(December 16, 2019 at 1:35 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: People also worship nature. Just raw, unfiltered, no extra shit added nature with a capital N. It doesn't have free will either, but it's difficult to see why this diminishes nature as a valid object of worship...and so it's not clear why it would diminish any gods with respect to the same.
On this rock, an absurdly strong argument that water and dirt are also valid objects of worship isn't difficult to come by.
As an aside, it's common for people on the boards to notice that so much of the divine character boils down to a misapprehension of natural forces and circumstances - in this view, people are all, ultimately, worshipping nature. The sense of the numinous at least signifies actual content in the world, and this content is and has always defined the field of worship.
My objection isn't what is a valid object of worship, but the reason worship is paid. People worship Allah to get into Paradise. If Allah has no free will (which is problematic for the sobriquet 'The Merciful'), then worshiping Allah for an afterlife reward is no different than worshipping water for the same reason.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson