In Exodus 32:7-14, we read how Moses was remonstrating the almighty God to refrain from punishing his people. This portion of the Bible in this dialogue presents God as angry, vengeful, jealous, vindictive, changing, and even wicked. After Moses’ pleading, it was said the “The Lord repented of the evil he thought to do to his people.” This passage and context turned God into man by placing Moses above him through his counselling. Can man counsel God? It is stated in the Holy Book that “God created man in his image and likeness. In view of this, many people strongly believe that God has the physical image of man and the “likeness” to them are the human characteristics.
The Qoheleth reported on Facebook not too long ago that those who state that they DIRECTLY hear from God these days are either telling lies or are referring to God as a liar. Many people who misconstrued this reacted in various manners. This report is dedicated to deification for a more understanding of that post. It is very important that we read this to the end.
Deification is the making of God out of things. It is the worship of some creatures as God. Deification is different from what some sects refer to as idolatry. In fact, idolatry is not the worship of items, objects and substances. No sane man does so. It is the worship of objects representing other gods apart from the Almighty God.
So, showing obeisance to objects such as the cross, crescent star and the moon, altars, bible, Koran, churches, photographs, symbols that represent the Almighty God is not idolatry. Bowing to the Nigerian flag is not bowing to the physical cloth but to the country it represents. This is a topic for another day.
From the beginning (of course life has a beginning), man has been seeking for the source of life and the true nature of the Supreme Being. (The use of Man and the pronoun, He in this discussion does not indicate gender bias but to represent human beings). Some religious communities adopted the biblical narrative of the Man-God who evolved on itself and through words of mouth created man and other things.
In many other oral traditions especially in Africa, they also believe in a supreme being but in their case, it has no form. It is a spirit whose nature they did not understand but whose existence they strongly believe in. In both ways, different people relate to God by their level of understanding.
This Being, whose true nature is yet to be identified is referred to as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscience. The Being is also believed to be only one, the creator and the source of all things.
The Christian God is believed by them as Man-God, whose nature is like that of man. He is given human attributes of thinking, loving, hearing, seeing, dying, angry, live in a kingdom as a king and judge, has servants and messengers who have his own form; has a son and country of origin. He lives somewhere in the sky known as Heaven and communicates physically to some people who hear his voice every day.
Man is the greatest thing created by this Being. The most significant feature of man is his thinking. Through thinking, the world is evolving and being developed according to the desire of the Supreme Being. So, man’s most important responsibility is to identify the true nature of his creator and the purpose of life.
In the process of identifying the nature of this God, man has believed and assumed many things. This was why every time man saw some mysterious things he did not understand, he assumed that God must be there of that such creature was God.
Because of the extraordinary nature of such things, it was assumed that they must be in the place of God’s abode and as such were worshiped. Such phenomena include Sun, Moon, Land, Sea, Thunder, Rainbow, Trees, Animals, Reptiles, and Forests etc. These were worshiped not because the people believed they were gods but because it was believed that God lived in them. Each of their reasons and explanations was logical and strongly believed until scientific discoveries brought the truth to light.
In the modern time, many people still deify human beings, objects and some natural phenomenon. Some people have also indoctrinated these beliefs and customized them as the nature of man. Some buildings are called the house of God. Some books are called the word of God. Some people are referred to as children of God. Other people are said to be men and women of God. Some places are called city of God while some tribes are said to have originated directly from God.
Some great reformers such as Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed have been deified even without the people either saying or assuming so in their lifetimes. At one point or the other, these forms of deification were acceptable by the people but have they led to the truth about the nature of God or purpose of creation?
They have not. Many people deify things and people out of fear. Some do so out of ignorance. Many others inherited such without asking questions. They refer to this as faith, which is a form of ignorance. Many of these deifications have been abandoned, especially the worship of land, animals, sky, and other phenomenon. But what has remained unchanged is the deification and worship of extraordinary human beings. In doing this, many religionists deviate from the concentration on the supreme being while defending the worship of those human beings.
Many people in our country today deify money. Such people directly or indirectly worship money. They strongly believe that life is meaningless without money. As a result of this, they worship money and those who have it.
Many people strongly believe that certain religions, organizations, groups and societies are God’s while others are not. They worship such and are ready to kill those who do not believe in such things. Meanwhile, these people can co-exist practicing their faith without harming one another.
Deification, doctrines and beliefs are actually not virtues. This means that without these, you can still be virtuous and be at peace with your creator. Both theists and atheists have equal opportunity towards virtues and vices. If you do not keep the natural laws, you will not be at peace with God and man.
Can these doctrines and beliefs stop us from loving others as we love ourselves? Can they stop us from being charitable? Can they stop us from keeping the commandments of God? Can they stop us from living virtuous lives?
There are evidences that these beliefs, doctrines and deification have created hatred among people. They have created dichotomy, hypocrisy and fear. Those who don’t believe in such doctrines and beliefs have been ostracized, excommunicated and in some cases killed. Deification has led to hatred, ostentatious living, lust, greed and avarice.
Meanwhile we can still enthrone love, peace, charity, selflessness, patriotism, happiness, holiness, humility and unity without those beliefs, deification and doctrines. The message here is not to condemn those who deify but to accommodate those who do not want to deify objects, institutions, processes and human beings.
Many people still find it difficult to change the concepts of Man-God and Phenomenal Gods. But it is obvious that God is neither man nor live in any phenomenon. It may not be right therefore to say that those who see God in natural phenomena are foolish and worship idols neither is it fair to say that those who created God out of man are foolish. Man will continue to improve on his knowledge about the nature of God until it manifests at the end of time.
The Qoheleths are those who are committed towards the enthronement of morals and values in our society. Be among those chosen to change our society positively. Spread this message through any social media handle available to you.
