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I am sure this post will have quite a bit of fun made of it, but it is a serious question.

Sun worship.... and how it makes total sense to worship something as such as the Sun and the planets which the sun poles (here me out, and no I don't have jos sticks burning or a spilff on the go).

Without the Sun we would be nothing at all; there would be no light and subsequently no photosynthesis for plants to create oxygen for us to breath - the whole earth would be a mass dark chasm void of life at all apart from perhaps some bacteria blurbing away in the earths crust.

There is also the much debated fact that most of the worlds present major religions have borrowed astronomical cycles and ritual from older religions (especially Christianity) and layered it into their own scripture and in turn persecuted anyone for believing in the old 'original' ways (witch burning + destroying idols etc). So at some point prior to the big three it would have been the heritage of us all (just look at Egyptology, European Pagans, the Babylonians etc).

So anyway I pondered to myself what a great religion it could be - for instance the Sun does not want to punish anyone for sin, it does not judge, it just gives life - that sounds like a creator that I could get along with.

You also would get to see him / her / it every morning with your own eyes and then on the 25th of December celebrate it's return.

We would all worship the same God as everyone else in the world. We would all understand it's importance and perhaps be in tune with how the Sun and the life and nature it has created are all connected - instead it seems most are more obsessed with going to some place after they die. There would be no 'I am a Christian and Jesus is the only truth' or 'I am a Muslim and Islam is the only true light' 'Or I am a Jew and your not joining my club'

Would that not be quite swell?











For anyone who does not have a clue what I am talking about;

http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta11.htm

It's true the sun is essential for our life and provides us with the energy necessary for our life, but it's a just a non-living finite object, like all other stars, it has a life cycle. It doesn't want to punish or judge anyone because it can't; it's not conscious, it's not even aware of our existence and it doesn't give life, the very same Sun can cause a total destruction of life, it is God who gave us life, He created the Sun and prefectly distanced our planet from it to be suitable for supporting life.
The Sun never tried to communicate with us while on the other hand God has been introducing Himself to mankind through the prophets and messages He sent, showing us His signs and telling us that He is the only true God
That is Allah, your Lord! there is no god but He, the Creator of all things: then worship ye Him: and He hath power to dispose of all affairs. (6:102)

That is because Allah - He is the Reality; and those besides Him whom they invoke,- they are but vain Falsehood: verily Allah is He, Most High, Most Great. (22:62)

Among His Signs are the Night and the Day, and the Sun and the Moon. Do not prostrate to the sun and the moon, but prostrate to Allah, Who created them, if it is Him ye wish to serve. (41:37)

one question that popped into my mind when I read this article is since the Sun won't punish or judge you so why bother worshipping it in first place? in other words why search for something/someone to worship? That soon reminded me of a discussion I had before with an atheist.
I was saying that religion - that is believing in God - is a human natural instict while atheism comes from induction, man is always looking for a creator, man needs a God to turn to and call for help. Even ancient tribes, far less civilized than us, have always recognized a holy figure be it the sun, the moon, a mountain, their leader or even a fictious character.

I think my use of the word worship may have led you to believe I meant in the fashion that someone worships a god personified. I do understand that the Sun is not an object which is a conscious entity capable of perceived duality (wrong or right), capable of judgment and obsession of human affairs.

Also I would argue that the sun does give life (trying growing plants in the dark). There is also a lot more proof of this then the elusive big guy in the sky creating lots of people and then keeping tabs on them each day.

Regarding humans being naturally close to God - perhaps, but it would most certainly be in their ability to look upon the Earth and the Universe with total awe and wonder, but a relationship with a personal god is something which is indoctrinated from a young age and set dogmatically in scripture.

But really it all comes down to what one sees God as being and there are many interpretations which is fine to a point until it blocks progress (which lets face it, the track record is not that good). I believe its perfectly ok to see how beautiful the garden is without having to believe there are fairy's in it. Its also ok to be inquisitive and question and not accept something as it's written somewhere and every tells you it's the truth.

double post

Tthe Sun is a finite object which will die eventually.
Actually there is life in the dark deep ocean layers where very little or no sunlight reaches. Organisms rely on alternate sources of energy and some produce their own light through Bioluminescence such as the Anglerfish.
Now try to grow something in the sunny part of Mercury

debian wrote:Tthe Sun is a finite object which will die eventually.
Actually there is life in the dark deep ocean layers where very little or no sunlight reaches. Organisms rely on alternate sources of energy and some produce their own light through Bioluminescence such as the Anglerfish.
Now try to grow something in the sunny part of Mercury

The Sun is finate - but none of us will be around to witness its demise.

Good answer on deep sea life - however I think you still find that the Sun plays a critical part in sustaining life for the vastly complex marine food chain from the top to the bottom depths of the Ocean.

Mercury, its far to Hot to sustain *any* life from being to close to the Sun. Earth is maintained at a relative distance suitable for sustaining and creating life within the atmosphere we currently enjoy.

Jabba just in case if u dont know.. Hinduism has always worshipped Sun. If u come towards Old pakisthani consulate area(such an irony with the name) you can still see a lot of Hindus offering their prayers to the Sun God 'Surya Bhagvan' after their bath in the morning.


FY reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya

Idol Worship

The statue or photo is the inert object. The form carved in a stone or painted on a paper is also an imaginary form and not even a direct photo. The statues and photos are only models representing the concept, which is knowledge. The form of statues and photos is mainly human form, which represents the concept that the Lord always comes to this world in human form as said in Gita (Manusheem Tanu Masritam). Please remember that Gita did not tell that the Lord would come in any other form. The forms of fish, tortoise etc., were only temporarily to kill the demons and nobody worshipped such forms during their time. But Rama, Krishna etc were the human forms worshipped by several devotees like Hanuman and Gopikas. The Lord will come in every human generation; otherwise, He becomes partial to a particular generation. If necessary the Lord can come whenever there is necessity as said in Gita (Yedaa yedaahi).

Once this concept is realized, there is no need of temple and statue for you. You should go from school to college and then to university. This does not mean that when you leave the school, the school should be destroyed. The school must exist for the future batches. Therefore for you, the statue and the photo are not necessary and this does not mean that the statues, photos and temples should be broken. They should be protected and must be respected as the models of divine knowledge for the future ignorant devotees. Some devotees cannot accept the human form, which is before their eyes as said in Veda (Pratyaksha dvishah).

For such devotees the statues and photos are necessary for meditation since they are at the school level. The statues and photos are useful for the meditation of such limited minds as said in Sastra (Pratima svalpa buddhinam). Veda says that the Lord does not exist in the inert objects (Natasya pratima, Nedamtat), but says that the inert objects can stand as models representing the Lord (Adityam brahmeti). Therefore seeing and meditation upon the statues and photos are correct in the case of the ignorant devotees. But the other rituals like offering food, burning camphor, fume sticks, oil lamps and breaking coconuts, offering flowers etc. are not mentioned in Vedas and there are unnecessary and are causing the air pollution harming the humanity. All these unnecessary rituals should be avoided.

Offering food should also be done to the human form of the Lord only but not to the inert statues. Ijya or Yajna is cooking and offering of the food. Gita says that such Ijya should not be done to the inert objects. In the name of the statues, people are stealing the food and money. The statue and photo is not taking the food or Gurudakshina. The people behind the statue are taking those things and most of them are either cheating or wasting the money with ignorance. Whatever the Gurudakshina is given should go only to the priest and not the managing devotees. The business of the merchants by selling such materials in the temples should be stopped, because such materials are not even heard in Veda. Of course, the priest should be a Satguru and preach the divine knowledge to the devotees and the devotees should give Gurudakshina to such Satguru only. Thus, the temple should become a center of learning selfless devotion and divine knowledge and the priest must do only ‘Jnana Yajna’ in the temple and not the ‘dravya yajna’ as said in the Gita (Sreyaan dravyamayat).

Gita condemned such Ijya before inert objects because such Ijya is only cheating and business. Such a devotee will be born as inert object (Bhutejya yanti). This business is connected to removal of the fruits of sins and getting the fruits of good deeds, which are not done. All this is false, because the theory of ‘karma’ says that one has to suffer for all his bad deeds and can never get the result of any good deed without doing it (Avasyamanubhoktavyam…kalpakotisatairapi). The spiritual path should be preached in the temple, which must be ‘nishkama karma yoga’ i.e., sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit (money) of the work to the Lord without aspiring any fruit in return. Remember, that only the Ijya is condemned and not the temples or statues, which are the models of the divine knowledge.