14d ago (edited) in Words of Wisdom
Everybody Worships (4 mins)
"Here's something that's weird but true, in the day to day trenches of adult life: There is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what we worship, and a compelling reason for choosing (God) is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive (Wallace, D.F. 2005)"
- "If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough."
- "Worship your own body, and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you."
On one level, we all know this stuff already.
- "Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you of your own fear."
- "Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."
- Worship feeling loved, and you will always feel anxious, isolated and alone.
"The insidious thing about these forms of worship, is not that they are evil or sinful, it is that they are unconscious, they are default settings. They are the kind of worship that you gradually slip into, getting gradually more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that, that is what you do. The so called 'real world' will not discourage you from acting on your default settings, because the so called 'real world' of men, and money, and power runs aptly along on the fear, and anger and frustration, and craving, and worship of self (Wallace, D.F. 2005)."
When you worship money and things, your body and beauty, power and fame, your intellect or piety, when these are the things you orient towards, the things you worship. When they are the axioms that govern your choices, 'freedom' and life: You are setting yourself up for a horrid ride. Not only is the journey towards these things a tumultuous one, filled with inadequacy and insecurity the entire way; The destination is boundless. You can never have enough. Worse still, is that you run the risk of these axioms shattering - and they will shatter. And as "the unbearable glow of truth blinds you, you will recognise the falsities for what they are (Dostoyevsky, 1849)." If your life has been governed by falsities then the uncovering of truth will be catastrophic.
In the modern day, this is all too true. Think about the reels and content which are suggested 'for you', the influencers who all feed into whichever axiom you're worshipping. Be it wealth, fame, power, attractiveness, you will see content promoting your ideals. As you strive for more and more, the feeling of insufficiency also grows - for why else are you discontented when you have today what you wished for a year ago? a month ago? a week ago?
We focus so much on the upper end, the final goal. We consume content related to these aims, all the while being distracted from what really matters and feeling insufficient whilst doing so.
Be careful of what you worship. The hardest part is that your worship is unconscious, it's your default setting. If something makes you feel insufficient, you are likely regarding it far too highly at your own peril.
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Everybody Worships (4 mins)
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