political idolatry

[TheHouseAlwaysWins]

There's something I've noticed. A lot of people on Youtube are obsessed with politicians like Trump to the point where it is idolatry, and I have realized something.

The secular west has replaced religion with idolatry. People do not want to be ruled by God but by a politician because of materialistic desires even though men can't rule other men in any way positively. So what do you think about it? are ideologies now a good replacement for religion at all?

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

The idolatry is a symptom of tribalism, because in a social media culture you use high-profile figures to define who's the "in" and who's the "out" of the tribe. The virtues and weaknesses of whoever you attach helps to establish the margins of the tribe. You could easily take the rhetoric and slogans used by Yankees/Red Sox fans and superimpose them onto politics. It's incredible how simply some people are manipulated by the tribal queues that are supposed to inspire or alternately outrage them (outrage is an especially powerful one with these youngins, and a great means to show your zealousness to the group).

You ever watch pro-wretling like, there's this weird dynamic between crowd and performer. The crowd want to boo the bad guy when he does something despicable to the good guy. He pushes their buttons. They get incited. They know it's base theater (I hope) and they eat it up anyway. Hey, nothing wrong with blowing off steam like that though, you would just hope they can leave that at the door when they go into the voting booth.

 

[zegh8578]

Eh...............................

The absolutely very first authoritarian figures in the history of mankind were "god-kings", living humans in flesh and blood - who were kings - who were also worshipped as gods. But sure! It's a new thing, with dem godless kids today.

 

[TheHouseAlwaysWins]

Eh...............................

The absolutely very first authoritarian figures in the history of mankind were "god-kings", living humans in flesh and blood - who were kings - who were also worshipped as gods. But sure! It's a new thing, with dem godless kids today.

Yes and those kind of cultures were paganistic.

 

[zegh8578]

Yes and those kind of cultures were paganistic.

Yes? Paganism is religion, you were talking about "replacing religion with idolatry". The synonymization of "the utmost authority" and the divine has been central to all human cultures for the past 15 000 years, starting with an adherence to celestial bodies, then adhering to god-kings, then personified galleries in polytheistic spectra of divine forces (Hinduism famously has deities to cover nearly every aspect of humanity, culminating in litterally thousands of gods. Interestingly, Catholicism - which is a Roman-based branch of Christianity, continued the polytheistic practice of the Romans, by allowing for saints - divine figures that cover every aspect of humanity, resulting in --- thousands of saints)

I am kind of realizing that you're coming from a point of view where Christianity is real, God and Jesus are real, and all other heathen faiths are wrong, but I am coming from the point of view where ALL religions are the same - merely expressions of an intelligent organism that has to confront the reality of space and cosmos, with no initial frame of reference, other than their own creative capacity. At some point, a thread like this is going to become a theological debate.

 

[Hassknecht]

Idolatry is human nature, and wether it's secular or transcendent idolatry doesn't matter much in the long run.

 

[TheHouseAlwaysWins]

Yes? Paganism is religion, you were talking about "replacing religion with idolatry". The synonymization of "the utmost authority" and the divine has been central to all human cultures for the past 15 000 years, starting with an adherence to celestial bodies, then adhering to god-kings, then personified galleries in polytheistic spectra of divine forces (Hinduism famously has deities to cover nearly every aspect of humanity, culminating in litterally thousands of gods. Interestingly, Catholicism - which is a Roman-based branch of Christianity, continued the polytheistic practice of the Romans, by allowing for saints - divine figures that cover every aspect of humanity, resulting in --- thousands of saints)

I am kind of realizing that you're coming from a point of view where Christianity is real, God and Jesus are real, and all other heathen faiths are wrong, but I am coming from the point of view where ALL religions are the same - merely expressions of an intelligent organism that has to confront the reality of space and cosmos, with no initial frame of reference, other than their own creative capacity. At some point, a thread like this is going to become a theological debate.

Idolatry is human nature, and wether it's secular or transcendent idolatry doesn't matter much in the long run.

You are making an assumption

So how is worshiping God as he is directly idolatry? I do not believe humans are incapable of rising above idolatry as several cultural groups try to avoid it.

 

[Hassknecht]

It's of course not really idolatry per definition, but neither is then "worshipping" a politician. All of them is worshipping a mental image and an ideology, though, it's just that one is secular and the other is transcendent, which is mostly just there to stop the annoying questions of "how" and "why".

 

[Crni Vuk]

Eh...............................

The absolutely very first authoritarian figures in the history of mankind were "god-kings", living humans in flesh and blood - who were kings - who were also worshipped as gods. But sure! It's a new thing, with dem godless kids today.

>_>

<_<