Logos

Question 1

logos, the divine algorithm

Answer 1

conflict between science and religion

Question 2

philo of alexandria

Answer 2

• wanted to see divinity abstractly: logic running through history
• but in a way that preserved emotional satisfaction of traditional religion
• jewish heritage and greek milieu leads im to seek synthesis between biblical theology and greek philosophy

Question 3

if ultimate truth comes from yahweh..

Answer 3

… then the insights of greek philosophy must be contained within scripture

Question 4

God as a programmer

Answer 4

• idea of physically anthropomorphic and frequently inventions god sitting on a throne and prone to jealousy and rage was falling out of favor due to its arbitrariness
• a frequently interventionist god that deploys plagues, storms and bolts of fire didn’t coexist with the greek scientific worldview that sought universal explanations

Question 5

philo calls the bible’s depiction of an anthropomorphic god …

Answer 5

allegory

- god was in a sense personal, but no name or concept could be an adequate label

Question 6

to reconcile a transcendent god with an active and meaningful god, philos response was…

Answer 6

logos (to speak, reason, order)

Question 7

philos logos

Answer 7

• reasoning principle of the universe
  basic laws of physics, chemistry and biology that keep the world operating and intact
• philo believed that logos existed before creation

Question 8

Philo’s logos also contained a divine depth

Answer 8

• logos gave history a direction, moral direction

- history moved toward the good and this would eventually unify all of humanity in freedom

Question 9

philos theology

Answer 9

• first, god conceived logos in his mind
• then, upon creating the world, he “uttered” the logos, infusing matter with it. he spoke to the universe at the beginning and speaks to us now
• the logos is humankind’s point of contact with the divine
• god is beyond the material universe but there is an immanent presence and cooperation of divinity in the created world
• the job of human beings is to cooperate with the divinity

Question 10

making contact with god

Answer 10

• philo believed direct contact was possible
• first step: try to understand god’s will
• the more you understand god’s will, the closer you will become
• key was to find harmony with the logos
• philo as a jew believed that jews were privileged with an initial revelation: the logos is reflected in the torah, and the rules in the torah are part of the logos
• if the basic laws of nature were laid down by a perfect God, then we should live in accordance with them; we should help the Logos move humanity in the direction God wants humanity to move in
• greeks have access to the logos through philosophy
• anybody can achieve logos
• first, philo equates the logos with wisdom, and this is key to understanding his message, seeing how logos can serve as the path to the divine

Question 11

what direction does god want humanity to move in

Answer 11

philo sayas toward greater harmony with other people

Question 12

wisdom literature

Answer 12

• by equating logos and wisdom, philo was invoking the jewish wisdom literature
• in these books, wisdom is portrayed as a women worth pursuing
• wisdom was probably once a goddess, perhaps Yahweh’s daughter
• potential continuity between the wisdom possessed by god and the wisdom possessed by people

Question 13

the logic of biblical wisdom

Answer 13

• Jewish wisdom literature is part of a larger wisdom tradition in the ancient Middle East.
• You learn virtue by learning the wisdom of virtue, learning that virtue is in your self-interest.
• You don’t need to be a Jew or have access to the Torah to achieve wisdom; all you have to do is watch how the world works and see what kinds of behaviors bear fruit and what kinds of behavior lead to sorrow. The fruitful behaviors are more likely to reflect virtue, to embody wisdom, to converge on the Logos.

Question 14

moral wisdom

Answer 14

“For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge.”

Question 15

virtue is generally rewarded and wrongdoing usually punished

Answer 15

• wisdom literature rests largely upon a science of human behavior
• sees the social world as an extension of the natural world and both worlds are open to empirical study

Question 16

pivot point between the scientific and the theological

Answer 16

• The order at work is the Logos and it originally came from God. He set up the world so that the study of cause and effects and the preference for happy effects would steer people toward virtue.
• In this worldview, there is little difference between a scientist’s faith - faith in the orderly laws that govern the world - and religious faith.
• Therefore, coming to terms with the social order (bad behavior brings painful consequences) is coming to terms with God.
• God was so wise that he set up a world in which the rational pursuit of self-interest leads people to wisdom.
• When we navigate social reality wisely, we are following the Logos back to its source.
• Attaining wisdom entails concordance with the Logos, and the Logos, God’s Wisdom, is an extension of God; it is a dimension of the divine that can be accessed in the material world.
• Problem is that this sounds very theoretical. When we think about communion with the divine, we think of feeling special, rapturous, divine. But this sounds like, if you pay attention and behave virtuously, you’ll in some technical sense be merging with the Logos, which is a divine emanation.

Question 17

recipe for nirvana

Answer 17

• Philo: Each human mind has a twofold relationship to the Logos.
• First, the human mind is to the body as the cosmic Logos is to the reasoning principle that governs the universe.
• Second, each human mind is a part of the divine Logos.
• In that sense, you don’t have to try to achieve union with the divine, you’re born with it.

Question 18

difference between union and Union

Answer 18

• The part of the mind that is a direct extension of the Logos is the rational mind, and the rational mind is often at war with the base, animal impulses, which would distort our vision and corrupt our motivation.
• The more your rational mind dominates your base impulses, the more plugged into the divine you are.
• If you want Union, if you want to know God as intimately as possible, you need to make your link to the Logos as pure as possible. Keep your rational mind fully in charge, resisting passions and temptations. Philo: “For there are no things so utterly opposed as knowledge and pleasure of the flesh.”
• Sounds like the Buddha. “The best of virtues is passionlessness”
• For Philo, communion with God consisted of austerely ridding your mind of all its ungodly inclinations, after which you would be left with something like pure reason and pure wisdom. Your mind would then be an extension of the mind of God.

Question 19

How did the Logos prompt Philo, when the whole point of the Logos was to get rid of the need for a hands-on, interventionist God?

Answer 19

• The Logos was supposed to be less like a personal god and more like the laws of nature.
• Perhaps part of the Logos, as channeled through humans, is the inquisitive, inventive part of the rational mind, that part that continues to give us new technologies.
• Perhaps a consequence of technological evolution is to put people in win-win situations with a greater and greater variety of people.
• In these circumstances, tolerance, rather than intolerance, would generally win out.

Question 20

Reasons to be cheerfull

Answer 20

• “Love they neighbor as thyself”: The injunction to love ALL Israelites before the different tribes were forged into a single nation, as opposed to just loving others from one’s own tribe, represented real moral progress.
• The expansion of social organizations from tribal to national opened up new opportunities for all.

Question 21

The Global Logos

Answer 21

First millennium BCE:

• Hebrew Scriptures stressed loving your neighbor, treating foreigners decently.
• China/Confucius, the paramount virtue is sensitive concern for others.
• India/Buddhist scriptures say do not wish others harm, love for the entire universe.
• These moral insights are grounded pragmatically:
• Buddha: “The virtuous man is happy in this world.”
• Confucius: “The wise man is attracted to benevolence because he finds it to his own advantage.”
• Across Eurasia, from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, sages argue for expanding the circle of moral concern, and they speak in terms of enlightened self-interest: if you want peace and peace of mind, rein in your dark side and be benevolent.
• What the Logos does is create situations in which ever larger circles of moral inclusion make rational sense; the rest is up to us.

Question 22

Why was this millennium so full of these insights?

Answer 22

• Great material change: Coins, commercial roads, markets, larger cities more ethnically diverse. This brings about three things:
  1. First, expanded economic engagement meant more win-win relationships among different peoples. This encouraged interest in the welfare of others and not hating them.
  2. Second, many people found themselves in environments that they had not been designed for. Emotions of the hunter-gatherer village, vengeful anger, not suited to urban life with its laws and police.
  3. Third, as more people came into contact with more and other peoples there was an increase in the interchange of ideas.