Logos

and recreation. It was this idea derived largely from creativity and reason. The priesthoods acted ruthlesslythe Timaeus, and not from the eclectic variety of to destroy even the perception among the masses thatsources to which overstuffed Oxford and Cambridge reason and creativity exist, and where that failed, theyscholars attribute Philo's work that united all of sought to mystify the process and make it magicalPhilo's work. In the key volumes devoted to creation and fearful.in Philo, he sought to link the Timaeus with the Old The leading agent used to accomplish the goal ofTestament Genesis, the standard Jewish account of the the priesthood was Aristotle.world's beginning, in an attempt to harmonize the The god of Aristotle engineered as a constructtwo. Philo's pen gave new life, as we shall shortly see, in direct opposition to the Creator God of Plato'sto the account of Moses; for Philo implanted the Timaeus--was the parent god of the various cults andconcept of the Iogosas the driving force behind God's mystery religions that swallowed Rome in the periodcreation of the world, leading up to the first century. Relying on senseFrom the start, Philo's epistemology was designed perception rather than reason as the primary generativeforce behind knowledge,the pseudo-philosopherAristotle's view was that newknowledge could never becreated, but, instead, mancould only discover, categorize,and classify that whichexisted; for Aristotle, memorythe ability to hold inone's head all the mass of datacollected was the equivalentof intelligence! Aristotle's godreflected this notion, just asknowledge could not be created,or synthesized by themind, so the universe is notthe creation of God. For Aristotle,God is merely the "FirstCause," the objective ("outside")force that, eons ago, setthe universe into motion andthen stepped back, havingChrist Driving the Moneychangersfrom the Temple nothing more to do with theevolution of the cosmos? _to solve a problem of pedagogy that was first ad- In the Aristotelian view, God is forever distanceddressed in the Timaeus, four centuries earlier. In that from the universe and from mankind. Aristotle's god,work, Plato posed the following problem: in his the "unmoved mover," is self-contemplation, withdiscussion of the Creator God of Reason, Plato states the quintessence of remoteness, Aristotle's god existsrather bluntly that this concept is "very difficult to in eternity as a Mind engaged in contemplating itself:find, and, once it is discovered, impossible to explain thought "thinking itself." But this thought is a closedto everybody. ''23Philo rejected the idea that concepts circle. Aristotle has removed any hint of real creativeof such sublime majesty must remain the possession of energy.only a small elite; instead, he sought a method to Aristotle's god is self-absorbed, and does notcommunicate them to everyone. With that decision, ponder the fate of anyone or anything outside itself.in fact, humanist religion was born. For the god of Aristotle, communion with a humanOf course the ability of the population to grasp soul is unthinkable, impossible. In fact, Aristotle doesthe concept of reason was and is a learned skill, and not provide any clue concerning the relationshipthe difficulties are formidable. But the cult priesthoods between God the Absolute Being and the finiteand the oligarchy rdid not allow the normal peda- world. It is hardly an inspiring concept. In the aptgogical difficulties to stand alone. Ever since the time words of James Drummond, in his Philo Judaeus,of Plato and even before, the cults strenuously sought Aristotle's god is a "lonely and self-centered contosuppress and deliberately obscure the concept of sciousness toward which the world and man may34 August 1980 / CAMPAIGNER