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                                   %GODS OF CULTURE 760914

     Each  culture which tries to represent the nature  of
an ultimate being---projects  into their image of it,  the
central  features  of the culture.   If the culture  is  a
loving   culture  which  promotes   intellectual/emotional
openness  and  honesty,  it tends to perceive  a  God  who
personifies these qualities.   If the culture is  centered
around  possessions,  rights,  and conventional  behavior;
then  it  tends  to perceive a God who  personifies  these
central realities of the culture.

     A  capitalist culture is centered around  possessions
and the control of those possessions.  Possessiveness is a
common feature of society,  and so  also is jealousy.   It
is  not  surprising then that a capitalist culture  should
have  a jealous God who seeks to control the lives of  his
subjects by making deals;  e.g.,  salvation in return  for
conventional  behavior  which  is supportive  of  cultural
features  which the God personifies.   God tends to become
the servant of cultural preservation,  while appearing  to
be the source of ultimate reality.   Rather than being the
source of newness,  God becomes the enforcer of collusions
dedicated to the preservation of traditional ways.

     An  ethical-moral-legalistic  culture creates  a  God
whose function is to enforce the ethical-moral-legal codes
of  the culture by appearing as the ultimate source of the
local  provincial  system for the control of  human  life.
Heaven  and  Hell  become the reward  and  punishment  for
conformist  behavior---in the ultimate fulfillment of this
God's  efforts  to  control  human  behavior  designed  to
fulfill a vision of a fully structured society.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
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