According to the Christian father Origen, Celsus (/ˈsɛlsəs/; Greek: Κέλσος) was a 2nd-centuryGreek philosopher and opponent of Early Christianity. He is known for his literary work, The True Word (Account, Doctrine or Discourse) (Λόγος Ἀληθής), which survives exclusively in Origen's quotations from it in Contra Celsum. This work, c. 177^[1] is the earliest known comprehensive attack on Christianity.

Work[edit]

According to Origen, Celsus was the author of an anti-Christian work titled The True Word(Alēthēs logos). This work was lost, but we have Origen's account of it in his writings.^[2] It was during the reign of Philip the Arab that Origen received this work for rebuttal.^[3] Origen's refutation of The True Word contained its text, interwoven with Origen's replies. Origen's work has survived and thereby preserved Celsus' work with it.^[4]

Celsus seems to have been interested in Ancient Egyptian religion,^[5] and he seemed to know of Jewish logos-theology, both of which suggest The True Word was composed in Alexandria.^[6]Celsus wrote at a time when Christianity was being persecuted^[7] and when there seems to have been more than one emperor.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Note: Upload in idrivesynch or stramable clouds

Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera (c. 22 BC – AD 40) was a Roman soldier whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859.

A historical connection from this soldier to Jesus of Nazareth has been hypothesized by James Tabor, based on the claim of the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus, who said that Jesus was the result of an affair between his mother Mary and a soldier. He said she was "convicted of adultery and had a child by a certain soldier named Panthera".^[1] Tiberius Pantera could have been serving in the region at the time of Jesus's conception.^[1] The hypothesis is considered extremely unlikely by mainstream scholars, given that there is no evidence to support it.^[2][3] Historically, the name Pantera is not unusual and was in use among Roman soldiers.^[4][2]

The tombstone in Germany[edit]

The 19th-century discovery[edit]

The Roman tombstones in Bingerbrück, Germany, as illustrated when published. Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera's is on the left

In October 1859, during the construction of a railroad in Bingerbrück in Germany, tombstones for nine Roman soldiers were accidentally discovered.^[2] One of the tombstones was that of Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera and is presently kept in theRömerhalle museum in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.^[5]

The inscription (CIL XIII 7514) on the tombstone of Abdes Pantera reads:^[2][6][7]

Tib(erius) Iul(ius) Abdes Pantera Sidonia ann(orum) LXII stipen(diorum) XXXX miles exs(ignifer?) coh(orte) I sagittariorum h(ic) s(itus) e(st)

Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera from Sidon, aged 62 years served 40 years, former standard bearer(?) of the first cohort of archers lies here

A teleology is any philosophical account that holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that — analogous to purposes found in human actions — nature inherently tends toward definite ends.

Teleology was explored by Plato and Aristotle, by Saint Anselm during the 11th century AD, in the late 18th century by Immanuel Kant as a regulative principle in his Critique of Judgment and by Carl Jung. It was fundamental to the speculative philosophy of Hegel.

A thing, process, or action is teleological when it is for the sake of an end, i.e., a telos or final cause [fourth cause of Aristotol]. In general, it may be said that there are two types of final causes, which may be called intrinsic finality and extrinsic finality.^[1]

• A thing or action has an extrinsic finality when it is for the sake of something external to itself. In a way, people exhibit extrinsic finality when they seek the happiness of a child. If the external thing had not existed that action would not display finality.

• A thing or action has an intrinsic finality when it is for none other than its own sake. For example, one might try to be happy simply for the sake of being happy, and not for the sake of anything outside of that.

Since the Novum Organum of Francis Bacon, teleological explanations in science tend to be deliberately avoided because whether they are true or false is argued to be beyond the ability of human perception and understanding to judge.^[2] Some disciplines, in particular within evolutionary biology, continue to use language that appears teleological when they describe natural tendencies towards certain end conditions. While some argue that these arguments can be rephrased in non-teleological forms, others hold that teleological language is inexpungable from descriptions in the life sciences.

Apophatic theology (from Ancient Greek: ἀπόφασις, from ἀπόφημι – apophēmi, "to deny")—also known as negative theology, via negativa or via negationis^[1] (Latin for "negative way" or "by way of denial")—is a theology that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God.^[2] It stands in contrast with cataphatic theology.

A startling example can be found with theologian John Scotus Erigena (9th century): "We do not know what God is. God Himself does not know what He is because He is not anything. Literally God is not, because He transcends being."

In brief, negative theology is an attempt to clarify religious experience and language about the Divine Good through discernment, gaining knowledge of what God is not (apophasis), rather than by describing what God is.The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of mysticism, which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion or the conditioned role-playing and learned defensive behavior of the outer man.

The phrase unanswered questions or undeclared questions (Avyakrta in Sanskrit - "unfathomable, unexpounded"^[1]), in Buddhism, refers to a set of common philosophical questions that Buddha refused to answer, according to Buddhist texts. Pali texts give only ten.

-----------------

Actually just 2

Time and /Or Space Infinite or Limited?

Body less Soul/Life after Death exist?

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Pali Canon[edit]

Majjhima Nikaya 63 & 72 in the Pali canon contain a list of ten unanswered questions about certain views (ditthi):

1. The world is eternal.
2. The world is not eternal.
3. The world is (spatially) infinite.
4. The world is not (spatially) infinite.
5. The soul (jiva) is identical with the body.
6. The soul is not identical with the body.
7. The Tathagata (a perfectly enlightened being) exists after death.
8. The Tathagata does not exist after death.
9. The Tathagata both exists and does not exist after death.
10. The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death.

philosophy and religion are fundamentally one and the same

Eriugena believed that all people and all beings, including animals, reflect attributes of God, towards whom all are capable of progressing and to which all things ultimately must return

At the request of the Byzantineemperor Michael III (ca. 858), Eriugena undertook some translation into Latin of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius and added his own commentary

Eriugena's great work, De divisione naturae (Περί φύσεων), which was condemned by a council at Sens byHonorius III (1225), who described it as "swarming with worms of hereticalperversity,"

Nature (Natura in Latin or physis in Greek) is the name of the most comprehensive of all unities, that which contains within itself the most primary division of all things, that which is (being) and that which is not (nonbeing). The Latin title refers to these four divisions of nature: (1) that which creates and is not created; (2) that which is created and creates; (3) that which is created and does not create; (4) that which is neither created nor creates. The first is God as the ground or origin of all things, the last is God as the final end or goal of all things, that into which the world of created things ultimately returns. The second and third together compose the created universe, which is the manifestation of God, God in process,Theophania; the second is the world of Platonic ideas or forms, and the third is a more pantheistic world, depending on the interference of God. Thus we distinguish in the divine system beginning, middle and end; but these three are in essence one; the difference is only the consequence of our finite comprehension. We are compelled to envisage this eternal process under the form of time, to apply temporal distinctions to that which is extra- or supra-temporal. It is in turn through our experience that the incomprehensible divine is able to frame an understanding of itself.

The Division of Nature has been called the final achievement of ancient philosophy, a work which "synthesizes the philosophical accomplishments of fifteen centuries." It is presented, like Alcuin's book, as a dialogue between Master and Pupil. Eriugena anticipatesThomas Aquinas, who said that one cannot know and believe a thing at the same time. Eriugena explains that reason is necessary to understand and interpret revelation. "Authority is the source of knowledge, but the reason of mankind is the norm by which all authority is judged

For Eriugena, philosophy or reason is first, primitive; authority or religion is secondary, derived.

His influence was greater with mysticsthan with logicians, but he was responsible for a revival of philosophical thought which had remained largely dormant in western Europe after the death of Boethius.

Leszek Kołakowski, a Polish Marx scholar, has mentioned Eriugena as one of the primary influences on Hegel's, and therefore Marx's, dialectical form. In particular, he calledDe Divisione Naturae a prototype of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.^[9]

Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī (Persian: محمد زکریای رازی‎ Mohammad-e Zakariā-ye Rāzi, also known by hisLatinized name Rhazes or Rasis) (854 CE – 925 CE), was a Persian ^[3][4] polymath, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher and important figure in the history of medicine and as the discoverer of alcohol and vitriol (sulfuric acid) is well known.^[5][6]

Being endowed by nature with a comprehensive mind, Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to various fields of science, which he recorded in over 200 manuscripts, and is particularly remembered for numerous advances in medicine through own observations and discoveries.^[7] An early proponent ofexperimental medicine, he became a successful doctor; was appointed a court physician, and served as chief physician of Baghdad and Rey hospitals.^[2][8] He was among the first to use Humoralism to distinguish one contagious disease from another and has been described as doctor's doctor,^[9] the father of pediatrics,^[10] and a pioneer of ophthalmology.

As a practicing physician, Razi wrote a pioneering book about smallpox and measles providing clinical characterization of the diseases.^[11] Through translation, his medical works and ideas became known among medieval European practitioners and profoundly influenced medical education in the Latin West.^[2] Some volumes of his work Al-Mansuri, namely "On Surgery" and "A General Book on Therapy", became part of the medical curriculum in Western universities.^[2] As a teacher of medicine, he attracted students of all backgrounds and interests and was said to be compassionate and devoted to the service of his patients, whether rich or poor.^[12] Edward Granville Browne considers him as "probably the greatest and most original of all the physicians, and one of the most prolific as an author.^[13]

Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (Arabic: أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي‎, Latin:Alkindus) (c. 801–873 CE), known as "the Philosopher of the Arabs", was an Iraqi Muslim Arab philosopher,mathematician, physician, and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers, and is unanimously hailed as the "father of Islamic or Arabic philosophy"^[2][3][4] for his synthesis, adaptation and promotion of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy in the Muslim world.^[5]

Al-Kindi was a descendant of the Kinda tribe. He was born and educated in Basra,^[6] before going to pursue further studies in Baghdad. Al-Kindi became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number ofAbbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into theArabic language. This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Greek philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on his intellectual development, and led him to write hundreds of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects ranging from metaphysics, ethics, logic and psychology, tomedicine, pharmacology,^[7] mathematics, astronomy, astrology and optics, and further afield to more practical topics like perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes, zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and earthquakes.^[8][9]

In the field of mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic andChristian world.^[10] He was a pioneer in cryptanalysis and devised several new methods of breaking ciphers.^[11]Using his mathematical and medical expertise, he was able to develop a scale that would allow doctors to quantify the potency of their medication.^[12]

Al-Farabi (Persian: ابونصر محمد بن محمد فارابی‎ Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Fārābī;^[1] for other recorded variants of his name see below) known in the West as Alpharabius^[5] (c. 872^[2] in Fārāb^[3] – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951 in Damascus),^[3] was a renowned scientist and philosopher of theIslamic Golden Age. He was also a cosmologist, logician, and musician.

Through his commentaries and treatises, Al-Farabi became well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals as "The Second Teacher", that is, the successor to Aristotle, "The First Teacher".

The Birth of Venus By Botticelli. Considered to be one of the Greatest Paintings Ever. Art Education See our educational essays: Art Evaluation: How to Appreciate Art and also: How to Appreciate Paintings. Contents • Description • Interpretation/Meaning of Birth of Venus • Further Resources Description Artist: Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) Medium: Tempera on canvas Genre: Allegorical history painting Movement: Early Renaissance Location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence. For other important pictures, see: Fa Analysis and Interpretation A masterpiece of the Florence Renaissance, and the first non-religious nude since classical antiquity, The Birth of Venus (Nascita di Venere) belongs to the group of mythological pictures painted by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) in the 1480s, following his return from Rome after completing three fresco paintings in the Sistine Chapel for Pope Sixtus IV. The other mythological works include Pallas and the Centaur (c.1482, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), Venus and Mars (1483, National Gallery, London), and La Primavera (1484-6, Uffizi). Like these works, The Birth of Venus (1484-86) remains one of the profound treasures of the Early Renaissance. The work, painted with tempera on canvas, depicts the female nude figure of the goddess Venus standing on dry land having emerged from the sea. It was commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-92) of the Medici Family, whose quattrocento humanist circle was particularly interested in classical mythology, and marks the culmination of the revival of ancient myths, within the context of a humanistic Renaissance art. A perfect example of the type of picture targeted by the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola, in his virulent 4-year campaign against profanity and frivolity (1494-8), the painting miraculously survived the monk's "bonfire of the vanities" in 1497. This, despite its obviously pagan narrative and the fact it contained one of the first full length female nudes since the classical era. This good fortune enables us to enjoy one of the greatest Renaissance paintings by one of the most stylish of early Renaissance artists.   Venus According to the classical poet Hesiod, Venus was conceived when Chronus castrated his father, the God Uranus, whose severed organs fertilized the sea.

1. Sun -------The light

2. Venus --------The light Bringer, consort of the Sun, the Isis, Beauty, Sophia, Wisdom, Knowledge, Love/Sex

3. Earth---------

Completes the Pythagorean Triangle

According to Pythagoras, the position of each body in the universe was determined by the essential dignity of that body. The popular concept of his day was that the earth occupied the center of the solar system; that the planets, including the sun and moon, moved about the earth; and that the earth itself was flat and square. Contrary to this concept, and regardless of criticism, Pythagoras declared that fire was the most important of all the elements; that the center was the most important part of every body; and that, just as Vesta's fire was in the midst of every home, so in the midst of the universe was a flaming sphere of celestial radiance. This central globe he called the Tower of Jupiter, the Globe of Unity, theGrand Monad, and the Altar of Vesta. As the sacred number 10 symbolized the sum of all parts and the completeness of all things, it was only natural for Pythagoras to divide the universe into ten spheres, symbolized by ten concentric circles. These circles began at the center with the globe of Divine Fire; then came the seven planers, the earth, and another mysterious planet, called Antichthon, which was never visible.
Opinions differ as to the nature of Antichthon. Clement of Alexandria believed that it represented the mass of the heavens; others held the opinion that it was the moon. More probably it was the mysterious eighth sphere of the ancients, the dark planet which moved in the same orbit as the earth but which was always concealed from the earth by the body of the sun, being in exact opposition to the earth at all times. Is this the mysterious Lilith concerning which astrologers have speculated so long?
Isaac Myer has stated: "The Pythagoreans held that each star was a world having its own atmosphere, with an immense extent surrounding it, of aether." (See The Qabbalah.) The disciples of Pythagoras also highly revered the planet Venus, because it was the only planet bright enough to cast a shadow. As the morning star, Venus is visible before sunrise, and as the evening star it shines forth immediately after sunset. Because of these qualities, a number of names have been given to it by the ancients. Being visible in the sky at sunset, it was called vesper, and as it arose before the sun, it was called the false light, the star of the morning, or Lucifer, which means the light-bearer. Because of this relation to the sun, the planet was also referred to as Venus, Astarte, Aphrodite, Isis, and The Mother of the Gods. It is possible that: at some seasons of the year in certain latitudes the fact that Venus was a crescent could be detected without the aid of a telescope. This would account for the crescent which is often seen in connection with the goddesses of antiquity, the stories of which do not agree with the phases of the moon. The accurate knowledge which Pythagoras possessed concerning astronomy he undoubtedly secured in the Egyptian temples, for their priests understood the true relationship of the heavenly bodies many thousands of years before that knowledge was revealed to the uninitiated world. The fact that the knowledge he acquired in the temples enabled him to make assertions requiring two thousand years to check proves why Plato and Aristotle so highly esteemed the profundity of the ancient Mysteries. In the midst of comparative scientific ignorance, and without the aid of any modern instruments, the priest-philosophers had discovered the true fundamentals of universal dynamics.

The swastika has recently come to be mostly associated with Nazism; before, the swastika symbol used to mean "good luck". This Iranian necklace was dug up from Gilan, Iran, first millennium BC, National Museum of Iran. The original Indo-Iranianmeaning of good luck, good fortune or well being is linked to it.

Aryan is the name that an ancient people of Europe, Iran (Greater Iran) and India called themselves. Descendants of the Aryans include speakers of Sanskrit and Avestan which are related to the Indo-European languages. About three thousand and five hundred years ago, both Iranians and Indians used the name Aryan to mean their shared ancestors, as well as "nobles."

The Avestan name Airiianəm vaēǰō "Aryan expanse", is a reference in the Zoroastrian Avesta (Vendidad, Fargard 1) to the Aryans’ mother country and one of Ahura Mazda's "sixteen perfect lands".^[1] Other Avestan names areairyō.šayana, the “Aryan people”, and airyā daiŋˊhāvā “the Aryan lands”.^[2] These names were known to old Greek writers as Ariana.^[3] Also the Sanskrit name Āryāvarta "abode of the Aryans", was a region in north of today'sIndia.^[4] The Middle Persian name of the Sassanian Empire, an empire that ruled Persia from the 3rd century to the 7th century, was Eran-shar meaning the Aryan Empire. ^[5] Today, the name Iran is simply the Persian word forAryan.