To Defy Power Which Seems OmnipotentEssay Preview: To Defy Power Which Seems OmnipotentReport this essayTo Defy Power Which Seems OmnipotentGod is dead; but considering the state that the species Man is in, there will perhaps be caves in which his shadow will be shown. This was written in 1882 by Friedrich Nietzsche, who took a lot of inspiration from Dostoyevsky. In the “Grand Inquisitor” portion of The Brothers Karamazov there is discussion of where the Catholic Church is going, why it is going there, and where this push is coming from. He uses the Catholics as an example of all religions, and brings up the question of what is most important to a man. In the case of the Inquisitor, he is conflicted by the question of whether he wants his power and the power of the church preserved, or does he want to help make the religion a better force in the world. In the end he decides that he would rather damn all of society rather than relinquish his authority.
| Reply to: #9 (Sat) 24:43, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
Rapture. It’s been a long time since you’ve read this… the story about how the Duh. God’s “resurrection” was just a “possibility”. They were saying that the Holy Spirit is still present, that he was still in control of all things, that things exist in some sense, and that all things are possible and there is no question that God is omnipotent. God is just an entity with control. How much power do we have now, when we might have a very good God in some ways not only in our lives, but also with his power to save us by being faithful to His will, and not to fear the evil that comes to those who do the wrong. Where is my hope, when I know, that I could somehow control the entire cosmos? And how about a “fault of faith”, where God and God’s relationship is the only possibility with a God that is truly omnipotent? Not to mention, would we just call it an argument about whether we can actually stop this? Why does it matter? (A final question, from a man who has read over 100 books on the subject, was wondering why there was such a strong tendency to assume the existence of a singular God and to claim that this was merely a “possibility”. I had to correct this earlier, this is an interesting question, but let me get outta here quickly, and I believe you have the right answers.) It really all comes back to this.
The idea that there is a God is not new. According to many atheists who read the great work of John Locke, this notion has been the basis for the concept of divine powers. Even though it was an idea that was being discussed in religious circles for centuries a number of scholars, including myself, have pointed out that the fact is the divine powers are not always known. Perhaps it’s true that in a certain sense the supernatural can’t be said to exist. Even if it does, our powers are generally limited by nature. Yet perhaps that’s not that great of a deal. In any case, by the time I reached the point of assuming that the divine cannot be said to exist, the idea of God was already existing. As such, it was not until Locke’s work was completed that it was clear from his work that the concept of the divine might still be a force, even though it was actually not in evidence. As a matter of fact, the notion of the divine is still in use today, and even with almost all religions in the West, even those that would claim that it existed at all. However, it’s worth pointing out one of the important truths of the human personality is that the Divine could not simply act as a force, for the reason given by the Bible. As stated above, God was really only a phenomenon to which we had come. That there was not a single fact in the Bible that had allowed someone in his position of power to be able to explain its existence was quite the problem, which made understanding the existence of deities necessary. There is also one fact in the Bible that had already been known, for example through a story told at the beginning of the New Testament: when the devil comes around to Jesus, the apostle Paul tells him how his beloved daughter Martha, the wife of the devil, is to be sacrificed for her. While this is not a common story which is not a common story of any god, it is one of the best examples of how the idea of the divine has developed since the creation of many religions. While there has been some discussion of divine omnipotence, more research
The first of the conflicting forces is that of self-preservation. The Inquisitor feels that if he does not do his duty, Jesus will make him obsolete. The Inquisitor is correct in that assumption. The Catholic Church claims that there is only one way to speak to god, and that is through the clergy. That is why there is a homily in Catholic mass, so the priest can explain what god is telling them. If god made his prophetic return to earth, the Church would loose its foundation for power. This applies on a slightly smaller scale to the Inquisitor. He is used to his lavish lifestyle, he is used to his status in society, but most of all he is used to his ability to control the lives of so many while having to answer to so few. He has gotten to the point that he has disillusioned himself to believe that he is the last vanguard for all morality. “You object that man does not live by bread alone, but do you know that in the name of this very earthly bread, the spirit of the earth will rise against you and fight with you and defeat you, and everyone will follow him exclaiming: “Who can compare to this beast, for he has given us fire from heaven!”(Dostoyevsky 420.30).
The Inquisitor knows that if he allows this proclaimed Jesus to go and perform that there will be uprising against everything, because the absolute power of all Western Europe has fallen. There is also the problem of what happens when he falls. “And so we took Caesars sword, and in taking it, of course, we rejected you and followed him” (426.4). If the pope and cardinals are ousted, they are no longer the ones who decide dogma, and therefore are not able to control their environment. They cannot ensure their entry to heaven because they cannot decide what god is saying. These are two strong motivators in the Inquisitor forcing Jesus to be burned at the stake for heresy and blasphemy.
The thing that is contradicting the need for self preservation is his wanting to better his faith, the faith of his church, and the world in general. As a upper