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%WORSHIP FALSE GODS IDOLATRY GOLD SILVER TECHNOLOGY+940324
   %ADDICT OBJECTIVITY SCIENCE FIX WRONG EVIL SAVED 940324

     Modern technologically sophisticated people are prone
to  regard  the ancient  injunction  against  bowing  down
before  false gods as quaint and irrelevant---because they
have  a limited conception of the nature  of  false  gods.
They imagine that the false gods can only be quaint images
made of wood, stone, iron, copper, bronze,  brass, silver,
gold or some other chosen objective substance.  Anyone who
wishes to see  can recognized that false gods of all kinds
have been worshipped:  perfectionism, idealism,  legalism,
morality,   technology,  science,  scholarship,  research,
technologies,   etc.   How are we to  distinguish  between
false gods and the God of love, truth, honesty, integrity,
health, wholeness, etc?

    The worship of false gods promotes:

     dishonesty  disintegration   manipulation  violence

    arrogance    defensiveness    insecurity    fear

    injustice    imbalance        exclusivity   judgment

     We can tell what kind of gods a person  or  community
worships  by what fruits  they bear.   We need to be fully
open minded to  recognize which of  the  above (or  other)
objects  of  worship leads people to behave in ways  which
bear the bitter fruits which are often born of the worship
of false gods.  The focus of their services may be  highly
respected  and  yet bear very bitter fruit.   We  need  to
transcend  traditional  conceptions  of respectability and
attend closely to the taste of the fruits which are born.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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