-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
What makes a deity worthy of worship?
- Thread starter nazz
- Start date
Gnostic Seeker
Spiritual
You speak as though gods must lower themselves to somehow be worthy of a lowly species like us here on planet earth. I worship my gods because I have feeling for them, not because they fit into some idea of mine about worthiness.
Gnostic Seeker
Spiritual
However, I suppose I should give answering your OP a shot. Just like the sky exists, and is praiseworthy simply because it exists and is beautiful and meaningful, so the gods are praiseworthy because they exist and are meaningful.
nazz
Doubting Thomas
No right or wrong answers here. Just curious. But for me the fact that things exist and are beautiful and meaningful is not enough to engender worship.
What prompted this for me is a comment someone made to me in another forum: "You have made it abundantly clear that any deity that doesn't pass muster with YOU is not worthy of your worship."
That got me to thinking. It certainly true that I would not consider an evil deity worthy of worship. But I'm not sure I worship the deity that I do simply because I define that deity as perfectly good. So I am not sure how to answer the questions I posed here.
Gnostic Seeker
Spiritual
Wouldn't a god be beyond good and evil though? Why would anyone think a deity would be good? Good is a principle that stands by itself, or so the Greeks thought. The gods aren't what we would call moral, simply because our morals are human. If anyone said they thought a god was worthy because they were good- I'd ask what they mean by good.
nazz
Doubting Thomas
I think I addressed my idea here:
Defining God as the Force for Good | ReligiousForums.com
But that is not really why I worship my deity. I do so because I find it a rewarding experience.
That's not quite how I see it. My default definition of the gods is that which a person or culture deems worthy of worship. In no way does this mean to imply the gods must "lower" themselves to human standards of worth, it is meant to express that putting that word "god" to something is about recognizing that it has value or is sacred. We humans disagree on what has value or about what is sacred, which is part of why we have so many different conceptions of god(s).
In coming to my own understanding of the gods, I decided that everything was sacred or bore intrinsic value, without exception. I came to this through understanding that all of reality is interdependent and interconnected, or a great Weave. All the threads in the tapestry are required to make reality what it is, and being a reality-affirming person who rather enjoys this existence, I see all of reality as sacred. Although it is impossible for me to actively worship everything, I see everything as worthy of that regard.
Gnostic Seeker
Spiritual
That is a very interesting outlook.
Gnostic Seeker
Spiritual
Nazz I looked at your link, and I'll ask you what I ask people who make the universe God (capital G)- why call that a god? Doesn't it follow that good is something specific, and a god is also something specific? Why conflate the two (good=god)?
Sabour
Well-Known Member
Deities might conceivably be worth of worship due to legacy ties, manifest wisdom, or old-fashioned love, I think.
nazz
Doubting Thomas
I don't. I was just focusing on that one aspect of God.
How does one tell a deity from something that is not a deity?
All it takes is for that deity to be a "power greater then myself". That's it... Nothing anymore special then that.
nazz
Doubting Thomas
...and why does just being one make it worthy of worship?
Sabour
Well-Known Member
I would say logical reflecting on things and searching for the truth with being sincere about it. If there is a deity worthy of worship the deity will guide the person if he did those three. That is what I believe.
Sabour
Well-Known Member
When we come to the conclusion that there is a deity there are many things we have to consider.
Examples, what are the attributes? what is our purpose of life? Do we require guidance from the deity ? and many other questions.
Much of the answers you will conclude about the deity will answer these questions.
McBell
Unbound
There are as many different reasons as there are people who worship deities.
There are as many different reason as there are those who do not worship.
McBell
Unbound
This is true for everyone.
Unless one equally worships every single possible god concept, they have in fact deemed some of them unworthy of their worship.