Introduction to Philosophy

Today the quiz question was have you ever been Saved? And what do you mean by that? We started the class off talking about Plotinus and how Neoplatonism was different than Platonism. I made references to meditation that enables a person to become one with the universe - including Dr Newberg and to the Golden Ratio and in general how his philosophy closed the gap between the material world and the ideal world by arguing that the material world has a direct connection to the ideal world. I then prefaced my discussion of Augustine by briefly pointing out highlights of the Jewish scripture and the Christian scripture. We discussed the Nicene Council and the one iota of difference, so to speak, in the Credo. Then looking at Augustine we read his conversion and his view of time from the text. I argued that his solution to merging a very violent anthropomorphic God in the Hebrew Scripture with a Platonic conception of the Good was resolved by his pointing out our finite secular limitations do not enable us to see God as God truly is but only through the historical interpretations we have moment by moment, while God must be beyond our understanding and still be eternal, all powerful, all good, etc. I also discussed the nature of Augustine's interpretation of the Fall and how the knowledge of good and evil always go together.