Baptism of JesusThe baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is a major event in the life of Jesus which is described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark and Luke), in which John baptized Jesus with water by method of immersion and laying on of hands (Hebrews 6:2) to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). Jesus Christ who is God in His essence cannot be purified either realistically or ritually, so His baptism is according to Jesus to "fulfill all righteousness".
GersonidesLevi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as RaLBaG, was a medieval French Jewish philosopher, Talmudist, mathematician, physician and astronomer/astrologer. He was born at Bagnols in Languedoc, France. According to Abraham Zacuto and others, he was the son of Gerson ben Solomon Catalan. As in the case of the other medieval Jewish philosophers little is known of his life.
CosmosThe cosmos (Kósmos, ˈkɒzmɒs, USalso-moʊs,_-məs) is another name for the universe. Using the word cosmos implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in cosmology - a broad discipline covering scientific, religious or philosophical aspects of the cosmos and its nature. Religious and philosophical approaches may include the cosmos among spiritual entities or other matters deemed to exist outside the physical universe.
Apollonius of TyanaApollonius of Tyana (Ἀπολλώνιος; بلينس; अपालुन्यःc. 15 – c. 100 AD) was a first-century Greek philosopher and religious leader from the town of Tyana, Cappadocia in Roman Anatolia, who spent his life travelling and teaching in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. He is a central figure in Neopythagoreanism and was one of the most famous "miracle workers" of his day. His exceptional personality and his mystical way of life, which was regarded as exemplary, impressed his contemporaries and had a lasting cultural influence.
Conceptions of GodConceptions of God in monotheist, pantheist, and panentheist religions – or of the supreme deity in henotheistic religions – can extend to various levels of abstraction: as a powerful, personal, supernatural being, or as the deification of an esoteric, mystical or philosophical entity or category; as the "Ultimate", the summum bonum, the "Absolute Infinite", the "Transcendent", or Existence or Being itself; as the ground of being, the monistic substrate, that which we cannot understand; and so on.
DemiurgeIn the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge (ˈdɛmi.ɜrdʒ) (sometimes spelled as demiurg) is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else.
Intelligent designerAn intelligent designer, also referred to as an intelligent agent, is the pseudoscientific hypothetical willed and self-aware entity that the intelligent design movement argues had some role in the origin and/or development of life. The term "intelligent cause" is also used, implying their teleological supposition of direction and purpose in features of the universe and of living things. The popularly termed intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist campaign that arose out of the Christian fundamentalist creation science movement.
ProtagorasProtagoras (prəʊˈtægəˌræs; Πρωταγόρας; 490 BC-420 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist.
AlhamdulillahAlhamdulillah (ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ, ) is an Arabic phrase meaning "praise be to God", sometimes translated as "thank God". This phrase is called Tahmid (تَحْمِيد). A longer variant of the phrase is al-ḥamdu l-illāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn (ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَالَمِينَ), meaning "all praise is due to God, Lord of all the worlds", second verse of Surah Al-Fatiha. The phrase is frequently used by Muslims of every background due to its centrality in the texts of the Quran and Hadith, the words of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
MidianMidian (ˈmɪdiən; מִדְיָן Miḏyān; Madyan; Μαδιάμ, Madiam) is a geographical region in Western Asia mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea", an area which contained at least fourteen inhabited sites during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages. According to the Book of Genesis, the Midianites were the descendants of Midian, who was a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah: "Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
