Lost Gods of our time

[TheAlchemist]

The modern spiritual, self-help and business gurus and celebrities are just new forms of the old Gods. People think these gurus and celebrities have all the answers and understand it all, and get upset when they find out they were flawed and fall short just like any other human.

 

An image is projected onto these figures, that of a savior, a great leader, even a messenger of the "higher realms". Then when these people don't live up to the image, it often causes immense pain and frustration, and these figures are attacked as having "deceived" them. When really it was the deception that was truly desired by the follower, to bring coherence and relief in a world of unaswered questions. It's just the illusion of the guru that was shattered, which was in itself originally constructed by the follower to get relief. This loss obviously causes great pain and confusion, since so much hope was invested.

 

People who have gone through a western education often are puzzled by how people could believe in silly things like Gods and angels and demons. But really that hasn't gone anywhere, those ideas have just taken on new forms. Forms that are taken as supremely real and that are adequately convincing in this time. In the world of the ancient greeks, the idea of Zeus or Afrodite playing around with humans was interely reasonable and rational. The stories were built around what made sense at the time.   

 

For us the equivalent might be the "self-made" billionaire character, the spiritual or the self-help guru, the celebrity singer or any person that is put on a pedastal and idealized.  It doesn't seem that silly to us now, but I imagine future humans will look at such notions of these ideal human beings as equally silly as we see the notion of big evil monsters lurking in the oceans. 

 

This is not to say that we can't learn from spiritual teachers, religions, philosophers, self-help teachers or even musicians and celebrities; just that if we want to escape the cycle of excitement and disappointment, we must stop putting any of these people on a pedastal as characters. People will always fall short of that ideal, and maybe there is no perfect teacher. Maybe even God itself doesn't fully know what's going on.

 

This perspective, far from being depressing can truly put us back on the drivers seat and can empower us to be active agents in the world, not throigh chasing some ideals or running away from hell, but from a place of not-knowing why it's all happening and embracing that. Maybe even God doesn't know what the heck is going on, maybe he needs the human consciousness to figure this shit out somehow. 

Edited April 13 by TheAlchemist

[Razard86]

5 hours ago, TheAlchemist said:

The modern spiritual, self-help and business gurus and celebrities are just new forms of the old Gods. People think these gurus and celebrities have all the answers and understand it all, and get upset when they find out they were flawed and fall short just like any other human.

 

An image is projected onto these figures, that of a savior, a great leader, even a messenger of the "higher realms". Then when these people don't live up to the image, it often causes immense pain and frustration, and these figures are attacked as having "deceived" them. When really it was the deception that was truly desired by the follower, to bring coherence and relief in a world of unaswered questions. It's just the illusion of the guru that was shattered, which was in itself originally constructed by the follower to get relief. This loss obviously causes great pain and confusion, since so much hope was invested.

 

People who have gone through a western education often are puzzled by how people could believe in silly things like Gods and angels and demons. But really that hasn't gone anywhere, those ideas have just taken on new forms. Forms that are taken as supremely real and that are adequately convincing in this time. In the world of the ancient greeks, the idea of Zeus or Afrodite playing around with humans was interely reasonable and rational. The stories were built around what made sense at the time.   

 

For us the equivalent might be the "self-made" billionaire character, the spiritual or the self-help guru, the celebrity singer or any person that is put on a pedastal and idealized.  It doesn't seem that silly to us now, but I imagine future humans will look at such notions of these ideal human beings as equally silly as we see the notion of big evil monsters lurking in the oceans. 

 

This is not to say that we can't learn from spiritual teachers, religions, philosophers, self-help teachers or even musicians and celebrities; just that if we want to escape the cycle of excitement and disappointment, we must stop putting any of these people on a pedastal as characters. People will always fall short of that ideal, and maybe there is no perfect teacher. Maybe even God itself doesn't fully know what's going on.

 

This perspective, far from being depressing can truly put us back on the drivers seat and can empower us to be active agents in the world, not throigh chasing some ideals or running away from hell, but from a place of not-knowing why it's all happening and embracing that. Maybe even God doesn't know what the heck is going on, maybe he needs the human consciousness to figure this shit out somehow. 

Good post, but to answer your question. God in the form of human does not understand what is going on, But God knows everything.

God is everything and nothing at the same time, and is aware of everything going on because it is the very unfolding of what is going on.

It is the fusion of being and knowledge so it knows everything as it's self.

In fact God knows everything so much it wipes out a past and future. 

And also... God is you.

 

[TheAlchemist]

58 minutes ago, Razard86 said:

Good post, but to answer your question. God in the form of human does not understand what is going on, But God knows everything.

God is everything and nothing at the same time, and is aware of everything going on because it is the very unfolding of what is going on.

It is the fusion of being and knowledge so it knows everything as it's self.

In fact God knows everything so much it wipes out a past and future. 

And also... God is you.

 

I appreciate the reply, and I think there is a lot of truth in it. Yet at the same time I am left wondering, what is the value of "being human" (if any) from that perception? I wonder if what you say could be interpreted by someone as a devaluation of the experience of being human. If I am God, I am not human. If I am nothing, I am also not human, (since we generally define human as something distinct and seperate from the rest of the world). While I am not being nothing and I am not being God, I am being human at this moment as a matter of appearance at the very least. 

How do we take this perspective and affirm and rejoice the limited human experience in all its absurdity, instead of it being taken on as something that reduces our sense of agency or valuing of our condition?

The qualitative, subjective experience of being human (even if it is only appearance), what value do you see in it? Is it a mistake? A misperception? In any way "lesser" than some other way or state of being? Is there something novel, something fresh, something unique in the experience of being a limited human? Something to celebrate here in limitation? How do you see it?