The worship of something other than God, as if it was God is a core sin in all the Abrahamic religions. The conjured image of some golden idol in the form of a statue where folks would gather around and “worship” is what immediately comes to mind when thinking about idolatry in general, making it easy for the average person to confidently state “well I certainly don’t do that!”
The reality is a bit trickier
Of course to understand what is “God” to worship vs. “Not God” is the real root of the issue. That bit is much harder to define than you imagine for one major reason:
The definition of God is not possible
Every religion either hints or straight up tells you this is the case. The infinite defies definition, primarily because attempting to apply a definition, a black and white border around “God”, runs straight into the limits of our language and at a larger level the limits of our brains. We like to have little definitions of things and are programmed by our survival and evolution to put everything in little buckets. Early in human history this was to ensure survival, all input was labeled as leading to either death or procreation and therefore the survival of the species. This tendency is no longer needed as much, as we’ve dominated all other species and generally made it simple to protect ourselves from our environment.
Mystic branches of religion generally accept that this pursuit is impossible, and even more mainstream versions of religion will start to get hazy as you attempt to define God. The old human looking man in the sky with white hair that knows everything fails to carry authority past childhood bible school. Attempting to add maturity to the definition generally leads to argument over the details, accomplishing little but fracturing us into little denominations. Each having their own definitions and followers.
So if we cannot define God, what is it that we are worshipping?
Here’s the crux of the situation. If God cannot be defined, doesn’t that make the religious texts, dogma’s and general targets of study and worship creations of man? Of course it does, but then does that make it wrong to worship in this way? That’s not easy to determine either, it would depend on how you use these creations of man.
Pointing to the truth
Several of my favorite spiritual teachers define the works of man in spiritual pursuits as signposts to the truth, and advise not to place too much weight on the signs themselves (the words) and instead look for the absolute truth that they are referring to. The reason for this is simple: Men have always been searching for this bit of divinity since the dawn of time, but every attempt to write this down is inevitably a product of the cultural situation the person(s) doing the writing are bound within. This is the case for all documents in all religions.
This makes them a perfectly suitable subject of study, provided that context is considered. This also frees us to learn even more truth by considering other contexts, once we accept the idea that it is not the content we are truly learning, but the truth the content implies. Using our rich human religious history in this way is not direct worship, but points us to a true worship oriented at that which we cannot define, that which can be called “God” if you like.
The corruption of Human Ego
The Ego is a very sneaky thing, and wholly embraces thoughts like these to take you away from your connection to others and the world around you:
- You know what others don’t know
- What you know is correct while the others are wrong
- Not only are you special and unique, others are not as special or as unique as you are
These ideas start at a small level, born from the inherent disconnection of our experience in this world via our own senses and memories. The beginnings of the corruption occur once the value of your own Ego grows beyond the value of others, leading you to believe that ‘they’ are not as worthy as ‘you’. This core thought creeps elsewhere, and can grow if unchecked. The core of traditional ‘sin’ can be found here, once you’ve devalued another over yourself or a group to which you belong the mechanism for sin truly begins.
It is this same mechanism that leads religious groups to become exclusionary, to believe that they alone know the truth and have an exclusive path to future glory, peace, happiness etc. The blueprint is always the same:
- This is the exclusive truth, given to us directly by God
- The rewards for compliance to this truth are in the future
- There is great punishment for not following our truth
- All other viewpoints are therefore false and lead toward that great punishment
- Therefore, all other viewpoints must be eliminated
Those all align pretty closely to the human ego tendencies don’t they? Ego of course exists not only at an individual level, but perhaps more importantly as a collective of people sharing a common identity. Religion is one of those identities, as is nationality, race, gender, political position, etc. In all cases, the same pattern of Ego exists, we are right and ‘they’ are wrong. The fervor over how right and wrong is at the core of countless historical atrocities, many of which are carried out in the name of “god”. This becomes the point where “god” is not God, but a creation of the ego of man.
All religions carry seeds of this corruption from the human ego. The trick is identifying it and letting that part go.
Placing the name “Jesus” on your idol doesn’t count
History is full of Christians falling for this same trap, and justifying their positions and actions by simply placing the name Jesus on their ego created idols. From the murderous rampages of the crusades, to more modern examples such as The Troubles in Ireland, the roots of white supremacy in colonial American Christianity, the modern day prosperity preachers… all of them align with human ego instead of any level of divinity.
This idea may seem very challenging to you, especially if you’ve come here with a deep faith and background. This will be difficult as it challenges what you’ve built that faith on as a creation of your own ego and the collective ego of your congregation. Stay with me though, an examination of what exactly you’re putting in that Faith may be a point of growth rather than something to fear. Let’s take just one on going example to look into, prosperity preachers.
Money and Power = Jesus?
The basic principle of prosperity preaching is that God gives to those who deserve it, therefore if you are deserving you will be blessed. These blessings have somehow been twisted into meaning worldly possessions and positions of influence among men. These preachers are often millionaires, and justify their extreme wealth with their own preaching “see how worthy I am, God has given me all this!”. It shouldn’t be difficult to immediately identify the problems with this, but yet they not only persist but they also take very large sums of money from the vulnerable. By pitching that monetary contributions somehow will bless the giver, those that are truly in need are convinced to give the little they have to organizations that simply support billionaire lifestyles of corrupt men.
One thing has always been very clear from the example of Christ… our concern should be with those that need, all of God’s creations are equally deserving of grace, and the world of man symbolized by money and power has absolutely no place in Heaven. It starts here: If you only give what little you have to these figure heads, your favor will increase and you’ll get money! Giving willfully to those in greater need than yourself is indeed noble and encouraged by not only the example in the life of Christ but also a piece of all religions. The corruption lies at the very top, where very little of this money given goes to those that are in need, but instead it flows to the organization and its leaders who definitely are not in need.
This is an example of a deep corruption by human ego, and is a cancer on the spiritual growth of all involved. It has spread from televangelism for money into the desire for political power and influence. Even today it continues it’s egoic pursuit to prove itself right and justify all means to do so. The more entrenched in the political power structures of man, the further from the infinite truth and the more dangerous it becomes.
Flexibility vs. Faith
Presuming you’re on board with the realization that God cannot be fully defined and have the humility to accept that, the flexibility to engage in communities of other religions will come naturally. Without the wall built around your religion barring you from considering other viewpoints, a pathway to dialog that breeds understanding and common compassion opens up.
The trick is that many religions actively encourage those walls by labeling them as faith. Any deviance is labeled as doubt and discouraged, killing any ability to have reasonable inter-faith discourse and dialog. As we’ve seen historically time and time again, the continuation of this exclusionary path leads to conflict and destruction instead of the love and compassion at the core of God.
Humility is Key
In order to break that cycle, one must simply be humble. That is a requirement regardless of your position in a religious structure. In fact, the more you take a leadership role, the more important humility becomes. It is your ego that proclaims you know better, never God. With this humility comes compassion for those in need that may look to you for guidance. That of course never means you must discard your chosen religion’s positions, just that you maintain the ability to set them aside to truly listen. When you are still and listen rather than constantly attempting to frame the situation into the definitions provided by your religion, you become free to experience what is needed now. With the ego removed from the discussion, and a genuine attempt at presence in the moment, the truth of what is needed can arise.
This is where the intersection of your religion and true love and compassion can be found. Without engaging the mind and your ego to label whatever situation presents itself as good, bad, compliant, deviant, etc., you can see the situation as it is. A funny thing happens at that moment, whatever is needed comes naturally and without ego. The need for a simple hug, an action of support in any form is driven from a place of selfless love and compassion instead of the ego and definitions of man. If you look back, you will always find that your religion of choice had signposts to that love and compassion all along.
With that humility, applied through presence in the now and a release of inflexible dogma created by man, the portions of religion that are born from man and not God become obvious and fall away. This is the release to true worship of God and the elimination of idolatry.