What is more important - to worship or to understand God?

Society Religion & Philosophy
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What is more important … To worship god … or to understand god…???

I think even monkeys can be trained to worship god… but cannot be made to understand god.

And then… what is more important?

To understand god or to understand our ownselves and the universe where we live…???

Should we apply our wisdom and intellect … OR… should we blindly follow what has been told to us by the religion…???

If human wisdom and intellect is imperfact and insufficient then what is the proof that religious ideologies are perfact and all sufficient…???

What is the proof that religious ideologies are not the creation of human mind…???

What things have been told by those religious HOLY BOOKS that cannot come in human mind just as a result of application of intellect and wisdom…???

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Re: What is more important - to worship or to understand God?

i think one questions comes prior to the ones you pose: are worshipping god and understanding god two different things?

let’s have a look:

I guess you mean with training, you train them the rituals of prayers etc…but just performing these rituals: is that worship? or is worship indeed understanding what and why you are doing it?

wudn’t these two things be the same?

here too u imply that following blindly without understanding is worshipping…i don’t know if that’s true

similarly, what is the proof that they aren’t? cuz even in this scenario our intellect will fail to prove that they aren’t. somewhere along the line it is a matter of faith…but everything flowing out of it can most surely be based on intellect.

before asking these questions, another more important question: all the things which presume have come in the human mind as a result of intellect and wisdom: how do we know that even those things are rightly interpreted by us? in the end it all boils down to constructing a coherent stream of thought, without knowing that outside this structure the things are right or wrong, as long as within this structure all is coherent…

i hope i’m not too unclear :smiley:

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Re: What is more important - to worship or to understand God?

in the end it all boils down to constructing a coherent stream of thought, without knowing that outside this structure the things are right or wrong, as long as within this structure all is coherent...

...the coherent structure is correct but insufficient.

You could build yourself a number of different such structures - the values, thoughts and actions will be very different within each. Ergo right and wrong will be different too.

That by itself wouldn't be too bad either except the human is driven by more than intellect. Therefore a single mind cannot but build multiple such structures.

That leads to conflicts and doubts. Energy and action getr wasted because of conflicts and doubts.

Hence the drive (partly natural, partly evolved IMO) in many humans to find some sort of unifying force - unification being a lose term to desribe "something that promises to help come out of the conflict and ddoubt".

God as a notion is very attractive such something. Search for leaders, quest for knowledge are also the same, though not as romantic a notion as God.

PS: The multiplicity of structures is very very close to the concept of maya

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Re: What is more important - to worship or to understand God?

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I guess you mean with training, you train them the rituals of prayers etc.....but just performing these rituals: is that worship? or is worship indeed understanding what and why you are doing it?
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Well! it reminds me one of my five time 'nimazi' muslim friend. Once I asked him do you know Arabic? He replied, "No". Then I asked him when you offer your prayers do you understand the meanings of words that you recite during your prayer? He replied, "No". Then I asked is it necessary to be aware of the meanings of those reciting words during pray or not? He replied, "No it is not necessary to be aware about the meanings of those words that we recite during our pray." That person is a post graduate qualified person.

Now what in your opinion, is there any difference between rituals and prayers?

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wudn't these two things be the same?
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To understand God and to understand our ownselves and this universe - both these things can be same provided that the God is not any religion's God. When we try to understand our ownselves and this universe, we have to face a number of such questions which are simply forbidden by religious Gods. So by believing in those religious Gods we cannot make attempts to understand our ownselves and this universe. We shall not be allowed by the religion to ask such questions as why there are many contradictions between real observable universe and that picture of universe which has been imposed on us by the religion? Then why our minds are logical and why the attributes of religious God are illogical? If our intellect and wisdom is unable to prove the existence of such religious Gods then why we are required to believe in the existence of such religious Gods?

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here too u imply that following blindly without understanding is worshipping....i don't know if that's true
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It only implies that religion require blinde beliefs. It does not let you to keep your eyes open and ask wise questions. If you ask questions you shall be among the kaffirs etc.

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similarly, what is the proof that they aren't? cuz even in this scenario our intellect will fail to prove that they aren't. somewhere along the line it is a matter of faith....but everything flowing out of it can most surely be based on intellect.
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Yes our intellect and wisdom do have its limitations. But our intellect and wisdom are also our maximum boundaries. We cannot cross our own boundaries. Then why we are required to believe in what is beyond the scope of our maximum limits? Is it not right to believe in only what is understandable because only this is what that we can rationally do. Ok we do need faith also at some times. But why to have too much rigid a faith? Where our intellect and wisdom fails, we do resort to faith but there always remain element of doubt in such kind of faith. Religion does not allow to keep this kind of doubt. Religion demands surity in those (mostly irrational i.e. which are beyond the scope of rationality) beliefs.

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before asking these questions, another more important question: all the things which presume have come in the human mind as a result of intellect and wisdom: how do we know that even those things are rightly interpreted by us? in the end it all boils down to constructing a coherent stream of thought, without knowing that outside this structure the things are right or wrong, as long as within this structure all is coherent...
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Holy Books also come to the knowledge of common person (like you and me) through ordinary mind processes. What is the proof that lets say Muslim's holy Book has been rightly interpreted by any one existing Muslim?

Baseless surity is the demand of religion. Human minds natural tendency (a mind which works also) is to keep doubting in the baseless things. Orders of religion are against the natural mind tendency. Can it not be concluded that religion is just unaware about the natural tendency of human mind?

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Re: What is more important - to worship or to understand God?

man created by God is a mere toy.

some things which are really minute can be understood by him. others cannot be.

we worship God for our meditation

it's not that God needs our worship. can u understand God?

understanding ourselves is a necessity.

we only see the world or rarely some parts of it.
UNIVERSE is a big word.

wisdom n intellect are needed to follow the rules . other wise monkeys would have been enuff.

only God is perfect. religion n ideoligies are more sufficient than our limitations

if religious ideologies have been creation of human mind , then it would have been racilism.

i do not know the ans for the last question

but i really liked this post

god work basic force :k behn aur bahi wat-ever u are.