Worship - Imposing Vanity on the Supreme Being



Posted: Friday, November 13, 2009

by
VitalOne Health Plans Direct, LLC.

Why does man feel such a need to worship? When I say worship I speak mainly of religious worship even though man does indeed worship many things. The worship I am speaking of however is the formal kind of traditional religious worship. It can be said that man worships money, power or God, however none are worshipped as formally as God.

Elaborate rituals, social taboos and powerful symbols shroud this figure in mystery as animal, incense and devotion are offered on the altar. Why do we as human beings have this intense desire to offer all of ourselves and personal belongings to a person; in fact, a concept of which we cannot see? Normally it would seem foolish to believe the words of our peers, especially when it comes to invisible men in the sky; however even in our age of science do we believe blindly and faithfully in the "divine".

I would argue though, what use is it to worship, even if one does believe in a "higher" power? (The word "higher" implying that there is an above in which the deity resides and a below where the deity does not reside; a concept rife with error in itself.) I propose, in fact, that worship is purely selfish for both the worshipper and the worshipped. What on Earth could the divine possible want or lack that we as human beings have? Why would a supreme being want love unless he did lack it? If he lacks not, then he logically he wants not which puts our attempts to praise him in vain.

Vain it is, literally though; it is only vanity. By worshipping a deity we impose vanity upon the deity. The deity must be able to accept the praises and worships of his people without rejection or humility due to the frequency of prayer. Is a vain God a worthy God? Are we created only to validate and enhance God's vanity? Let's look at a simple lesson from (some sects of)Hinduism: the worship and image of a Deity is a tool to cultivate the properties imposed on an idol within oneself. So, as human beings by imposing vanity on another being, we cultivate the aspects of that being within ourselves. To worship then has nothing to do with the Divine.

The more I study religion and spirituality the more I realize that it is for us. The attribution of events that happen to the divine is a mistake, as whether or not the divine exists does not matter. Religion is a lesson in self absorption; a tool to escape into the depths of ourselves and hopefully come back with something worthwhile. This is why we created the concept of the devil for those times that we retrieve something that we or others can't accept.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Lisa Summerfield
 2 years 90 days ago.
18 fans.
Religion was created by man and as such has the faults and imperfections that are not an attribute of the Divine. God does not need our worship, but first of all God is not out there, God in in us, so perhaps we need to Love ourselves
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