[Cro Dreoilin] Up for Discussion: Do the Gods need worship?

[Kelley Forbes]

If a God requires something, do they automatically need it?

> I also believe that we are Divine, based on the fact that all of 
> creation was formed in a Divine act. Therefore everything within 
> creation must be Divine. 

I think that if you replace "Divine" in that with "sacred", it won't be 
too far off from what CRs believe. There _is_ a difference between us 
and Gods, however, but it's not one of worth.

In what way do you think we require worship?


-- Kelley.

Greyhart wrote:
>
> Just got up (worked until 3am).
>
> When I read the question, my first thought was also, ‘what defines 
> worship?’ because worship is a word that means many things to many 
> people. I personally like the definition you found, Sebastian. Most 
> people in this country equate worship with giving power over to their 
> Deity, and submitting themselves to the whims of that Deity. If that 
> is the sort of relationship that a particular God requires, then they 
> probably do need worship in order to exist.
>
> This is the sort of relationship I have experienced with Christians. 
> The classic Trek episode, “Who Mourns For Adonis”, which I believe is 
> the episode Charlotte referenced, (yes, I’m a Trek Geek) was written 
> about the crew meeting one of the classical Greek Gods, Apollo. It was 
> written from the Christian point of view, where Gods are all powerful, 
> and require humans to worship them in order to exist. This is a very 
> telling attitude that Christians seem to have.
>
> I see Deity differently than what I’ve heard the CR’s describe. To me, 
> Deity is ever present, and what we look at and describe as individual 
> Gods, are simply facets of the whole. I also believe that we are 
> Divine, based on the fact that all of creation was formed in a Divine 
> act. Therefore everything within creation must be Divine. In simpler 
> terms, using the Charge of The Goddess, if the Goddess gave birth to 
> all that there is, even though I myself was not part of that original 
> birth, I am Divine by right of inheritance. I am the current 
> culmination of whatever particles, atoms, or molecules that the 
> Goddess gave birth to. Looking at it that way, when we worship the 
> Gods, we are opening the connection between our individual selves, and 
> that great source we call Deity.
>
> Do the Gods need or require worship? No, we do.
>
> Greyhart
>
> *From:* community-bounces at crodreoilin.org 
> [mailto:community-bounces at crodreoilin.org] *On Behalf Of *Sebastian
> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 15, 2011 11:17 AM
> *To:* community at crodreoilin.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Cro Dreoilin] Up for Discussion: Do the Gods need worship?
>
> In order to answer this question I admit that I checked the dicitonary 
> for a specific definition of "worship" to understand the nuances of 
> that term. There is the obvious connotation of prostrating before the 
> gods which seems to be why many pagans cringe at the term. However, 
> there is one possible definition that seems to answer this question of 
> "what do you mean by worship?" in my own perspective. "formal or 
> ceremonious rendering of [...] honor and homage". Now, on to the 
> bigger question of need. If we aproach need as the idea that without 
> our worship of them that they would fall into disrepair or that they 
> are so proud that they require veneration for sustenance, I would say 
> no. My answer would come from the perspective of building a 
> relationship as you would with another person. In order to build a 
> healthy relationship with another human, there is an amount of give 
> and take, and this is where the "need" comes in to play. I wish to 
> build a strong, healthy relationship with the gods and ancestors and 
> my half of the give and take comes in the form of tanks, offerings, 
> veneration and plain "good ole fashion'd conversation". So, in short, 
> if you desire not to have a relationship with the gods, then no, they 
> do not need worship.
>
> ~Sebastian
>
> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Norman <planner1968 at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:planner1968 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
> I am on the jump to run my day today but here are a few cent of my 
> thoughts on it. I do think that every deity needs attention. How does 
> that look and what is considered worship/ attention? If I ask my deity 
> for something and that's it, that in my opinion is not attention or 
> worship or however you call it. It's more about paying more attention 
> about the happenings,signs and communications in your life and how you 
> engage with them. You thank your deities, maybe even write a little 
> thank you note for a start. Just as you do with the people. Get into a 
> dialog. At a later point I will write more but now on my way into the 
> world conquering my kingdom:-)
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
> On Nov 15, 2011, at 9:31 AM, Chris and Kelley 
> <chris.n.kelley at astronomytower.net 
> <mailto:chris.n.kelley at astronomytower.net>> wrote:
>
> > In the interest of getting more discussion going on this list, we're 
> going to start posting some topics for talk.
> >
> > Our first topic: Do the Gods need worship?
> >
> > This is not just a yes or no answer; there are lot of questions in 
> this one question. Consider: Which Gods are we talking about? What do 
> we mean by "need"? What do we mean by "worship"?
> >
> > Have at it.
> >
> > -- Chris and Kelley.
> >
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