Paramenides

On Nature

According to Parmendides, your journey into death is like the journey into life; there are options just like in life (the paths of night and day). Parmendides believes that there is an afterlife and vividly explains that when you get to the gates, there will be someone there to show you the truth based on the path that you have decided on. Is there an afterlife? I don't know how anyone could say that there is or there isn't.

The Way of Objectivity

There is no way of knowing what it will look like in the beginning or in the end, if there is one. When I hear people talk about their plans for retirement, I often think to myself: how can people be so sure of what the future will bring? Through their journey in life, how will they know where each fork in the road will take them? They seem to know how much money they will have when they retire, where they will live, how much they will play golf, and how big their boat will be. But how many times have you seen someone retire, and then shortly afterwards, become very ill and not be able to enjoy what they planned so carefully for, or worse, the die and can't enjoy any of it? There is no way of knowing what it will look like in the end. According to Parmenides, you can't worry about the future because either it is or it is not. And to this point, I don't disagree.

The Way of Subjectivity

When I read this section, there is a consistent theme that parallels the Ying and Yang (black and white, fire and darkness) to the extent that there is only right and wrong and good and bad; however, there is mention that there is some darkness in the light, and lightness in the dark. There is also reference that the hot force of the stars (including the Earth, Sun and Moon) surged forth to come-to-be, which in my opinion means a non-Godly approach. I believe that the general theme here is that your destiny is determined at the beginning. Even to the extent that seeds can be mingled and plague the offspring with a double-gender. However, I believe, no matter the force, people can change, and the roads that people follow can change them. Sure, some thing you are born with and cannot change, but it's not just all "black and white".