The classical philosopher Cicero once said that the main purpose of philosophy is to teach us to face death as the unknown creates fear, unsatisfied desires, sorrow and a huge void. In this way, theoretical philosophical approaches seek to free people from these things and provide ways to care for their souls. In other words, “philosophy allows and requires people to be their own spiritual doctors.” French philosopher Luc Ferry commented that he did not believe Cicero’s definition of philosophy could be improved.
He also said, “Philosophy is not done to entertain oneself, nor is it done to better understand the world, but sometimes literally to ‘protect oneself’. To live well, he says, you must learn to overcome your “fear of things.” “Face of Death”, and “Boring, the Feeling of Running Out of Time”. Perhaps the scariest reality we have to face is the inevitable separation from everyone we love. Ferry asks: What do we want more than anything? To be understood and loved, not alone, and above all, not to die, not to let the ones we love die.
Ferry makes it clear that many of today’s secular people, like the ancient Epicurean and Stoic thinkers, argue that death should not be explained any further. They point out that it is simply the “end of life”. When you die, you just don’t exist and you don’t know anything, so you can’t worry about it. If so, why… bother with such a pointless problem? Ferry says. Ferry countered that this reasoning was “too cruel to be honest.” What gives your life the most meaning? Are your relationships with the people you love not?
Can you honestly say that you are not afraid of a future state that will strip you of everything you currently hold dear? Think not? But the loss of what gives life meaning begins even before we die. “The irreversibility of things is a kind of death in life.” These answers make sense if the question has no answer, according to logical reasoning, but since time immemorial humans have sought solutions to death. Remember what you were looking for?
But they looked for answers in the wrong places and the theories on which they rested their hopes. The Apostle Paul, who had to lecture at the Areopagus in Athens before the Epicureans and Stoics, the most notorious philosophers and intellectuals of his time, is told in the 17th chapter of Acts. But the apostle did not hesitate to speak of eternal life. About the resurrection of the dead through a sacrifice offered once and for all by our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, that mankind might be saved by him.
Paul praises the spiritual sensitivity of the Athenians: For, as I was looking past your sanctuary, I also found an altar with the inscription “To the Unknown God.” Therefore the one whom you adore without knowing him is the one I declare to you. ” Paul appeals to what the Apostolic Fathers called the echoes and manifestations of the Logos fully revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, using this setting and philosophy, Paul decided to build on the principles that already existed in Athens and bring the argument to eternal life only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the same time, Paul did not approve of the Athenian way of life. Standing beneath the most impressive temple of the ancient world, the Parthenon, which houses a colossal sculpture of the goddess Athena, Paul declares: They do not live in man-made temples, nor are they worshiped by man as if they need anything. “For he is the one who gives all life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24-25). Let me be clear that no. A door from your heart to freely give you eternal life.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
