| | Because "Paradise" contains within it the understanding of the realization of the hopes of man for a better world, one in which, oppression, and unrighteousness are excluded and thus, making for a world better, fulfilling, of goodness restored, and a realization of the best that man could imagine for himself and for others, "Paradise" has often been used metaphorically for all that on earth approaches these qualities. "Paradise" thus has become secularized and come to signify some type of human utopia. In this way, "Paradise" has come to be viewed paradoxically, as both banal and its opposite, other worldly and pie-in-the-sky. In Hebrew language Paradise (Pardes) has come to mean merely "orchard". But even in this, the vestige of the original Biblical meaning remains - Garden of Eden. | | Because "Paradise" contains within it the understanding of the realization of the hopes of man for a better world, one in which, oppression, and unrighteousness are excluded and thus, making for a world better, fulfilling, of goodness restored, and a realization of the best that man could imagine for himself and for others, "Paradise" has often been used metaphorically for all that on earth approaches these qualities. "Paradise" thus has become secularized and come to signify some type of human utopia. In this way, "Paradise" has come to be viewed paradoxically, as both banal and its opposite, other worldly and pie-in-the-sky. In Hebrew language Paradise (Pardes) has come to mean merely "orchard". But even in this, the vestige of the original Biblical meaning remains - Garden of Eden. |