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Word of the Week: w/c 01/06/15 - Theism

30/5/2015

The belief that at least one deity exists. It can take many forms such as Monotheism, Polytheism, Pantheism, Deism, Henotheism and Misotheism.

The word theism is derived from the Greek theos which simply means "God", so at its simplest a theist is someone who believes in some sort of divine being.

The thinker who coined the term theism, Ralph Cudworth, defined people who are theists as those “who affirm, that a perfectly conscious understanding being, or mind, existing of itself from eternity, was the cause of all other things". Cudworth, being a Christian living in the 17th Century assumes in his definition that there is only one God and his definition reflects that assumption. But otherwise it is interesting to note the features of his definition: conscious that is a thinking and reasoning being, eternal not having a beginning or end and cause, it is the reason that other things exist.

There are of many other versions of theism that I would now like to unpack and define quickly:

Monotheism

This is the form of theism that we are most familiar with in the West - belief in a single deity who by extension is normally seen as omnipotent, omniscient etc. This is the form of theism adopted by Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, The Baha’i and Sikhs.

Polytheism

This is belief in many gods, however in reality a number of religions that are called polytheistic are rather “soft” on this matter and often really believe that there is one God who is represented in many forms. A good example of soft polytheism is Hinduism.

There were are are hard polytheists such as Romans, Norse, Celts, Egyptians etc. These traditions recognised many distinct deities and were often open to the idea that gods worshiped by other cultures were as real a their gods were.

Pantheism

This is the belief that everything is part of the divine and that the physical universe is equivalent to God. This means that there is no distinction between the creator and the creation and many philosophers have struggled with the logic of this notion.

Deism

Classical deism is the belief that a god or gods must have caused the world to come into existence but no longer participate in and contribute to the universe - this is an attractive view to some as it means there are no supernatural events such as miracles, prophecies etc., evil in the world is more easily explained and yet there is a first cause. The most famous deist from ancient philosophy was Aristotle who proposed that there must be a necessary being that he termed the prime mover.

Henotheism

Heno means one and so henotheism is belief in one God and yet acknowledging that other gods exist - so they have a specific affiliation and loyalty to one god over the others. A good analogy would be that you know all other premiership rugby teams exist but you only support Saracens (the best one!). This is also known as Monolatrism.

It seems likely that the early Jewish religion was like this and that the Hebrews worshiped Yahweh (most of the time, when it suited them!) over other gods. This of course meant that when things went wrong or or they were tempted away they also worshipped other gods such as Baal.

Misotheism

Misotheism is the belief that God(s) exist but that they are evil and so not worthy of worship - in some cultures such as the Icelandic belief system this was seen as a method of punishing the god(s)! Kind of like a divine form of being sent to Coventry!

So theism has much more to it than meets the eye but what ever the form has the notion that our existence is reliant upon the god(s), that the god(s) are of a different order/substance/essence to us.Those who believe this to not be the case are of course atheists - but we will have to save that for another word of the week...

Footnotes:
Cudworth, Ralph (1678). The True Intellectual System of the Universe, Vol. I. New York: Gould & Newman, 1837, p. 267.

Word Of The Week: W/C 18/05/14 - Hajj

17/5/2015

The Greater Muslim Pilgrimage To Mecca, Which Takes Place In The Last Month Of The Year And Which All Muslims Are Expected To Make At Least Once During Their Lifetime If They Can Afford To Do So. It Is One Of The Five Pillars Of Islam.

The city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia has long been the spiritual centre of the Islamic faith: the world's 1.3 billion Muslims kneel in its direction during prayers. But in the final months of the Islamic year, Islam's holiest city becomes even more vital, as an estimated 2.5 million pilgrims make their once-in-a-lifetime journey to the site.

This pilgrimage, known as the Hajj, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam by which every practising Muslim must abide. This year, the Hajj takes place from September 21st to 26th, it takes place annually between the 8th and 12th days of Dhu-al-Hijjah, the final month of the lunar Islamic calendar.

Pilgrims walking the Hajj in traditional Ihram

The Hajj consists of a five-day excursion, required by all physically and financially able Muslims, to Mecca and the nearby holy sites of Arafat, Mina, and Muzdalifah. Once there, pilgrims wear Ihram, white garments that make everyone equal and perform a series of rituals to unify themselves with other believers, absolve themselves of their sins and pay tribute to God. This is the Ummah, the community of Islam, in action; one cannot tell the difference between a prince and a pauper.

Muslims claim that the origins of the Hajj date back to 2,000 B.C. when Ishmael, the infant son of the prophet Ibrahim (Or Abraham, as he is called in the Old Testament) and Ibrahim's wife Hager were stranded in the desert. With Ishmael close to death from thirst, Hager ran back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwa looking for water until the angel Jibril (Gabriel) touched down to earth and created a spring of fresh water for the baby, known as the Well of Zamzam.

A pilgrim prays at Mt. Arafat

Following the orders of God, Ibrahim is said to have built a monument at the site of the spring known as the Kaaba. Worshippers from all faiths travelled to worship at the site; in 630 A.D., the Prophet Muhammad led a group of Muslims there in the first official Hajj, destroying the idols placed there by polytheistic worshippers and re-dedicating the site in the name of Allah. The path that Muhammad and his followers travelled is retraced as part of the Hajj rituals which include making Hager's walk between Safa and Marwa, stoning the wall of Satan that tempted Ibrahim to defy God, slaughtering an animal in honour of the sacrifice that Ibrahim made to save his son and climbing the Mount of Arafat from which Muhammad made his last sermon.

The ultimate rite of passage during the Hajj is circling the Kaaba, an immense black cube, spiritually considered by Muslims to be the centre of the world, and literally located in the centre of the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca. During the Hajj, vast swells of worshippers seeking forgiveness circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise, seven times. Completion of all of the mandated rituals earns the pilgrim the title of hajji (literally, one who has performed the Hajj) — coveted and admired in Muslim communities around the world.

A time-laspe photo of pilgrims circumambulating the Kabba

Word of the Week: w/c 04/05/14 - amoral

3/5/2015

Without moral quality; neither moral nor immoral. Not involving questions of right or wrong.

Last week we welcomed Mr Graeme Elliot, a director within RBS, to School to talk about whether banking could be ethical - Mr Elliot began by discussing the history of banking and outlining what went wrong in 2008 when the Government had to bail out the RBS and eventually purchase 79% of the bank.

It was clear from his talk that individuals of course acted immorally by rigging rates such as libor, misselling products such as PPI and acting recklessly on the markets. The targets set by banks for their employees, coupled with big bonuses made unethical practice all too tempting. He suggested that much of this practice has now been expunged from RBS thanks to a change in management and a focusing on the British market (what the bank was originally set up for). He did however admit that many banks have adopted an “ethical veneer” to appear better to the public without really changing their practices.

When pressed by the audience on whether banking could be made to be ethical Mr Elliot was reticent to commit to specific practices and standards - rather he argued that banking was essentially amoral - it is how it is used by others that is ethical or not.

He argued that it is impossible for banks to make decisions about who to lend to or not based on consequences (teleology). Take for example a weapons company such as BAE Systems. If a bank works with them then they are involved in a business whose weapons might be in the hand of the so-called Islamic State, equally they might be used to fight terrorism. And if they don’t support them then the 34,800 people emaployed by BAE in the UK might lose their jobs. Mr Elliot argued that such decisions are impossible to make.

Instead he argued that banking, at it’s most fundamental, is amoral - neither moral or immoral. Banking can either be used to do good, or it can be used to do bad. Rather like medicine or a knife, the object itself does not have any moral quality - it is how it is used: to save a life or damage oneself, to feed a family or injure someone respectively.

Of course there are many who would disagree with Mr Elliot including the Move Your Money campaign, which launched in March 2012 to encourage individuals and businesses "to move their money to more ethical and socially responsible banks". It uses ratings from the Ethical Consumer magazine to rate how ethical a bank is and advocates funding options such as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending. They would suggest that by having deontological principles that must not be compromised, it is possible for people to choose to boycott those banks that they deem to be reckless or unethical.

Mr Elliot’s talk was a very interesting insight into the workings of RBS and its fate since 2008; certainly it got the audience thinking about where moral responsibility lies and if in fact, as he argued, banking is an amoral activity.