zoroaster's Influence on Christianity and Islam

Plotinus spoke of the World-Mind, the World-Soul, and Nature as being forces emanating from the One (or God).

A simpler yet modified version of his philosophical theory is that the One is the universe, the World Mind is the order of the universe, the World-Soul is animal life (including human beings), and Nature emanates everything else including the plants and other matter.

Judaism had a much simpler explanation in that it was assumed that God created everything except Himself by simply saying "Let there be...." But in Judaism there is no explanation for how God came into being, or why evil exists if God created everything and God is perfectly good.

Zoroaster (628 B.C. - 551 B.C.), founded Zoroastrianism, which influence Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It emphasizes that good and evil are separate entities at war with each other, in the form of Ormuzd (the god of good, creation and truth) and Ahriman (the god of evil, destruction and lies), both ultimately descended from the Wise Lord, Ahura Mazda.

Zoroastrianism, like other religions has gone through different phases, attracting in the course of time many elements from different sources. The most characteristic aspect of Zoroaster's faith, however, is belief in dualism. He conceived of two powers active in the universe, Good and Evil. Our world is the scene of conflict between the two. The outcome of this conflict, upon which depends the destiny of humanity, will be decided as much by people's choice as by any other factor. The choice is between siding with Ahura Mazda and following the path of truth, or uniting with Angra Mainya (Ahriman) and following the way of falsehood.

In the fateful struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, it is human beings and their deeds which hold the balance. It is through the good thoughts, good words, and good deeds of pious people that the forces of Good eventually triumph. There will be a day of reckoning when those who have resisted the temptations of Angra Mainyu and have followed the dictates of the "Good Religion" will be blessed.

Note that if you think of this blessedness as Heaven (at the end of the good life) and its opposite as Hell (at the end of an evil life), then you have the Christian and Islamic notions of the afterlife.

PLOTINUS

Neo-Platonism may be defined as a religio-philosophical system developed at Alexandria, Egypt in the third century A.D. by Plotinus and his successors. It is based on Western Platonism with elements of Eastern mysticism. It assumes the existence of a single source from which all existence comes and with which an individual soul can be mystically united with the ultimate One. Plato's theory of Ideas indirectly influenced Christian theology; Neo-Platonism, however, had a direct effect on its composition.

The founder of Neo-Platonism, Plotinus (A.D. 205 - 270) was perhaps the last great so-called philosopher of antiquity. I say so-called philosopher because rather than searching for truth (which is what I think a true philosopher does), he claimed to have found it. Along with his own imagination, however, he did succeed in creating a powerful system of ideas that are a mixture of Western thought (influenced largely by Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas) and Eastern mysticism (basically derived from Hinduism).

Plotinus was born perhaps in the Egyptian town of Lyco, or Lycopolis. He turned to philosophy at the age of 28 and studied 11 years with the eminent philosopher Ammonius Saccas at Alexandria.

In 243, desiring to learn about Eastern philosophy, Plotinus joined the expedition led by the Roman emperor Gordian III against the Persians. Plotinus did not begin to write until he was 50 years old. His work, the Enneads, was arranged and published some 30 years after his death by his most famous pupil, Porphyry. It consists of six groups of nine essays and deals with the whole range of ancient philosophical thought with the exception of political theory.

Plotinus had a distrust of materiality (an attitude common to Platonism), holding to the view that phenomena (things that are perceptible by the senses) were a poor image or mimicry of something "higher and intelligible" which was the "truer part of genuine Being".

Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One", containing no division, multiplicity or distinction; likewise it is beyond all categories of being and non-being. The concept of "being" is derived by us from the objects of human experience called the dyad, and is an attribute of such objects, but the infinite, transcendent One is beyond all such objects, and therefore is beyond the concepts that we derive from them. The One "cannot be any existing thing", and cannot be merely the sum of all such things but "is prior to all existents". Thus, no attributes can be assigned to the One.

For example, thought cannot be attributed to the One because thought implies distinction between a thinker and an object of thought.

The One, being beyond all attributes including being and non-being, is the source of the world--but not through any act of creation, willful or otherwise, since activity cannot be ascribed to the unchangeable, immutable One. Plotinus argues instead that the multiple cannot exist without the simple. The "less perfect" must, of necessity, "emanate", or issue forth, from the "perfect" or "more perfect". Thus, all of "creation" emanates from the One in succeeding stages of lesser and lesser perfection. These stages are not temporally isolated, but occur throughout time as a constant process.

Perhaps unbeknownst to Plotinus, the One that he keeps referring to is synonymous in identity with that which we now call nature. Some incorrectly call it Mother Nature but it is gender neutral--that is, it is neither male nor female. It is in all and affects all, but respects no one and is partial to no one. Nature has no reason for being--it just is. Similarly, anything produced by nature (including human beings) likewise has no inherent reason for being. But, because we think, we seem to need reasons for everything; if we can't find them in reality, then we tend to imagine them. Too often, the problem is that many people can't tell the difference between that which has been discovered in reality from that which has been merely imagined. Then, false conceptions lead to inaccurate thinking that may cause unwise actions that may lead to problematic consequences. And, if the person doesn't realize that his or her actions or inactions were based upon false beliefs, then he or she would be powerless to solve the problems that these false beliefs caused. Perhaps that's one reason that Francis Bacon'[s famous statement, "Knowledge is power," is so true. In other words, one is virtually powerless to solve real problems with inaccurate thinking.

I might add to Plotinus' theory that the One (or nature) neither be characterized as good or bad because these are imperfect terms used by humans, which are imperfect beings. The One (or nature) is perfect. It doesn't think; it did not come into existence and it will never cease to exist. The most accurate thing that we can say about it is that it is infinite being that has no cause but is the cause and effect of everything else.

According to Plotinus, the first emanation is, however, Nous (Divine Mind, logos or order, Thought, Reason), identified metaphorically with the Demiurge in Plato's Timaeus.

[According to Classical Literature Companion, Demiurge in Plato's Timaeus is the creator of the visible world, and in Greek Christian writers the Demiurge is God the Creator of all things.]

Also according to Plotinus, the Demiurge is the first Will toward Good. [This is a contradiction in Plotinus's own religio-philosophy because if the Nous (or the One) does not think, then how can it possibly Will? One has to think in order to will.]

According to Plotinus the individual human souls proceed from the world soul, and finally, matter, is at the lowest level of being and thus the least perfected level of the cosmos. 

At the heart of Plotinus's religio-philosophical system is a supreme divinity which is infinite, unitary, and good. It is the ultimate but not the direct cause of all that is, although it is under no compulsion or necessity to produce anything outside itself. It is so perfect that it lacks nothing. It simply is.

Plotinus's teachings attracted many followers. The most noteworthy were Porphyry and Iamblichus, who carried on his teachings with slightly different emphasis. Neo-Platonism, through the development of the many schools it spawned, came to embrace a great number of mystical and superstitious beliefs from the East. Neo-Platonism proved to have a lasting influence on Christianity and remained influential in the development of beliefs during the "Dark Ages".

PLATONISM

Plato, the second of three academically related ancient Greek thinkers whose ideas enlightened Europe during Europe's so-called "Dark Ages," which had been dominated by closed-minded religious beliefs in Christianity, and lead to the "Age of Enlightenment" of scientific discovery.

Strangely, it was a misguided application of some of Plato's ideas that led to the religious theology that so dominated the minds of Western Civilization.

So let's go back to the first cause of this so-called "darkness." Let's review the history of Neo-Platonism. But what is Neo-Platonism? According to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Neo-Platonism is a form of Platonism developed by Plotinus in the 3rd century A.D. and modified by his successors.

But before we review Neo-Platonism, let's review the ideas of Plato that have come to be called Platonism.

Plato (c. 428 B.C. - 347 B.C.) was Socrates' most famous student. Moreover, because Socrates was not known to write anything, if it hadn't been for Plato's writings, I would not have learned from the ideas, attitudes, and the inquisitive method of learning that Plato attributed to Socrates.

Unfortunately, however, it was Plato's ideas about the Forms that mislead the Western Civilization into the "Dark Ages."

Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas asserts that non-material abstractions (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. When used in this sense, the word form is often capitalized. Plato speaks of these entities only through the characters of his dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only true objects of study that can provide us with genuine knowledge. In other words, Plato convinced many people that what we think (and believe) is real and what we observe (by sight, touch, taste, smell, or sound) is not. Even as backwards as this may at first sound, Plato convinced many people that this was true. The following example from his writing (called the Republic) is how he did it. He told the following story in a dialogue as an example.

Behold: human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open toward the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning around their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like a screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets."

I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statutes and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave.

But even if a prisoner succeeds in liberating himself gradually from the chains which hold him in place, and will see people and things and not merely shadows, he will, Plato argues, still maintain that "the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him." And when he is led out of the cave, into bright sunlight, the same will happen, for he will be dazzled by the sun and "unable to see anything at all of what are now called realities." Plato realizes that it must take a long time to learn to see and to recognize as such the "real" reality, and that only a few, the true philosophers, will succeed in it. When he returns to the cave, and tries to tell the cave dwellers what he saw, they will not believe him; rather they will ridicule him and insist that "it was better not even to think of ascending."

In his writing to advance his own ideas, Plato uses characters to say what he himself thinks; thus, in his dialogues it is sometimes difficult to determine what Socrates actually said from what Plato himself thought and said that Socrates said it. For example, in another famous dialogue, the Phaedo, Plato put into the mouth of Socrates several arguments for the immortality of the soul. Since we know certain things which no experience can teach us, he took that to mean that our soul must have existed before birth. According to Plato, it is furthermore obvious that the soul rules the body, which shows that it is independent of the body. Plato further asserts that the soul is the cause and source of life; and, because of this, it cannot be conceived as dying. Finally, being "simple"--that is, not having parts--it is incapable of dissolution, of falling apart.

Also, according to Plato, the immortal soul inhabits the body for a time as if imprisoned in it, and leaves it at death. Death, then, is "the separation and release of the soul from the bodily prison."

Thus, instead of proclaiming that physical substances are the only real things, Plato turned the truth on its head and proclaimed that the only real things are permanent, unchanging ideas; and, physical things are only temporary, imperfect representations of reality.

ACCURATE THINKING IS MOST IMPORTANT

There is no more important mental process than thinking, unless it is that of transforming accurate thoughts into appropriate activity. To perceive the world correctly, to remember precisely, to think accurately, and then to act appropriately--these are processes that define a rational, intelligent human being.

Thinking is a mentally active search to understand observations or the process of creating imaginations.

1. Perception provides us with information.
2. Memory stores this information for future use.
3. Thinking uses the information provided by perception and memory; then, uses imagination to combine and organize it into new patterns and new combinations.

Perception represents the present; memory reinstates past perceptions or past imaginations; and thinking reaches toward the future, toward something that has yet to be brought into existence. Sometimes all three of these mental processes are occurring at the same time. Together they make up what is called cognition.

Broadly defined, cognition is the mental process of generating an idea. Accurate cognition includes real awareness, precise perception, enlightened reasoning, and valid judgment.

If a person were to possess only the ability to perceive, he or she would be mentally limited to his or her present observations, wants, and desires; and, his or her actions would be the result of impulse rather than thought.

If a person has perception and memory, then he or she has a past and a present. Such a person, when not controlled or changed by present events, would tend to be a nonprogressive creature of habit.

However, by adding the power of accurate thinking to correct perception and precise memory, a person is enabled to project himself or herself into the future; by doing so, a person can know and do in the present whatever is required of him or her to have a better life in the future.

Through the process of accurate thinking, a person can rearrange his or her life to suit himself or herself and to satisfy his or her wants and needs while also helping humanity become better. This is why self-education as well as formal education are vitally needed for both the well-being of an individual as well as a better world in which to live.

The Good Life

The word "philosophy" comes from Ancient Greece and is a combination of two words--"philos" (loving) and "Sophia" (wisdom), so it literally means "love of wisdom."

There is a difference between claiming to love wisdom and claiming to possess it. Socrates called himself a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, in order to emphasize the difference between his position and that of the "wise men," the sophists, who claimed to possess wisdom.

One has to humble oneself to learn wisdom. The beginning of ones wisdom is a sincere acknowledgement of ones ignorance. Socrates said that we are all ignorant; the only difference is that we are ignorant about different things. He also said, "All that I know is that I know nothing." And, with that statement, he proved to be the wisest person in Athens at that time.

But what is this "wisdom" a philosopher pursues and a sophist claims to possess? It is the ability to know as well as to enjoy "the good life." It is also knowledge about the nature of the universe, a person's place in it, and a person's destiny. In other words, philosophy seeks to answer questions about the meaning of human existence and the kind of life a person should lead.

Answers to these questions have been offered by various mythologies and religions; however, philosophy arose when mythological and theological answers were found unsatisfactory by some deeper than ordinary thinkers.

Criticism of religious beliefs does not make philosophical reflection antireligious; it is just consistent with a philosopher's essential characteristic--that is, critical thinking for oneself.

But what is critical thinking? Before answering this question, I'd like to explore an even deeper one: What is thinking? For me, thinking is an attempt to mentally process perceptions and/or imaginations accurately. Here, I also offer a psychology textbook definition by Gardner Lindzey, Calvin S. Hall, & Richard F. Thompson: "Thinking is an active search for something that the person wants and needs. It reflects a need to explain and to understand, and a desire to create." So, as you can see, by both my and their definitions, it can be argued that just accepting something on faith is not thinking; it certainly is not critical thinking; it's merely believing; it's like using your brain to record rather than to think. It's just "blind faith."

INACCURATE THINKING

It was the rediscovered writings of the philosophers of Ancient Greece that began the "Renaissance" or "Rebirth" of the Western Civilization from a society dominated by religious dogma to one that was curious, questioning, and objective. This period of enlightenment ushered Europe out of the "Dark Ages" and into scientific thinking.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), born in London, England, determined some of the causes for inaccurate thinking. He also proposed a method of developing scientific laws. He argued that although philosophy at the time used deductive reasoning (sitting and thinking) to interpret nature, to think more accurately the knowledge seeker should instead proceed through inductive reasoning from facts (gained by observation and experimentation) to axiom to law. Before beginning this induction, the inquirer is to free his or her mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. He called these tendencies "Idols." He explained four kinds:

• "Idols of the Tribe," false ideas which are common to the human race as a whole;
• "Idols of the Den," false ideas which are peculiar to the individual human being;
• "Idols of the Marketplace," false ideas that are due to the misuse of language; and
• "Idols of the Theatre," false ideas that result from an abuse of authority.

The goal of inductive thinking is to discover the ways in which natural things occur and what causes them to happen.

Following are some of the tendencies to think inaccurately that are common to all human beings:

1. The tendency to rely upon assumptions without proof.
2. The tendency of a person to support his or her own personal beliefs.
3. The tendency to believe what one wishes to believe.
4. The tendency to jump to conclusions on the basis of first impressions.
5. The tendency to describe the cause of a thing without verifying this assumed cause.

The typical self-deceptions that are peculiar to individuals may simply occur when a person dedicates his or her mind to some particular interest and interprets all his or her ideas and experiences in terms of this interest. In addition, each individual has his or her own individual set of ideas, situations, circumstances, and experiences that cause him or her to think according to his or her predisposition or prejudice.

Another is the tendency for a person to believe what an authoritative source says is true. This is compounded by the erroneous thinking that because so many people believe it, it must be true.

People also believe what they think is in their best interest to believe--whether it is actually true or not. It's like they hypnotize themselves into believing whatever they want to believe because it's in their best interest to do so.

Finally, as Bertrand Russel discovered, language itself can be a source of "bewitchment" in that people tend to think that a concept really exists simply because it is named and talked about often.

Think Accurately

For ages, many philosophers had been preoccupied with the idea of proving something to be true. It seemed, however, that as soon as one of them stated something, others would find reasons to doubt it. Eventually, some people believed that no one could prove the existence of anything.

This reasoning misled some people to believe that they could and should do anything they wanted to do. They falsely reasoned that because nothing could be proven to exist, then neither could any morals be proven to be true.

It wasn't until 1637 that Rene Descartes philosophically proved, at least to himself, that he himself did undoubtedly exist. His proof is contained in the following famous words: "I think, therefore I am." What he actually did was give proof of his existence as a thinking being.

Clearly, it is our thinking that makes us more or less humane. It can also be argued that how we think determines our existence, or at least, what kind of existence. The following famous quotations seems to me to suggest this:

• "As a man thinketh ... so is he." --Proverbs 23:7
• "A man is what he thinks all day long." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
• A thought produces an act. An act produces a habit. A habit produces a character. And, a character produces a destiny. --author unknown (slightly modified by Perman Wilson)
• "What we think we become." --Siddhartha Gautama
• "Know thyself." --The Oracle of Delphi
• "To thine own self be true." --Polonious (one of Shakespeare's characters)
• To be true to yourself, you must know yourself, and you must think accurately. --Perman Wilson

SOCRATES' QUOTES

Learning to think accurately can cause a person to live a more worthwhile life.

Socrates said:

• The unexamined life is not worth living.
• Employ your time in improving youself by other men's writing, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
• False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
• From the deepest desires often comes the deadliest hate.

SOCRATES' BELIEF

Socrates believed that people are basically good and that it is ignorance that causes people to do evil things; thus, he dedicated his life to helping people to think more accurately and learn how to best behave. Stevie Wonder sang a message that agrees with Socrates' perspective: "Do yourself a favor; educate your mind."

SOCRATES

• Socrates (c. 470-399 B.C.), was one of the first of three philosophers of Ancient Greece who are most responsible for the powerful, cognitive foundation of the Western Civilization.

• Although Socrates was closely associated with the leading ruling and political citizens of Athens, Greece, he took little part in politics. He said that he sought no public office because he did not want to compromise his philosophical principles. Instead, he felt that it was his mission to help people tend to their souls; in other words, he dedicated his life to helping people tend to their souls; in other words, he dedicated his life to helping people to think more accurately and to find that special knowledge of what is good for their soul.

• Whereas philosophers before him focused on natural sciences, Socrates emphasized the personal, ethical, and social aspects of life, thus bringing out the insights, values, and methodology needed in any attempt to attain a happy life.

• Socrates believed that no one does evil of his or her own free will; and, he strongly believed that if one knew the good, he or she would not hesitate to do it. In other words, Socrates believed that the soul (meaning the mind) of a human being is basically good and that one commits evil only from ignorance of what the good truly is.

• This belief in the basic goodness of all human beings coupled with a belief that it is ignorance that causes people to do evil things, Socrates went about Athens trying to get people to think more accurately and thus become more humane.

• Whether you agree or disagree with Socrates' belief in the basic goodness of humanity, experience shows that people tend to behave better as they learn. The reason, however, may simply be that the morally educated person realizes that although selfish, bad behavior might make him or her happy in the short term, the long-term consequences and/or end result is unhappiness. Also, good thoughts tend to produce good actions that cause good consequences or good results.

• If "knowledge is power," as famously stated by Sir Francis Bacon, then Socrates may have been most responsible for the dominance of Western Civilization as well as the superior technology that the West has enjoyed for centuries.

• Not only do we have free libraries and free public education, but education is also mandatory for children in the United States of America. The importance of education to the society as a whole may arguably be attributed to an idea learned from Socrates--that is, if you teach people better ways to think and tell them why it's better, then they will most likely behave better, which would not only be best for the individual learner but also best for the community and humanity as well.

Welcome Address

Welcome All Deep Thinkers:

The world is full of people who are in a barely conscious state of mind--those whose thoughts are rarely below the surface of their barely conscious minds. Many years ago, a man called Buddha awakened from the normal state of the human mind; since then, through his teachings, he has tried to wake up as many others as would study his findings and apply the principles that he discovered.

Later, I will post the naked truth of the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the first to be called Buddha; next, however, I will endeavor to show how the teachings of Socrates has improve humanity.