Wednesday, April 7, 2010

To Worship or Not to Worship?

That is the question...

Who or What is worthy of worship? Can worship be "falsely" assigned?

According to our discussion in class, in some cases worship can be misplaced, meaning that humans could wrongly worship a power. For example in the Twilight episode we watched as a psychopath tried to rule through terror and abuse.

This brings up another question. Can worship, done out of fear, really be defined as worship?

I believe that this form of worship is insincere and cannot fall under the category of the faithful. For someone to truly worship I believe that he or she or it actually needs to feel some sort of devotion. Throughout history there have been times when rulers have reigned with an iron fist. Man kind has fallen under these leaders for self preservation, but secretly there are rebellions. This example illustrates my point. While on the surface the population seemingly obeys, there is really dissension in their private lives.

Which brings me to my conclusion and definition:
Worship: The devotion one "shows" in the privacy of their mind.

I chose to define worship in this way, because people can show actions that are contradictory to what they are actually thinking. However the thoughts that play in the mind are usually the true feelings of that individual and therefore are the purest forms of an individuals beliefs.

1 comment:

coshodi13 said...

Answering your question concerning if worship done out of fear is really considered worship, I think not. In his article, Smuts says that worship is not done out of fear but out of sincere and genuine emotions for a person or object. I think that if you worsihp something or someone simply because you are fearful of them or their power, then you are not displaying your truest and most sincere emotions, which is something that is necessary to do when worshipping something.