New Christianity Characteristics: Monotheism, Ethics, and Knowledge

New Christianity Characteristics

New Christianity encompasses several key characteristics:

• Monotheism: Belief in one God.
• Creationism: The belief that God created everything from nothing.
• Timeline: Placing events within a historical context.
• Truth: Holding onto fundamental truths.
• Man: Created in God's image.

The Ethics of Epicurus

Epicurean ethics focuses on material well-being, defining good and evil based on their ability to achieve happiness. Pleasure is central to human nature, experienced as the absence of pain in both body and soul. Epicurus identifies three types of pleasure:

• Natural and necessary (e.g., food, rest)
• Natural but not necessary (seeking greater satisfaction)
• Neither natural nor necessary (e.g., wealth, honor)

To avoid pain and suffering, one must avoid false gods and the fear of death. Pleasure is accessible to everyone, and hardship is easy to bear. Happiness is found in a simple, tranquil life, renouncing excesses.

Descartes' Theory of Knowledge Compared with Augustine's

Augustine: Centers on Christ and the individual's relationship with God. Knowledge is a truth greater than ourselves, reflecting a Platonic view of the soul and its connection to the body. Innate ideas are present in our memory, and intellectual knowledge is a sample of God's presence as a teacher.

Descartes: Argues that humans can attain knowledge without error by employing a specific method and rules, including induction and deduction. His method involves:

• Evidence: Accepting only certain and indubitable truths.
• Analysis: Breaking down complex problems into simpler parts.
• Synthesis: Organizing thoughts from simple to complex.
• Enumeration: Ensuring no errors are made through thorough review.

Descartes employs methodical doubt, questioning the reliability of the senses, distinguishing between dreams and reality, and even hypothesizing the existence of an evil deceiver. He finds certainty in mathematics and arrives at his first truth: Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).

Descartes' Substance

Descartes defines substance as something that does not depend on anything else for its existence. He identifies:

• Infinite Substance: God, representing perfection.
• Res Extensa: Extended substance, the material body characterized by position and movement.
• Res Cogitans: Thinking substance, the mind or soul, encompassing emotions like love and hate.

Ideas, according to Descartes, are mental representations, categorized by origin:

• External Ideas: Derived from external sources (e.g., house, tree).
• Fictitious Ideas: Created by our imagination (e.g., centaur, mermaid).
• Innate Ideas: Ideas that are inherent (e.g., God, the self).