Well, must say that I spend more time in the PoFo them perhaps I should, and on Youtube then I really need to spend, one is a enjoyment the other a relentless quest to find that one tip that can be implemented to improve others lots in life. After more then a few posts in the Pofo it strikes me that "modern man" has two new objects of faith: -the Market -the Planet The market for it's part offers a sort of Calvinism, believe in the Market and applying the Market to any problem and mans' problems will be solved, disease, famine, poverty, what have you all dissolve with a proper faith in the Market The planet, which reminds me much more of a sort of Catholicism, believe in the institution, it is the right thing to do, no matter evidence to the contrary of the destructive and creative forces thusly unleashed. As Simon Greenleaf once sagely opined in his "Testimony of the Evangelists": "the object of man's worship will naturally be his standard of perfection" Which is not a swipe per se at either school of thought or philosophy as they have axioms and first principles the same as any other faith, or science if such a term may be used for such vagaries. I will say, that unlike mere Christianity, there is no supreme example of what it is that is trying to be accomplished, quite the opposite, more or less there is a contained a general line of thought, a soft sort of expectation for perfection that has no example to be contained within. Just an observation made after reading a youtube video commentator going berserk that a Bike Mechanic used what they felt was "a full can of gear cleaner, why don't you green things up and only use as much as necessary!" IE, that is a Sin against the environment...
The first commandment in Judeo-Christian tradition is "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of bondage, out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods but me". On the surface that speaks to the local gods of the Egyptians and Cannanites but upon deeper reading it also speaks to those we make in our own image. I think you are on the mark as to two of the newer expressions.
Exactly ModP, what is troubling about either line of thinking, when taken to a religious level, is there is no peace to be found within either system.
Isn't it "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"? Meaning beyond the sphere of my presence, or all has arisen from me...
Depends on the English translation. Simply put the Hebrew behind it demands God (YAHWEH) be at a higher level in our levels of allegiance than anything or anyone else.
even as a religious person (though non practicing) i struggle to tear myself from the idea that the economy is literally everything. part of it is that i do it for a living and the other part is marxist imo. or at least materialist. while capitalism and protestantism rose together, im not sure its result is exactly what the originators had in mind. to me the market is just a solution to make this life more bearable. if you remove the religious component, your "god" becomes something resembling the iconic welfare state....or scandanavia lol. so in a way, i think the new idols are post-christian, leaning pagan.
