Why is God Up?

[Sunstone]

Why do so many of us think of God as being located above us? Is there any particular reason for that? Or is it just historical accident?

 

[Quintessence]

I don't.

But it's not a historical accident and there's very good reason for it, but the specific reasons depend on exactly what culture and theology you're looking at. The classical monotheistic brand probably stems from archaic ideas about the firmament/heavens and philosophies that spoke of them being perfect and unchanging (as compared to the lower spheres which were imperfect and changing). That vision of perfection and grandeur is evoked by the sky, so they equate or correspond it to their deity. But I'm not really sure. I've just studied enough of ancient mythos and philosophy to know a few things here and there.

 

[methylatedghosts]

I suspect it's probably got something to do with the language we use.
Higher self
God is great
God is more
Highest heaven
etc

Things that are greater, better, stronger, more have connotations of being up. I guess it may have something to do with the feeling that God's greatness and goodness is out of reach of the average person.

 

[WyattDerp]

That's not even the worst of it... where is up? Nobody really knows! D:

 

[WyattDerp]

Things that are greater, better, stronger, more have connotations of being up. I guess it may have something to do with the feeling that God's greatness and goodness is out of reach of the average person.

But why up? The center of Earth is actually more out of our reach than "away from Earth". Everybody can jump or throw a stone to reach a bit higher, and we can *look* there -- but even going 1 cm lower requires digging, depending on where you are with heavy tools, and we cannot see anything of it unless we dig.

 

[InChrist]

It may be because of scriptures verses like this:



“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

 

[fantome profane]

I have always thought this had something to do early attempts by the Catholic Church to demonize (literally) pagan religions. The idea is that a lot of non-Christian religions had an idea of a sacred earth, the earth mother etc. And the patriarchal church wanted to suppress pagan "mother earth" religions so down becomes evil, and up good.



Even as I am saying this I suspect it is too simplistic of an explanation. And perhaps I have been sold a bill of goods by new-age feminist Wiccans. But I also think there is something to the idea.

 

[Quintessence]

Pagans had sky gods, though, so yeah, you've probably been sold a bill of goods by New Age feminist "Wiccans."

I'm still relatively sure it has its basis in the natural philosophies of the era. Which I've read too much of for my own good, but was reading mostly for information regarding the Four so my knowledge of ancient natural philosophy is a bit telescopic.

 

[Breathe]

Up = more powerful, probably.

I don't think God is supposed to be taken as actually 'up' in the clouds, though. That's why mythologies give huge distances covering between God/gods and man.

For example, the realm of the devas is 84,000 yojan (672,000 miles) above the earth.

 

[fantome profane]

Pagans had sky gods, though, so yeah, you've probably been sold a bill of goods by New Age feminist "Wiccans."

I'm still relatively sure it has its basis in the natural philosophies of the era. Which I've read too much of for my own good, but was reading mostly for information regarding the Four so my knowledge of ancient natural philosophy is a bit telescopic.

Yeah, but the sky gods tended to be male.

 

[Twilight Hue]

That's not even the worst of it... where is up? Nobody really knows! D:

Might be downstairs.

 

[InformedIgnorance]

I always thought it was that up was bigger and more unknown, more strange and wonderful the fantastic colours that dance across the sky bringing rain and warmth, light and life, the free floating sun and moon and their interplay...

Were we to call it now, with our increased awareness of reality and the world around us and the microscopic universe, the wonders of metaphysics, quantum mechanics, string theory and so much more... perhaps might instead say god is down.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I agree with what many people say about the language usage. "Higher" power for example, so people would point up to symbolize what's higher than them. The same example can be carried on when people are talking about congress or government, or even something as simple as celebrities, when people point up towards the sky when talking about them sometimes.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

From my understanding, it had something to do with the idea that early religion had something to do with uniting heaven and earth. Most of the early religions' gods were either heaven gods or earth gods. Heaven was seen as higher than earth, so their gods were more important than the earth gods. Eventually, the heaven gods were the sole recipients of worship, until this became monotheistic, so "god" was seen as high up in the heavens.

 

[Father Heathen]

Because the earth is a sphere, down is eventually up.

 

[Willamena]

Why do so many of us think of God as being located above us? Is there any particular reason for that? Or is it just historical accident?

I've encoutered a few artists who refer to god, as foundational, as beneath.

 

[outhouse]

Why do so many of us think of God as being located above us? Is there any particular reason for that? Or is it just historical accident?

If you placed your gods in realm humans could not get to while alive, those humans who opposed your religion could never prove your god false .


But in reality this would be because religions prior to the Abrahamic deity had their deities in these kind of places. Israelites compiled a family of deities into one and these resided in the heavens, even Egyptians had this kind of concept of heavens.

Israelites viewed their first deity El as the "God Most High" El Elyon, he was the father of all the deities and his wife was Asherah, Ball and Yahweh were their sons early on before some sects gave all Els attributes to Yahweh during times of war. Which finally led to monotheism under Yahweh.

Early attributes to Yahweh as a storm deity had him placed in the sky as well.

And on a side note, the name has slipped me, bit they didnt view the air as nothing, they viewed it as a substance.

 

[outhouse]

From my understanding, it had something to do with the idea that early religion had something to do with uniting heaven and earth. Most of the early religions' gods were either heaven gods or earth gods. Heaven was seen as higher than earth, so their gods were more important than the earth gods. Eventually, the heaven gods were the sole recipients of worship, until this became monotheistic, so "god" was seen as high up in the heavens.

Yep frubals

 

[Quintessence]

Honestly, when I first looked at this thread, my first reaction was the reasons are self-evident. This comes from personal religious experiences I've had - and that I'd like to think anyone has had - when contemplating the sky. A quote from a book I've started reading by the wonderful Karen Armstrong captures it well enough:

The earliest mythologies taught people to see through the tangible world to a reality that seemed to embody something else. But this required no leap of faith, because at this stage there seemed to be no metaphysical gulf between the sacred and the profane. When these early people looked at a stone, they did not see an inert, unpromising rock. It embodied strength, permanence, solidity and an absolute mode of being that was quite different from the vulnerable human state. Its very otherness made it holy.

...

Some of the very earliest myths, probably dating back to the Paleolithic period, were associated with the sky, which seems to have given people their first notion of the divine. When they gazed at the sky – infinite, remote and existing quite apart from their puny lives – people had a religious experience. The sky towered above them, inconceivably immense, inaccessible and eternal. It was the very essence of transcendence and oneness. Human beings could do nothing to affect it. The endless drama of its thunderbolts, eclipses, storms, sunsets, rainbows and meteors spoke of another endlessly active dimension, which had a dynamic life of its own. Contemplating the sky filled people with dread and delight, with awe and fear. The sky attracted them and repelled them. It was by its very nature numinous, in the way described by the great historian of religion, Rudolf Otto. In itself, without any imaginary deity behind it, the sky was mysterium tremendum, terrible et fascinans.

(excerpted from pages 16-18)

The sky is a universal symbol (or nearly so) of the grandness and transcendence that the most common conception of the divine/sacred embodies. Even ignoring the natural philosophy, this symbolism alone makes it unsurprising to me that the divine is often equated with the sky and heavens. That's not the only place where it is seen in a given religion, but it is one that managed to endure even in the monotheistic and non-nature centered faiths.

 

[painted wolf]

My opinion is that it's because death is below us. We bury our dead in the ground under our feet and the ground is cold and hard... but we watch birds fly free in the air and we feel the wind as "breath" and the sun gives us warmth and light... so it makes sense that "up" would be something positive.

First Nations people often (though not always) had a sense that East was good or lucky while West was evil or unlucky... Warmth and sunlight arrive from the East and the West swallows it up and replaces it with cold and darkness.

UP and down generally follow a similar pattern.

wa:do