Humility
Summary
In the essay, Humility, Yuval Noah Harari exemplifies the virtue of humility in that he debunks humanity's illusions of superiority and mastery. He claims morality, art, spirituality and creativity are universal human abilities embedded in our DNA.
Yuval Yuval Noah Harari, a well-known Jerusalem writer, is the author of the essay Humility. According to him, we are born with the ability to be moral, artistic, intellectual, and creative. He demonstrates the virtue of humility by demolishing human illusions of supremacy and dominance over the natural world
As a general rule, most individuals feel that they are the centre of the universe and that their culture is the foundation of human evolution. Most people don't have the ability to be humble, says Harari, and that's something we should work on. Humbleness is shown in this article by the author's criticism of humanity's false sense of superiority and control over its technological and social environment.
There is a strong belief among Chinese patriots that many outstanding ideas were born in China. There are some Indians who think that aircraft and nuclear weapons were developed long before Confucius or Plato. It is widely held in Greece that the beginning of history was marked by the writings of Homer, Euripides, Aristotle, and Plato. In the eyes of Jews, monotheism belongs to them and they are one of the world's most important religious groups. In the eyes of the Jewish people, the gentiles (non-jewish people) are inferior to them since they don't consider themselves to be part of God's chosen peoples.
The fact that there are only 15 million Jews doesn't make them more significant than the Hindu faith, which has many more adherents.
Similarly, the religion of Islam now regards all history previous to Mohammed to be unimportant.Each group considers itself to be the centre of the universe, as well as the originator of the most significant ideas and innovations. No group is truly unique. Before them, there was at least one group that had the same ideas and beliefs as them. The religions that have lasted are the ones that were the most violent. They were able to get the most people to believe in them. One should not feel proud of inventing monotheism since it has led to the destruction of the planet.
Religious tolerance has been advocated by certain wise men and women, but the general tendency has always been to condemn individuals with differing religious views. Ironically, most faiths warn against this kind of selfishness.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. Describe the claim of the Chinese nationalists about human history.
Chinese nationalists claim that history began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties. They believe that anything that was accomplished by other rulers like westerners, Muslims or Indians is a bit imitation of Chinese achievement.b. What do pious Muslims believe about human history?
Pious Muslims believe that all history follows the Quran. All the history before Prophet Muhammad was mostly meaningless and all history after that following Quran’s revelation revolves around the Muslim ummah.c. What did the Aztecs firmly believe about the universe?
The Aztecs firmly believed about the universe that annual sacrifice is the reason behind the existence of the universe. Without annual sacrifice, the sun wouldn’t rise and the whole cosmos would collapse.d. What, according to the essay, are the universal human abilities?
According to the essay, the universal human abilities are art, creativity, spirituality and mortality.e. How are the basic yoga postures derived from the shape of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet?
The basic yoga postures derived from the shape of letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the yoga posture Tuladandasana imitates the letter ‘daled’, Trikonasana imitated the form of the Hebrew letter ‘aleph’ and so on.Reference to the context
a. How do Hindu nationalists refute the Chinese claim that human history began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties? Who do you agree with, and why?
Hindu nationalists refute the Chinese claim that humans began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties by claiming that Indian sages developed the theory of planes and nuclear weapons long before Plato, Confucius or Einstein and the Wright brothers.In the Hindu holy books of Hindus, different evidence of discoveries and inventions are found long before any scientists proved them. Hinduism is found to be the oldest religion in the world according to various scientific as well as archaeological studies. Thus I agree with the Hindu nationalists over Chinese claims through different evidence that was found in Hinduism.
b. The author has dealt with a controversial debate on human history. Why do you think history has been a major contested issue in the present world?
The essay ‘Humility’ written by Yuval Noah Harari is about the different controversies about human history. The essay presents the thoughts and people’s beliefs in human history according to their religion.In my opinion, history has been a major contested issue in the present world due to egoism. I would like to call egoism the supremacy of their belief in their religion only rather than understanding others. Most individuals believe that their religion is the oldest and they are the center of the universe. They believe that their culture is superior to all others. According to them, everything originated from their culture. So because of egoism human history has been a major contested issue. The author wishes to remove a sense of superiority and domination from humanity.