In ancient Rome, after the power of Christianity gradually became more and more polytheistic, the people who lost their self-thinking and fell into blind worship eventually devoured a goddess who symbolized reason, the philosopher Hypatia.
In the 4th century AD, as the Roman Empire was in decline, in Alexandria, the wise Hypatia taught her disciples. Oristis showed his love to her frequently, and even made a bold statement in the theater; Dais, a slave in her family, also had a good impression of her, but could not speak because of her humble status. Dess, who was in humble misery, met Christians on the street who preached freedom and equality and rescued poor slaves, which made Dess' belief begin to shake. This move caused him to be whipped by the family owner. Hypatia healed and comforted him. his mind.
The current situation was turbulent, and in the serious conflict between polytheism and Christianity, Christianity with the support of the common people gained the upper hand. The two sides eventually faced off at the Library of Alexandria. In the end, the Roman rulers compromised with Christianity, let the polytheists withdraw from the library, and allowed Christians to enter. The catastrophe of the library of Alexandria began, and an age of reason began to fade away. Religious fanaticism prevailed and secular powers were wielded. In the end, Hypatia, who was loyal to reason and philosophy, became a sacrifice to religious madness.
Without tyranny's coercion, we can see from the belief process of slave Dais that the Christian believers in Rome did voluntarily accept their beliefs. Christ rescued the bottom people from their hopeless lives, but was turned into a torch for selfish desires by the priests. The missionaries, like saviours, cared for and relieved the people at the bottom and pointed out the direction of hope for the poor, but they used their ignorance and blind worship with exaggerated and inflammatory rhetoric. A wave of anti-intellect was stirred up, and obedient lambs turned into raging jackals. The truth is useless under a fanatical religion, because only the beliefs of the herd can easily gather strength. Rational thinking is a very tiring thing and does not produce any immediate benefits, so there is no market. Belief in philosophy? That's even more ridiculous.
The tyranny of thought and the restraint of thought are beyond religion, and it exists in almost every period of human society. The development of natural science and the many ideological emancipation movements have confirmed the importance of reason time and time again, but real reason is destined to be unpopular in every era. For individuals, keeping thinking is tiring, it means stepping out of the comfort zone and fighting against the established rules, which will bring more confusion, loneliness and unhappiness in the short term; for collective leaders, thinking The individual brings uncertainty, so that his instructions and expectations cannot be carried out correctly. Therefore, tyranny at the ideological level is more marketable than freedom. It makes both individuals and groups feel relaxed, have a sense of belonging, and have a sense of achievement brought by super executive power. Its happiness is immediate.
But it is precisely because of this that happiness that is not immediately desirable - thinking and reason, is more valuable. It's lonely, but it brings more possibilities to the world. When the Christians were in the obscurity of the round sky, Hypatia saw the light of the wisdom of the heliocentric theory.
Reason shining with wisdom is of no use, it is only the pleasure of the thinker. But only the freedom brought about by reason is the true freedom that is brought about by the self, belongs to the soul, and is not the freedom that is used by man in anticipation of a savior.
But this freedom has a threshold, such as the high-quality higher education belonging to the nobles under the dome of the Alexandria Library. Hypatia's students are nobles, and Dais, who is a slave, is not fit to sit between them and play an elegant flute to show his love to the teacher. She could only crawl at the feet of Hypatia, silently outside the wooden gate of the theater, only with the help of the wings of Christian shelter, could she dare to kiss the lady on the lips desperately with great courage in the dark night. In the panic of love, he handed the knife to Hypatia's hand.
What kind of person deserves what kind of freedom?
The nobles of the upper strata, walking on the stairs of the books of the Library of Alexandria, lead to the flickering reason in the universe, thereby gaining the freedom of the soul; while the poor people of the lower stratum, holding the butcher knives of religious jihad fanaticism in the square, wade across the pagans in the square (including Thinking nobles) dripping blood, thereby gaining physical freedom.
This is also the tragedy that the Library of Alexandria was destined to burn down. Flickering rationality and prosperous civilization are always built on the satisfaction of food and clothing for survival. Physical freedom always precedes spiritual freedom.
Why does religion prevail? Because religion always stretches out the hand of saving the body to the suffering people, and points out the direction of spiritual freedom for them. It is like a ladder standing between hell and heaven, and the end is the appearance of heaven. Although it will be depicted arbitrarily by people who climb out of hell, standing on the base of hell is always real and touchable. At this point, not only Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and even the ideals of the Three People's Principles of Fascism, Nazism, and Marxism, which are not religious, are all the same.
It is not the Christians at the bottom who are looking forward to salvation, nor the Hypatia who looks up at the stars at the top, but the priests and nobles who are chasing power and telling lies in the middle. They are freed from the shackles of physical suffering, and they have no intention of pursuing the freedom of the soul. Hypatia handed the key to freedom in their hands, but it was used by them to satisfy the desires of the world.
But this is human nature, indulging in desires, wandering between hell and heaven. This is the sin that Jesus and Muhammad and Buddha are really trying to aton for.
Those who really want to kneel down at the feet of God to atone for their sins speak for God in the human world; those who truly understand God’s will and go to freedom are denounced as demons who oppose God. This may be the greatest black humor of the human society that claims to be constantly pursuing truth and freedom.
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