Man Vs. God Essay, Research Paper

God is the center and focus of religious faith, an ethereal being or ultimate reality, to whom worship and prayer are addressed. God is considered the creator or source of everything that exists and is spoken of in terms of perfect attributes for instance, infinitude, immutability, eternity, goodness, knowledge, and power. Most religions traditionally ascribe to God certain human characteristics that can be understood either literally or metaphorically such as will, love, anger, and forgiveness.

Man proposes

God Disposes

This quote can be interpreted in many different ways and is up to the reader to decide for himself what it means. For example an atheist view compared to a religious person s view could be completely dissimilar. Their views are derived from their backgrounds, opinions and religion. Human beings have been dowered with the mannerism of determination since we have been put on the face of the earth. Many believe that God, the creator, has given them this impulse as special gift.

The word dispose has three meanings: 1) to place or set in a particular order; arrange. 2) to put into correct, definitive, or conclusive form. 3) To put into a willing or receptive frame of mind.

I believe that this quote has one main meaning; man acts in freewill but god actually decides his faith. Our destiny chosen is impossible to foresee. One thing however is set: everyone faces death sooner or later. Religion plays a large element in this interpretation. According to God, this is the Greatest Choice in Life:

John has been demonstrating that Jesus is true Son of God. Jesus sets before us the greatest choice in life. We are responsible to decide today whom we will obey (Joshua 24:15) and God wants us to choose him and life (Deuteronomy 30:11-20). The wrath of God is God s final judgment and rejection of the sinner. To put off the choice is to choose not to follow Christ. Indecision can be a fatal decision.

To partake in this choice you must be born again. This means that you are given new spiritual life through Christ; to become a child of God.

It always is a difficult question: What is God s will for me when I must make a decision? If one could hear God s voice from Heaven, there would be no problem. But that is not the form in which god speaks to his people. They can hear his voice in other ways, such as the words of the Bible, the sermon of preachers, and the actions of Christian people.

Some people believe that religion was created by the upper class to keep rule. The principle points of Christianity are a set of basic ethical rules. Society also limits what a single person can or cannot do by the creation of Civil Laws. What else limits our choice in life? Our background. Choose your parents well .

In the book Duddy Kravitz s self-determination is one major theme. Duddy sets out and goes after land. Was this Duddy s decision or did his grandfather, Simca, make this decision for him? He spends much of his life determined to tackle the quote, A man without land, is a nobody . For Duddy this was a proposal he modeled his life by. He eventually acquires the land but in the process of doing so he demoralizes his soul and looses many virtues. This is reflected in the statement God Disposes . This can be related to Wordsworth s poem, The World is Too Much with Us.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waster our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

These lines can be directly related to Duddy. Getting and spending can be associated with Duddy s desire for land and money. Wordsworth explains how striving for theses values is wasting our powers , implicating that we could use our time more wisely and put it towards better causes. William Wordsworth is known for his great love and appreciation of nature. In the line Little we see in Nature is ours he creates a sense that people in their busy lives getting and spending do not take the time to appreciate all the beauty around them in nature. Wordsworth suggests that the human race is wasting their ability in looking for satisfaction solely in material goods. The last line We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! can be compared to Duddy because he has lost all his morals and virtues in the process of getting and spending . In the end God has withdrawn Duddy s humanity.

Ask yourself the question, what is life all about? Is it where we go, or what we have? Who or what determines our faith? Is it who we know, or is it what we share? Is life full of meaning, or do we really care? William Wordsworth tells us in his poem that we are wasting our powers getting and spending. He notes that we are not in tune (on track), and not working towards something useful. We lose touch with nature and are far away from the harmony with her. We are no longer touched by all the miracles created by nature. Instead we are like sleeping flowers and we have given our hearts away.

Duddy has few fine qualities. One includes the ability to make people have strong emotions about him. This was clearly evident between Duddy and his girlfriend and also the staff around the hotel. He is able to get on their good side by being very generous. For example he gives the head chef a bottle of good wine. However, Duddy never goes about doing something that in the end does not benefit him. By being generous to the chef he is served faster, therefore more tips. He also benefits from other skills such as handling situations well, and being very apt at manipulating people.

There is no doubt that Duddy is very shrewd and clever, but his lack of moral principle leads to his final failure. In fact his immorality can be traced back to a very young age. During his study in the parochial school he already earned money though methods that hardly comply to virtues of any kind. Taking advantage of the fact that minors cannot be sued in Canada, Duddy defrauded stamp companies and sold stolen hockey sticks. Perhaps he cannot distinguish right from wrong, perhaps he does not care, but nonetheless it is not proper for him to engage himself into theses kinds of activities.

Is Faith a gift? Yes, it is a gift, a sheer gift, bestowed on us out of God s lavishness, and not out of any implicit contract in the covenant of creation. Faith is a dynamic gift, too, which means that it is both freely given and freely received. In addition it is a fruitful gift to such an extent that once we have it, we must never look on it as something which is our due, and ours to keep. We must freely give what we have freely received.