I mean, sounds pretty religious if it starts with “there’s no such thing as atheism”.
There absolutely is.
I’m very atheist.
And I don’t worship anything.
It sounds like evangelicals really don’t like that idea so try to make it seem untrue.
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Done
I would say it’s philosophical rather than religious, much in the same way the Program relies on a higher power but doesn’t require that higher power to be a religious deity. A religion is an institution, but a person can believe in “God” as a spiritual being and not ascribe to any of the tenets of any one religion, for example.
But I understand what you mean, and I also agree with your last statement. I do think that evangelical Christians operate under the assumption that all humans have a “God-shaped hole” they are trying to fill through one means or another, which justifies an edict for aggressive evangelizing. They believe people are suffering because they are worshipping the wrong thing, because, again, worship is the default state given the general feeling of dissatisfaction in their lives.
I also grew up in an Evangelical Christian household. I think your statement is true for many of them.
However, I completely disagree with their premise that everyone “worships something”. There are certainly some behaviors of non-religious people that may fall within this definition, but I don’t think most non-religious people worship things. For example, there are both religious and non-religious people that enjoy cars. Are they all worshipping them? Most are not IMO. There is a small % of the population so consumed with car culture that maybe you could put them in that category, but they are the rare exception. Everyone has personal interests regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof, but that doesn’t usually mean they “worship” that interest.
Some current examples of behaviors of non-religious people that could seem in some ways like worship to me: QAnon believers and some addictions. I’m sure we could come up with others.
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I don’t disagree with that.
I find it ironic that of all the people in my life, those who arguably “worship” something other than God most noticeably are evangelicals who believe the GOP is their salvation. This is a conversation I’ve had with my family many times, but it doesn’t get through.
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I think it’s the protestant perspective that equates “worship” with “prioritize.” remember that for them, personal faith rather than objective ritual becomes the basis of religion.
worshipping god comes to mean prioritizing god above all else.
a great deal of emphasis is put on idolatry. it is easy to imagine that, say, worldly success is the most important thing. then you have made an idol out of money.
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They even made a Golden Trump to worship at CPAC
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Everybody has something they look towards that gives their life meaning, and is the most important thing in their life, don’t they?
It seems like you are equating “worship” with blind obedience or trust. I don’t think that is correct.
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Something that gives your life meaning can be very different than worship IMO. For many people kids and family give their life meaning. I wouldn’t call that worship under most circumstances. Even if you go with “prioritizing”, that doesn’t necessarily often fit worship either. We can’t go more than a couple of days without water, but most of us don’t worship water.
Worship could include blind obedience or trust, but not necessarily. The definitions snik posted earlier seem like how most people would understand the verb worship:
i think those definitions are fine for everyday use, but do not really give any insight about what worship essentially is.
i don’t know if we want to use the word “worship” of “faith” or something else. but i do think we all turn, psychologically and spiritually,to something for meaning. usually it’s something we perceive as greater than ourselves, maybe always.
whether that priority is expressed as a particular set of rituals, or as gushing twitter posts for a celebrity, or as working all the time, misses the point, in my opinion.
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I would not say I turn to a higher power type myself for meaning, but YMMV
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I don’t think it’s necessarily a “higher power.”
For example, i suppose that secular humanism find meaning in advancing the capacities of human beings. There is not anything supernatural there, so not anything “higher” in that sense. But there is participation in a process of progress that is more important than the individual.
or the united states finds meaning in the advocacy of a particular vision of freedom.
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I strongly disagree with this very narrow world view
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I do believe in some things that are bigger than the individual, but that doesn’t typically constitute worship. If we want to redefine worship to include having any priorities, any likes/dislikes, or any beliefs at all, we’ve made worship a relatively meaningless term that is far apart from it’s original definition.
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why do you think it’s narrow? what possibilities do you think i’m excluding?
I’m not saying it’s any priority. i’m saying it’s your greatest priority, what is most important to you.
do you think your life is meaningful? if so, why? why do you bother to live your life every day?
i’m not really asking you to answer here. but there must be an answer, right?
I honestly think that many people never think about this, and there isn’t really any particular thing that makes their lives meaningful to them. They just live their lives. Yes, they try to fulfill their responsibilities and enjoy themselves, but they don’t think about “is this meaningful?” very often, and if they do, they may not come up with an answer.
I almost never think about “the meaning of life”. I get up in the morning because that’s what diurnal living beings do.
Do you think that cats and robins worship something?
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I agree with NerdAlert’s take. This is something I see in the Protestant church too. It does not require an assumption that God exists. Go back to where worship = prioritize.
We all prioritize something whether we believe in God or not. Job, spouse, kid(s), God, money, beauty, house, something.
We all have priorities, which are usually very different than worship. We all need water more urgently than religion, but I doubt anyone thinks we worship water as a result. Almost all prioritize work over worship in terms of hours spent, but I doubt most of us think we worship our jobs more than God. Lots of low wage workers have to work long hours at multiple jobs to survive as a main priority, but I dont think that typically feels like worship.
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I don’t think it is an intellectual activity for most people. It is something that is lived.
For example, we know that america claims to exist to further life, liberty, happiness, and worldwide democracy. but we also ask- how does it act? what does it really support.
i know that for catholicism in the middle ages, “faith” took the form of participation in the sacraments. it was not an intellectualized faith for the vast majority of people. but they still took meaning from it. in that way, i suspect it was more similar to judaism (or how i imagine judaism to be.)
as i understand it, it was the protestant reformers who fully emphasized a consciousness of this subjective prioritization. They were very concerned with idolatry, and destroyed many religious pictures and objects. People were expected to read the bible on their own, and personally understand it.
No. I think there is a separation between us and nature in that respect (though not a complete separation, obviously.)