The Godhead

[Mole]

Awe

You raise some spectacular thoughts that have, albeit in different words, been on my mind as well from time to time.

I, too, worship something. And whilest most religions worship a set of answers, I myself worship the unknown, the faceless God, the questions unanswered. As such, I worship my own curiosity as being the hand of God. And I pray for the hand of God to deliver me a profound destiny.

Well Fluffy, you have chosen to worship a God that is formidible and terrifying. And it is true to say that the fear of your God is the beginning of wisdom.

For worhipping the unknown takes us into unknown territory, and all animals, even those who worship, fear the unknown.

The advantage is that you know when you are approaching your God or when your God is approaching you, for you are filled with dread and awe, you don't know what to do, and your God offers no comfort.

In fact your God will annihilate you and take your place. For a while, as long as your mortal body can bear it, you will become your God.

And then exhausted you will be left, not knowing what happened, only remembering a lost tune, wistful like the wind in the willows.

You will try to return to the moment of exaltation, but not know even where to start. You will be left a lost and forlorn animal with his eyes on something or someone unseen, who looks after us every day.

 

[Fluffywolf]

Well Fluffy, you have chosen to worship a God that is formidible and terrifying. And it is true to say that the fear of your God is the beginning of wisdom.

For worhipping the unknown takes us into unknown territory, and all animals, even those who worship, fear the unknown.

The advantage is that you know when you are approaching your God or when your God is approaching you, for you are filled with dread and awe, you don't know what to do, and your God offers no comfort.

In fact your God will annihilate you and take your place. For a while, as long as your mortal body can bear it, you will become your God.

And then exhausted you will be left, not knowing what happened, only remembering a lost tune, wistful like the wind in the willows.

You will try to return to the moment of exaltation, but not know even where to start. You will be left a lost and forlorn animal with his eyes on something or someone unseen, who looks after us every day.

But the thrill of approaching my God, as brief a moment as the encounter may be, and the hunt for new encounters once left lost and without again, seeking God anew, is what will undoubtfully keep me faithful and loyal. Like a dog prying his owner for his biscuits. I shall pry my God for my answers.

Until there are no more answers to be found, it will keep me happy, and happy I am to know life is too short to find all the answers. Although even happier I would be if my life could last as long as finding all but the last of answers.

 

[Lien]

siren

But the thrill of approaching my God, as brief a moment as the encounter may be, and the hunt for new encounters once left lost and without again, seeking God anew, is what will undoubtfully keep me faithful and loyal. Like a dog prying his owner for his biscuits. I shall pry my God for my answers.

Until there are no more answers to be found, it will keep me happy, and happy I am to know life is too short to find all the answers. Although even happier I would be if my life could last as long as finding all but the last of answers.

do you want to keep on wandering?
come back to the spring, faithful and tender
the happiness is always there
you will be mine forever

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Hindus worship the elephant headed God, and christians worship the God with three heads.

But no matter where I look I can't find an image, I can't find a statue showing Ganesh and the Trinity shaking hands.

The christians tell me they worship one God with three Persons and this seems no more exotic than an elephant headed God.

Ah, if only we could find the elephant headed God in a christian church and the God with three heads in a hindu temple.

The only correlation you have made is by that of numbers and the fact that both are related to one religion or another.

The problem you run into is the origins of each religion. One is based in eastern thought and the other is a branch of Abrahamic Monotheism

Also I think you are putting too much value in Ganesh. Ganesh is only a personality trait of Brahmah, the creator and eastern culture equivalent of your YHWH/GD/IHVH or any other tetragrammatton associated with the Abrahamic Monotheist god you are referring.

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Whatever we worship, we become. We are becoming animals. We are the only animals that worship. Delightful as they are, cats and dogs don't worship, only us. And as we become what we worship, it behoves us to know what we worship.

It behoves us to know what kind of God we worship.

Do we worship the God of Abraham who ordered Abraham to murder his son in order to test his obedience?

Or do we worship Allah, we enjoins us to jihad and martyrdom?

Or do we worship Ganesh, the elephant headed God, the God of beginnings and the beginner's mind?

How do you have the empirical knowledge that other animals do not worship?

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Of course the bien pensant want to believe they are the all the same or pretty close anyway. But they make this claim without being able to speak Hindi or Mandarin.[/QUOTE]

There has never been a civilization not based on a religion.

That you have observed. Tell me, How many civilizations have you actually studied barring a cultural bias better than you think able?

...The Indian civilization is based on Hinduism,...

Actually the civilization in the region you indicate is riddled with ancient religions and even some hints of Abrahamic Monotheism thrown in the mix.

...the Chinese civilization is based on Confucianism...

In all reality, Confucianism really is not a religion. It is a cultural set of regulations for a population of sentient beings. I will admit that most religions have this quality, but Confucianism worships nothing; therefore not a religion. Besides, you choose to withhold the information of Buddhism's impact on the eastern world

(The) Western civilization is based on Christianity.

Ah-hem The predominate culture revolves around Abrahamic Monotheism, however you must understand that western civilization has many different religious roots. (Pagan, Wicca, Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Druids). All have had an effect on the civilization we live in today.

Of course the bien pensant want to believe they are the all the same or pretty close anyway. But they make this claim without being able to speak Hindi or Mandarin.

And you make the claim that they are nowhere near similar while showing the same lingual capability.

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Sure, but what animals we are. We are the only animals that worship.

Worship is an act of becoming. We become what we worship.

What do you worship, Nebbykoo? What are you becoming?

If you are a Christian, you're worshiping a zombie... So what does that make you?

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Well, if you worship nothing, you are a nihilist.

But you protest you are not becoming nothing, but methinks you protest too much.

You assume much about your fellow man with unfounded ground.

 

[JediVulcanisim]

The act of worship is quite magical. We suspend our disbelief. We fall in love with the worshipful. We love the worshipful unconditionally. The marriage ceremony includes the words, "I thee worship". And it is an act of magic reserved for us and no other animal. Worship is an act of magic that reaches the level of the sacramental.

Worship is more potent than a loaded gun and more important than landing on the Moon. Worship is as important as birth, death and marriage.

Worship shapes whole civilizations.

Who is this "we" you speak of? those within your own personal cult?
Or are you speaking for billions of people who may or may not share your own personal understanding of the world?

I'll tell ya' I've heard "Magic" and "Sacrilegious" used in many sentences by the pillars of what you call your culture, but never "Sacramental". man you walked into that viper pit on your own accord:rolli:

Worship is only potent because it has a connotation of a mob mentality. Just because you all think the same does not mean that what you do is correct.

Birth, Death, and Marriage are only as important as a sentient being allows. Importance is not justified by others, but by the self.

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Perhaps if we look upon worship as a faculty. We have the faculty to worship. We have the ability to worship.

Which definition do you mean by faculty?

And so what kind of ability is it?

Well, it is a an ability reserved for one animal and one animal only.
It profoundly affects our psyche.
In that we worship unconditionally.
Just as we love our children unconditionally.
And whoever we love unconditionally, we would die for.

Anything affects our psyche; the profundity of "worship" is completely dependent on the individual.
Keep in mind unconditional worship and unconditional love are to different things. One is an outward pronouncement, the other is an inward decision.
Unconditionally dying for anything is a broad statement, so be willing to fulfill that commitment when the situation arises. Dying for a reason only you can communicate can be considered a meaningless death.

Surely we should be starting to ask, what am I worshipping?

If one is a Christian one worships a zombie that, if there was life at one point in time within this being, gave up something for you that you can not understand or perceive because you have justified understanding as that that has been handed to you by other potentially sentient beings who gave up their lives playing a game of telephone.

 

[JediVulcanisim]

Epic Win