What Makes Something Sacred?

[Thief]

This is only because you feel the need to stick god everywhere you can stuff him.

One wonders if your god has the same need?

To be sure!!!!!!!

And what attempt of of your hand shall you place before Him....
that He cannot shame with the least of His own?

But that doesn't mean all things are sacred.
Certainly not the 'creations' of Man.

 

[Draka]

I think you're just restating your earlier point. Am I mistaken? My graphics card is messed up and it's hard for me to read what's written.

Every culture and society on earth that I've ever heard of in this context has some concept or notion of somethings being sacred. So what is it about human psychology that leads people to feel somethings are sacred? How did that propensity evolve? What was its evolutionary value?

You asked why some consider one particular thing "sacred" and I explained. If it sounded like a reiteration of my original point perhaps that is because my original point already covered the answer to your question before you asked it.

As to how the idea of sacredness "evolved", that may have something to do with early people needing to set boundaries for themselves. Life is considered to be sacred to most, something not to be touched or taken as it is vital for the survival of the group that every possible contributor is alive to contribute to the whole. Other things kick in from superstitions, chance, luck and so on. Also out of necessity. For a farmer their land is sacred as it must be well taken care of in order for it to yield good crops and sustain them. Certain animals may become sacred for what they provide and/or symbolize. A place where people can gather together and feel safe and loved and spiritually connected will be sacred to them. It becomes something they respect and cherish for how it brings them together and makes them feel. So they hold it as sacred and maintain that the place is special and nothing should happen to it and people should behave a certain way in it so as not to taint its special meaning. Humans are ritualistic animals. We crave routine, safety, solace and guarantees. The reality in which we live does not always provide those things, so we set them up for ourselves, even if it is only appearances.

 

[Me Myself]

But that doesn't mean all things are sacred.

Isn´t God omnipresent?

If your God is everywhere, how can there be a place that is not holy in any way? and which thing exists that is not also a place?

 

[Me Myself]

Are you referring to that time I got lucky with Terri?

Maybe

I think sex can be very sacred

 

[McBell]

To be sure!!!!!!!

So are you saying your god is as petty and insecure as you are or that you are as petty and insecure as your god?

And what attempt of of your hand shall you place before Him....
that He cannot shame with the least of His own?

I do not understand this as written.

But that doesn't mean all things are sacred.
Certainly not the 'creations' of Man.

So god is not sacred?

 

[4consideration]

I think that Draka said it well in her post #22.

I think that Life is sacred. I think that Love is sacred. Experiences closely related to honoring Life and Love are sacred.

For me the idea of some "thing" being sacred does not rest in the thing itself, it is honoring the love and value that rests in or is represented by the thing.

I often use the term "scared texts" when referring to religious texts. I use that term even toward texts that I have no familiarity with. What I am referring to is that I honor the love and value that other people may have toward that text -- it is a term of respect for something that another person holds dear. It is the love that is being honored there.

One can respect another person's right to their love for something, and their beliefs, and not equate it with a requirement to have that exact same love or belief for oneself. That understanding, I think, comes from truly honoring one's own love and right to an individual understanding of life, which will contain differences of beliefs. With that understanding, one can easily extend the same respect to others.

 

[Willamena]

"Sacred" and "sacrifice" have the same root. A sacrifice is an offering (the act of giving) to deity, and sacred is devoted (held in mind) to deity.

 

[Willamena]

Again, a concept of the sacred does not seem to require a concept of god.

A concept of deity doesn't require a concept of god either.

 

[Sunstone]

"Sacred" and "sacrifice" have the same root. A sacrifice is an offering (the act of giving) to deity, and sacred is devoted (held in mind) to deity.

You might be onto something -- except for the diety part.

 

[Thief]

Isn´t God omnipresent?

If your God is everywhere, how can there be a place that is not holy in any way? and which thing exists that is not also a place?

In animate objects as sacred?
...and thou shall not have any graven image before you....

would that include all things less than heaven?

 

[Thief]

So are you saying your god is as petty and insecure as you are or that you are as petty and insecure as your god?


I do not understand this as written.


So god is not sacred?

You lack of understanding has this so twisted....
maybe it would be better to let you meditate.

 

[McBell]

You lack of understanding has this so twisted....
maybe it would be better to let you meditate.

If you are unwilling or unable to reword it in a manner that it can be understood, then the failing on you, not the ones who do not understand it.

Though not the least bit surprising is that you completely ignore the points in my post...

 

[Me Myself]

In animate objects as sacred?
...and thou shall not have any graven image before you....

would that include all things less than heaven?

That is merely one interpretation of what God says one very conttradictory compilation of books taken as if it was one.

 

[Thief]

For the confused....here you go....

Remove the spiritual for this thread?

Then nothing is sacred.

In terms of motivation there are only four.
Religion, politics, military and the economy.

Remove belief in God and then, nothing is sacred.

 

[blackout]

We 'make' things 'sacred'.
It is our own perception of a thing that makes it sacred (to us).

Beyond our own human perceptions,
no one thing is actually/intrinsically any more or less 'sacred'
than anything else.

 

[McBell]

For the confused....here you go....

Remove the spiritual for this thread?

Then nothing is sacred.

In terms of motivation there are only four.
Religion, politics, military and the economy.

Remove belief in God and then, nothing is sacred.

This is only because you feel the need to stick god everywhere you can stuff him.

One wonders if your god has the same need?

 

[Student of X]

It has to do with the unknown.

As we stand at the edge, we project our collective psyche into the unknown. Then, the contents of our psyche take on symbolic forms and superimpose themselves onto the unknown, like a mandala unfolding. Take for instance alchemy. Before chemistry was understood, alchemy was sacred. Why? Because we projected the individuation process onto alchemy when chemistry was an unknown.

As the unknown becomes known we withdraw our projections, but the archetypes of the collective unconscious are in us whether we project them or not.

 

[Thief]

This is only because you feel the need to stick god everywhere you can stuff him.

One wonders if your god has the same need?

Empty rhetorical question.

Whether I 'stuff' God into it or not....
Whether He 'feels' a need or not...

If it is sacred...it's not for politics, the military or economics....
it is for belief in Spirit.

 

[Me Myself]

I do disagree with that feeling.

-God concept is not needed for sacredness

-Depending on how you define the "spiritual", it can also be unnecesary.

 

[AmbiguousGuy]

Beyond our own human perceptions,
no one thing is actually/intrinsically any more or less 'sacred'
than anything else.

I agree, but some would claim that things are sacred in God's Noggin, and it's our job to somehow discover that and worship those objects.

I can't believe it, but I can understand how some people do. They accept that God sent us some of His True Words. Many people spend their entire lives sorting through those Words.

Me, I don't even believe in words as having meaning outside of ourselves, so the whole business seems extraordinarily queer to me.