It has taken us 2500 years to reach the same thought process, and build the same society. Its almost like we were not moving ahead, but moving back trying to reclaim the past. The same enemies ( persians), the same education system (sophists) the same wars and the same philosophies. its history repeating itself.
It took 2000 years for the western thought to create a religion, and the concept of religion, and then grind it to the ground.
If you did not know, there is no word in chinese, hebrew or sanskrit which equals the word religion. all the words, which we now use to denote religion, in the western sense were once used to denote some other concept, and came to mean what they do, by improper usage. Even christanity has brought up the word religion, and started thinking in this sense in last 400 years.
Because most of the older world did not think that they were Following a certain religion. Because every one from their land was a believer. Those who didnot believe or follow their life as per the book, were foreigners and were referred as "foreigners" instead of non-believers.
In the last 2000 years, christianity rose. Then the western world took 500 years to find Aristotle.
Then 700 more years for the rest of the Greeks, and make them widely available. and once the Greeks were studied and grasped, they became fascinated. In the next 300 years, reformation. In the next 300 years, disbelief. And since the last 200 years, choice, as before that you were almost certainly going to be killed if you said something against GOD.
If you compare the rise of greek philosophy, and then kind of Unzip it..to fill up 2000 years, the pattern you will find is our world.
The same old Hellenic religions, coming of the scientists, a wide variety of discussions and faiths, plato and aristotle, and then gradually, moving away from GOD.
Below is an excerpt from a book written over 2300 years ago. And notice the words in bold where he talks of "opinion of GODS"...not belief, knowledge, faith...but opinion. You were allowed to have opinion on GOD 2300 years ago, and that is where we are right now in cultural development. Still today more people will talk of belief in God, but their action will tell you that they have an opinion. Because at any time, a belief in God, and its fury would eradicate crime and unjustice. And this has never happened in the history of man. There always have been people with opinion on God than belief.
In fact we are worse off. The world population In pre-christian era was under 50 million. Which is like 5 major world cities of today. If you compare the ratio on though vs population, you will realize that per capita, we are more ignorant and poorer in terms of thought or average quality of life.
Think of Corporate social responsibility, which is plato. Think of "with great power, comes great responsibility", the thought is Plato/Socrates. The words have changed but now more than ever
In essense, from 100, we went back to zero and then came back up to 100 in terms of philosophical though in 2500 years, but we also invented a lot of fancy words and sciences. Because we could. we are a planet of 6 billion while they were a planet of 50 million.
Here is an excerpt from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.
Our aims and our actions are perfectly consistent with the beliefs men hold about the gods and with the principles which govern their own conduct. Our opinion of the gods and our knowledge of men lead us to conclude that it is a general and necessary law of nature to rule whatever one can. This is not a law that we made ourselves, nor were we the first to act upon it when it was made. We found it already in existence, and we shall leave it to exist forever among those who come after us."
The Melians offer an alternative view of law and a rational defense of more conventional notions of justice:
"...it is at any rate useful that you should not destroy a principle that is to the general good of all men - namely, that in the case of all who fall into danger there should be such a thing as fair play and just dealing...This is a principle which affects you as much as anybody, since your own fall would be visited by the most terrible vengeance and would be an example to the world."
In other words, laws exist to protect the weak and vulnerable. The powerful adhere to the law out of self-interest, because, one day, they may need to appeal to its protection.
It took 2000 years for the western thought to create a religion, and the concept of religion, and then grind it to the ground.
If you did not know, there is no word in chinese, hebrew or sanskrit which equals the word religion. all the words, which we now use to denote religion, in the western sense were once used to denote some other concept, and came to mean what they do, by improper usage. Even christanity has brought up the word religion, and started thinking in this sense in last 400 years.
Because most of the older world did not think that they were Following a certain religion. Because every one from their land was a believer. Those who didnot believe or follow their life as per the book, were foreigners and were referred as "foreigners" instead of non-believers.
In the last 2000 years, christianity rose. Then the western world took 500 years to find Aristotle.
Then 700 more years for the rest of the Greeks, and make them widely available. and once the Greeks were studied and grasped, they became fascinated. In the next 300 years, reformation. In the next 300 years, disbelief. And since the last 200 years, choice, as before that you were almost certainly going to be killed if you said something against GOD.
If you compare the rise of greek philosophy, and then kind of Unzip it..to fill up 2000 years, the pattern you will find is our world.
The same old Hellenic religions, coming of the scientists, a wide variety of discussions and faiths, plato and aristotle, and then gradually, moving away from GOD.
Below is an excerpt from a book written over 2300 years ago. And notice the words in bold where he talks of "opinion of GODS"...not belief, knowledge, faith...but opinion. You were allowed to have opinion on GOD 2300 years ago, and that is where we are right now in cultural development. Still today more people will talk of belief in God, but their action will tell you that they have an opinion. Because at any time, a belief in God, and its fury would eradicate crime and unjustice. And this has never happened in the history of man. There always have been people with opinion on God than belief.
In fact we are worse off. The world population In pre-christian era was under 50 million. Which is like 5 major world cities of today. If you compare the ratio on though vs population, you will realize that per capita, we are more ignorant and poorer in terms of thought or average quality of life.
Think of Corporate social responsibility, which is plato. Think of "with great power, comes great responsibility", the thought is Plato/Socrates. The words have changed but now more than ever
In essense, from 100, we went back to zero and then came back up to 100 in terms of philosophical though in 2500 years, but we also invented a lot of fancy words and sciences. Because we could. we are a planet of 6 billion while they were a planet of 50 million.
Here is an excerpt from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.
Our aims and our actions are perfectly consistent with the beliefs men hold about the gods and with the principles which govern their own conduct. Our opinion of the gods and our knowledge of men lead us to conclude that it is a general and necessary law of nature to rule whatever one can. This is not a law that we made ourselves, nor were we the first to act upon it when it was made. We found it already in existence, and we shall leave it to exist forever among those who come after us."
The Melians offer an alternative view of law and a rational defense of more conventional notions of justice:
"...it is at any rate useful that you should not destroy a principle that is to the general good of all men - namely, that in the case of all who fall into danger there should be such a thing as fair play and just dealing...This is a principle which affects you as much as anybody, since your own fall would be visited by the most terrible vengeance and would be an example to the world."
In other words, laws exist to protect the weak and vulnerable. The powerful adhere to the law out of self-interest, because, one day, they may need to appeal to its protection.
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