For Zeez: God and Worship

[_Morley]

I'm registering as a fan of this thread.


____________
Tribute.

[_maklelan]

Here are a very few of the things that have been called worship:

singing a psalm
lighting a candle in front of a statue
pouring a libation
sacrificing an animal
offering a plate of rice
burning incense to the ancestors
proclaiming a text
bowing or prostrating

What do all these things have in common?

hc

I would say the only salient attribute they have in common is description as worship. To try to find some kind of conceptual link that functions as a necessary and sufficient feature of worship presupposes there is some kind of intentional structure underlying the ancient concept of worship. I don't see any evidence of such a systematic approach to primeval worship. It also imposes a binary approach to categorization that really has little to no relationship to the ways our minds and our cultures conceive of categories and conceptual relationships.

[_Blixa]

I'm registering as a fan of this thread.

+1

[_moksha]

... the first commandment(s) in the Decalogue that unities the Abrahamic faiths:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me

(Exodus 20: 3-5)
Discuss

Not all Christians or Jews subscribe to the bolded part of the quote. Mormons do not believe in the Fall curse and many others would guffaw at generational curses.

by the way, my favorite form of worship is taking the bread and water sacrament and offering my own individualized prayer. A solitary walk in a mountain meadow is good too.

[_zeezrom]

[sniff]

[_Morley]

[_zeezrom]

I just need a place to park my notes. This is not a call to arms, Stak.

Odyssey, Book II, line 12.

"Athena lavished on him a sunlit grace..."

Here is an example of Her limited power as a God; though not necessarily what we expect from a limited God.

The God of Abraham gives us sunlit grace but He does it in a very controlled manner. Since the God of Abraham is perfect and infinite, He bestows just the right amount, with machine precision and moderation. It is so perfectly bestowed upon us, we see the very words of His grace carved in pure, white marble in high contrast.

Athena sheds sunlit grace recklessly and immoderately. She lavishes it upon Telemakhos until he is drunk with grace, leading him to obsession. Wrapped in his fleece, he dreams about it all night long. The next day, people instantly notice a difference in his manner and speech.

We are human. Thus, we need a human with all her limitations, to guide us.

Baboom, baby!


Granted, I'm relying on Robert Fitzgerald's translation abilities with great faith.

[_Some Schmo]

How are Human beings incapable of worship?

Egocentricity.

Given that god is a construct of the human mind (whether god is real or not), it seems to me that a person's egocentricity is at the heart of worship. It is the most "divine" form of mental masturbation there is.

People don't worship some objective god; they worship their idea/fantasy of god. It's all ego.

[_zeezrom]

Hey Stak,

I'm still hopeful that you continue this discussion. I am always as pleased as ever to frolic with you.

[_zeezrom]

A God who is perfect lacks something. Sweet disorder will usually bewitch me more than perfection.

A sweet disorder in the dress 
Kindles in clothes a wontonness
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction
An erring lace, which here and there 
Enthrals the crimson stomacher
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow, confusedly
A winning wave, deserving note, 
In the tempestuous petticoat
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.

Robert Herrick (1579-1674)