Religious studies have enabled people from all over the world to make various arguments regarding the relationship of God with human beings. These arguments have differed in one way or the other. The differences of these arguments are based on the rationality of the people arguing and the thinking. Before arriving at a certain conclusion regarding this relationship, ideas should be carefully evaluated and criticized to come up with the best positive outcome. However, beliefs may also play a great role in explaining the differences in the arguments made regarding the relationship of God with human beings.
Two articles that make an argument regarding the relationship of God with human beings are “I and Thou” and “Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ” The first article was written by Martin Buber while the second one was written by Friedrich Nietzche. The two artists differed in one way or the other, although there were slight similarities in their arguments. These two articles analyze the various religious concepts that relate to the relationship between human beings and supernatural powers. A close examination of both articles shows that the writers had different religion beliefs since most of their religious arguments were different. More so, the two articles consist of different interpretations that influence the arguments that are made. In addition to this, some personal opinion of both writers is used to express ideas and other forms of personal feelings towards religious concepts.
Before comparing and contrasting the two articles, it is important to learn some information regarding the writers involved. By doing this, one will be in a position to learn how their ideas changed over their lifetime. Friedrich was a philosopher who originated from Germany. According to various philosophical sources posted over the internet, he was born in the year 1844. He had wide knowledge in philosophy and this is the main reason why his major contributions were in philosophical issues that required critical thinking. In addition to this, he made wide contributions regarding religion in his country. He did this by criticizing the works of others as well as modifying the existing works of some religious leaders. He also made some contributions regarding morality.
On the other hand Martin Buber was a philosopher who had Jewish origin. He was born in the year 1878. He had wide knowledge in philosophy as well as Christianity. One notable difference from the views made by Martin and Friedrich is that those of the former had less controversy. There were many people in his country who liked his arguments due to his prompt reasoning. His arguments were consistent with what some religious leaders had pointed out in relation to religious concepts. However, his arguments also faced some criticism from other philosophical leaders who were against his views. According to him, these critics were immaterial since they were not supported with reasoning and rationality.
The writings of Martin tend to concentrate on the relationship between I-Thou and that between I-It. He argued that I-Thou was used to show the relationship between a subject and another subject. It also explained the relationship between man and God (Martin 12). According to Martin, the first attitude involves choosing the best ways of relating to individuals and God. He argued that the I-It concept showed the relationship between one subject and an object. Generally, these two concepts helped in explaining ways in which man can relate to other people as well as God. Martin argued that love is important in all kinds of relationships. Love originates from God since He is the one who integrated it in his commandments (Martin20). He also argued that the relationship between man and human beings is very useful.
Friedrich, on the other hand, focused on the arguments against certain religious practices. For instance, he was against Jewish practices. However, he seemed to support Buddhism. His ideas as to why he supports Buddhism rather than Jewish practice are supported by his critical analysis and evaluation of arguments. However, his arguments against Jewish practices stem from his view that their actions are hypocritical in nature.
Another notable difference between Martin’s “I and Thou” and Friedrich’s “Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ” is that the former supports Christianity while the latter does not. Martin argued for the practice of Christianity since it follows ways that are helpful to the society as a whole. On the other hand, Friedrich opposed Christianity by arguing that it contains procedures that are very hard to follow and implement. Martin argued that the start of Christianity was realized several years ago before Christ was born. According to him, past experience has showed that following Christianity has not been harmful to human beings at all. The actions of human beings are the ones that lead to certain consequences in the future (Martin 25). He therefore argued that Christianity controls the way a person reacts to the environment, keeping in mind the consequences that are likely to be realized at the end.
The arguments of Martin and Friedrich regarding the relationship of God with human beings are extremely different. Martin recognizes the fact that God is the one that created human beings. In addition to this, God also created the world and all the elements in it. This means that He has authority over all the things that are in the world (Martin 26). From a philosophical point of view, this seems to be realistic. Take for example, if you own an organization, you have the authority over the organization as well as all the elements in it. Similarly, God has the control over the world since He is the one who created it. According to Martin, God gave man the authority to take care over His creations. However, the freedom given by man was limited since he was not required to eat fruits from a certain tree. Doing this would lead to certain consequences that would be negative in nature. Martin therefore showed that the relationship between God and human beings started long time ago from the day man was created. When man sinned against God, the creator was annoyed and therefore gave the man the necessary consequences.
On the other hand, Friedrich recognized the fact that God had been important in the west for more thousands of years. He however makes arguments that “God is dead.” This literary means that the value of God is not clearly seen in the normal day to day activities undertaken by the people in the west (Friedrich 20). This argument has faced a lot of criticism from religious leaders since they feel that God should be accorded the necessary respect required. Friedrich therefore seemed to go against the biblical teachings that have been made in favor of the existence of God. He also argued that the death of God would affect the welfare of human beings negatively. According to him, the death of God would make an impact regarding the various perspectives made on objects and regarding the truth. He also added that people would finally end up forming their own perspectives in order to live well in the society. More so, these perspectives would come from people from diverse backgrounds and multicultural environments. Based on the various arguments he made regarding perspectives, his model was known as the concept of perspectives.
The relationship between human beings and God can also be explained by analyzing the impact of eternality in both writings. This means that the difference between the writings made by Martin and Friedrich can also be attributed to their arguments regarding eternality. Martin supported the belief that the relationship between human beings and God is eternal. According to the bible, externality is a situation where life does not end and there is constant relationship between God and man. The arguments of eternality are pegged on the belief that if Christians go to heaven, there will be eternal life where people will enjoy their lives with God (Martin 29). However, Martin pointed out that there was a condition for reaching the point of eternality. Every Christian has to abide by some rules before one finds the chance to have an eternal life in heaven. More so, eternal life for the Christians means life after death. Before death, one must have followed what God has commanded. In other words, every Christian should follow the Ten Commandments in order to reach heaven. However, failure to follow these commandments may ruin the relationship between God and human beings. Breaking the commandments of God may lead a person to hell. Hell is a place that consists of an everlasting fire that is used to punish all the people who did not follow the commandments of God.
The arguments of Martin regarding eternality tend to be different from those of Friedrich. The former argued that heaven does not exist. Friedrich also argued that those who strongly believe in God do not love their lives. He argued that the realm regarding heaven was not physical. According to him, people have not ever seen or visited heaven and therefore there is a possibility that it does not exist. From a philosophical point of view, this argument seems to be convincing in a way since there is no evidence to support the existence of heaven. However, based on the biblical teachings, Jesus Christ had gone to heaven. This acts as evidence to Christian believers that heaven exists and that the relationship between God and human beings is extended the moment one goes there.
The teachings of Jesus Christ are very important in showing the relationship between human beings and God. According to Martin, Jesus Christ acted like a mediator between God and human beings. God had sent Jesus to save the sinners in the world from their sins (Martin 30). Jesus accomplished this mission by making several teachings about God to various people. Many people benefited from this action since the sick were healed and the hungry were fed. In addition to this, Jesus, through the help of God, helped the dead to rise. This showed how God was powerful since He could make a dead person to be alive. However, this has not been easily accepted by Friedrich since such a case has not happened recently. He argued that there were no dead people that had risen from the dead during his lifetime, showing that there was no evidence to prove that. Despite this, Christians stick to their biblical teachings as their evidence since there is no other material evidence.
Although Friedrich recognized the fact that Jesus Christ was in existence during the past, he had reasons why he did not support the Christian beliefs. In his book, he argued that Jesus made a lot of teachings that are yet to be practiced by many Christians. He argued that many Christians preach what Jesus did but eventually end up not doing what has been taught. One good example that he used was the concept of judging. He recognized the fact that Jesus condemned the act of judging other people since God is the only person that should judge people (Friedrich 26). Friedrich argued that most Christians involve themselves in judging the actions and behaviors of other individuals. According to him, it is not good to listen to teachings and then do the exact opposite of what has been taught.
Martin’s arguments regarding the teachings of Jesus Christ are different from those made by the writings of Friedrich. According to Martin, God knows that people are not perfect in what they do in their day to day activities. This also means that the teachings of Jesus were not fully practiced by everyone that was taught. One reason why there is a relationship between human beings and God is to communicate with each other. Communication between man and God is made through prayers. Human beings are also aware that they are not perfect. This is the major reason why they ask for forgiveness as they pray to God. Therefore, any deviation from the teachings of Jesus is repented through prayers. In addition to this, Martin argued that human beings may sin without their knowledge. This is the reason why human beings pray regularly to ask for forgiveness of sins which have been made knowingly and unknowingly.
Friedrich also made some contributions regarding morality, which were in some ways different from what the writings of Martin had argued. Friedrich argued against morality in the west since he felt that Christianity and Jewish religions were mainly filled with slave-morality. By this he meant that Christians and Jews exercised a great deal of hypocrisy (Friedrich 32). On the other hand, Martin was for the argument that morality helped individuals in knowing the right and the wrong in the society. By knowing the right thing to do, one is able to form a good relationship with God since he will most likely follow His commandments. Martin also recognizes the fact that morality is one of the key drivers of development and civilization in the west. According to him, people should strive to achieve the positive aspects of morality like advocating for peace, love and unity in order to live well in harmony. More so, he added that people should avoid undesirable characters such as stealing, killing and abusing drugs in the society.
There are certain similarities that can be realized from the two writings. One of them is that in both articles, the authors recognize a supernatural being as well as a human being that is under the supernatural powers. In both articles, the behavior of human beings is analyzed in relation to what is required by the supernatural beings. One other thing to note is that the arguments made in both articles are philosophical in nature. Both articles have analyzed relational concepts by use of critical thinking and advanced reasoning. Both articles have also criticized the works of some other artists in one way or the other.
The other similarity between the writings of Martin and Friedrich is that both have involved the use of certain models to explain religious concepts. The death of God and Perceptiveness has been used by Friedrich in this book to explain religious concepts. Martin has also used I-Thou concept to explain concepts that are religious in nature. Another similarity between the two is that both have relied on historical information to make arguments about religious concepts. Both writings have also used the events that had occurred in the bible to make arguments of the appropriate religious beliefs to adopt.
In conclusion, the above arguments show that the opinions of people regarding religious beliefs are different. One would support the ideas of either Martin or Friedrich based on the religious group in which he/she falls. Christians will most probably prefer the arguments of Martin. This is because they clearly outline the relationship between human beings and God in accordance to the teachings made in the bible. Based on the logical reasoning and biblical teachings that are widely known in the world, Martin’s arguments seem to be more convincing than those of Friedrich writings. Despite the differences in the religious beliefs in the world, people should live together with peace and harmony as one large society. In addition to this, good moral values should be practiced since they have proved to bring positive development in various societies.
Friedrich, N. The Twilight of the Idols and the Antichrist. Saxony. Digiread.com Publishers. 2009. Print.
Martin, B. I and Thou. Jerusalem. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2004. Print.
