All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I
have not seen.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
In order to more fully understand this quote, it is important
to know some background about Emerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the
founders of the transcendentalist movement; this is a concept that emphasizes
the importance of nature instead of society. It also values self reliance and
civil disobedience if one does not approve of the government (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/).
For more information about transcendentalism see this video:
Emerson studied at Harvard and was a
minister. He spoke out against slavery, the annexation of Texas, and the large
gap between the upper class and lower class in England. He wrote many
philosophical papers, and he was a very engaging speaker, even if people
sometimes didn’t understand the intricacies of his ideas (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/). Emerson was a unitarian. Unitarians believe
that Jesus and God are one and the same; they do not believe in the Divine
Trinity. Unitarians encourage their members to discover on their own the
specifics of what they belief. It is a very broad religion (http://www-distance.syr.edu/sammaybelieve.html).
His quote can be applied to the debate over evolution and
creationism. Some of the main questions today are: Should creationism also be
taught in schools? and Does one disprove the other?
Whether or not there is a god, the belief gives people hope.
When a relative dies, we think they’re in a better place. When we have a bad
year, we know things will get better because God won’t let anything too bad
happen to us. If we get to the end of our lives and there really is no God,
then we haven’t lost anything because we would have lived our lives the best we
can. We won’t be disappointed that there’s
no God because we’ll just be unconscious in the ground.
People justify the unknown based on God’s creations: the
flowers, oceans, children, Egyptian pyramids, Great Wall of China, the Grand
Canyon, the planets, and the stars. These are all things that could not have
been made by man. Rather, they are things that preceded the skill ability of
the people of the time. They believe that these things could not have been made
without God. Things that they can’t explain: gravity, death, really sick people
that are healed, losing a job, finding a lost child, and winning a war against
the odds are explained by the grace of God. These things have no other
explanations, so logically what makes the flowers and the stars must have healed the sick people because it is bigger than man. It doesn’t hurt for people to believe in
God instead of evolution, even though there is no proof of God.
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