Do we need to worship something? Or can we just float in empty space, without a ground to stand on? You may be familiar with the idea that a power vacuum cannot exist for long – the empty spot will be taken. As long as people ask for guidance, someone will deliver something. So if we are told to worship nothing except maybe the idea that anything or nothing can be worshipped, will that work? Would it be fair to say that we attempt to identify with not having an identity?
If we do not worship God, who or what do we worship? Can it be just freedom? What is freedom anyway? Do we even know? Or do we crave something more specific? We are all looking for truth, for something real. If we fail to see it in God, where do we turn to? Science? Experts? Governments?
Humans cannot simply exist like a flower does. We need a task. We need a purpose. We ask questions. We want to know what is true. We want to be accepted, want to be a part of a group, a part of something bigger. We want to learn new things, take the next step, evolve, improve, move forward. In our quest for truth we always want to believe in something. And if we don’t, we fall into a crisis. We can make that observation within us and all around us. Maybe you had to let go of your beliefs at some point, maybe you know someone who had to do so. It is a tough process. And we need to fill that void – we need to find something new that we can believe in. If we are lucky, we already got in contact with some new beliefs before the old ones collapsed entirely. Then we can achieve a somewhat smooth transformation of our beliefs. Otherwise we will go through a deeper crisis. This is a bit more risky, because we become vulnerable without beliefs, and we can become victims to those who offer convenient beliefs that turn us into followers no longer capable of critical thinking.
Who is supposed to give us something to worship? Something to believe in, providing more guidance than just freedom? Science has mostly avoided the philosophical questions that leave us wondering, and does not provide much to believe in if we try to find a purpose for our life. In recent history, we have seen governments and so called experts filling that gap. However, it can be considered problematic if a government takes that task. It has led us to disaster many times, but we still haven’t abandoned the hope of getting all we need from the same trusted hand.
This is partly due to the refusal to admit that we even need something to worship. If we deny that, we will not be able to see the problem. And the drama will continue to repeat itself, as it is about to do now. I will not make any attempts to convince you if you think otherwise, but want to encourage you to take a closer look if that ist the case. Maybe you do see the problem but cannot see a solution. Neither science nor the established philosophy deliver us any answers to our most fundamental questions. Both still need to find the reason for our existence. But instead we are mostly told that there is no reason or that it is impossible to find one. That we are unable to find one. That a reason does simply not exist and is a dream of those who cannot carry the burden of a meaningless life. So, what do we turn to in our despair? Money? The joy of pleasure? Basic instincts and drugs?
Mostly we still hold on to old values, and that keeps us afloat. We still have families and have children. The children keep us going, give us a purpose. We exist to keep existing. At the same time we push technology for the sake of technology and hope that it will somehow get us in a better situation. Considering what happened so far we have little reason to believe so. But the hope survives and is supported by the idea of us living longer and longer. At least compared to the early times of urbanization and industrialization, where we had quite a short life due to bad hygiene and a poisoned environment. And we have little knowledge of anything before that time. It is tough to see any development in human character or human abilities with the modern perspective. Because most people identify with their body alone, a longer life in that body seems like the ultimate achievement. Some rich guys have made the attempt of extending the lifetime of a human body the purpose of their existence. Some adventurous explorers want to settle on other planets. Such projects are an attempt to find a purpose. And from the perspective of a materialist, they make perfect sense. It is only when you start looking beyond the modern beliefs that you will notice the absurdity of both the goal and the method.
So we need a purpose, but do we really need to worship? It certainly depends on the definitions of those two words. The connection is our worldview, our beliefs. And yes, we do worship what gives us a purpose in life. We believe in it. We honor it. We defend it. That is what it means to worship. And if there is some uncertainty left within us, if we haven’t experienced what we preach, then we usually want everyone to be a part of it, support it and believe in it, so we we always feel validated and are not confronted with the necessity to question our believes.
Moving forward, it would be helpful if we find our connection to the world. We are so busy achieving a thousand different things, we got so used to looking at the world with our eyes only, that we forgot who we are. At least we are close to find our that our eyes cannot tell us who we are. Now is a good time to close our eyes and look for answers.