Discuss the conception of God from the ancient Greeks to the modern rationalist thinker Descartes.
Which of the two thinkers - Plato or Descartes appealed to you more? Why or why not?
Ever since man started living in groups, during the primitive times when he was solely dependent on hunting and gathering for his survival, all he thought of was his survival and nothing else as his intellectual capacity did not enable him to appreciate the changes, whether good or bad taking place around him. As time went by, man became more organized and started cultivating roots, bulbs, vegetables and fruits and he would always wonder the reasons for nature to react and behave in a certain manner. The elapse of day and the onset of night were probably the questions that man might have always tried to answer. He analyzed that the sun was the primary source of life and thus, it is this sun that revolves around the earth. But, it was later corrected that it is the earth that revolves around the sun and not vice-versa. Recently, we have the aid of science which answers some of our concerns but there are a few unanswered, questions that even science failed to answer and thus began the faith in an entity above all, known as God. Different mythologies have evolved, the Greeks being one of the most ancient. Though the cosmologists differed in various respects, each of them had a different point of view to offer, while some of the reasons laid down by most of the cosmologist were outrageous.
But, the Greeks had a pantheon of Gods, much like Hinduism. For Love, there was a Goddess called Aphrodite, Hades was the God of the dead, Ares was the god of war and Athena was the Goddess of wisdom and courage. Different regions had different Gods who would be worshipped at different places. There were groups of the river Gods, the mountain Gods on Mount Olympus under the eyes of Zeus. These Gods signified different aspects of life.
This was how the Greeks construed of the various Gods. The pantheon of Gods was broadly divided as:
The Olympians headed by Zeus.
The Titans.
The Lessor Gods.
I find Greek mythology uncannily similar to Hindu mythology wherein Gods fight amongst themselves. After the Cosmologists, comes the Greek Philosopher Socrates who is more spiritual rather than being a total believer in God. He disliked Metaphysics and thus, it is obvious that he did not believe in life after death. This is in contrast to what the Bible has to offer, which often teaches man to be good in their present to have a better life after death. Now, enjoying God does not necessarily mean to enjoy materialistic possessions, but it is pure happiness in finding the real essence of life by enjoying the blessings of God. Millionaires need not be happy, in fact, they are the ones who always try to maintain a safe distance from the IRS in the United States or the Income Tax department, here in India. Are the high-profile Hollywood personalities really happy by constantly trying to save their troubled relationships and by embarking on drug abuse? Thus, one cannot get affected by his deeds straight away in his lifetime on the basis of being just and unjust and this belief of Socrates was challenged later. Socrates on the other hand was more focused on gaining wisdom and more focused towards establishing his utopian city. He believed that he is wiser than most of the people in Greece and this actually landed him in trouble. But, when he claimed to know nothing, it was much related to the Bible. 1 Corinthians 8:1 says, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.” [Source: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b2socrates.htm]
It is also said that Socrates was sent down by a divine emissary, it might have been due to some of the connections found in Christianity and his philosophy. It should also be noted that Socrates was present during the pre-Christianity era. His fine disciple, Plato believed that God cannot be perfect, even he has certain roles to play and it is quite probable for some universal power that even forces him to perform his duty. He viewed God as an artificer, as an architect or as a potter. God’s duty is to put matter in our bodies and send us to the physical world or cosmos.
He also thought that the words, good and God are two separate entities. He had a more mechanical approach to God; he was also very diplomatic about describing them. As we saw through the allegory of caves, Plato was more into knowing the greatest good, i.e. the Sun and the various forms nourished by it. It is true because during the ancient times, The Sun was worshipped and in Hinduism, there was a Sun God, Agni Dev, who was miraculously powerful. Plato knew that to justify the existence of God was a Herculean task; he instead stuck to what would have appeared more rational. He challenged Greek mythology, much like Socrates but he also laid down the good reasons to believe in God while he filtered out the ones he felt that were not in line with his belief. As it was during the pre-Christian period, Plato might have conceived of God in a different manner, as Gods were overtly glorified in Greek mythology. Descartes on the other hand was a very religious man. He thought that knowing the greatest good is not enough. According to him, if one has to philosophize, meditation should be done instead of having the art of dialects. God is the author of our lives in his opinion and the main purpose that he tried to prove in the three meditations was the existence of God which he eventually failed to prove as it was speckled with certain conflicting points of his own. I will discuss about those flaws while opining about my views on God. According to the website, http://plato-dialogues.org/email/960211_1.htm, Plato always believed that God is supposed to be spelt with an uppercase G instead of g, to him, God is like a common noun, this is probably due to the Greek culture. For Descartes, the origin of God cannot be questioned and it is beyond reason to do so. The idea of God is innate within us and we should also know that there is an evil force constantly trying to force us out of our path. According to the Bible, God himself made Satan, and even this is much beyond my reasoning capabilities. This basically incorporates what these rationalists thought of God. I now present my views on God and, I would also single out the main reason as to why I like Plato more than Descartes, though I like Descartes approach in comparison with the former.
My views:
There are so many internal glaring flaws in Descartes work, especially in the Third Meditation. The first meditation goes on smoothly and sounds really logical wherein he begins to doubt everything, even the reason for his existence. But at the same time, he becomes a little too cynical and as a result, he falters at certain places in the dream argument as the concept of lucid dreams was coined by J. L. Austin, which goes to show that people can be aware if they are dreaming. I have personally experienced this, when I dream about something being too good to believe, I automatically ask myself whether this is a dream or no and lo! I wake up within five minutes. No sooner than I think about it being a dream, I wake up to reality. But, it is also essential to be awake at least once to be able to know the basic difference between what a dream is and what is not. How are we so sure when we are awake that we are awake and not dreaming? But, while dreaming, we are not entirely sure whether we are awake or not. I agree to a certain extent that some of the ideas can be innate, but still, this puzzle remains highly debatable and it has not been proved that innate ideas exist or not, though I feel that they do exist in a certain manners. For example, Small children are gifted with certain innate talents and they have a flair for sketching and drawing without any kind of professional teacher’s help, wouldn’t that be considered as something innate? I would not like to talk about myself but I too started drawing without any help and went on to further hone my skills till I was too occupied with academics. But certain innate traits are also attributed to your genes; hence I am not too clear about this concept to comment much. But on the whole, I only admire his First meditation, and the logical sequence that he tries to incorporate to prove the existence of God. I also liked the fact that he was not very rigid about his work. The rest of the points that he considered in The Meditation are based on things that have not yet been proved lately, viz. innate ideas and the concept of God. I also consider him a queer as no one would get up very early in the morning and bathe in freezing cold water and lie down in bed till afternoon. If the idea of God was innate, why do we find mainly two types of people, The Theists and the Atheists? But, I feel that believing in God makes a person scared of his wrongdoings, he also cleanses his mind of all his guilt and expresses his sorrow while praying to him.
Plato though, more of an idealist rationalist laid down certain principles that can actually make man think beyond the realm of what is apparent. I liked the fact that though we have senses and we can see everything, we are unknown to so many things happening around different geographies, and the media holds barrier for the lens through which we view the world. All philosophers are dogmatic and Plato was no exception. But, having said so, don’t we feel like those slaves, much entrapped in our own, honky dory lives, totally ignorant of what is happening in our neighborhood? He wanted to establish a utopian city to establish brotherhood and also to eradicate cut-throat competition. Though I totally feel that establishing a utopian city is no less than a dream, his intentions were good, because what we have today might look glossy from the outside, but at the same time, it has no substance from the inside at all. Man can never and will never stay within certain boundaries, there can be majority of people conforming to it, but due to deviants, their focus gets distorted and thus, there is utter chaos in the system, much like today’s times, when people find themselves in ethical dilemmas.
Uppity people are totally focused on their hedonistic lifestyle and in their bid to “pursue” hedonism; they even go to the extent of murdering people, akin the sophists back then. Plato had the vision to take his dream forward; he just did not have the right arsenal to back up his plans. Otherwise, I would rate Plato as a better philosopher if both of them are to be weighed on the basis of practicality.
As far as God is concerned, I think it is only a matter of faith. It is quite probable that God might have created the Universe for a certain purpose but he also would not like us to know the reasons for his existence. Had that been the case, every single person would have liked to worship God for his own vested interests, viz. Money, power, fame and protection from all evil forces, though the means they employ to get in a dominant position might be completely unjust. By having the art of dialects, we get to know each other’s points and it further adds an element of spice in the conversations, while just talking to oneself, one can only expand his horizons but, only up to a certain extent as interaction or communication with others is like oxygen to the body. Seclusion for a small amount of time helps rejuvenate all the used up energy during the day, thus, meditation all day long with not so phenomenal results do not make good philosophers. The moment you seclude yourself entirely from the society, your thought process starts rotting, as a result of which, he or she cannot distinguish whether he or she is awake or dreaming. Descartes mostly followed the above pattern, and as a result, his work can termed as more superficial, with less of practicality in it, except for the framework of his meditations. Hence, Socrates, who chiefly influenced Plato’s works is regarded as the founder of Western Philosophy and not Descartes or any other philosopher for that matter, leave alone most of the cosmologists before. Among Cosmologists, I find Anaxagoras the most foolish. Though it might sound fascinating to be dreaming while staying awake, practically, it sounds impossible, except if the person is too fond of day dreaming. Thus, I would certainly voice my opinion for something which is at least more practical if not entirely true. The answer to God’s existence can very well remain a mystery all throughout our lives, though some will continue to worship different idols and forms of Gods, while a very small percentage of people will worship Satan, which at first I found extremely bemusing. It is mostly apparent among different Rock artistes of yesteryear’s. But, I agree on one count, that the human mind is at the apex, after all, these ideas of various philosophers are a product of their minds only. If God exists in minds of many a people, if one were to opine that way, then God sure exists! As René́ Descartes has rightly said “God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient”. He sure is. In the minds of the people!
