Can any deity be used in manipulation?

by schnell 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  schnell

  Pale.emperor made an interesting observation in another thread:

  The "blocking an expression of Gods love" crap is a sneaky tactic to make the shunner not feel like they're doing something evil. Cults do that. Make something loving seem evil and something evil seem good all just to accomplish their own ends.
  

  This can't be limited to Yahweh, however. Isn't this also true of any other deity? Can't any religious cult that's organized around a certain god be used to "make something loving seem evil and something evil seem good all just to accomplish their own ends"?

  What I'm really getting at is this: The idea of a god -- any god -- creates an opportunity for power over a group of people. So, belief in a god tends to become organized, and then it's all quite political and manipulative from there.
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  TheWonderofYou

  Indeed the notion of a monarchian God reigning over us leads to monarchic type of rules. The monotheisitic and monarchic god needs earthly mediators, representatives e.g. a king or a monarch who performs and reflects the reign of the god. Absolutism was such a type of rulership, where the monotheistic prinicple of Allmightiness shaped the rulership. And man-ipulation (when man take something in its hands) lead to abuse of power. The roman empire got a monarchy. Throught the

  Monotheisums leads to Monarchy

  Polytheisum leads to Polyarchy

  Trinity then to Triarchy?
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  OUTLAW

  Can any deity be used in manipulation?

  You bet!.....And..

  If you have absolute control over your cult members..

  You can Replace a Deity at will..

  ............................................

  I`m Fired?..

  Those WatchTower Bastards Fired Me??!!
  

  ..
• 

  scratchme1010

  What I'm really getting at is this: The idea of a god -- any god -- creates an opportunity for power over a group of people. So, belief in a god tends to become organized, and then it's all quite political and manipulative from there.
  

  Not only that, but I can easily add that it's not limited to a diety at all. There are cults that use the same tactics and what they are based is on recovery from drugs and alcohol. There are other ways of using the same tactics, using political causes or self-help, for example, that can harm as much as using a god or diety.
  
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  Finkelstein

  Of course and this can be seen in the JW religious cult where the top orchestraters (GB) self proclaimed that this all powerful deity has selectivity chosen them and therefore has the controlling spiritual power of that god, Jehovah in this case.
  

  The human tragedy or peril from this premise can also be observed by the thousands of people who gave up their life from refusing a Blood transfusion or organ transplant . Not to mention the millions of families that were strategically broken apart from certain members leaving the cult on their own accord.
  
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  sparky1

  

  The proclivities of the human race know no bounds. Yes, I think any 'deity' will do.
  
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  TheWonderofYou

  Lesson of the ancient Roman Empire: Although they accepted the idea of one god/one cesar they were polytheists at the same time. (?) ..
  It is to be considered that the people of ancient greece and rome were religious polytheists, monotheism was only a matter of philosophy (science) not of
  daily life and religion. So the idea that there is only one divine principle was known but had no effect in religion. But the Emporer August was clever enough to called himself God. So he had absolute power.

  The decline of prosperity, security and unity of Empire was clearly accompanied by loss of faith in Rome's traditional gods and – at least in the West – in Roman emperors. For some Romans, this was caused by the neglect of traditional religious practices. For others – equally Roman – breakdown of empire was God's judgment on faithless or heretical Christians and hardened pagans alike.

  As Roman society evolved, so did cult to emperors: both proved remarkably resilient and adaptable. Until its confrontation by fully developed Christian orthodoxy, "Imperial cult" needed no systematic or coherent theology. Its part in Rome's continued success was probably sufficient to justify, sanctify and "explain" it to most Romans.[259][260] Confronted with crisis in Empire, Constantine matched the Augustan achievement by absorbing Christian monotheism into the Imperial hierarchy. Cult to emperors was not so much abolished or abandoned as transformed out of recognition.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_cult_(ancient_Rome)
  

  
  

  
  

  

  

  Follow the google book

  Violence in Ancient Christianity: Victims and Perpetrators

  https://books.google.at/books?id=OU_3AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=polyarchie+polytheism&source=bl&ots=ikQ8XQKpWe&sig=028RRicwkuK9xtSGZGIAKM1g7FY&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP9Zr9qrrQAhUKthoKHbvVAawQ6AEISjAI#v=onepage&q=polyarchie%20polytheism&f=false
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  schnell

  Not only that, but I can easily add that it's not limited to a diety at all. There are cults that use the same tactics and what they are based is on recovery from drugs and alcohol. There are other ways of using the same tactics, using political causes or self-help, for example, that can harm as much as using a god or diety.
  

  By Jove, I'd say that absolute power corrupts absolutely! Yep, you have political cults, cults of personality, new age cults around some funky bestselling book, recovery programs that depower rather than empower the self...

  Critical thinking is the enemy of all of this.
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  Village Idiot

  Can any deity be used in manipulation?
  

  Since "deities" are a construct of the human mind, then it depends on the individual who's imagining the deity. Anarchists will imagine an anarchist god and authoritarians will imagine a dictatorial god.