Fate is more of a Greek concept..... I believe that God determines everything that is...That might seem like a distinction without a difference but to me, the idea of purpose gives meaning.
The Greeks and the Hellenes also gave you the idea of the Christ , and and the Golden Mean, of the highest good was to examine Life itself in contemplation , (but not without taking time to dance & sing once in a while and celebrate the Life)..the gave you Stoicism and Philosophy, much Art , Mathematics and Medicine .
The difference between having many Gods or one God is not of the essence , but inspecting and examining life and the study and celebration of it is . One cannot say that the original religion and ritual of the Hellene is dead, for you have the revived Olympics today in the last century , which commands the eyes of 100 of millions of people globally , and their participation in the ritual.
This is as sacred as anything that takes place in a cathedral , Mosque or Synagogue...even more so for it brings humans together on equal and egalitarian spirit.
The alternative is to existentially derive your own meaning
from what you do. I have never seen that carried out to where it did not lead to either despotism or despair
You left out one other possibility , though I know you are coming from the stance of an intelligent design ...but the alternative one of martyrdom and willing great sacrifice for the better good of the whole that many have been drawn to do from out of their own contemplation and synthesis of thought . (tribe/nation/empire/kingdom).
There is a framework of one or many similar ideas of of charity , compassion and good~smaritanism that have always come out of many cultures and times evidenced in the myriad stories of heros, messiahs , intercessors to the divine ...from Prometheus to Mithra to Jesus.
Looking at men themselves and thinking back to that original garden they sprang out from ( pushed out? By what force ?) , one can find many similar tendencies to display the highest good in simnilar fashion . Or those attributes of perfection of mind and body and spirit that is truely a reflection of the equipoise of all that surrounds . Though it seem chaos at times, the world is more rythmic and blessedely stable than it is chaotic.
* Interesting thing of note , is that imagery in the "garden" of the Tree of Life. It predates Christianity by more than just centuries , but even the earliest Christian Catacombs were decorated profusely with paintings of Ivy and meadows and trees , and all forms of life found within and idyllic setting . Even Hercules was often found adorning many of those first hidden Christian burial grounds , where the ritual of entombing the body was to preserve it's form for the literal interpreted teaching of Paul , that one would be lifted up to heaven in the physical body . Therefore it was frightening not to be buried intact .
But getting back to the imagery of the "Tree & the Garden"...what do you possibly think the interpretation of that metaphor is ?
I think one possibility is , the Tree of Life is the one we all dropped out of ...when we lost our tails and began to learn how to walk upright, think , remember , and talk.
;-) |
