Personality, divine see god personified
Not only underground does the scientist manage to find traces of long-vanished eras.
If the tools of labor, household and exchange items, and works of art of a thousand years ago discovered during excavations testify to the stages passed by society in its slow development, then the memories and traces of these stages that we find in folk traditions in language and religion.
In the countless legends that have survived to this day in the folklore of the most diverse peoples, one can recognize the influence of ancient customs and distant social orders. One historical era passes, but the memory of it, as it were, petrifies and is deposited in subsequent eras in the form of often incomprehensible traditions and habits. Language is a kind of deposit, which contains social experience and ideas related to different periods of human history. The study of the origin of the word, carried out from this point of view, turns out to be no less convincing than the study of the remains of burials or archaeological finds.
But mainly in religion - due to the delay inherent in any ideology in relation to the reality that gave rise to it - we find in all their complexity stagnant and easily adaptable phenomena reflected in the myths and beliefs of completely different eras.
Christian ritualism is full of symbolism and traditions relating to a number of different animals, which are included in the fund of poetry, arts and often also in theological teachings. The lamb and the shepherd, the miraculous fishing in the legends of the inhabitants of the catacombs and the first apologists of Christianity, the dove identified with the “holy spirit”, the legend of the tempting snake - all these are themes that have now become an integral part of the Christian doctrine. But they are also found in many other religions and are not the only product of a rich poetic imagination. Art subsequently processed the real material of that period in the history of society, in which all these animals were in certain relations with people.
To explain the origin of these symbols, we must always refer to the phase of totemism.
Already the mythical biblical character Jesus Navi was called the "son of the fish" by the Jews. "Sacred" fish are still bred in several ponds or mosques in Edessa and Tripoli, on the Syrian coast, not far from the places where the gospel sermon was originally spread. Undoubtedly, these are traces of an ancient local totemic cult. But when Jesus Christ was proclaimed “our fish” by the first Christians, this echo of the past had already lost any connection with the ancient religious cult, and it should be explained in a different way.
At the end of the 2nd century A.D. e. Tertullian, the founder of the Latin African Church, depicted Christians as “fish following our fish Jesus,” and he believed that he correctly interpreted this image, already found in many drawings on the walls of the catacombs, as a symbol of baptism: “We are born in water and, only by being in the water, we can be saved.” However, this explanation is just a fantasy. Others wrote that the image of the fish arose from the acrostic “ichtus” (“ichthus”), consisting of the initial letters of one rather complex phrase of the Greek prayer (“Jesus Christ, son of the savior god”). At the same time, in Greek "ichthus" means "fish". Thus, here again we remain on the basis of inventive fantasy.
In fact, before entering Christian symbols, the fish was the totem of various Palestinian fishing tribes. With the transition to more developed forms of social life, this totem was transformed into a personified god. Fish-headed deities are often found in many other religions of the same era. It is fair to think that from here, apparently, comes the custom of a fasting meal and eating fish on Fridays. The fact is that eating the meat of a god became one of the most important forms of ritual rites, when, after the initial ban, ideas about the original totemic relationship collapsed, and the sacred meal began to seem to people a vital necessity.
In a similar way, one can interpret the Christian motif of a dove - a “sacred” animal in Asia Minor and among a number of Slavic tribes, or a snake, which the Israelis of the desert region revered as a symbol of a mysterious deity, sometimes identified with an “evil force”, as well as references to a ram, a lamb and goat. The ancient totemic tradition of the “scapegoat” is known, which comes to life again in the history of the Jewish people: an animal, burdened with the sins of an entire tribe, weighed down by everything that is considered unclean, is expelled from the settlement into the desert, where it dies. In this way, the tribe is freed from a curse or punishment.
And at this stage we already meet the profound changes that have taken place in the structure of society.
Albert Einstein: quotes about immoral gods
Albert Einstein not only did not believe or even denied the existence of God, the belief in which is inherent in traditional monotheistic religions. Albert Einstein went even further - he argued that if such gods existed, and what religions say about them were true, then such gods could not be considered highly moral. Gods who encourage good and punish evil would themselves be immoral - especially if they were omnipotent and therefore ultimately responsible for everything that happens. Gods who have human weaknesses cannot be virtuous gods.
1. God Almighty Cannot Judge Mankind
If this being is omnipotent, then everything that happens, including all human deeds, all human thoughts, feelings and aspirations, is also its work: how can people be held responsible for their actions and thoughts before such an omnipotent being? In punishing and rewarding others, it would, to a certain extent, pass judgment on itself. How can this be reconciled with the goodness and righteousness attributed to him?
Albert Einstein, From My Late Years, 1950
2. I do not believe in a god who rewards good and punishes evil.
I do not believe in a god of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.
3. I do not believe in a god who would have a perception similar to ours.
I cannot imagine a god that rewards and punishes the creatures he has created, or has a will akin to ours. Likewise, I cannot and do not want to imagine anyone who would be alive after his own physical death. Let faint-hearted people - out of fear or out of absurd selfishness - cherish such thoughts. Let the mystery of the eternity of life remain unsolved - it is enough for me to contemplate the wonderful structure of the existing world and strive to understand at least a tiny particle of the Main Cause that manifests itself in nature.
4. I can't believe in a god that reflects human weaknesses.
I cannot imagine a god who rewards those whom he himself has created, those whose aspirations are like his own - in short, a god who is but a reflection of human weaknesses. And I do not at all believe that a person can survive the death of his body, although weak souls indulge themselves with such thoughts - out of fear and absurd selfishness.
Albert Einstein: quotes about a personified god and prayers
Albert Einstein viewed belief in a personified god as a childish fantasy.
Did Albert Einstein believe in God? Many believers cite Einstein as an example of an outstanding scientist who was as much a believer as they are. And this allegedly refutes the idea that science is contrary to religion or that science is atheistic. However, Albert Einstein consistently and unequivocally denied belief in personalized gods who answer prayers or take part in human affairs—the kind of god worshiped by believers who claim that Einstein was one of them.
1. God is the fruit of human weakness
The word "God" for me is nothing more than the fruit and manifestation of human weakness, and the Bible is a collection of worthy, but still childishly primitive legends. And no even the most subtle interpretations of them will change my attitude towards them.
2. Albert Einstein and Spinoza's god: harmony in the universe
I believe in Spinoza's god, who manifests himself in the ordered harmony of existence, and not in a god who cares about human destinies and deeds.
Albert Einstein, in response to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein's question "Do you believe in God?" (quoted in Victor Stenger's book Has Science Found God?)
3. It's not true that I believe in a personified god.
This, of course, is a lie - what you read about my religious beliefs, a lie that is systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personified god, I have never denied this and openly declared it. If there is anything in me that can be called religious, it is the boundless admiration for the structure of the world, to the extent that our science reveals it to us.
Albert Einstein, letter to an atheist (1954), cited in Albert Einstein as Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann
4. Gods are created by human imagination
IN early period spiritual evolution of the human race, human fantasy has created gods similar to people themselves - gods, whose will the world around is obedient.
Albert Einstein, quoted in 2000 Years of Unbelief by James Hoth
5. The idea of a personified god is baby talk.
6. The idea of a personified god is not to be taken seriously.
It seems to me that the idea of a personified god is an anthropological concept that I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine the existence of any will or purpose outside the human sphere... Science is accused of undermining morality, but this charge is unfair. Ethical human behavior must be based on empathy, education, social connections and needs, and there is no need for any religious basis. A person will be on a bad path if his actions are restrained only by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward after death.
7. Faith in God creates a desire to be led and loved.
The desire for someone to show them the way, love and support leads people to form social or moral concepts about god. This is the god of providence, who protects, orders, rewards and punishes; a god who, depending on the boundaries of the believer's worldview, loves and cares about the life of his fellow tribesmen or the whole human race, or in general all living things; comforts those who are in sorrow and whose dreams did not come true; one who preserves the souls of the dead. It is a social or moral concept about god.
8. Moral questions are about people, not gods.
I can't imagine a personified god who would have a direct influence on the actions of people, or who would subject the creatures that he himself created to judgment. I can't imagine it even though modern science there were some doubts about mechanistic causation. My religiosity consists in a reverent admiration for that higher spirit which manifests itself in the little that we, with our feeble and imperfect faculties, can comprehend about the world around us. Morality is of paramount importance, but for us, not for God.
Albert Einstein, quoted from Albert Einstein as Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann
9. Scientists are not inclined to believe in the power of prayer to supernatural beings.
Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that happens is determined by the laws of nature, and therefore the same is true for human actions. For this reason, a research scientist is unlikely to be inclined to believe that a prayer, that is, a request addressed to a supernatural being, can influence the course of events.
Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who asked in a letter if scientists pray. Quoted from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helena Duke and Banesh Hoffman
10. Few manage to rise above the anthropomorphic gods.
Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic nature of their conception of God. As a rule, only a few, exceptionally gifted people, and exceptionally highly developed groups of people, are able to rise noticeably above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience, which is common to all of them, although rarely found in its pure form: I will call this the cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to awaken this feeling in those who have it completely absent - especially since there is no corresponding anthropomorphic concept of god.
11. The concept of a personified god is a major source of conflict
No one, of course, will deny that the idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just and all-good personified God is able to give a person consolation, help and guidance, and also, because of its simplicity, it is accessible even to the most undeveloped minds. But, on the other hand, it also has weaknesses of a decisive nature, which were painfully felt from the very beginning of the story.
12. Divine will cannot be the cause natural phenomena
The more a person is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the stronger becomes his conviction that next to this ordered regularity there is no place for causes of a different nature. For him, neither human nor divine will will be independent causes of natural phenomena. ...
Albert Einstein, Science and Religion, 1941
Albert Einstein: quotes about atheism and freethinking: was Einstein an atheist, a freethinker?
Albert Einstein didn't believe in any of the traditional gods, but is that atheism?
Believers who need the authority of a famous scientist sometimes claim that Albert Einstein was a religious man, but Einstein rejected the traditional concept of a personified god. Does this mean that Albert Einstein was an atheist? From a certain point of view, his position can be considered atheism or no different from atheism. He called himself a freethinker, which in Germany is considered the same as atheism, but it is unclear if Einstein denied all conceptions of god.
1. From the point of view of the Jesuits, I am an atheist
I have received your letter of 10 June. I have never spoken to a Jesuit priest in my life, and I am amazed at the boldness with which such lies are told about me. From the point of view of a Jesuit priest, of course, I am an atheist, and always have been an atheist.
Albert Einstein, from a letter to Guy Rahner, Jr., July 2, 1945, in response to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had succeeded in persuading Einstein to renounce atheism. Quoted by Michael Gilmour in The Skeptic, Volume 5, No. 2
2. False Biblical Statements Caused Skepticism and Freethinking
Reading popular science literature, I quickly became convinced that much of what is written in the Bible cannot be true. The result was a completely fanatical orgy of freethinking, to which was added the impression that these lies were deliberately used by the state to fool the youth; it was a devastating experience. The result was a distrust of any authority and a skeptical attitude towards the beliefs inherent in any social environment - an attitude that never left me, although it later softened as a result of a better understanding of cause and effect.
Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes, edited by Paul Arthur Schlipp
3. Albert Einstein in Defense of Bertrand Russell
Great minds always meet fierce resistance from mediocre minds. Mediocrity fails to understand a person who refuses to blindly bow to accepted prejudice, and instead decides to speak his mind, courageously and honestly.
Albert Einstein, from a letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, New York College, March 19, 1940. Einstein supported the appointment of Bertrand Russell to the teaching position.
4. Few people manage to avoid the prejudices inherent in their environment.
Few people are able to calmly express their views if they disagree with the prejudices accepted in their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such views..
Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, 1954
5. The value of a person depends on the degree of his freedom from himself
The real value of a person is determined primarily by the extent and in what sense he has achieved liberation from himself.
Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, 1949
6. Non-believers can be just as bigoted as believers.
The fanaticism of an unbeliever is almost as ridiculous to me as the fanaticism of a believer.
Albert Einstein, quoted in Einstein's God - Albert Einstein as a Scientist and as a Jew in Search of a Replacement for a Rejected God, 1997
7. I am not a professional militant atheist.
I have said many times that, in my opinion, the idea of a personified god is just childish babble. You can call me an agnostic, because I do not share the militancy of a professional atheist, whose fervor is mainly due to the painful process of liberation from the shackles of religious education received in youth. I maintain a humility appropriate to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and ourselves.
Albert Einstein in conversation with Guy Rahner Jr., September 28, 1949, quoted by Michael Gilmour in The Skeptic, Volume 5, No. 2
Albert Einstein: Quotes on Life After Death: Einstein Denied afterlife
Albert Einstein denied life after physical death, the possibility of immortality and the existence of a soul
Belief in an afterlife and the existence of a soul are founding principles of not only most religions, but most spiritual and paranormal beliefs these days. Albert Einstein denied any validity to the belief that we can survive our physical death. Einstein believed that there is no afterlife, and after death there is no punishment for crimes, no reward for good behavior. Albert Einstein's denial of the possibility of life after death gives reason to believe that he did not believe in any gods, and stems from his rejection of traditional religion.
1. I can't imagine a person surviving his physical death.
I cannot imagine a god that rewards and punishes the creatures he has created, or has a will akin to ours. Likewise, I cannot and do not want to imagine anyone who would be alive after his own physical death. Let faint-hearted people - out of fear or out of absurd selfishness - cherish such thoughts. Let the mystery of the eternity of life remain unsolved - it is enough for me to contemplate the wonderful structure of the existing world and strive to understand at least a tiny particle of the Main Cause that manifests itself in nature.
Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, 1931
2. Weak souls believe in life after death out of fear and selfishness
I cannot imagine a god who rewards those whom he himself has created, those whose aspirations are like his own - in short, a god who is but a reflection of human weaknesses. And I do not at all believe that a person can survive the death of his body, although weak souls indulge themselves with such thoughts - out of fear and absurd selfishness.
3. I do not believe in the immortality of man
I do not believe in the immortality of man, and I believe that ethics is an exclusively human matter, behind which there is no supernatural power.
Quoted from Albert Einstein as Man, edited by E. Dukas and B. Hofmann
4. There is no reward or punishment after death.
Ethical human behavior must be based on empathy, education, social connections and needs, and there is no need for any religious basis. A person will be on a bad path if his actions are restrained only by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward after death.
5. Only space is truly immortal.
If people act well only out of fear of punishment and hope for a reward, then our fate is sad. The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the greater is my confidence that the path to true religiosity lies not through the fear of life, the fear of death and blind faith, but through the desire for rational knowledge. As for immortality, there are two types of it. ...
Albert Einstein, from Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists by Madeleine Murray O'Hair
6. The concept of the soul is empty and meaningless
The current mystical tendencies, which are especially evident in the rampant growth of so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, are to me nothing more than a sign of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experience consists of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems empty and meaningless to me..
Belief in an afterlife and the existence of a soul are founding principles of not only most religions, but most spiritual and paranormal beliefs these days. Albert Einstein denied any validity to the belief that we can survive our physical death. Einstein believed that there is no afterlife, and after death there is no punishment for crimes, no reward for good behavior. Albert Einstein's denial of the possibility of life after death suggests that he did not believe in any gods and is part of his rejection of traditional religions.
Selection of quotes and their translation from English by Lev Mitnick
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PERSONALITY AND NON-PERSONALITY
Every impersonal state is derived from the manifested or hidden Personality that stands behind this impersonal state or is revealed in it. And each Personality is connected and can express itself in a certain state of impersonal being. This is possible due to the fact that Personality and Impersonality are only different states of self-consciousness of the Absolute BEING.
Impersonality is inherently something fundamental and UNIVERSAL; it is being, power, consciousness, embodied in various guises and forms. Each such form of manifestation of energy, quality and power, although general, impersonal and universal in character, is used by the individual being as building material for his own personality. Thus, impersonality at the level of the original single truth is the pure substance of the nature of the Being, Personality; at the level of the dynamic manifestation of truth, impersonality is expressed in the form of separate forces, which in their modifications constitute the manifestation of personality.
PERSONALITY SURFACE AND PERSONALITY TRUE
The surface personality is only an external temporary, transient mental, vital and physical formation, formed by the true Personality, the psychic being; the outer personality is not the true unchanging self of the person.
Human incarnation in this world spiritually combines two elements: the spiritual Personality and the soul of the surface personality. The Spiritual Personality is an eternal and unchanging being, the surface personality is a cosmic transient formation. Man, as a spiritual impersonal being, by its nature is one with the freedom of Satchidananda, with the consent and desire of which a person involutes in the Ignorance with the aim of acquiring a certain experience by his soul, which cannot be acquired by any other means; this spiritual impersonal entity secretly controls our evolution. The soul of the superficial personality of man is an integral part of the experience acquired by his true soul in the manifold forms of the manifestation of Nature; human evolution must coincide with the main direction of universal evolution. As a spirit, man and the TRANSCENDENT are one whole, immanent to the world and aware of the manifested world. Man, as a soul, is both a whole and an integral part of the universality of Satchidananda's self-expression in the world. And this means that his self-expression coincides with the main stages of cosmic manifestation, and the experience of his soul corresponds to and follows the turns of the universal wheel of BRAHMAN.
The character and nature of the lover is in love, the character and nature of the warrior is in his courage. Love and courage are impersonal universal forces, or manifestations of the cosmic Force, the energy of universal being and the nature of the Spirit. The True Personality is the Being that maintains in man all impersonal manifestations as the nature of his own "I"; he is what the lover and the warrior is. Everything that we call the individual side of the Personality is a manifestation of the state and action of its nature, while the person himself, as a true Personality, is immeasurably higher than his individual component. Superficial individuality is only the manifested form of the nature of a human being, accepted by the true Personality. The impersonal qualities and powers of a person receive their personal expression and manifestation at the level of a limited external individuality; a superficial personality, as it were, appropriates them to himself in order to have at his disposal a sufficient amount of material to build a weighty and significant image in his manifested life. The true boundless Personality, the true being, Purusha embodies the infinite universal possibilities and endows them in MANIFESTATION, as the divine Individual Being, with their own distinctive qualities and characteristics, so that each separate “I” is a unique particle of the one Divine among the manifested multitude.
LIE
Falsehood is not Avidya, but its end result. Lies are created by asura forces that interfere in our world and are not only champions of Ignorance, fallen away from the Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and subject to delusion, but also actively opposing the Truth and constantly trying to distort it. This power, the dark asura Shakti, or Maya of the Rakshasas, forms its own perverted consciousness, masquerading as true knowledge, and deliberately distorts the Truth, presenting a lie as the true state of things. Forces and essences of such perverted consciousness we call HOSTILE BEINGS and HOSTILE FORCES. When the hostile forces try to present their perverted ideas and images, created on the level of IGNORANCE, as true, then we are dealing with a Lie, which in the language of yoga is called mithya, moha.
LOVE
Love is the intense self-expression of the soul of ANANDA.
Love by its very nature is the desire to give oneself to others and receive in return a particle of their soul; it is an exchange between two beings.
Love in its relative - not absolute - manifestation is a principle not of MIND, but of LIFE, which at the same time can strive for constancy and self-control only under the influence of the power of reason. What we call love in the body and at the level of the individual parts of the VITAL BEING is, for the most part, one of the inconstant manifestations of hunger.
Love is an emotion of the heart, which can turn into a feeling of a purely mental nature, since we are the embodiment of reason; but at the same time the mental feeling, as well as the thought, which has a certain vital effect and has nothing to do with the physical nature, still resonates on the level of the physical body; thus the love of the heart is easily connected with the vital desire of the body. The physical component of love can be freed from carnal lust, and then love will use the body only for physical, mental and spiritual intimacy. Love is able to completely separate itself from any even the most innocent physical elements that will be present only as a hint, and turn into a pure movement of two souls, two psychic beings towards each other.
When Mother told you that love is an experience that does not belong to the category of emotions, she meant DIVINE LOVE, and this is a big difference. Human love consists of emotions, passions and desires - experiences on the vital level, limited by the nature of our vital being. Emotions, despite their shortcomings and the dangers associated with them, are a beautiful and necessary component of human nature, as well as mental ideas, which cannot be dispensed with at the level of human consciousness. But our goal is to go beyond mental ideas and rise to the light of the supramental TRUTH, which is realized not by intelligent THOUGHT, but by direct vision and IDENTITY. In the same way, we must go beyond emotions to the level of high, deep and intense Divine Love and feel there in our psychic heart an eternal oneness with the Divine, beyond the convulsive efforts and limited experience of vital emotions and feelings.
As opposed to "depersonalized force" such as the Absolute, absolute spirit, absolute idea.
A 2008 Pew Research Center poll showed that 60% of American adults believe in a personified God and 25% believe in God as an "impersonal force".
see also
- bhakti movement
- bhakti yoga
- Ishta Deva
- Thomas Jay Oord on God as relational person.
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Christianity
VaishnavismVishnuism, or Vaishnavism (Skt. वैष्णव धर्म, vaiṣṇava dharma IAST) is one of the main branches of Hinduism, a distinctive feature of which is the worship of Vishnu and his incarnations (avatars), mainly Krishna and Rama. The beliefs and spiritual practices of Vaishnavism, especially the concepts of bhakti and prapatti, are based on such sacred texts as the Vishnu Purana, the Bhagavata Purana and the Bhagavad Gita.
The followers of Vaishnavism are called "Vishnuites" or "Vaishnavas". The Vishnuites are, by some estimates, the largest group of believers in the family of religions collectively referred to as Hinduism. However, Vishnuism is not a homogeneous trend, the Vishnuites are united in numerous communities worshiping individual avatars of Vishnu (often different incarnations of the same avatar) or his individual images. The origins of Vaishnavism date back to the late Vedic period. Its subsequent development, enriched by the contribution of eminent religious figures, led to the birth of several Vaishnava traditions, distinguished by theistic doctrines, philosophies and rituals. By the 16th century, four main traditions (sampradayas) emerged within Vaishnavism - the Sri sampradaya, the Madhva sampradaya, the Nimbarka sampradaya and the Vallabha sampradaya. In scientific research, in addition to dividing Vaishnavism into sampradayas, it is also customary to talk about such broad groups of independent traditions as Krishnaism (worship of Krishna), Ramaism (Rama), Radhaism (Radha) and others. In the 20th century, one of the directions of Vaishnavism - Gaudiya Vaishnavism - spread in the West as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
Vishnuism includes aspects such as ritual worship of a deity (upasana); taking refuge in Vishnu (sharanagati); commitment to non-violence (ahimsa), vegetarianism and altruism.
Vishnuism gave rise to a rich philosophical and religious literature in Sanskrit and Indian languages, and also enriched Indian culture in the fields of music, dance, sculpture and architecture.
Einstein and religionThe religious views of Albert Einstein have been widely studied. Nevertheless, disputes and myths about his beliefs, views and attitude to religion still do not subside. Einstein said that he believed in a "pantheistic" god of Benedict Spinoza, but not in a personified God - such a belief he criticized. He also described himself as an agnostic, but disavowed the label "atheist", preferring "a humility appropriate to the weakness of our understanding of nature by reason and of our own being".
God cannot be described or outlined specifically. To achieve this goal, religious thought had to go a long way. Man could not endow his gods with an individual appearance before he found a new principle of differentiation in his own existence and his social life. He found this principle not in the sphere of abstract thought, but in his own activity. In fact, it is the division of labor that marks a new era of religious thought. Long before the appearance of personalized gods, we encounter deities that can be called functional. These are not at all the personified gods of the Greek religion - the Homeric Olympians - but they are no longer vague images of primitive mythological ideas. These are concrete beings, but concrete only in their actions, and not in personal manifestations or existence. Therefore, they do not even have personal names, such as Zeus, Hera, Apollo, rather, these are names-definitions that characterize their special functions or actions.
In many cases they are associated with a particular place; they are local, not general gods. In an effort to understand the true nature of these functional gods and the role they play in the development of religious thought, it is reasonable to turn to Roman religion. Here this differentiation reached its highest level. In the life of a Roman peasant, every action, even the most utilitarian, had a specific religious significance. One class of gods patronized sowing, the other - harrowing, fertilizer. These are Sator, Occator, Sterculinus. In all agricultural work there was no such action that would not be controlled by functional deities and did not enjoy their patronage. Each class of such gods had their own rites and rituals.
In this religious system one can observe all the typical features of the Roman mind. This is a sound, practical, energetic mind, endowed with a great ability to concentrate. The life of the Romans was active, and they had a special gift for organizing their activities, regulating and coordinating efforts. The Roman functional gods are the religious expression of this trend. They are designed to perform certain practical tasks. These are not products of religious imagination or inspiration, but those who direct certain activities. These are, so to speak, gods-administrators who have divided among themselves different areas human life. They are devoid of personal traits, but at the same time they clearly differ in areas of activity, on which the religious dignity of certain deities depends.
The gods revered in every Roman home were different - the gods of the hearth. They were not generated by a clearly defined sphere practical life, but expressed the deepest feelings that dominated in family life Romans, and were the sacred center of the Roman home. These gods arise from the worship of ancestors, but they do not have an individual appearance. This good gods, and they need to be understood in a collective, not a personal sense. Only in a later period, when Greek influence began to predominate, did these gods acquire a personal appearance.
A completely different, according to Cassirer, tendency of thought and feeling prevailed from the very beginning in Greek religion. Here we also find certain features of ancestral worship. Many such features are preserved in classical Greek literature. Aeschylus and Sophocles (496-406 BC) described the gifts—milk libations, garlands of flowers, curls of hair—that were brought to Agamemnon's grave by his children. However, under the influence of the Homeric poems, all these archaic features of the Greek religion began to fade, to recede into the shadows before the new direction of mythological and religious thought.
Greek art paved the way for a new understanding of the gods. According to Herodotus, Homer and Hesiod "gave the Greek gods names and outlined their appearance." The work begun by Greek poetry was supplemented by Greek sculpture: we can hardly imagine Zeus the Olympian without imagining him performed by the Greek sculptor Phidias. What was denied by the active and practical Roman mind was transfigured by the contemplative and artistic consciousness of the Greeks. It was not at all moral principles that gave rise to the Greek gods, of whose human nature the Greek philosophers rightly complained. “Homer and Hesiod,” said Xenophanes, “attributed to the gods all those acts that are considered shameful and disgraceful among people: theft, debauchery, deceit.”
However, the very shortcomings and weaknesses of the Greek gods made it possible to smooth the gap between human and divine nature.
In the Homeric poems we find no insurmountable boundary between these two worlds. Depicting his gods, a person shows himself in all the diversity and diversity of his qualities, with his way of thinking, temperament and even special character traits. However, unlike the religion of the Romans, the practical side of human nature among the Greeks was not transferred to the gods: the Homeric gods represented not moral, but special spiritual ideals. They are not nameless functional deities who are supposed to patronize human activity: they show interest and benevolence towards the individual person. Each god and goddess has his favorites, who are valued and helped not because of personal predilection, but because of a special kind of spiritual relationship between god and man. Mortals and immortals are united not by moral ideals, but by a special kind of abilities and inclinations of the soul.
Monotheism (monotheism)
We see a completely different aspect of the divine in the great monotheistic religions. These religions are the fruits of moral forces, they are centered around a single point - the problem of good and evil. In Zoroastrianism, there is only one Supreme Being - Ahuramazda, "the wise master", outside of which, apart from which, without which nothing exists. He is the very first, most important and perfect being, the absolute monarch. There is no individualization here, there are no many gods representing various natural forces or mental qualities. Primitive religion was refuted and overcome by a new force - purely ethical.
Primitive concepts of the sacred, supernatural, such a power is completely unknown. Mana, wakan or rent can be used for good or bad purposes depending on certain conditions. From the very beginning, Zoroastrianism is fundamentally opposed to that mythological or aesthetic indifference that characterizes Greek polytheism. This religion is not the product of mythological or aesthetic imagination, but the expression of a great personal moral will. No religion can even think of breaking or weakening the bonds between man and nature. But in the great ethical religious systems this connection is strengthened, strengthened in a new sense.
- Cit. By: Cassirer E. Favorites. Experience about a person. S. 554.