Historical Speculations on Nature of Humankind

Later, as humans found some respite from a daily struggle for existence, there came time to extend their early religious thoughts into less concrete areas. Again, practicality was the original impetus. If the gods bring rain, how do we please them in order to assure enough - but not too much - rainfall? If our enemies, who worship other gods, prosper at our expense, is it because we are doing something wrong, or because our gods are weaker than their gods, or because their gods are true gods and ours are false?

From this practical foundation, as leisure time expanded still further (slaver

. . .
k of Job) the ancient Greeks were forming a similar concept of humankind, good and evil vis-a-vis rejection of the traditional religious definitions of the Asia Minor cultural heritage they shared with the Hebrews. The Greeks placed something of a premium upon the supremacy of deed over intention in their understanding of good and evil. Greek mythology, of course, had always exhibited a far more cynical view of the divine plane than their neighboring Semitic civilizations shared: the Promethean ideal was the cornerstone of Greek belief that good works on behalf of humankind could just as easily be punished with eternal torment as with divine reward. Why? Towards the end of answering that question, the philosopher Plato has his mentor Socrates responding to critics: "I know that I do not know." But Plato/Socrates were not content with total reliance upon faith in an omniscient God that Job subscribes to as a justification for doing good acts in preference to evil. After all, Job is eventually rewarded; more to the point, in Job's world, life is a reflection of the cosmos of God: ultimately hierarchical and ordered. The Greeks believed in the ultimate order of the cosmos, too, albeit without an orderly divine strata. But,
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Approximate Word count = 1945
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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