[–] alalzia 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
My ancestors believe that gods did not need any worship but men have the need to worship gods . In Hellenic religion gods' duty was to observe and supervise the laws of nature . So yeah man needs to worship something either we are talking about deities , material things or ideas .
[–] Joe_McCarthy [S] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
“If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all–what then would life be but despair? If such were the case, if there were no sacred bond which united mankind, if one generation arose after another like the leafage in the forest, if the one generation replaced the other like the song of birds in the forest, if the human race passed through the world as the ship goes through the sea, like the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless activity, if an eternal oblivion were always lurking hungrily for its prey and there was no power strong enough to wrest it from its maw–how empty then and comfortless life would be!”— Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling.
I personally think that one needs to be careful to center existence too much around humanity, while at the same time realizing that certain things are outside of their control, but it involves human agency to get things accomplished and God can't be part of this.
I think human agency negates the existence of God, but I think that even if God existed why would we need him, since he has given us the agency to act as we might.
I suppose the existence of God is important to ensure certain things like justice and morality are upheld, so people believe they are answering to a higher power.
I think the worst form of Christianity anthropomorphizes God's existence, which instantly makes it all about human sentiment and experience, which does not correspond to the reality of any possible God.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
[–] Joe_McCarthy [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Speaking in terms of society I'm unsure where you think the West went seriously awry. I like your post more than not but the reference to scholasticism sounds almost medieval. Our civilization had a lot of problems in those days. Mostly having to do with poverty and disease. Unimaginable stuff worthy of the worst Third World shitholes. It also had a fair few extra-European invasions. Mongols, Ottomans, etc., - so though there was no immigration to speak of there was plenty of getting militarily butchered. Batu Khan wiped out like half of Hungary and did much the same to Poland and elsewhere.
Not exactly a bed of roses.
Western Civilization actually reached the height of its power in the 19th century. I'm not sure what that means to you but it probably won't appeal particularly to someone whose idea of grandeur is a Catholic Europe. But even there we had the average person working in horrible factories and such with the industrial revolution.
In America at least the best time was probably the years after WW2. But then I'm a 50s kind of guy I suppose. I'm Joe McCarthy after all.