At the dawn of history, God was a she—or so it appears. Our paleolithic forebears, thirty or more millennia ago, conceived of Nature or the Divine as a cosmic female. They delighted in immortalizing her image on cave walls and in the form of statuettes carved out of stone, bone, ivory, or coal. Undoubtedly, they also used more perishable materials to depict the Great Mother, though these did not survive the ravages of time. The belief in the universal Female was deeply ingrained and vital. However, it underwent a significant transformation during the neolithic age. For, as human experience and conceptual capacities leaped forward, the Great Mother became increasingly personified. She was endowed with special characteristics, a personal if legendary history, and a name.
Philosophy
Philosophy originated in ancient Greece as a discipline of rational inquiry into the nature of reality, knowledge, and existence. Greek philosophers sought to understand the world and their place in it through the use of reason, logic, and critical thinking. They grappled with questions such as: What is the nature of the universe? What is the meaning of life? How can we know what we know? Their ideas and debates have shaped Western philosophy and continue to influence our understanding of the world today.Philosophy is not a belief or a wish. Philosophy is an activity: a quest after wisdom. “Philosophia” is the ancient Greek word for the “love of wisdom”.
Each of us human beings has an invisible friend and guide to accompany us on our journey through life and death. Whether it manifests as a still-small voice, an innate urge, vivid intuition or an actual entity, each one of us has a teleos, or purpose, particular to our own soul’s journey, negotiating the relationship between Self and ego according to our uniqueness.
The ancient warrior culture of Japan produced a sophisticated martial philosophy that we know today as Bushido—the Way of the Warrior. There are eight virtues of Bushido, the code of the samurai: justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty, and self-control. These virtues comprise the essence of Japanese cultural beliefs, which are still present today.
Until the eighteenth century, it was assumed that human beings are unequal by nature — i.e., that there was a natural human hierarchy. This postulate collapsed with the advent of the idea of natural right and its assumption of an equality of natural order among all human beings.
Plato’s critique of democracy is that democracy does not place a premium on wisdom and knowledge seeking as an inherent good, much like timocracy and oligarchy. Instead, democracy suffers from the failures of the aforementioned systems insofar as it prioritizes wealth and property accumulation as the highest good.
Many naturally assume that growing Western world belief in reincarnation is primarily based on a simultaneous increasing influence of Eastern religion and thought. This assumption is due, in part, that (many) Eastern religions have long known spiritual traditions that incorporate the concept of reincarnation.
The meaning of life is a philosophical question concerning the significance of life or existence in general. It can also be expressed in different forms, such as “Why are we here?”,”What is life all about?”, and “What is the purpose of existence?” It has been the subject of much philosophical,scientific, and theological speculation throughout history.
I am a Muslim, a Hindu, a Christian, and a Jew— and so are all of you – Mahatma Gandhi
”I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Zoroastrian, nor Muslim. I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea; My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless; ’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved. I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one; I know none other except God.” — RUMI
It is common to hear the outcome of events being described as being the result of fate, destiny or sometimes a result of both.
The descent of the soul plays a prominent role in Plato’s work (in particular in the Phaedo and the Republic) and was also widely debated among Platonists.