Using the article we read in class, and doing a little more research on your own, give a brief description of the scheme of salvation in one of the major world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.). Your description should include:
1. A description of the human predicament according to that religion: what is the root cause of the fact that our lives are troublesome and often miserable?
2. A description of the solution: what can human beings do to escape from their predicament?
3. A description of the desired end state of the process of salvation (i.e. Nirvana, new heavens and new earth, being in heaven, etc.)
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Why does God allow evil?
Think about the various 'defenses' of God put forward by the prisoners at Auschwitz:
1. If the Jewish people are suffering, they must have broken their contract with God.
2. The Holocaust is a purification of the Jewish people, effected through the suffering of good Jews.
3. God has given us free will.
Try to apply these explanations in a broader context, not specific to the Holocaust. Do you find plausible that suffering in the world is punishment for human sin, that it purifies us, or that it is the result of free will? What do you think of the responses to these defenses? Can the amount and degree of evil in this world ever be justified?
1. If the Jewish people are suffering, they must have broken their contract with God.
2. The Holocaust is a purification of the Jewish people, effected through the suffering of good Jews.
3. God has given us free will.
Try to apply these explanations in a broader context, not specific to the Holocaust. Do you find plausible that suffering in the world is punishment for human sin, that it purifies us, or that it is the result of free will? What do you think of the responses to these defenses? Can the amount and degree of evil in this world ever be justified?
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