violent and destructive.”
~p. 244

4. The Baha’i Faith
“Since God is infinite and our minds can only conceptualize the finite, humanity has no access to knowledge of the supreme reality... The only certain knowledge that human beings can gain... is that brought by certain intermediaries who arise from time to time and found the great religions of the world.” ~p. 425

5. Baha’ullaah writes...
“that humanity is reaching maturity and much that was previously part of religion -- concepts such as Satan, heaven and hell as literal physical entities and practices such as confession and priestly forgiveness of sins -- can be dispensed with.”
~p. 426

6. Existentialism Modernity Enlightenment Antiquity Post- Modernity
Medieval

7. Existentialism Is What Happens When Religiosity Collides With Secularism

8. Soren Kierkegaard
Born May 5, 1813 to Michael & Ane (The Maid, Michael’s 2nd Wife)
Michael cursed God; felt “cursed” -- depressed
Engagement to Regine Olson; Broken Off
Writes Fear & Trembling in 1843

9. Adam In Garden? Abraham & Isaac?

10. Cannot Get Outside Of Existence Of Categories of History
Of This Weird Reflection On Self
Phenomenology: First Person Rules!

11. Infinitude
Abraham
Here I Am
Joy Again in Isaac
Finitude

12. It is quite true what Philosophy says: that Life
must be understood backwards. But that makes one forget the other saying: that it must be lived—forwards. The more one ponders this, the more it comes to mean that life in the temporal existence never becomes quite intelligible, precisely because at no moment can I find complete quiet to take the backward-looking position.
- The Diary of Soren Kierkegaard;
Kierkegaard, pt. 5, sct. 4, no. 136

13. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905--1980 Existentialism’s a Humanism
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself
Being and Nothingness
Consciousness is a being, the nature of which is to be conscious of the nothingness of its being.

15. Atheism or Theism
“Whoever lives in daily and festive communion with the thought that there is a God could hardly wish to spoil this for himself, or see it spoiled, by piecing together a definition of what God is... Man... is a synthesis of psyche and body, but also... of the temporal and the eternal.”
Soren Kierkegaard
Atheistic existentialism... declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence... That being is man....”
Jean-Paul Sartre

17. I believe in it, I answer for it, for the whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key! It may be at the cost of his skin, it may be by cannibalism! And this being so, can one help being tempted to rejoice that it has not yet come off, and that desire still depends on something we don't know?
--Notes from the Underground,
Fyodor Dostoevsky

18. Postmodernism Subjectivity Distrust of ALL meta- narratives
Fragmentation
Deconstruction
Hyperreality

19. Small Groups: p. 451 Review or Read “I am a Spiritual Seeker”
How is Helen Serdiville’s story indicative of the Postmodern Condition?
Does she make sense to you?

20. For Next Wednesday Read Prothero Chapter on Atheism
Get a head start on Readings for Pascal, S.K. & Weil
Small Group Research