Allah. Jehovah. Vishnu. Olodumare. Horus. Barbie. Madonna.

Different forms and different interpretations – how do people come to revere these entities?

Is it because of who they are or who they are not or what they embody or simply because of the multitude of their followers their significance is highly esteemed?

it all started with nimrod and semiramis and tammuz. every culture aped the ancient babylonians. this is the foundation of all those gods you mentioned. what qualifies an entity as god ? empty people looking to fill the holes in their heart with anything

@emofine; Tell me what disqualify Allah in your view from you revering Him? What makes any entity worthy of reverence or not in your mind? Please use Allah to illustrate your decision[s].

Sweetnecta:

@emofine; Tell me what disqualify Allah in your view from you revering Him?

Lol you’re always giving me homework.

Is this a subtle attempt in trying to make me adopt Allah as my personal god?

Well to answer your question, I don’t have a burning conviction to follow Allah but perhaps the reason I do not revere him as such is because my knowledge about him is pretty vague – although I’ve taken steps to remedy my ignorance.

But out of all the deities I’ve loosely studied Allah does not captivate me more than any other. And what makes Allah the legitimate God if there is truly “one true God” especially as there are others that claim this title also?

What makes any entity worthy of reverence or not in your mind? Please use Allah to illustrate your decision[s].

Ok let me just clarify something. I don’t question people’s right to worship any deity if it’s of their own choosing. I just wonder how the entities in which any individual worships attained such a position. As I've asked earlier, what qualifies an entity as god?

Allow me to share a little story with you and perhaps you may understand my point and position. . .

Both my parents come from animists’ backgrounds so they do not underrate the spiritual value of any regarded “fetishes”. I am not an adherent to any religion but I remain sensitive to people’s belief and out of that sensitivity I can consider and value the significance of one’s deity or spirituality.
However when I look at a depiction of any ancient gods and the raw material in which they are made from, I wonder what separates the two inanimate objects. The difference is that one is accorded much esteem whilst the other which is of the same material but different form and embodies no spiritual content is void of any worship. Yet if the raw material was manipulated into a similitude of a deity its status would have suddenly risen. How do these carved depictions or seen or unseen beings come to harbour much spiritual potency anyway?

My animist apostates’ parents never indulged any of their daughters with dolls as they regarded them as fetishes because of their striking human like forms. Of course they provided us with other toys but I couldn't help thinking why the permitted toys were not also regarded as “idols” also. The difference was in how they perceived these items. They didn't detach any spiritual potency from a plastic doll but could detach such energy from a teddy bear for example. So such made me to consider the power of any entity and their status as a deity. Is it inherent or imparted? How do these entities attain the position as god? Is it all in our individual perception or the energy we have attached to them?

My little anecdote is one of the reasons why I mentioned Barbie alongside the whole list of prominent gods lol. And for the fact that Barbie is also a cult.


I would also like to throw the question back at you. What makes any entity worthy of reverence?

They do great and fantastic things in the eyes of primitive or simple people, something that they(the primitives) cannot do by themselves. These beings, thus, become very central in their lives so they worship them. It is not difficult to turn somebody into a God. It just signifies the pinnacle of reverence of a particular being(whatever that being may be) by another being of simplicity.

emöfine:

Allah. Jehovah. Vishnu. Olodumare. Horus. Barbie. Madonna.

Different forms and different interpretations – how do people come to revere these entities?

Is it because of who they are or who they are not or what they embody or simply because of the multitude of their followers their significance is highly esteemed?

buzugee:
this is the foundation of all those gods you mentioned. what qualifies an entity as god ? empty people looking to fill the holes in their heart with anything

Funnily enough I’ve heard this before from a Christian material when I was a child. I wondered, why are we thus born incomplete or perhaps because we’re just insatiable beings. So I wonder if our goal on earth is to seal that hole or perhaps just find a compatible filler hence the yellow brick road.

Jenwitemi:

They do great and fantastic things in the eyes of primitive or simple people, something that they(the primitives) cannot do by themselves. These beings, thus, become very central in their lives so they worship them. It is not difficult to turn somebody into a God. It just signifies the pinnacle of reverence of a particular being(whatever that being may be) by another being of simplicity.

Do you think there's a difference between hero worship and worshiping a deity? Or perhaps that may have been the origin of how some deities came to be? hmmn. . .

Not much difference other than hero worshiping isn't tied with any religion. It happens mostly on individual basis and done voluntarily. But the internal effects on the individuals doing the worshiping on both cases is still the same.

emöfine:

Do you think there's a difference between hero worship and worshiping a deity? Or perhaps that may have been the origin of how some deities came to be? hmmn. . .

Jenwitemi:

Not much difference other than hero worshiping isn't tied with any religion. It happens mostly on individual basis and done voluntarily. But the internal effects on the individuals doing the worshiping on both cases is still the same.

Yeah but I wondered couldn't such exaltation boost a regular being into a god like status like some of these celebrities. I read once before that David Beckham (a mere mortal) is worshiped like a deity in a place in Japan.

It is possible that exaltations might do that, but a very lofty political status is necessary to come close to attaining such godly status. Stalin was regarded as god by his supporters even till today. About the Beckham thing, it is possible that he is being hero-worshipped in Japan, but that will never be the same thing as deification. He needs a very lofty political status to go with his celebrity status.
There is also another football player  who goes by the name of Robbie Fowler. His nickname is. . . GOD.  What about Messi?

emöfine:

Yeah but I wondered couldn't such exaltation boost a regular being into a god like status like some of these celebrities. I read once before that David Beckham (a mere mortal) is worshiped like a deity in a place in Japan.

emöfine:

Funnily enough I’ve heard this before from a Christian material when I was a child. I wondered, why are we thus born incomplete or perhaps because we’re just insatiable beings. So I wonder if our goal on earth is to seal that hole or perhaps just find a compatible filler hence the yellow brick road.

well your spirit belongs to the lord (ecclesaistes 12 vs 7) and until your spirit connects back to him, you will always have that vacuum left void. its like a toddler who goes missing when he is so used to his mum. he will be empty inside till he finds his mama. thats why a lot of people try to fill the void with other worldly things.
-some try to fill it with religion 2 timothy 3 vs 5 Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.
-some are desperately searching 2 timothy 3 vs 7 ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.
-1 timothy 4 vs1 some get swayed by seducing spirits.

its a hardknock life for the knuckle headed and stiff necked

[Quote]I would also like to throw the question back at you. What makes any entity worthy of reverence?[/Quote]
@Emofine; The above is ultimately your question. And if satisfactorily answered, will you enter the "way" that you find the answer? Then bring along your parents into the same fold? I would want you marry well, in case you are single when enlightenment of Islam finally enters your heart.

Now then, I am of the opinion that you are you do believe that there is a Creator, Who Alone has made all things and put them in their rightful places in relationship to within its kind and in relationship to all other things created? I am saying this because you are at least from this post by your opinion post saying something about God and or different gods, trying to find the One that is truly the God while the rest are to be looked at as less than that if not outright fake, mislabeled?

There is a yoruba saying that there is no woman that does not secretly wishes she has the husband to herself alone. If woman can feel this way about her husband and we know man feels worse than that when he knows that there is another man after his mate/wife, regardless of her not giving him any attention, you will know that if there is a Creator, the Creator must therefore Commands all rights of attentions and submissions to Him, alone without having to relinquish any part of His Rights over the creations to anyone. I say this Creator is Ultimately Absolute in All His Rights, Wishes and Commandments.

What is left that I put forward to you therefore is that whatever I call God is that Ultimate Owner of all the Privileges I listed above. I call Him Allah and His Book in which He finally introduced Himself to us is the Quran. I said finally in the sense that it is the Only Book of revelations that no word in it is from man, but from Him, Alone, repeated word for word as man hears it. My proof that Quran is what I say it is below. There are other proofs that you can easily search out yourself.

Please watch the below videos and get back to me for more discussions here for a while before we continue via emailing each other, even phone calls.

1}. How You will know that it was revealed by other than human:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEnMUT5w5Rk&feature=related

2}. Scientific knowledge unknown to man in it at revelation, now just known:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrVE9-x8ZwI&feature=related

I would like to make a call to meditation ...
And if Allah. Jehovah Vishnu. Olodumare. Horus ... were not different gods, but the same God?
If the differences had created the humans, calling him with different names and worship him differently?.
Every day we see people of the same religion, disagreeing among themselves about procedures and different interpretations, but regardless, they share the same belief ... differs from the interpretation, but that does not make any better or worse.
Sometimes when I read or hear fanatically defend a religious position, and attack another idea, I think that man is a prisoner of his radicalism. It is too simplistic to divide things between "good or bad" in "the only absolute truth and falsehood."
These positions are human ... when we speak of God, I think we're talking about something far more important.
My warm greetings to all!