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God, Myth and Reality

 

They told stories of how the gods had the power to determine your fate in the afterlife based on your actions on Earth. This one fear factor played a huge role in how people did almost anything, then and now. An afterlife gave people something to hope for when times were hard, motivation to do good and erased the fear of death. Blaise Pascal wrote, "We know the existence of the infinite, but are ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like us. But we know neither the existence nor nature of God, because he has neither extension nor limits." (52) It was the perfect deal. This is why religion at certain points in time was the highest form of government. The religious manuscripts of this time have been proven time and time again to contradict themselves and science. Philosophical concepts such as the Problem of Evil and Placement challenge the morals that the holy books of today teach. The Roman Catholic Church was one of the most powerful religions from 590 to 1517. They adopted ideas of the afterlife from fictitious stories such as Dante's Inferno. Art was inspired from these books and the pieces were displayed in famous cathedrals all over the world. This shows one how powerful storytelling can be. Only recently, many religions are realizing that hell is more of an idea than a literal place. One cannot deny the patterns that repeat between myth and faith.
             Immanuel Kant's critique of pure reason featured three intellectual arguments for the existence of God. His most famous was to say that, "There would be no right or wrong unless god existed." (58) Now, does right or wrong exist, and has evil and good always existed without God, or did god create it if he is good? If God is good, then one must assume that good and evil are an independent fiat of God. If God created good and evil, they are in essence anterior to God. According to many theologians, our decision to make right or wrong choices determines our fate in the netherworld.


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