1. Pope describes the purpose of his poem as “to vindicate the ways of God to man.” What do you think he means by this?
2. Choose one metaphor that Pope uses to describe the universe and explain its significance.
3. What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
4. According to Pope, what place do human beings have in the universe in relation to other creatures?
Pope describes the purpose of his poem as “to vindicate the ways of God to man.” What do you think he means by this?
I think Pope describes the purpose of his poem as ” to indicate the ways of God to man” is to justify his belief that there is a strong connection between human beings and the whole universe as well as society. Throughout the poem, Pope expressed his ideas of relationship between humanity and God. Despite the facts that he was in the Enlightenment period, when people are emphasized the science and reasons, Pope on his essay is more focus on discussing the sacred world. He describes each individual is created with specific purpose and each person is unique. people can be perfect by their own definition or interpretation of ” perfect”. Therefore people should be satisfied with who they are and how their lives are. Pope also insists that people should be happy with their lives because God is powerful and he knows everything.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
I believe the phrase “whatever is, is right” means that everything happens for a reason that has been predetermined by God so even if something seems unfavorable in the moment, it will lead you to the right path eventually. This goes hand in hand with Alexander Pope’s view that humans have the ability to be optimistic because they are unaware of the their time on Earth so they have no reason to think about something harmful. With this mindset, it is fair to accept all obstacles because one will think this is chosen by God and they will overcome the negativity.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
I think Pope describes the phrase “Whatever is, is right?” means that everything, what is on the earth, is all right and everything has purpose to live. In my opinion, the phrase “whatever is, is right?” means kind of optimistic outlook on life. Pope’s thought is that usual (original) order of rank should take it as it is. It is because that looks through the sentence “All this dread ORDER break-for whom? For thee? / Vile worm!-oh Madness, Pride Impiety! (256-7)”, I could know Pope’s thought about social order. He thinks it is very important thing when we live in this world. Pope also thinks that if there is no order, the society hard to subsist (exist). So, Pope wants that everyone keep usual order of rank.
1. Pope describes the purpose of his poem as “to vindicate the ways of God to man.” What do you think he means by this?
Throughout Pope’s poem he describes God as this almighty power, no one should ever question God’s power but instead have appreciation for the mysteries of God’s creation. In Pope’s introduction to “Essay on Man” he tells St. John that man should explore their surroundings and go into the world being honest and spreading the words of God. The literal phrase is, “Laugh where we must, be candid where we can; But vindicate the ways of God to man.” To vindicate something means to justify it, to make it innocent, and prove how righteous it is. Pope wants people to not only spread the word of God but also spread the idea of faith. Justifying God’s righteous intentions will ultimately justify their faith.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
To believe that “whatever is, is right” means that we should satisfy what we have and do not be afraid with what will happen. Since we cannot predict our future, just feel happy at this moment with everything that you see, hear, and smell. In our real life, we will encounter some happy things, but we cannot avoid those sad things to happen. Therefore, just enjoy each moment in your life. Everyone is different. Whatever you are, is meant to be.
3. What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
God is giving and taking equally. Everything is existed for a purpose or reason. So do not ask a reason if you don’t like your outlook. It’s just who you are, and what you mean to be. To believe that ” whatever is, is right?” means that everything happens or exists for a reason. If you are suffering now, don’t worry it will eventually become the past, and lead you to the right path. God is fair, if you are enduring suffering now, you will benefit from it in the future.
Choose one metaphor that Pope uses to describe the universe and explain its significance.
Pope’s use of “A Wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot” as a metaphor is an important one because it describes the nature of things in the universe. It is how the universe is created and what it consists of, which is wilderness, chaos with no plan or design and all things being natural and free roaming. He uses the word promiscuous to describe how all things go where ever and whenever in the universe and there is really no guide or maker to the way of things.
Choose one metaphor that Pope uses to describe the universe and explain its significance.
One of the metaphors used to describe the universe was “A mighty maze! but not without a plan” (L. 6). This metaphor is one that the Pope seems to stick to throughout the poem. His ideas very much relate to the metaphor of the maze. As the Pope goes on he writes about God being the creator of all. God made the earth and all its creatures with thought and love; it did not just pop up one day. This is very much like a maze. A maze needs to be created, it does not just pop right up from the ground. It also takes time and thought to build a maze.
Now by comparing the universe to a maze we can see all the similarities between them. There is one way through a maze, (as the pope seems to believe) one way through our lives or the universe. He believes we all are part of Gods plan and that our paths have already been made; which is very much like walking through a maze. As humans we are prone to error and therefore make mistakes. Mistakes are like taking a wrong turn in the maze or finding a dead-end. There will be many times where we get lost and need to redirect ourselves onto the right path; which happens all through our lives.
3. What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
If we believe that whatever happens is right, we probably would not act on it. That is, we would not want to do anything to change it. Believing in fate is thinking that we do not have any control whatsoever on our feelings, acts and emotions, that is, our life. Considering that everything right means that we have to accept things the way they are without questioning them. If something might be morally seen as wrong, such as a murder, it is still right and was bound to happen. So believing that “whatever is, is right” means that everything happens for a reason we ought not to question.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
In my opinion, “whatever is, is right?” means that your life has already been planned out and there’s no changing in the fate of it. It also means that we have to accept things the way they are because it has been written and determined by God. If something bad happens to you, you may want to question it but eventually it will all seem right. Because our future is unpredictable, we should just behave as we would normally and continue our daily lives the way we want to. If something bad occurs, we must accept it and move on from the past and towards a better future.
Pope describes the purpose of his poem as “to vindicate the ways of God to man.” What do you think he means by this?
To vindicate in itself means to clear of suspicion and/or blame; meaning that he is trying to establish a rational motive for God’s ways. Many posed the idea that if there was a God, there’d be no evil in the world. Pope, however, took it upon himself to write “An Essay on Man”, a piece in which he describes in great detail that everything that is, is part of God’s plan. He also goes on to infer that we are partly at blame, and that perhaps our arrogance does not work to our advantage. His entire poem revolves around this idea that “whatever is, is right”. He feels that we shouldn’t even be questioning God; we should be taking whatever sacrifices or risks are necessary to follow his plan in its entirety. In the end, it will all come together and make sense.
Choose one metaphor that Pope uses to describe the universe and explain its significance.
One metaphor that Pope used in “An Essay on Man” is “A mighty maze, but not without a plan. Pope is using a maze as example because he’s letting his readers know that God wants men to make sure that they have some type of plan in life or else no one will get anywhere. When it comes towards a maze, there is only one way out. Since there is only one way out, obviously there will be a lot of wrong turns and dead ends. For someone to get out of the maze successfully, that person will need rationality, time, patience and even luck. Pope is trying to show that God wants men to have all of those qualities in life to have a good one.
3. What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
In my opinion, “whatever is, is right” basically means that whatever we go through in life, whatever is given to us, it is already planned out by God and we should take it as it is because it is “right”. We see our tiny little world but God has the big picture. Human beings are created as perfect as they are supposed to be because God chose it. Our role is not to judge but accept whatever is, is right. This would affect one’s outlook of behavior by living life to the fullest because we never know when it will be our last day on this earth. Being optimistic about the future and accepting whatever is going on in your life is not always easy, but if you believe that God has a plan for you and everything will work out then you will be better off.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
God has created everything for reasons, all we need to do is to follow the destiny, take whatever comes to us, God has set up a plan for this whole nature. if something happens, there must be something hiding underneath it, we don’t need to hesitate or question and confuse about it, move on and we’ll find the meaning along the way and everything would become clear as god has set up everything for the whole nature.
According to Pope, what place do human beings have in the universe in relation to other creatures?
According to Pope, us humans are very much the same as animals. He advises that our reason creates a problem because reason makes us feel entitled to the precious things in the natural world such as plants and land. Although we are able to reason and speak, we are not much better than animals. Animals and humans alike are part of the system that’s within the universe. In essence, humans are no closer to God than animals are; according to Pope it would not be incorrect to say that we humans are animals.
3. What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
To believe that “whatever is, is right?” is to believe that whatever happens in the world is justified. It’s similar to the saying that everything happens for a reason. In this case, it happened because God decided for it to happen and that’s just how things ended up. This kind of view on life would make an individual’s outlook on life more positive in a way since they would not dwell on events that they don’t think they have any control over. They would just accept that it happened and that’s how it was supposed to be.
Pope describes the purpose of his poem as “to vindicate the ways of God to man.” What do you think he means by this?
By this line I think Pope is trying to say that he is going to explain the way god thinks to man. I also think he is trying to make it clear that God is superior to men. Pope is trying to say men don’t understand the way god thinks and this is the reason why they are questioning him. In Popes essay he is trying to say that everything happens for a reason and that no one should question god.
4. According to Pope, what place do human beings have in the universe in relation to other creatures?
Humans are below God, angels, and spirits but above animals, plants, and inanimate objects. This reflects the long assumed dominance of human beings. Specifically, due to Pope’s proclaimed Christian beliefs, it is not unreasonable to assume that he was influenced by the Bible’s human-centrism. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God creates the Earth and all its inhabitance. God not only makes humans separate from the animals and plants, but tells them that the Earth is for them to utilize. This is an idea that would be broken down around 150 years later when Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species,” which would be the beginning of the realization that humans are animals and that we weren’t very different at all.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
I think “whatever is, is right” means that everything happens for a reason. And all human beings are creation of God’s plan. People are perfect as who we really are, and we don’t need to change or correct those imperfection, “Man’s as perfect as he ought”. We have to accept our appearance, no matter we are beautiful or ugly. Since God creates someone for good reason, those bad behaviors are normal and natural. Our rule is to accept both good and bad features of ourselves instead of judging or blaming god.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
I think Pope is trying to tell us that whatever happens in our lives happens for a reason. We shouldn’t question why certain things happen to us but we should accept them and move forward. By constantly thinking about what happened and why me and why now just creates madness in ones head. By accepting the situation it helps us to move on because we have to accept that it happened for a reason and that our purpose in this life is to overcome it. That God has ultimate plan for us and in the end it will all work out.
What would it mean to believe that “whatever is, is right?” How would that affect one’s outlook or behavior?
The author wants to tell us that the God is right. We cannot question the God, Because the God created us and our world. If we question the God is equal to question ourselves.
I think it will make a person be loyalty for his faith. Someone told me before, “Without he faith, there is no life”. But in my opinion, it will let a person like a slave. The person will do whatever you tell him to do. That’s bad. I like people to think about the life. And people can question whatever they are curious. We can continiously move on to the future and get a better life.
According to Pope, what place do human beings have in the universe in relation to other creatures?
Humans are not bigger than god and not smaller than animals. They are part of a system that god created in order for there to be balance. Taking one piece will ruin the whole system. Humans are supposed to be bigger than animals meaning that they are supposed to take care this could be a reference to what the bible says we should be towards animals. Pope goes on saying that if we try to think like or be like god that we will be bringing our own doom. That we should not let our greed to be like god to control us.