Talk:Genesis

Hillsdale College

Man was created to be free.

To be free is to be freed not only from the lies of the world but to tap into the very life of the source of truth itself. In the universe we find the patterns of the Creator but the creation of the Creator is merely a reflection of His existence. It is not the Creator Himself.

We may approach the truth but we are not the Truth We all have opinions but the Creators opinion is the Truth. The universe is a manifestation of that Truth. Science the study of the universe.

To study the of Only an individual may embrace the truth, the person must seek and embrace truth. The study of Genesis, as undertaken at Hillsdale, helps us to understand the truth about our relationship to God and to others.

Aristotle says nothing is in the soul that does not come through the senses.

• Is that true?
• Does revelation come through the senses?
  • If it comes from God, the unmoved mover, then the answer is no.
  • Although, revelation comes from the unmoved mover, the creator, it may be assumed that the revelation I receive can only come to you through the senses.

Roman idea of the individual includes personhood. Personhood is at least the quality or condition of being a person. A person as opposed to an individual is a member.

Genesis speaks of an the unmoved mover setting the universe in motion with his breath.

The relationship between God and man on an individual bases and the relationship of man with God through man's relationship with the rest of creation.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

"no man was ever created free and no two men [were] ever created equal"... "The comity of peoples in groups large or small rests not upon this chemerical notion of equality but upon fraternity, a concept which long antedates it in history because it goes immeasurably deeper in human sentiment. The ancient feeling of brotherhood carries obligations of which equality knows nothing. It calls for respect and protection, for brotherhood is status in family, and family is by nature hierarchical."Richard M. Weaver Ideas Have Consequences (1948),41-42. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. ISBN 0-226-87678-0

"This means nothing less than that he will be forced to be free; for this is the condition which, by giving each citizen to his country, secures him against all personal dependence." Jean Jacques Rousseau, Book 1, Section 7 of the Social Contract.

"In order then that the social compact may not be an empty formula, it tacitly includes the undertaking, which alone can give force to the rest, that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body." Jean Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau is suggesting that a Social Contract, binds all individuals as persons with certain duties and obligations. Within those bonds there is freedom. The majority, through the power vested in the State, will force the individual person to abide by the common compact in the form of laws established in a legal system. In other words the individual person will "be forced to be free" within the bonds of the State to which he is a member.

Rousseau was of he opinion that "In this lies the key to the working of the political machine... without it, would be absurd, tyrannical, and liable to the most frightful abuses."