Among the different readings from the assignment, one word stood out among the rest: chaos. Whether it was a capitalized noun in Paradise Lost or simply a descriptive way of talking about the state of the universe before creation, the word was repeatedly used. The idea of chaos and disorder seemed to be the inevitable state the world will always be in. In both of the time periods where the world was literally non-existent and when there was thriving civilizations, chaos ensued. I believe that the readings were trying to talk about the persistence of evil. Even after humanity has been established and may have once been wholesome, a sense of chaos and deceit will sneak in.
All of the similarities between three different creation stories struck me when I was reading. Ancient Rome, Christianity, and a more grounded, scientific story all had overlapping themes that cannot be ignored. In the beginning of each story, they spoke of absolute emptiness being the status of the universe. From there, the world was created with the planet we live on being shaped and morphed into what we more or less know today. While humanity lived in harmony in the beginning, evil snuck in and had to be wiped out. How was it that three different stories from different time periods all had such overlapping ideas? The storylines show the similarities all religions and cultures have with each other even though people tend to think they are all different. The only main difference to me was in the Lucretius text. Speaking of atoms and particles, he seemed to speak in a more scientific tone than the theological approach to the others. Going forward in the remainder of the semester and into next year, I feel that we will be looking deeply into humanity and human nature. The essence of how we act as a culture seems to be a main idea, and I believe that we will look at it in relation to the texts. Paradise lost was confusing to me, but I feel that the idea of Satan is a concept to illustrate the workings of good and evil in our world. Diving deeper, I believe that the text probably will uncover lots of interesting points about how people act under different circumstances across history.
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March 2020
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