Breakfast with Dave (2 of 5)

Original Post Date:  November 29, 2010


Yesterday we considered how the Greeks saw the experience of human life, not as a time-line but as an arc built into the larger circle of life.

This segment was determined by Fate. Fate decided the span of a man’s life and all that transpired within that span.

A man is not to attempt to move beyond the boundaries appointed to him by the gods, nor to alter what had been allotted to him in life.

The Hindu caste system is a representation of this closed, fatalistic philosophy. There are four castes within Hinduism:

The Brahmin, the merchant, the military and the Dalit class (The lowest of all)

The Dalit’s lot is already decided for them by the god’s (who ever they may be). To seek to move beyond that allotment in life would be to incur their anger. Also it would incur the anger of the superior castes. If a Dalit is a street sweeper he will always be a street sweeper. He must accept his designation supinely, without resentment and without aspiring to be a member of a higher caste.

His only hope of betterment would be to return to earth through re-incarnation to a higher class. But there is no rising above his present, predetermined lot in THIS life.

Tomorrow we will be considering how the Christian Gospel challenges this model of fatalism with a message that promises immediate and continuous upward change. Change brought about by a man’s joyful conjunction with God’s purposes while on earth