Even among the ancients, I see a degree of evolution in the 
perception of underlying reality and the nature of God.  In 
some repects, it reminds me of the constant morphing of the 
Deity by Hindu scripture.  In any one author, of which we 
still have a fair collection of work, I see these changes 
over time.  I don't see any council of Nicea trying to nail 
down a definition for all men for all time. 
 
The idea that God is immortal, did not necessarily include 
the idea that he created the universe, just that he was in 
it before we were, and would be here long after we were all 
gone. 
 
Among the philosophers, I do not see the idea that we are 
all here to fulfill some plan of God's, but that since we 
do find ourselves here, we would do well to do good. 
 
These assumptions are so deeply embedded in Christian and 
Hebrew cosmology, that as a member of this culture, it had 
never even occurred to me to raise the question. I have to 
give credit to Neitzsche and Campbell to make me aware of 
the fact that these assumptions were not classic Aryan. 
___ 
 * OFFLINE 1.58 
--- Maximus 3.01
---------------