Saturday, April 4, 2009

Self-Administered Test on Plato’s Republic and Passion of Saints (True or False, 25 Items)

Self-Administered Test on Plato’s Republic and Passion of Saints (True or False, 25 Items)

By Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Plato is the greatest student of Socrates so that philosophers would quip, Plato is Socrates, and Socrates is Plato.

2. Plato’s Republic is a Utopia which means a perfect society that does not actually exist.

3. Singapore is the closest society of the Republic.

4. Hitler’s Germany can be compared with Plato’s Republic.

5. Darwinism – survival of the fittest – is also applied in human society, but touches ethico-moral issues.

6. “Christianity is Plato for the people,” says German philosopher Nitche.

7. “Everything is just a footnote of Plato,” says philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.

8. Socrates – one of the most respected citizens of Athens was condemned to die by no less than the leaders of this greatest city state of the world at that time.

9. A candidate for sainthood is well studied by the Church for miracles for which he or she is attributed. One miracle is sufficient for canonization.

10. Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France was canonized 100 years after her burning at the stake.

11. Joan of Arc was condemned to die of witchcraft by one arm of the Church and canonized by the other arm, so to speak.

12. The choice for the Nobel Prize for peace was narrowed down between Pope John Paul II, and an Iranian woman lawyer Ebadi. Easily the Pope got the much coveted prize.

13. All saints really existed in flesh and lived with the people.

14. San Claus is a contemporary mythological character whose origin is said to be the North Pole.

15. The catacombs in Rome were hideouts of the early Christians. They were underground villages.

16. Kings never became saints.

17. Pagan literary mean people living on the countryside.

18. The canonization of Maximilian Kolby who offered to be executed in place of a fellow prisoner who pleaded for his life because he had a wife and children, marked the new concept of sainthood – that of charity.

19. We will never know who and how many saints there are in the world. Somewhere, sometime, someone is a saint as lonely and obscure as the unknown soldier.

20. Apparently, as portrayed on media, there were more people who mourned for Princess Diana than Mother Teresa who died and were buried almost at the same time.

21. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, when she died automatically became saint by virtue of having been long regarded as a living saint.

22. St. Paul witnessed the stoning to death of St. Stephen when he was already an apostle.

23. There are very few people who turn completely around from their wicked ways; one of them who became said was St. Thomas Moore.

24. Christ tells us, “Carry your cross,” which is the best way to imitate him.

25. The fastest growing religion today is Christianity.

ANSWERS: 1t, 2t, 3t. 4f, 5t, 6t, 7t, 8t, 9f, 10f, 11f, 12f, 13f(St. Christopher and Santa Claus, 14t(St. Christopher and Santa Claus), 15f(cemetery) , 16f(King Wenceslas of Bohemia and King Oswald of the British Isles, King Louis Anglia against the Vikings), 17t(Paganus), 18t, 19t, 20t, 21f, 22f(as a young Saul), 23f(St. Paul the Apostle), 24f (...and follow me), 25f (Muslim)
x x x

References: Lesson on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, and lecture on Philosophy opf Man, St. Paul University QC, Summer 2008, by AVR