Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As well, the concept of "worshiping" someone or something, as though you're a total loss without their near-constant guidance is lost on me.
Strangely, when people have NOT been introduced to a Christian lifestyle, for some odd reason, they make it quite nicely through life, thank you very much.
I've concluded that there are those who absolutely require an external intelligence from an alleged superior being to answer those nagging unanswerable questions that plague their incomplete lives. and then, there's the ones who simply do not. I'm sure the theists are absolutely sure that we're missing out on things. But...
I and all my atheist friends? Not so much. Nope: It's not arrogance; the idea simply does not resonate with me. I mean, how can you honestly involve yourself with things that simply do not "resonate" with your free spirit?
I don't agonize about what I am supposed to not know, or things I'm supposed to consult someone else on. When they come up, and if they are a problem, I just think them through and then get on with my life, without wasting time to "worship".
Humility doesn't have to be the same as self-hatred or worthlessness. Although I admit I've had trouble with that at times.
If God is a being that knows everything and transcends the Universe it is unrealistic to think we can have a "friendship of equals" in full. We are "unworthy" largely in the sense of being unequal. Although also on this sense of being flawed and impure I guess. Also that God, in my faith anyway, does want us to think on our flaws in order to keep us from arrogance and to work on self-improvement. This is not the same as "worthlessness." If a plate has a chip in it I may still be fond of it for whatever reason. A person may even feel fondness for someone on death row if they see potential, rehabilitation, and humaneness there. If God, in most systems you're likely referring to, deemed us simply "worthless" then he wouldn't have bothered to suffer and die. (Or if we mean Judaism he wouldn't have spent many centuries guiding them or with Islam gone through the trouble of dictating a whole book)
Granted in some forms of deism God does deem us worthless. I think Voltaire mentioned the idea that for a God who is truly Grand we should mean no more than "a rat in the hull means to a ship's captain." Stapledon indicated in "Star Maker" that the Universe is simply a "failed masterpiece" by "The Divine Artist" and that he cares no more about it than an artist cares about some doodling he or she scrapped. However deists, particularly of that kind, don't necessarily worship God.
The only wrinkle on all this is I think some Calvinist do believe in things that sound like saying humans are worthless. However I am not certain this is what they mean and even the Calvinists have a belief in "the elect", whoever they are, who are not worthless.
Yeah kinda like a wife that stays with her abusive husband, eh?
^This.
I also know from experience that it's really nice to be involved in and be automatically accepted by a group of 'like-minded' individuals such as most church groups. I have a good friend who turned into a 'hardcore' Christian during High School and well into college because she liked the feeling of being included. Now, she's a Wicca and never been happier, even when by herself.
Of course, the church groups I've experienced are really nice until they suck you in...then they systematically destroy you. It's like spiritual Jr. High.
I think most churches preach we are worthless but because god now loves us we are his 'special' kids. This belief therefore counters the worthless belief.
Good grief, just writing that made me realise how crazy the whole thing sounds.
Almost, if not everybody, has some inner inferiority complex.
Overcoming it takes an amount of work and self analysis.
It's much easier to have a god that loves you no matter how much of a jerk you are.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
