Who do you look up to?

[Unveiled Artist]

Looking up to a person is still putting them on a pedestal above you. Believing in some extent that they are better than you. It is idolizing, a form of worship. You are not realizing that they are human and have flaws sometimes great flaws. You become blinded by there one attribute and ignore there lesser attributes.

Respect is about giving credit where it is do. You understand their contributions value to you and give them credit for it. You separate their other attributes and can value them similarly.

In short Looking up to a person is given, no one actively seeks being looked up to. Respect is earned through accomplishment and desired by others.

Why does respect need to be earned? Shouldn't you respect them for who they are both in their faults and in their efforts? Respect shouldn't come with clauses, no?

 

[bobhikes]

Why does respect need to be earned? Shouldn't you respect them for who they are both in their faults and in their efforts? Respect shouldn't come with clauses, no?

In my defintion of Respect, you have to understand the attribute of the person. Joe Jones broke the world record for hop-skidding and I watched it on TV. I am not giving Joe Jones respect if I know nothing more about him or hop-skidding. When I learn he has be doing this for ten years and hop-skidding is a highly competitive sport which the record hasn't been broken in over 50 years, I respect him for that and that only. Tomorrow Joe Jones shoots someone, he has lost my respect as a person but still has my respect for breaking the record.

Similarly, I am a huge NY Giants Football, Lawrence Taylor is one of the greatest Defensive Ends in Football; however, he was not a good person off the field and not someone I would want my kids to emulate in life. I respect what he did in football but use him as a bad example for actions to my kids for life choices.

 

[Clara Tea]

Today, we don't have leaders, like Moses, who will climb a mountain to seek guidance and come down with armsful of laws. We believe that high mountain dwellers don't know what they are doing. Yet, the Dalai Lama is said to be the reincarnation of Buddha, and you know that everyone respects a fat person (I command it....now bow--I need some respect).



While Moses was up there, his people were making and worshipping a golden calf. Anything that sparkled was covetted. Haven't we learned from wedding ring purchases that these things seldom work out? Yet, the pope is rapidly hiding (under bankruptcy laws) the twinkling bobbles (graven image mammon) of the Catholic church from the raped little boys who now sue. We could look up to popes for keeping the Catholic church's image pure by lying about raping priests and coercing raped little boys to remain silent about their ordeal, as they keep assets of the church out of the hands of those who should be financially compensated.



We could look up to beings of power. So, we could look up to the Romans who crucified people all along their roads to Rome. Few balked at their power while they were murdering and torturing. Should we worship Satan for the same reason (the worship of raw power)? God is more feared than respected these days, and followers, seeking to avoid the eternal fires of hell, are willing to follow God on the off-chance that they could get into heaven.



God offers forgiveness of sins. We were made in God's image (does that mean with God's sins?). should we forgive God for making of world of animals that eat other animals while they are alive and screaming in pain and fear? Should we forgive God for having the power to end cruelty yet not responding to prayers from dying cancer patients?



Bahalla



Should we look up to Pokemon lords like Bahalla (also in Star Trek)? Why not look up to Fred Flintstone instead? (Please see the link above).



The Christian God asks that we don't worship people, because such worship would detract frm devotion to Him.



Rightly, we gather to hear living preachers, because they have degrees in college in theology, so they should know what God wants. Yet, though God said "thou shalt not kill" these preachers often tell us to pray to do better in war (like Reverend Haggee). It is as if they read what they were supposed to avoid and didn't understand it. Should we follow the blind who refuse to see?



Many kids look up to Batman (who rids Gotham City of evil criminals). Yet, when Reverend Jimmy Swaggart was arrested for paying for a prostitute in Lancaster, California, he got his followers to rail against Batman (rail against some imitation evil to take the heat off of the real evil).



Most humans are flawed, yet maybe they have qualities worth respecting.

 

[blü 2]

Can/do you look up to someone today as you would/do teachers who lived in 6th BC?

Western civilization has learnt a huge amount from Greek thought ─ in philosophy, ethics, mathematics, physics, medicine, literature, drama, architecture, sculpture, politics, theology, and much more. The pioneers of Greek thought who lived in the sixth century BCE include Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras and Heraclitus. We owe them and their successors a great deal.

What happened in approximately 2,000 years or so that we may choose or do not (for whatever reason) look up to people today as we do those written in a book or passed down by oral tradition?

The Greeks looked up to the semi-legendary Homer in the way you mention, and took his heroes and his theology to heart. They gave way to the more efficient but not so idealistic Romans, who embraced and spread Greek learning. But quite early on in the Christian era, the Christian custom of book-burning emerged, and so to Constantine and to Christianity we partly owe the Dark Ages that followed. On the credit side, to the Moors, the Jews and the Spanish we owe much of the survival of ancient learning, and the renaissance that followed, where the Schoolmen of Paris and elsewhere (a humanist faction of Christian thought of the day) in the 13th century laid the foundations of European thought. The 17th century sees this bloom into the Enlightenment, and by the last quarter of the 19th century the intellectual foundation of today's Western thought was firmly in place.

we may look at the past with admiration and awe but not in religious worship or an idol one would base their life on. We do that with people 2,000 years ago.

Perhaps the answer lies in the rise of science, so that gods are no longer needed to answer our questions about famine and bounty, health and plague, lightning, thunder, mountains, hurricanes, good luck and bad luck, or death.

It is also interesting to note 1800s Bahallah was around, people worship him. That wasn't too long ago. Though the question may be the same since time difference shouldn't make a difference in who one worships and who one does not. Assumingly?

All ages are looking for good leadership. We've just seen the USA narrowing rescue its moral compass from the abyss, for instance.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Can/do you look up to someone today as you would/do teachers who lived in 6th BC?

What happened in approximately 2,000 years or so that we may choose or do not (for whatever reason) look up to people today as we do those written in a book or passed down by oral tradition?

I know 1980s is different than 1990s. Likewise, different mindset and technology of 1990s compared to 2020. People in the 80s would probably not fathom what we know today. People in the 60s and 70s have not yet heard of color television. However, we may look at the past with admiration and awe but not in religious worship or an idol one would base their life on. We do that with people 2,000 years ago.

What's the difference between now and then?

It is also interesting to note 1800s Bahallah was around, people worship him. That wasn't too long ago. Though the question may be the same since time difference shouldn't make a difference in who one worships and who one does not. Assumingly?

Yes of course. The virtues that the Great Teachers taught centuries ago, are eternal and valid in every day and age. Christ taught love. What would our fragmented, distrusting world look like if we all loved each other?

And because of stress and mental anxiety prevalent in the world today, has anyone noticed the multitude of universities teaching mindfulness which comes from the Buddha over 2,500 years ago?

And now in this age with so much division, a Teacher arrives teaching unity and harmony of all mankind. So in my opinion, the more we turn to the wisdom of the Great Teachers, the happier and healthier our world will become, because I believe we are essentially spiritual beings, and can only be truly happy when we practise being virtuous and live a balanced life between materialism and spiritual life.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Yes of course. The virtues that the Great Teachers taught centuries ago, are eternal and valid in every day and age. Christ taught love. What would our fragmented, distrusting world look like if we all loved each other?

And because of stress and mental anxiety prevalent in the world today, has anyone noticed the multitude of universities teaching mindfulness which comes from the Buddha over 2,500 years ago?

And now in this age with so much division, a Teacher arrives teaching unity and harmony of all mankind. So in my opinion, the more we turn to the wisdom of the Great Teachers, the happier and healthier our world will become, because I believe we are essentially spiritual beings, and can only be truly happy when we practise being virtuous and live a balanced life between materialism and spiritual life.

What about people today? During your lifetime?

 

[Mock Turtle]

Can/do you look up to someone today as you would/do teachers who lived in 6th BC?

Only if you desire to have the same sort of mentality and beliefs. Teachers should know their place.

What happened in approximately 2,000 years or so that we may choose or do not (for whatever reason) look up to people today as we do those written in a book or passed down by oral tradition?

I suspect the simple matter of progress - in knowledge, thinking, and what results from such.

I know 1980s is different than 1990s. Likewise, different mindset and technology of 1990s compared to 2020. People in the 80s would probably not fathom what we know today. People in the 60s and 70s have not yet heard of color television. However, we may look at the past with admiration and awe but not in religious worship or an idol one would base their life on. We do that with people 2,000 years ago.

Hardly the same. I was around in the 60s and I doubt we were as backward as you seem to imagine. Some of the best music came from that era, and mere technological advances are peanuts. I even imagined something similar to streaming as a youth.

What's the difference between now and then?

Learning?

It is also interesting to note 1800s Bahallah was around, people worship him. That wasn't too long ago. Though the question may be the same since time difference shouldn't make a difference in who one worships and who one does not. Assumingly?

To answer the title question - I don't. As others no doubt will have mentioned, I can respect others - their arguments, their contributions to knowledge, their greater ability to discern truth from fiction, and their capacity to think properly, etc., but it hardly means I have to place them on pedestals. Some are just born with advantages over others, but it hardly means one has to accept them as special because of such. I think it is very dangerous to look up to others in fact, and perhaps being the first steps towards slavery.

 

[loverofhumanity]

What about people today? During your lifetime?

Any person who exemplifies a good character is worth learning from. But I don’t believe that a perfect person exists today, so I have to go back a century to Abdul-Baha.