History of God Essay

1. Why you selected the particular bind?The diverse spiritual activities and the differences in faith and tenet draw divided men into different denominational groupings. For several centuries, sacred groupings have engaged in physical and communicatory combat in an attempt to spread its faith. However the most primal meshing stems from an opposing belief coupled by a sum-up of socio-cultural differences. These differences have ushered in conflicts that escalated into atrocities and bloodshed. Other conflicts have made religious differences as the organizing point to justify their own superior ambitions. Armstrong however worried on a comparative report of the three mo nonheistic religions and open(a) the debility in each belief. Her insistence on the monopoly of truth perpetrate by Christianity, Islam and Judaism as superior to other sects has highly-developed an idea of a arrogant existence with hu human creation similarities. The idea of a personal supreme being has been supported by these religions which condemns and marginalize others. Such idealistic look of presenting paragon as a bigger version of man retreats and spins man forth from the virtue that the faith teaches.In our present era, graven image has been adapted to undertake the demands of the fast- changing ideas. Armstrong believes that some religions would eventually die out while others would gain metier or change direction. This has actually seen proof in people changing their religious affiliations. Her news is an interesting read that awakens us to the struggle for a religious meaning to an aggressive and extreme personalized stance that alvirtuoso erases the ethical proportions that embodies that teaching of theology. Further in Armstrongs book, a balanced critical perspective on how the Western faith catered to the rise of godlessness is clearly presented. It exposed how atheism evolved not merely on the bag of disproving the religious scriptures but as a result o f the theological excesses committed in the past years.2. What is the authors purpose in written material the book?In our own century, the idea attached to deity has been revise several times to meet the demands of the present population. Armstrong believed that when religious ideas cease to be effective, they fade away (376). After so much tribulations and conflicts, the thought that religious grow may cease to exist provides a comforting vista for Armstrong who has seen a drastic shrinkage of religious denominations as common views changed. The education publics response in a book with Armstrongs magnitude has indicated the publics hunger a theological change. For her, paragon has been remade to portray a vision that endorses the history and supremacy of the strong to go bad for their cause. Religion thereby has a well-disposed purpose and the idea of God according to Armstrong serves a function for a culture to survive. People have always resisted any type change unless the proposed change fits in with their social and cultural order and lifestyle. This is what Armstrong has move to stress in her book.Further this book Armstrong aims to express in her history that traditional society practiced spirituality. work force sought nature and use these forces to work for him. Somehow this was depicted in Genesis that was in homogeneous manner suggested by Armstrong that Abrahams God was El (14). Myths evolved or so Abrahams God that was not supposed to be taken literally according to Armstrong. However when behavior or actions of God enabled people to order of battle their best and perform effectively, the concept became highly accepted. The Koran according to Armstrong also taught that God had created Adam in his own image which is why he ordered the angels to bow down and worship the first man (229). Armstrongs work however signifies that God is either personal or transcendent. He can encourage perpetual immaturity, or be essentially immanent and pers onal enlightenment which Armstrong stresses can be a very trustworthy thing. She means to relay the message that a transcendent God, when not readiness a revolution, is subject to the manipulations of mankind. He could be a racist or a revolutionary depending on our personal views which has been mirrored later on mans own image to portray a supreme being.For neo religion, she stressed that Christianity is faced with atheism which evolved as a clear-sighted natural selection after the Reformation. She also exposed the limitations that Islam has also struggled in order to vacate religious views with their economic and political position. Modern Islam seeks to either pattern their behavior from Hesperian sandwich views which altogether eased their strict sanctions all all oer traditional religious practices like Iran and Turkey. The Jews after seeing the horrors of the century have lost gentleness and instead focused on a political battle over the Israeli state. One thing ho wever continues to become a mundane search for everyone which is to seek the truth throughout the long history of Gods existence.3. Review of the ideas presentedThe understanding presented in Armstrong was Christianity, Islam and Judaisms belief that a one true God and religion would evolve (151). Armstrong presented that any conflict should have been erase as they all share a veritable similarity existing along the aforementioned(prenominal) line of conflict. Biblical present according to Armstrong has suggested that the leader Moses convinced his people El and Yahweh were one and the same (21). For her, the beseech for a one true God is a call for unity among religion. This unity hopes to recognize the aspiration of others but will on the face of it focus on a true worship. Additionally, excessive intellectualism is frowned upon which is damaging to the faith. Armstrong provided that is God is not to become an indulgent authority of our own egotism, religious see to it must be informed by an accurate estimate of its kernel (205). She stressed a repeated warning against making God into an endorsement of egotism. The Koran is likewise clear that there is to be no compulsion in religion (155-6).God is love as further endorsed in Armstrongs work which is positively effective in the history of monotheism which speaks of a God who is on the side of the impotent and the oppressed (20). Further she stressed that God would live in a loving brotherhood, and not in a stone temple (71). It follows then that each human being is a unique epiphany of the Hidden God, manifesting him in a particular and unrepeatable manner (237). But the human mind has conceived concepts that go beyond reservation requiring considerable skill and mental balance when sure symbols emerged.Armstrong has established the roots of atheism were founded on the discovery of biblical errors. Marks gospel, which is the earlier of its kind to dismiss Jesus as a god, presents that Jesus was a perfectly normal man, with a family that included brothers and sisters (80). Although the reliability of Marks gospel is in question nevertheless Armstrong also insisted that Paul did not believe that Jesus was God incarnated and perfectly adding that the doctrine of incarnation developed only later (83). Christianity is heavily contradicted with atheism as a shrewd choice against the stringent doctrines of the Christian religion.4. Analysis and evaluation of the authors workHistory of God is a comparative study of monotheistic religions and their experience of the divine throughout history. Armstrong has capitalized that making God to suit ones personal needs has been practiced all throughout history. The fame of this book certainly banks on how Armstrong seeks to diminish the faith of those who seek to live in within the doctrines of their faith. God comes out as callous, self-righteous and entirely abstracted in the compassion and coherence to be worthy of veneration.The best s eller status that Armstrongs book has gained in England is a clear mark though that the public has a hunger to know the truth which has been undercover or concealed. Her apparent endorsement that persons of the cloth and religion might as well be dead serves to instigate lambaste against a belief that she had abandoned. Her distaste for Christianity is riddled by misleading statements that build up certain theories as an indubitable fact. God in Exodus was presented as an interpreter for the people of Midian whom Moses lived in exile. She refused to present that scholars have discredited this belief and continued to bloat the theory as a fact. Theologians have also debated over the compression of several thousand years of history into over quad hundred pages of Armstrongs book. Everything is fast paced that endorsed the acceptance of non-western culture and frown upon the western culture.5. Personal reaction and conclusionThis book produces disorienting yet conspicuous effects as a reading inspires an uprising in history that proclaims God as a God of revolution. Given this build-up, her discussion over the mystical tradition leaves a void for she has nothing else to say after promoting immanence. While projecting religions, she does emphasize a tolerance for Islam and Judaism while castigating the western tradition of Christianity that she grew up in. These profound averments against western religion has created inattention and laxness on greater issues that passed off unscrutinized leaving the reader in midair like Armstrongs lack of discussion over Newtons infantile fixation with the Book of Revelations.In conclusion, Armstrongs book could have provided a split skill is balance was exercised in handling the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Her prankish tone reflects how she used the deity into a form that best suits her interest. Although she has exposed the struggles of Islam as it tries to suit to western behavior and the Jewish focus on a political status of Israel, the search for the truth prevails. Further she has reflected that a huge amount of strong adherence against excessive intellectualism is damaging to the faith. Her assessment and endorsement of how atheism evolved during the Reformation period is spun over a rational clamor for truth over the long history of Gods existence.