ppp
Well-Known Member
Literally? I think that is more of a lust than a worship.
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The Qualities of a God
- Thread starter SalixIncendium
- Start date
Lust is sexual desire. I doubt many have a literal sexual desire for money.
Then again, perhaps there is a fetish I'm unaware of.
ppp
Well-Known Member
Fair enough. Greed.
I think it could be argued that greed can be a motive for worship. Agree? Disagree?
ppp
Well-Known Member
Sure. But that doesn't make it worship. I mean that greed can be a motive for theft, or starting a company, too. But greed is not theft, or entrepreneurship. No?
I wasn't suggesting greed and worship are synonymous. I was suggesting there was an overlap, thereby demonstrating that people can worship money, and if worship is the primary qualification for being a god, that money can be considered a god.
ppp
Well-Known Member
I don't get it. Where is the overlap?
Motive.
Aštra’el
Aštara, Blade of Aštoreth
No.
Humans contain all these aspects of a very complicated human nature. The gods people worship in their religions embody select areas of individual and collective human nature- or the natural world around us- and are sort of like our ultimate personifications of these things, that people might turn to for inspiration and motivation.
Since it's relative the honoring.
Believers are great and honorable but not exalted.
Reason: Exalted ones tower above believers, but are not to be worshiped.
And the reason is: God is exalted way above all exalted ones and deserves the highest word of honoring and loving to be for him. That is he alone is to be worshiped.
For us to be gods, there has to be (1) no Creator above us all, (2) no exalted ones above us all. Then we can be relatively gods.
We can't even reach level of exalted chosen ones, let alone God!
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
To be a God is to have omniscient power and authority over its subjects. Whether that power and authority is true, and good or not is irrelevant to the definition.
A true God has all the virtues as attributes without any vices. The will of a true God is only the virtues plus omniscient power and true authority. To imply a true God of all exists is to imply that all living creatures are subject to that God's justice and can stand innocent or be guilty before that God. A true God makes no errors in judgment. A true God is eternal and has complete control over all fates and destinies.
A true God assumes that perfect justice exists, and such God is the master of it. A true God bestows free will upon all its subjects to give them the opportunity to choose between good and evil because God doesn't want robots and false friends. A true God is benevolent.
I suppose a true God would have no limits to their power and can make everyone into people true to that God's will, but I don't think any religion subscribes to that.
I suppose people can make a God or gods of anything or anyone.
A true God has all the virtues as attributes without any vices. The will of a true God is only the virtues plus omniscient power and true authority. To imply a true God of all exists is to imply that all living creatures are subject to that God's justice and can stand innocent or be guilty before that God. A true God makes no errors in judgment. A true God is eternal and has complete control over all fates and destinies.
A true God assumes that perfect justice exists, and such God is the master of it. A true God bestows free will upon all its subjects to give them the opportunity to choose between good and evil because God doesn't want robots and false friends. A true God is benevolent.
I suppose a true God would have no limits to their power and can make everyone into people true to that God's will, but I don't think any religion subscribes to that.
I suppose people can make a God or gods of anything or anyone.
Sand Dancer
Currently catless
And cats have never forgotten that.
More that qualities of 'a god', Shri KRshNa describes to Arjuna what are Divine qualities -- daivI sadguNa -- and says there are 2 kinds of beings or natures -- daivi svabhAv (divine nature ) and Asuri svabhAv (the opposite).
Bhagavad Geeta 16.1,2,3
श्रीभगवानुवाच |
अभयं सत्त्वसंशुद्धिर्ज्ञानयोगव्यवस्थिति: |
दानं दमश्च यज्ञश्च स्वाध्यायस्तप आर्जवम् || 1||
अहिंसा सत्यमक्रोधस्त्याग: शान्तिरपैशुनम् |
दया भूतेष्वलोलुप्त्वं मार्दवं ह्रीरचापलम् || 2||
तेज: क्षमा धृति: शौचमद्रोहोनातिमानिता |
भवन्ति सम्पदं दैवीमभिजातस्य भारत || 3||
The Supreme Divine Personality (KRshNa) said: O scion of Bharat, these are the saintly virtues of those endowed with a divine nature (daivi sampadA - divine treasure) —
fearlessness, (abhay)
purity of mind, (sattva saumshuddhi)
steadfastness in spiritual knowledge, (dnyAna yoga vyavasthitah: ]
charity, [of any kind, not just money - highest charity is charity of fearlessness - abhaydaan]
control of the senses,
sacrifice,
study of the sacred books,
austerity,
and straightforwardness;
non-violence,
truthfulness,
absence of anger,
renunciation,
peacefulness,
restraint from fault-finding,
toward all living beings,
absence of covetousness, [jealousy, envy included]
gentleness,
modesty,
and lack of fickleness;
vigor,
forgiveness,
fortitude,
cleanliness,
bearing enmity toward none, and
absence of vanity.
(from Swami Mukundananda's translation - but most are identical in these verses as there is no 2 ways about it)
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Secret Chief
Degrow!
Certainly not mine! {must dash, I'm required...}
OPINIONS:
I've been warned by forum sysops that I should state that these are my opinions. Okay, all of my posts are opinions.
God destroyed Sodom and flooded the world (Noah's flood) because humans didn't follow the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments say "thou shalt not kill." But that is just my opinion of a commandment. Others might have a different take on that. So, really, "thou shalt not kill" might not apply to the killing of 1,000,000 Iraqis in the recent war because the Ten Commandments are really the Ten Suggestions....in fact, they are the Ten Suggestions unless you feel that you want to kill, then killing is fine.
When we turn God's commandments into suggestions, then aggressively defy God's direct orders, couldn't we provoke another Sodomlike destruction or Noahlike flood? Are God's commandments supposed to be opinions?
ALL KNOWING....KNOWS FUTURE:
It is thought that the Christian God is all knowing, and He even knows the future.
But, if God knows the future, why does he have to test humans to see which ones are good and which ones are bad? Why do we have to live on earth (with poop, pee, crime, pain, etc)? Why not just send the good ones to heaven and lock the bad ones in hell?
Why not tell us the future, so that we can avoid bad things?
Knowing the future is not a requirement of all Gods.
Knowing everything is not a requirement of all Gods, either.
However, it begs the question how God made everything (like the intricacy of the human mind and the intricacy of the human eyeball) if he wasn't extremely smart? So, this wouldn't imply that God knows everything, but does imply that God must be extremely smart.
Could there be an all powerful idiot God who causes destruction accidentally?
ALL POWERFUL:
Jews were originally polytheists, but I suppose that they didn't want to offend the "most powerful" God, so they picked only one to worship--fearing retribution if they didn't give full devotion to Him.
KIND:
Satan is all powerful and all knowing too, and some choose to believe in Him. They don't necessarily worship evil, but they chose to worship Satan to enjoy life. Refraining from gambling, sex, drugs, and other things might not be for everyone. Some believe that Satan is cruel and is constantly tempting them to stray.
Puritans would torture someone who enjoyed song or dance (even humming). Is God supposed to be so harsh? Or, should God be kind? Remember the Salem witch trials (drowning, burning, stocks) that were at the behest of puritans?
The Christian God is said to be kind. But, the bible is filled with unkind acts of God (Noah's flood, Sodom, the current end of the world that started with the war in Iraq and will result in the end of the world (including the seven plagues of Revelation 15), according to Revelation (a chapter of the bible).
EVERYWHERE:
Are there many Gods or one God? Is a volcano God that demands the best foods and virgin sacrifices the same God as our God? Is the God of a nude tribe our God? Is the cannibal God our God? Did our one God make his presence known to all cultures? If not, why not? Is there a boundary where God doesn't have dominance? God put Satan in charge of the earth when Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden. Does that mean that God no longer can go to earth or help in any way?
JUDGES GOOD AND EVIL:
Should humans prevent Gay marriage because Gayness is against God's laws? Does Gay marriage cause regular marriage to be meaningless? Should we deprive Gays of inheritance, child custody, and other things because of the perception that Gays are evil? Only God is the judge. "Judge not lest ye be judged" (Jesus, Sermon on the Mount). "Don't look at the splinter in your neighbor's eye before looking at the log in your own."
INSTRUCTS HUMANS AND PRAYER:
Some swear that God answered their prayers. They might pray for food and find some, then attribute that to God. But what if no one answers prayers? What if a cancer patient prays to God to end the suffering, would God then take them to heaven?
The bible seems like an instruction manual. Jews are even told what not to eat. God (in Revelation....a chapter of the bible) instructed us not to attack Iraq. President W. Bush defied God and killed (wars). As it turns out, God was right and W. Bush was wrong. Why is it hard for people to realize that God knows the future and can instruct humans?
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ppp
Well-Known Member
Again, that doesn't make sense. Greed is a motive. Worship is not.
PureX
Veteran Member
Jesus was not God. He never said he was God, and he corrected those who claimed he was God. The Roman Ceasar at the time, however, did proclaim himself to be a god.