"Cuz the perfect world begins and ends with," sings the theme song singer, "Me" (Emperor’s New Groove)! answers Emperor Kuzko as he points to his face with both index fingers. In The Emperor’s New Groove, Kuzko’s view of the meaning of the universe is apparent in the movie’s first lines. The universe revolves around whoever sits on the emperor's chair. As the story unfolds, an entire worldview is explored. The Emperor’s New Groove displays an unbiblical worldview of moral truths and classic myths.
The opening song of The Emperor’s New Groove displays the main character’s personality and nature. Emperor Kuzko is an arrogant, egocentric man. At the closing of the song, the Incan Emperor summons Pacha, the burly headman of a nearby village on the outskirts of town. Nonchalantly, he announces the he is demolishing Pacha's house for the construction of his summer home Kuzkotopia. Enraged, Pacha protests and is dismissed. Moments later, Kuzko catches his longtime advisor, the ancient, power-hungry Ezma, sitting on his throne. He callously fires her for attempting to run the kingdom. Livid, Ezma takes her naive right-hand man Kronk to her secret lair where she begins plotting the Emperor’s death to take full control of the kingdom. The wrong poison is served to Kuzko and his body transforms into a llama instead of instantly dying. Ezma commands Kronk to dispose of Kuzko. When Kronk is about to kill Kuzko, his mythical shoulder angels intervene. Accidentally, Kronk drops Kuzko onto Pacha's cart and he ends up at the top of Pacha's middle-of-nowhere village. Stranded in the jungle, his only chance to reclaim his throne rests in the hands of good-hearted Pacha. The journey back to the village with trials and tribulation change Kuzko forever...
... middle of paper ...
...around a finite man offers no meaning for history. Without absolutes, the shoulder angels set individual standards for people. This results in unpunished murderers and conflict with no law to regulate it. Sin causes suffering; but if man was born without a sinful nature, then there should be no sin. Ultimately, the only source that sufficiently answers the questions encompassing life is the book provided by the One who gives life.
Works Cited
"Dictionary.com - Free Online English Dictionary." . N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2014.
.
English Standard Version. May 16, 2014. Web. .
The Emperor's New Groove. Dir. Steven Weber. Walt Disney Home Entertainment , 2000. VHS.
"The History of Angels." Top Documentary Films RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2014. .
In the Second Essay of On the Genealogy of Morals (titled ““Guilt,” “Bad Conscience,” and the Like”), Nietzsche formulates an interesting conception of the origin and function of guilt feelings and “bad conscience.” Nietzsche’s discussion of this topic is rather sophisticated and includes sub-arguments for the ancient equivalence of the concepts of debt and guilt and the existence of an instinctive joy in cruelty in human beings, as well as a hypothesis concerning the origin of civilization, a critique of Christianity, and a comparison of Christianity to ancient Greek religion. In this essay, I will attempt to distill these arguments to their essential points.
The problem of evil arguably the most personal and haunting question in apologetics. No heart is untouched by the sting of another’s words and the ultimate display of evil, death. For some, like Elie Wiesel in his autobiography Night, the full scope of human evil is unbearably clear as they are faced with the full measure of human evil. This reality of evil often leads to two responses: “since there is evil, there cannot be a god” or “if there is a god, he cannot be loving or powerful, or worse, he enjoys evil.” By exploring the nature of evil, developing loving, Christian responses, and historical evils like the persecution of the Jews, the problem of evil and the hope depicted in scripture comes into focus.
Made in God’s image and according to his likeness, the corruption of man tainted the works of God’s hand. Athanasius described the state of man, before the incarnation of the Word, as a perishing race. He also states that because of humanity’s sinful nature, death has gained upon men and corruption lies within them putting the handiwork of God in dissolution (section 6). Man was being drawn away from God. “For it had been better for him to be made simply like a brute animal, than, once made rational, for him to live the life of the brutes (section 13).” Thesis Statement
His perception of human nature is that: 1) we are all mortal, in other words, life is formulated with birth and death is eminent for every living being. 2) Humans are rational creatures and retain humanity and therefore should aim to be moral. 2) Reason is a special faculty, unique to only human beings that connects them to some truth about their own nature and essential concepts; these concepts are universal, timeless, and changeless. Also sensation, beauty, relationships, and possession all pass and die, they do not possess permanence. The only thing that remains with you is your reason. A grave philosophical error that is a source for supreme suffering for human beings is forgetting, ignoring, or acknowledging that things die and nothing lasts
In closing of this chapter it is worthy to note that it is clear from the beginning that God existed before creation. Thirty four times the word God is paired with an action verb, clearly this chapter is about who God is and less stress is placed on the “how” of creation.
...most sought after of God’s creations created a division of class to subjugate and vilify each other, the true meaning and purpose of life and taken a tragic hit. If humans were born to destroy humans and not live in amity with each other, wasn’t this a clear indication of mankind forgetting its purpose. The solution of life as a medium of meaning and universal problems of life could propel mankind to be far superior in intellect than thought would pose an obvious question, Would man need to reassess and relook into the ways of his purpose and change himself to save his future generations from the follies of his forebears in order to achieve concord and constancy that was and is the main ingredient to keep the human race glued to each other? I feel man failed in his fight for petty power over the kindness of the human soul. In the end, it is the pen that wins.
The four fundamental claims of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Human beings exist in a relation to a triune God, God’s presence in the world is mediated through nature and reality, faith and reason are compatible, the dignity of the human being is inviolable and therefore the commitment to justice for the common good is necessary. However, the great books in the Catholic Intellectual tradition show that they represent these fundamental claims in a broad distinctive way. This essay will show that these readings better represent one of the fundamental claims, human beings exist in a relation with a triune God, from the view point of three great books from the bible, Genesis, Exodus and the Gospel of Matthew. The Bible clearly supports the
Boethius places an increased emphasis on God’s eternal goodness to prove He can neither causes nor condone wickedness, intending to provide comfort for the virtuous affected by injustice. Boethius’s belief concerning the interaction of evil and justice in the Consolation of Philosophy intends to comfort the virtuous from the seemingly wicked world. Lady Philosophy, representing reason, soothes Boethius’s initial concerns by explaining how evil, the absence of good, can never defeat justice, and that the wicked will receive their punishment when Providence sees fit. Boethius also places an increased emphasis on God’s eternal goodness to clarify the role of Providence in the natural plan of the world. Boethius advises the reader that true happiness can only be found in the stability of the self and a virtuous lifestyle.
...are confronted with the question of moral absolutes, we are forced to wonder when and to whom justice truly applies. Hopefully, we will look at our world and our ideas of right, wrong and retribution in different ways, ways that will enlighten and enrich our lives, and the those of the an audience of readers 2,000 years from now.
He argues that God will no longer favor immoral people, and force them to suffer punishment for their immoral actions during the afterlife. Although he does leave this argument eventually, it has much weight persuasively in today’s culture. Almost every modern religion places some sort of importance upon acting with morals. Most of the time, it is ordered and specified what is wrong and what is right by that religion’s God(s). This thought that God gives laws to obey is called the Divine Command Theory, and is the leading argument for why to act with morals. However, this argument, too, has several problems with its final assertion. The main issue is that in order for this argument to carry any weight whatsoever, both the giver and the receiver of the argument must have the correct type of religious belief that goes along with the argument. Since the existence of God and the possibility of afterlife are currently an ongoing debate, a nonreligious individual will not be led to agree with those arguments, nor will a religious person who does not agree with the argument’s different
Lonegran states that being human means having an unlimited number of questions regarding life and the universe; in order to answer these questions many turn to religion. Religion has traditionally been a major force in humanity’s search for meaning. Religi...
The Examined Life, The Genealogy of Morals, and Meditations on First Philosophy were written by three philosophers of very different times, Cornel West, Friedrich Nietzsche, and René Descartes respectively. The intricate language, once deciphered, holds great meaning. The three texts are quite different from one another, but if one were to look closely and decipher the odd combination of complex wording, one would find that each of the texts has one major similarity. Each text looks at a flaw of humanity. The first text, The Examined Life, views the limitations of man and man’s inability to grasp the truth as the blemish of man. Nietzsche describes what he views as man’s flaw in the following sentence: “Man harbors too much horror; the earth has been a lunatic asylum for too long.” The fault of man as described in the final text, Meditations on First Philosophy, is that the will of man far exceeds the understanding of man. Outside of this similarity in seeking out man’s flaws, there are many differences.
“I have a point to argue, which is that mankind’s quest for the good has been a struggle between humanism, on the one hand, and religious conceptions of the world, on the other hand. The latter have proved resistant in the face of efforts by the former to free not just the imagination but the very life of man from the authority of religious world views, whether in the classical epoch, the Renaissance, or the eighteenth century and since. The durability of religious views might be variously explained, but one main historical reason is that most people are naturally superstitious
The study of ethics, traditionally, consists of two parts, one concerned with moral rules, the other with what is good on its own account. Rules of conduct, many of which have a ritual origin, play a great part in the lives of savages and primitive peoples. It is forbidden to eat out of the chief's dish, or to seethe the kid in its mother's milk; it is commanded to offer sacrifices to the gods, which, at a certain stage of development, are thought most acceptable if they are human beings. Other moral rules, such as the prohibition of murder and theft, have a more obvious social utility, and survive the decay of the primitive theological systems with which they were originally associated. But as men grow more reflective there is a tendency to lay less stress on rules and more on states of mind. This comes from two sources - philosophy and mystical religion. We are all familiar with passages in the prophets and the gospels, in which purity of heart is set above meticulous observance of the Law; and St. Paul's famous praise of charity, or love, teaches the same principle. The same thing will be found in all great mystics, Christian and non-Christian: what they values is a state of mind, out of which, as they hold, right conduct must ensue; rules seem to them external, and insufficiently adaptable to circumstances.
“By one man 's disobedience, many were made sinners” (Rom. V. 5:19). First articulated by Augustine (A.D. 354–430), the doctrine of original sin holds that all of Adam’s descendants inherit the guilt of Adam’s sin and thus incur the punishment for Adam’s sin. To understand sin entirely you must first know the background of the first ever sin. Original sin can differ in the different branches of Christianity like Catholicism and Protestantism. Questions are raised more and more about original sin through the writings of theologians. Questioning sin is something that is raised throughout culture and time. A thought could be brought up years earlier and then could be proven right or right in our culture and time. This paper is to not only teach