As others have pointed out, the need for god to be worshipped is an invention of man. Man invents god which he automatically sets apart from himself through an act of worship, then man wonders why he can't find god. What the word 'god' points to through what man claims god to be has no relation to what is beneath all concepts of god. But man is largely unwilling to uncover what's beneath every concept, including the concept of god.
Why does God need to be worshiped?
by Scully 132 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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frenchbabyface
Elsewhere : A god that needs to be worshiped is created by a dictator who wants the same worship. The dictator will, of course, at as the "mediator" between the people and the god, effectively giving himself the authority of the god.
Ya ! ... "they"'ve got a lot of it What about asking for workshiping MOTHER NATURE (human kind included) we can get a lot out of it ... -
SpannerintheWorks
The god of the bible does not exist.
If you disagree, prove that he does.
Spanner
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gumby
From a dubs point of view, we were created in god image......meaning having the attributes Jehovah has such as Love, Power,Wisdom, etc., yet we are nothing like him. We supposedly have a need to worship as they claim and he doesn't. He can kill...we can't. Jehovah can do as he pleases and worshipping him is top priority in his book.
I suppose they reason that Jehovah knew there would be many false gods to entice them from the Cannanites, so he gave them laws to worship him to safeguard them from following after these false gods. He did go a little far with all those sacrafices demanded by him though I'd say........just a tad!(these were all the living things I could find in my emoticons of animals for sacrafices)
Gumby
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Pole
Good question Scully.
One of the biggest philosophical discoveries of my life is the ubiquity of anthropomorphism and conceptual metaphors in any religion.
God is a father. Jesus is a Son.
God is a ruler. We are his servants.
Blablabla...
Yet another case of anthropomorphism expressed by means of an unverifiable metaphor. It's all BS, IMHO.
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Midget-Sasquatch
I forget who posited this notion, but it was a take on recent observations in neuroscience. They claimed they found a part in the brain which they nicknamed the "God spot". The researchers linked it to the need to worship, to hearing or experiencing supernatural phenomenon, and the propensity to believe in supernatural ideas like God. So thats in line with what alot of pple have already posted here about the NEED to worship.
Again sorry for my memory lapse, but this one person claimed that this God spot evolved,...IIRC....1) as a way to work around the realization of our own mortality (and not be so paralyzed that we wouldn't survive long enough to reproduce) 2) to minimize the destructive impact a highly intelligent species as ourselves may have on each other.
So maybe in the earlier history of our species we needed to "worship" this "god" to ensure the success of the species as a whole.
Hey maybe the gnostics were really on to something with their idea of the demiurge?
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Narkissos
Hi Pole,
One of the biggest philosophical discoveries of my life is the ubiquity of anthropomorphism and conceptual metaphors in any religion.
One of the biggest philosophical discoveries of my life is the ubiquity of anthropomorphism and conceptual metaphors in language. No speaking subject is able to get rid of them as far as I know...
MerryMagdalene:
The biblical kerubim are a direct transposition of the Akkadian karibu, which are the winged guardians (with animal and human features) often pictured at the entrance of Mesopotamian temples. Ezekiel, a Judean priest exiled in Babylon, was responsible for importing them into the Israelite mythology...
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FreeWilly
See Below
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FreeWilly
They claimed they found a part in the brain which they nicknamed the "God spot".
It's funny, if there is anything at all that I am grateful for from my JW experience, it is the fact that I am now free from any "need" to worship anything. I certainly feel i have found greater objectivity and appreciation of life in the process. I guess my God spot was nuked by the Elders before I left Bethel. Maybe they borrowed the zapper from the 'Men in Black' !
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Pole
Nark,
One of the biggest philosophical discoveries of my life is the ubiquity of anthropomorphism and conceptual metaphors in language.
I fully agree. But, it's actually one of my premises in making the assertion about religion. My problem with most religions is that they pretend to be derived from divine revelation. You open the Bible and read: "This is what God said: 'I am your King. I require you to worship me as king and ruler.'" and a bunch of other crappy metaphors follows. Some of them are silly, others are mutually exclusive and none of them is verifiable.
Are you trying to defend believers (don't know your credo, so I'm guessing) by saying that because we all speak and think metaphors, then divine truths must be communicated by means of metaphors, so there's nothing wrong with metaphors in religion? Or am I just a paranoid, frustrated former believer in God and his metaphors as presented by humans?
No speaking subject is able to get rid of them as far as I know...
Nice challenge. I've actually thought about it an awful lot. My conclusion is: it depends on the area of language you're using. I can definitely do some metaphor-free thinking, but it's more like pre-cognition and you need a sligthly unnatural form of language if you want to put it in speech. If you're interested in my examples (I only have one), PM me (it's a bit off topic on this thread).
Pole