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PHILOSOPHY CORNER

(2006-2010): As a philosophy student, I just thought I’d start a section which is about PHILOSOPHY (greek ‘philosophía’/ ‘φιλοσοφία’: the “LOVE”/”striving” for knowledge/’WISDOM’). When you are philosophizing, you also seek to reach the ‘truth’ about certain things. Some fragments will be here just for entertainment, some others (like quotes or thoughts of philosophers for example) out of interest which you can then take up and continue if you like…

2013 status/ statement: since couple of years, after all kind of questions, seeking etc. I am a “born-again” Christian; I was interested in religion since I was a teen, but it took time and now I strongly have faith in Jesus Christ and the God He revealed, and the word of God (the New Testament); I think philosophy, reading and education/ knowledge is still very important, because it teaches you to THINK, and the more you know, the better you are able to separate true from false - “knowledge is power” - but I felt the “final basis” was always missing, or you can call it the direction of life – this direction is found in faith, and I found it in (“true”) Christianity (people who abuse Christian faith to kill other people are not Christians to me, there is a lot of abusing and misusing going on – those people are bad and not true Christian faith itself...);

I think, in the end it is good that I pursued philosophy, finding out what is not so good and suspicious to me. I could also find out what is WRONG philosophy and a “wrong view of life”. There is philosophy that propagates nihilism etc etc and I think this philosophy is an instrument to harm people’s souls and to control them... If you like to know more, there are sure many books on these complex topics, you just have to look for them (search the internet for key words) or you can write me :-)

Enjoy and stay in tune!

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Little special: some topics and questions of philosophy (2010)

the world of philosophy…

the world of thinking…

the world of perception, ideas, views, insights…

(auguste rodin – the thinker)

So, well, what are the thinkers who were most inspirational to humankind?

Without a doubt, Greek philosophy (in the western world)… Plato, Aristotle… - and Christianity? Is Christianity a philosophy? Is it “only” a religion? What is this, a religion? How can we understand it?

As you/ we see many questions, many answers… searching for answers… searching for truth, for something you can rely on, for a sort of guide…

I think, there can be nothing “constructive”, no “creation” (in the metaphorical sense of this word) in this world without something “metaphysical”. That means, there can be no life or living without any principles, without love, without a goal, without a certain spirituality; no “living” and maybe even no happiness without all these “things”…

We human beings have a natural “metaphysical” and spiritual side to us, we have a “soul”/soul, even if some (even philosophical) directions/schools do tell us the opposite… now I think such misunderstandings are the results of not enough information, or manipulation, or just lack of knowledge… “Forgive them Father, because they do not KNOW what they do” the Bible says. They are not AWARE… how important it is to get an AWARENESS of what you are doing, of what you’re feeling, speaking… if it is right or wrong… good or bad/ evil… - because EVERYTHING turns to reality… everything we do, feel, speak, does “create” the world we are living in…

After all, how can you live without any guide?

For a philosopher it takes a lifetime of argumentation, thinking through, living through all the questions that we are asking: Who is God... what is God… Who are we? What is a human being? (Immanuel Kant) What is the meaning of life? What is good and what is evil? These are many different and complex questions and it shows how accurate we have to be to answer them, to get just a little insight.

© Daria Kokozej, September 2010 (revised 2013 and 2014, please see statement above)

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a summarised portrait of the religion Freddie Mercury was born into (information taken from Wikipedia and http://www.religioustolerance.org/zoroastr.htm)

I don’t know if Freddie Mercury was himself a Zoroastrian, because he wrote also a song about Jesus and he sang mostly about the God Christians know...

Zoroastrianism:

The Zoroastrian faith is claimed to be the earliest monotheistic religion with a dualistic nature.

The religion itself was founded by Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek; Zarthosht in India and Persia). Historians and religious scholars generally date his life sometime around 1500 BC. He lived in Persia, modern day Iran. Zoroastrianism became the state religion of various Persian empires, until the 7th Century AD. When Muslim Arabs invaded Persia in 650 AD, a small number of Zoroastrians fled to India where most are concentrated today. Those who remained behind have survived centuries of persecution.

Today, small Zoroastrian communities are found in India, Pakistan, Iran, as well as major urban areas in United States, Canada, England, Australia, and a worldwide Diaspora. There are two main groups of people: those of Indian Zoroastrian background, who are known as Parsis (or Parsees), and those of Iranian background. The Parsi Zoroastrians of India speak a dialect of Gujarati as well as English.

Parsis have gained a reputation for their education (today, around 70% of Parsis in the USA and Canada hold doctorates) and widespread influence in all aspects of society, partly due to the divisive strategy of British colonialism which favoured certain minorities. As such, Parsis are generally more affluent than other Indians and are stereotypically viewed as among the most Anglicised and ‘Westernised’ of Indian minority groups. They have also played an instrumental role in the economic development of the country over many decades; several of the most well known business conglomerates of India are run by people of Parsi descent.

The attributes of Zoroastrian faith are:

· A single god Ahura Mazda who is supreme

· One school of thought promotes a cosmic dualism between the all powerful God Ahura Mazda who is the only deity worthy of being worshipped, and an evil spirit of violence and death, Angra Mainyu, who opposes Ahura Mazda. The resulting cosmic conflict involves the entire universe, including humanity who is required to choose which to follow. Evil, and the Spirit of Evil, will be completely destroyed at the end of time. Dualism will come to an end and Goodness will be all in all. Another school of thought perceives the battle between Good and Evil as an ethical dualism, set within the human consciousness – the persistent conflict between Good and Evil that distinguish Zoroastrian morality is summed up in the simple phrase, “Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds”. Predestination is rejected in Zoroastrian teaching. Humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act to one another. Reward, punishment, happiness and grief all depend on how individuals live their life. Good befalls the people who do righteous deeds. Those who do evil have themselves to blame for their evil-doing.

· The symbol of fire: The energy of the creator is represented in Zoroastrianism by fire and the sun which are both enduring, radiant, pure and life sustaining

· Death and burial: Religious rituals related to death are all concerned with the person’s soul and not the body. Zoroastrians believe that on the fourth day after death, the human soul leaves the body and the body remains as an empty shell. Traditionally, Zoroastrians disposed of their dead by leaving them atop open-topped enclosures, called Towers of Silence, or Dokhmas. Vultures and the weather would clean the flesh of the bones, which were then placed into an ossuary at the center of the Tower. Fire and Earth were considered too sacred for the dead to be placed in them. While this practice is continued in India by some Parsis, it had ended by the beginning of the twentieth century in Iran. In India, burial and cremation are becoming increasingly popular alternatives

· The Zoroastrian holy book, called Avesta, does not only contain religious literature but also works on Medicine, Astronomy, Botany and Philosophy

· Unlike Christianity, Zoroastrianism is a non-proselytising religion, and if you are not born one, it is very difficult to become one