“If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin croucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it.” Genesis 4:7 American Standard Version---- “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” Genesis 4:7 King James Version Life is like a beach and its sand teaches many lessons. Almost anything can be crafted. Holes can be dug. Stumbling upon either of these can cause one to question them. Did somebody make that beautiful sandcastle with their own hands or was it carefully crafted by professionals? Was that hole created by some little kids trying to dig to China? These questions are all centered around one thing, the truth. Man has sought after this one thing for all of its existence. But truths about or concerning ourselves have always sparked curiosity. The questions of reality and illusion, freedom and fate have enthralled us throughout history and will continue to do so until our race is extinct.
The passages above show two translations of the same verse.They are from the story of Cain and Abel. Speaking to Cain after he has murdered his brother, God explains Cain’s punishment. In the American Standard Version, God commands Cain to rule over sin, while in the King James Version, God promises Cain that he will surely triumph over sin. These are two very different quotes from the same verse. To
When God proclaims that he favors Abel's gift over Cain's, Cain becomes angry and jealous towards Abel and he eventually kills him. Although God is fully aware of what has transpired, He asks Cain where Abel is, and Cain answers Him untruthfully saying, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:2-5). After God reveals to Cain that he knows of Abel's murder, God banishes Cain to another part of the land and places a mark on him so that no man will kill him.
Since the beginning of time, humans have searched for truth. Reality. Verity. Truth about why we do the things we do, how the Earth came to be what it is, how we have evolved, and where we started so long ago. It’s only when we find our truth, we want more, and we’re thirsty for more. We search for alternate certainties, different perspectives. Quickly we come to conclusions, which turn to rumours, theories… Ideas have been built up, until they are towering conspiracies, quickly turning to turmoil under the media’s sharp wit. I have been absorbed in theories on the deepest oceans, deaths, murders, untold truths that have been hidden away deep down.
Humans are naturally curious creatures. One’s inquisitive mindset might lead to all sorts of discoveries or answers to cosmic questions. However, the world and the life one lives inside the world are not always as they seem to be at first glance. What one does know about the world is based solely on their perception of reality and one person’s perspective will differ from the next. How does one know when they look at the blue sky or the green grass that the other people around them are witnessing the same scene they are experiencing? Should the stranger on the street fear another stranger simply because they are unable to know for absolute certainty that other is not a deranged, cannibalistic murderer?
The biblical story of Cain and Abel has been written in more than one way. The King James version of the Bible states that when God speaks to Cain after he had murdered his brother Abel, God said, "Thou shalt" overcome sin. In the standard American version of the Bible, God says "Do thou" which means Cain will certainly overcome sin. The Hebrew word 'timshel' means 'thou mayest' which is arguably the most important two words in John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden. These two words change the meaning of what God said completely. 'Thou mayest' gives a person the gift of free will. It is not a promise or an order that people will overcome sin, timshel means that people are responsible for their own actions and decisions. It is the thoughts and
In the time before the Declaration, great men like Benjamin Franklin took what they believed, what had been believed for hundreds of years, and questioned it. That doesn't seem such a big deal now, but when the Puritans were in charge, questioning your beliefs was wrong. Rationalists, however, felt the opposite. To delve into the mysteries of the world, to explain
Imagine a simplistic world without curiosity. No questions are asked, so no answers are given. Experiences like confusion and misunderstanding do not happen. A world like that is akin to mediocrity. That world would be a very bland world. Fortunately, the world today is nothing like that of the world described. Advancements in technology and culture were derived from curiosity. People wanted to know why things worked and how they could improve upon them to do better. Other occurrences came about from misunderstandings. One such example is the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 passed by President Roosevelt. “The law authorized inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop any bad or mislabeled meat from entering interstate and foreign commerce” (“BRIA”). This act came about due to the response from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Although mentioned, the horrors of the
Unable to know any better, people’s blindness to the truth about their existence throughout the ages has been relative to the questioning of reality. We search but are unable to the see the truth through the illusion that the world before us has portrayed. One might ask, how do we know what is real and what is simply illusion brought by our subjective view of the world? But when attempting to understand the nature of our existence, about why we are here, the complexities of life often make it difficult to interpret this subject. The film The Matrix centers on this same concept that the known world is an illusion. The movies core theme of reality and illusion is definite to the humans understanding of what the true meaning of life is. Ones
points to the nature of truth to be unchanging. Despite all the advances a society may
It is said that man, to survive, has always needed something or some belief to hold on; be it science, religion or magic. Man without a belief lacks hope (Walker, 1997). Lack of hope makes a man vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances. To avoid this vulnerability man has been holding onto different belief systems.
There is a big question floating in the air around a lot of people today,
Since the ancient times people have always been attracted to the unknown. Humans have always been curious about everything they have come across; How big is our earth?, how deep is the sea? Are there any other lands past the horizon?, and how big is our universe?. These types of questions have always led humans to forcefully exercise their minds into figuring them out.
In the beginning of Genesis, God expects humans to be subordinate to him, and refuses to tolerate defiance. He sees no excuse for disobedience, and punishes Adam and Eve. God expects everyone to be perfect and castigates for every mistake.
Since the dawn of human life, people have eternally been searching for the purpose of existence. Humans are innately curious beings, and are blessed to have the capabilities of higher thought processes. Humans use these thought processes to ponder the question of existence. Unfortunately, the evolution of man has not brought the human race any closer to actualizing its purpose on earth. In fact, this issue is such that the more one feels he or she understands it, the more questions concerning it arise. This problem perpetuates itself by the confusion of religion and spirituality, and the roles they hold in society. As the human race evolves, it feels the need to designate structure to its world. As
The more a question is argued the better that question becomes it is often said. That question begins to grow and the side effect of this is the more people it reaches. Whether that question can be put into a category of right or wrong it begs to be answered. Knowledge is something that people instinctively need to function when faced with a problem, an answer must be found or it begins to form eminent possibility in any direction. The problem is a question that no one can truly answer for anyone other than the person faced with it, which is one's own self. The arguments from either side of this philosophical problem must not be centered around one's own belief but all that share the dilemma, which is in fact every human being.
Through out history, as man progressed from a primitive animal to a "human being" capable of thought and reason, mankind has had to throw questions about the meaning of our own existence to ourselves. Out of those trail of thoughts appeared religion, art, and philosophy, the fundamental process of questioning about existence. Who we are, how we came to be, where we are going, what the most ideal state is....... All these questions had to be asked and if not given a definite answer, then at least given some idea as to how to begin to search for, as humans probed deeper and deeper into the riddle that we were all born into.