Xenophanes Concept of God :: Philosophical Philosophy Religion essays

Xenophanes Concept of graven image Xenophanes of the late sixth and early 5th centuries BC should be credited, in opposition to his critics and misinterpreters, with an locomote contribution to the Western philosophy of religion, namely that there is one deity. First, he exposes the weaknesses of the Greek pantheon. Then he satirically demonstrates the narcissistic limitations of human conceptions of the spirit of the divine. Third, he logically structures a coherent concept of the nature of the save God. Then finally he reveals how his concept explains certain observable ingrained pheno manpowera in an account of physical reality. 1. Xenophanes said there is one god, among gods and men the greatest... 1 but why would that idea be unusual for his culture, in its biography? He explains that everyone in his culture had been taught by the famous poets and writers, including Homer, that a pantheon of dual deities existed and affected the lives of public in various ways. The natur e of these gods, however, defies the whole sentiment of deity. Anaximander had earlier conceived of the underlying stuff of the universe as apeiron, an unexplainable something. only when Xenophanes carries the notion much farther by attacking the mythology of his time and broad definition to the ineffable source of life. The famous writers attributed to the gods all things that are bleak and a reproach among mankind theft, adultery, and mutual deception 2. Illogically also, humans thought that gods were born and had clothing, voices, and bodies as well 3. Surely, gods had to be more than canonized albeit often more immoral than humans, by the definition of god. Probably Xenophanes viewed God from two perspectives. First, the Homeric gods demonstrated behavior that simply resembled the behavior of humans. God, by definition, had to be someone greater, better than humans in some way(s). He said that the One God is greatest among the gods, not like mortals in form or thought. Thus worship of this God implies that an all-encompassing greatness is a factor of worship, which means primarily submission to and reverence for a being greater than oneself. As well, morality seems to be recognized by all cultures in some form or another, but reveals a certain weakness or propensity in humans to lead badly at times, as opposed to behaving well at times. in that respect is an inherent recognition that there are good and bad actions and God is not like mortals in form or thought.