and no, it doesn't have to be "balanced" by hatred of ANY thing. and by love i don't mean we can't enjoy nature and technology too. or have to spend so much time dwelling only one each other as to not even be able to responsibly design our technology so as to not make a mess out of nature. and i don't really care what name you call it by, because all the names, we make up those ourselves anyway. which we only confuse ourselves by doing, because things we don't know exist, and arn't obliged to resemble whatever we might want to think we know about the names we invent for them. i don't understand worship but i do understand not wanting to make each other unhappy
Worship allows people to abdicate their existential freedom and self responsibility. By valuing someone's life above their own life, they excuse themselves from having to be responsible for the quality of their own lives; their lives become a write-off and past and future shames and failures are rendered inconsequential in the wake of the more important grand scheme. Complacency and pretense ensue.
themax... always nice to see you, it's been years. As for the love all you need is within you and those who do not seek out the need to make others unhappy. Be happy, you are here. You might be surprised of those who think of you and you do not know, those that bless you, wish you well. Peace in humility. =)
Seems to me that co-operation is a better thing than 'worship'. And one way to enact our wish not to cause distress is also co-operation. Rather than competition. Co-operating with others, co-operating with nature and the universe. Co-operating with our own nature, rather than seeking to shape it to some external mould of someone else's invention. Love.
One reason for worship is to force understanding...that is, the more people believe there is a spiritual side, in theory, the kinder they will treat each other.
It's in our interest to be kind and benevolent to EVERYONE. Do we really need a magic man in the sky to tell us this?
What if you go about participating in this "love" you speak of, could that not in some way be considered a form of worship? The utmost form of "worship" could simply be putting anything in to practice for the sake of something greater, therefore paying homage to that greater "thing/ideal" (in this case "love"). As opposed to simply making statements "I believe, I will do this....etc..." Actions rather than words. Very well put....all in all the only person we can change is ourselves, one cannot make decisions for others, but can certainly influence them in some way or another.
i don't think we need one to tell us this, but if one feels like existing that's cool too. and i wouldn't say "man" "in the sky", as humanity's collective ego is already excessive, and there are prettier life forms, even on our own planet. i'm not sure exactly what all the reasons are so many people seem to fail to "get it" about the best interests of all of us being in their own best interest personally. but i agree we ARE perfectly capable of doing so.
It is not the failure of men that they do not recognize our common cause. We are able students of any virtue. It is the lessons of tradition that are suspect. We are taught competition. Our markets are competitive, our games are competitive, our academics are competitive, and even our religions are couched in striving. Tradition is a kind of ritual warfare that has usurped the cultivation of our real and current engagement with life, which is our true devotion or worship. Tradition has shattered the integrity of our minds to the point where we see our lives as made up of only dimly related pieces that compete for our attention. We work or study for a time, then we might be required to do household chores before we can get on with our "real life" or the thing we think we would prefer to do. Oh, and we need to include another competing part, our "spiritual life", so we have a ritual our for that as well. Tradition forever would hold our fine free life at arms length, always in pursuit, always on the road to somewhere. Always having to pay a toll, prescribing a life who's only hope of sustained fulfillment lies beyond the grave. Tradition is fixated on a ritualistic life and not on an authentic one. No wonder so many feel and are, displaced and unwanted. Tradition is the false authority that keeps men from recognizing our true thoroughly mutual dependence with all things. We need society. Tradition on the other hand is suspect number one as the cause of social illness.
You might say a fixation on a set of processes which have become wholly mechanical. We need society, society needs us. It is only really the sum of individuals. The more individuals can free themselves from slavishly acting out a repitition of the past, the more hope there will be for society. I agree that traditional patterns of belief etc have led to a situation which can only be described as a catastrophe. If we look back to the roots of these traditions in the early civilizations of mesapotamia, egypt etc, it appears that the whole direction they were aimed in was actually to separate us from the life of the tribal hunter gatherer, living in, and intimately connected to nature, and to programme humans into becoming good, hard working, 'god and king' fearing, civilized robots. To day, this is still the case by and large. Of course, I am not suggesting we can go back or that it would be desirable to do so. I think we need something new - but we need to recover the awareness of our interconnectedness with the universe. Inaugurate new cultural patterns on the basis of this awareness. Somehow.
