DiscussMormonism.com

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:08 am**

Here is my definition of worship:

S is worshiping G if and only if S is expressing maximal deference and reverence towards G.

This definition of worship strikes me as highly intuitive, and falls right in line with 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)

God is to be number one in your life, nothing gets priority over God, and if God is the maximally greatest being, this makes sense. But if God isn’t the maximally greatest being, is it right to worship God?

Discuss

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:35 am**

Human beings are incapable of worship.

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:45 am**

Jersey Girl wrote:Human beings are incapable of worship.

In Stak's (and the First Commandment's) sense probably so, and Luther would agree. But I don't think his definition describes most of the human activities that have been called worship.

Try a little phenomenology, Stak.

hc

ADDENDUM: I think the First Commandment is about one's whole life, of which worship is a part. But how could this apply to, say, a polytheistic religion?

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:52 am**

Jersey Girl wrote:Human beings are incapable of worship.

How are Human beings incapable of worship?

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:02 am**

Wow, a thread with my name on it? And from the philosopher Stak, no less. I'm flattered.

[blush]

I'll delve in tonight after the kids are snuggly in their beds.

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:11 am**

MrStakhanovite wrote:
Jersey Girl wrote:Human beings are incapable of worship.

How are Human beings incapable of worship?

Egocentricity.

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:15 am**

hans castorp wrote:In Stak's (and the First Commandment's) sense probably so, and Luther would agree.

Same question, how and why are human beings incapable of worship as I defined it?

Try a little phenomenology, Stak.

I honestly think that would only compound the issue about one's duties to worship.

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:17 am**

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

What do all these things have in common?

hc

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:19 am**

Jersey Girl wrote:Egocentricity.

Just so I understand you...

You are saying that because humanity suffers from egocentrism, humans are incapable of giving God their maximal deference and reverence?

The way I'm understanding this is that you are saying humanity is idolatrous by necessity, would you agree with that?

Posted: **Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:24 am**

MrStakhanovite wrote:The way I'm understanding this is that you are saying humanity is idolatrous by necessity, would you agree with that?

A great many Christians would agree with that proposition. Didn't Calvin call the human mind an idol factory?

hc

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