The beginning of wisdom? Or, a sign of ignorance?
First of all, the standard christian and jw definition changes the meaning of fear to respect, like a person respects the power of gravity. However, gravity can be demonstrated any day of the week. The power of god cannot be demonstrated, even on a sunday.
When something bad happened to them, bible jews thought that they must have offended their god. Being of a violent nature, living in a world more violent and unpredictable than today, invoking a higher, controling power brought sense and order to their world view.
Further, they invented ways of appeasing this imaginary god. Actually, many of them were copied from other cultures. This is a type of magic, the controling of the higher power through a little ceremony. These ceremonies gave the priests a sense of power, and enable them to control the gullible people. They enabled them to harness the peoples' fear and anger to kill and disposess outsider groups.
Today, our world is more human controled than ever before. When we come home from a hard day's work, we can be sure that noone else will have moved into our house. Even wars are carefully planned yrs in advance and then orchestrated. God has nothing to do w them, although strangely, the most warlike claim his backing.
Where it was thought that god was making it rain, making things grow, etc, science has shown that god cannot be found in any of those processes. Scientists do not have all the answers, but they have done a tremendous job of bringing understanding, even wisdom to a level never before attained in human history. This knowledge has largely dispelled fear, including the fear of god. On the other hand, ignorance, a lack of general knowledge still often tends toward godly fear. The bible has it exactly backwards.
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