Made to worship?

Discussions toward a better understanding of LDS doctrine, history, and culture. Discussion of Christianity, religion, and faith in general is welcome.
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Rob4Hope
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Made to worship?

Post by Rob4Hope » Thu Jan 05, 2023 5:52 pm

I have a general question for you out there.

I've often wondered if we humans have an intrinsic need, genetic or otherwise, to "worship". It seems like when we don't understand something, we don't immediately (as a general rule) jump to logic to help us sift through the confusion, but we jump to "supernatural" as a way to explain, or to guru's who are wiser (we think), or more able to see clearly...etc.

I also think that we are the most deceived generation that has ever been in this modern era. We have too much information, and that which we have is so controlled and fed to us, we can't discern truth from error, even if we wanted.

William Colby, late CIA director, is alleged to have said this:

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."

Now I don't want to argue whether he said this or not....because as a topic, it stands on its own IMHO.

I know we are fed lies. GAWD....just watch the news! The brazen attitude of newscasters, politicians, and just about everyone else is OFF THE SCALE. And in the midst of that, there are people looking to God, or supernatural sources, as the "real reasons".

Is there something about humans that leads us to want to worship, be that God, god, nature, sports stars, politicians....etc?

Thoughts?

Cnsl1
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Re: Made to worship?

Post by Cnsl1 » Sat Jan 07, 2023 7:03 pm

I don't think we have an innate need to worship, and I also don't think we're the most deceived generation in modern history, but you do present a strong case. I think it's pretty clear that we have access to the most information than any other generation before, and while we might have passed through the information age right into the attention monitization age, we still have access to a great deal of info, including historical data that refudiates much of what we might have believed, forcing us to think more for ourselves. There will always be sheep and those who are easily swayed by a talking head or a miraculous product that stopped their friend's great aunt's cancer, but my feeling (and hope) is that brighter minds will prevail, that data will trump Trumpets, and that for every evil minded or narcissistic machination, there will be two cooler altruistic heads. Because at the end of the day, humankind seeks happiness, and real meaning and happiness in this rove we call life comes through work, love, and service. And eventually, most people figure that out.

Or thus I hope.

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Rob4Hope
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Re: Made to worship?

Post by Rob4Hope » Sun Jan 08, 2023 11:12 am

In my memory, I thought I read in LDS curriculum or perhaps an apologist doc, statements saying that we have an inborn desire to worship, all from God, so that he would have those who glorify Him.

Does anyone know anything about this?

And also, what about the LDS position regarding worship?.....does it seem that obedience trumps worship, Jesus, and even love, as far as the LDS stint is progressing?

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alas
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Re: Made to worship?

Post by alas » Sun Jan 08, 2023 12:51 pm

Psychologically, there is a innate tendency to want God. It comes from needing our parents as children and then as adults still wanting something all powerful to fix the things we cannot control. So, maybe not an innate need to worship so much as a wish we could control the uncontrollable, so we invent someone who can. In primitive cultures, it was praying and sacrificing to get rain, or for the food source to be plentiful. In more modern cultures, there s still a lot we cannot control, so we pray to fill in the medical things we cannot control. If God has power over the earth, he must be the creator of it, so ancients send God to explain what they didn’t know how to explain. Today, there are fewer things we can’t explain, but still some. God has to be all knowing as well as all powerful. So, it is still a God of the gaps. Combine that with the innate need to be loved, and we make our powerful being into a loving being, who of course is still all powerful and all knowing. So, God fills a lot of human needs that are innate.

“God” also can be a very useful concept. It can be used to control others. You don’t think that the Spanish Conquistadors wanted to convert the American Natives to save their souls, do you. No, converting them to
Christianity and providing them with the only priests was a way to control them, after beating them in battle and taking control of course. So, the religion was used as a tool to control the conquered people because the rulers controlled the religion.

Religion spreads primarily by force, from tribal times when one tribe killed at the men and took the women as wives and taught the children the new religion, to the Romans conquering Europe and then converting them while controlling the religion, to the schools in the US and Canada where native children were taken from their tribe and put in boarding schools and taught, English, Christianity, and white culture, but the white people aways controlled the religion.

So, people wanting power use the innate need for God to maintain power.

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Angel
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Re: Made to worship?

Post by Angel » Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:41 pm

In Gladwell 's book outliers, the athiest Chinese culture was born from tediously tending demanding rice fields (rely on hard work to survive)

Athiest china vs other cultures who farmed easier crops - much less work - and chucked loss and gain up to God rather than hard work.

We are herd animals, tribal, rely on group-think, find safety in numbers. Tribes have a queen bee, half-god emperor, Pharoah, kings, dictators, popes, medicine man - every group has their *god*
“You have learned something...That always feels at first as if you have lost something.” George Bernard Shaw
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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