Monday, October 12, 2009

God?

I shake my head in wonder that the Greeks’ polytheistic worldview. How can they worship these gods who can be killed, deceived, are not omniscient, are not in complete control, and are limited by both time and space? I can’t comprehend their logic and faith. To me, this defies the very definition of god – a being that isn’t limited by his own creation and is in control of all things rather than being controlled by anything. He does things for his own perfect purpose, desires all things to be perfect, and is the ultimate authority. He is infinite and is not confined by the laws of time and space. This is how I define “god.” I don’t understand how anyone could lower their standards and worship anything less than this while continuing to love and respect them. For example, when I traveled in India for a month, I saw many Hindu temples, one with a tiny lump of wood. This is that the locals sacrificed and prayed to. How can a person be so blind as to worship something created by human hands? Where’s the glory and power in this?

However, I realized that often times we make or strive for things that become our own personal “gods.” They control and consume our minds, our lives, and our actions, and become our “lords,” which is just another word for a boss, or someone in authority. What were once goals, we have now become dependent upon and define us. Yet, somehow we have the nerve to laugh at the Greeks and their gods, claiming they had a primitive state of mind. Perhaps it’s about time we removed the plank from our own eye.