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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Fundamentals of Knowing God in Greek Philosophy and Divine Religion Section One: Proving God Proof of God in Greece Introduction Before entering into this discussion, we remind you of two points. First, we shall provide a general outlook over Geek culture, then present some of the similarities of opinion between the Greek and divine beliefs.

A possible general analysis of Greek civilization is to say it started with fantasies, passed through the stages of intellectualism and intuition, and culminated with religion. In the beginning, the people of Greece distilled their fantasies into legends. Later, they rationalized the various disillusioned and sceptical philosophies, and still further they turned towards mysticism, finally then accepting religion.

However, the Greek fantasies did not grow at one stroke but were preceded by the past matter. This past matter, namely, the Green fantasies, dominated the divine Fitrah (innate nature) and reflections of the past religions. Therefore the most important matter set forth in this period of fantasy is the matter of gods and divine myths. It was when the Greek fantasies started to dominate over this pure divine Fitrah that the matter of the gods was mooted. The next stage was rationalization.

The rationalization was too preceded, as was the case with previous fantasies. The fantasies were refined in the filter of rationalization. For example, in Aristotle’s eyes the gods were transformed to the “first stimulant” or the “intellect” and/or the “reasons”; in Plato, “examples” replaced the notion of the gods. Insofar as the human intellect could not find a reply to its queries in the prior fantasies, the inclinations in later periods were towards discusses of morals or scepticism.

This next stage was the inclination towards intuition (divine vision) and mysticism. In this stage, reasoning was purified in the filter of intuition. For example, in the case of the first stimulant, intellect and the separable being in Plato’s view got transformed to “the (Absolute) One”, the “Supreme being” and “indescribable peak of thought and reflection.” The negative philosophies of Plutonism were among the last endeavors of Greek Culture in theologies and gnosis.

Here the Greek civilization came to an end and the religion of Christ came into existence. Just as this stage appeared in Greece after the duration of the Jewish religion, so too it took shape in another form in the middle century.