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Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 1:35 pm
I was pondering the phenomenon of humans worshipping gods, and this question occurred to me: What is worship, anyway?
My initial thoughts: It's an attempt to consistently cultivate specific emotions (e.g. awe, fear, love) through the use of ritual cues such as liturgy, actions and environment. What say you?
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 1:39 pm
Manipulation for the benefit of those in control.
If you don't succumb, it becomes a great time to take a nap.
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Those are definitely some of the things that worship can be used to achieve. Are we talking about worship in the grandest sense or in the most constrained..private worship?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 3:07 pm
(June 23, 2017 at 1:39 pm)mh.brewer Wrote: Manipulation for the benefit of those in control.
If you don't succumb, it becomes a great time to take a nap.
And emotions (and emotional cues, such as certain pieces of music) are a powerful hook to manipulate people.
(June 23, 2017 at 1:40 pm)Khemikal Wrote: Those are definitely some of the things that worship can be used to achieve. Are we talking about worship in the grandest sense or in the most constrained..private worship?
Either/or. For instance, someone with a self-directed practice done in private could be trying to recapture a particular sense of peace and well-being that happened once before, or may have started the practice to deal with unruly emotions. The effect is a bit more prominent in large, formal church services, however.
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 3:34 pm
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2017 at 3:37 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
They could be, yeah..I just thought it might be useful to make the distinction..because if we reference the nature of private worship it removes the manipulation or profit motive. I think that gets us closer to the nature of what we're discussing...that some peoplke manipulate worship would be another issue not directly informative as regards worship at it's very core.
OI would add that worship can also be an unreserved outpouring of emotion. Not directed or with any attempt to cultivate it, just genuine greif or thankfulness or all of the above, etc. In this way it might allow us a moment to "simply be" - to exist as we are unfiltered. Ecstasy.
Many forms of worship are capable of providing that even in the absence of belief in the object of worship - though one assumes that this belief would only heighten the experience.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 5:17 pm
From the worshiper's perspective, It's the ultimate display of respect, and ultimate surrendering.
The respect and surrender vary in degrees; while some respect their deities to the level of belief and following orders, others don't.
For example, I respect Jesus and Mohammed peace be upon them. But not to an ultimate degree.
I respect the creator of this life; to an ultimate degree. I declare my utter surrender to him too.
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 5:21 pm
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2017 at 5:22 pm by brewer.)
"So, if you feel like givin' me a lifetime of devotion, I second that emotion".
OMG right?
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 5:28 pm
Quite possible. I have channeled those feelings into a Saganesque admiration of the Cosmos, but I don't doubt for a second that other less benign meme viruses also exploit them to ensure their survival.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 5:50 pm
Maybe worship is just taking time out from the pragmatic tasks that occupy us most of the time to notice the fine grained things we rarely attend to but which can be transfixing when contemplating the cosmos. I think those feelings/perspectives are hard to hold on to. So maybe rituals help people make time? Still, it is easy for an intellectually held abstraction to completely take the place. That is probably why Sagan's rituals included ganja.
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RE: Worship and Emotion
June 23, 2017 at 6:37 pm
Worship seems to be what one of my cats desperately wants from me and ain't never gonna get.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
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