Human Beings Affected by the Gods
When people discuss god/gods/divinity, it seems that the intent isalways to show the supernatural beings as loving and watchful of humans.There seems to always be the desire to see divinity as the ultimatedispenser of justice-when humans are cruel, demanding, selfish, whatever,we can depend on divinity to set things right. However, based primarily onthe two sources offered for this paper, one would have to take a verydifferent view of divinity. Based on the texts used here, divinity, bywhatever name, gender, cultural background, or number, seems, instead,capricious, illogical and dangerous to humankind in general. To begin with, there are the stories involved in the Old Testamentreadings. Besides the creation story that has been the source ofcontroversy for many years now, there is the story of Cain and Able. Ithas never been clear to me, and this reading didn't help any, as to why Godaccepted Able's sacrifice and not Cain's. There doesn't seem any logicalexplanation. Then to add to that seemingly capricious judgment on the partof God, Cain, in a fit of jealousy, kills Able and rather than actuallypunishing Cain, sets him free, with a mark on him that tells everyone not
And the Lord said, What have you done' Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. If he hadn't panicked and tried to kill his son tosave his own life who knows how everything would have turned out. (Genesis 4:10-12 NRSV) Cain starts whining that his punishment is greater than he can bearand that he is afraid everyone will want to kill him. Being adecent, loving human being, he runs from Corinth right into the verysituation he is trying to avoid. Not questioning how often the sayings from Delphi actually cometrue, he "pierces his infant son's ankles" binds him and leaves him out todie of exposure. He is obviously a caring,responsible monarch. Cain getsaway with murder and Abraham is ordered to commit murder. All he has ever tried to do isavoid the awful things predicted. The story opens with people ofThebes at the altars of the gods begging for deliverance from some plagueor pestilence that is loose in the city. So Oedipus's dad does the right and properthing. After reading all of the assignment, I am left to wonder why anyonewould want to entrust themselves to any of these divinities. As the play progresses, oldprophecies are brought out and one story begins to link to another.
Common topics in this essay:
NRSV Cain,
,
God Cain,
Conversations God,
Cain Able,
Donald Walsch,
brother's blood,
city oedipus,
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Acceptance Essays
