Why do people credit God & not themselves?

[HinduWoman]

In India at least most businessmen are very religious, constantly donating to temples.
If they have a successful deal they give even more hugely. Sometimes they would strike a bargain with a deity: give me this contract and I will give you this jewellery. That is one of the reasons why the temples are so rich. Businessmen, including those who have settled overseas give like mad. Self-made businessman in particular seem to be fixated on the notion that without their favourite god/ess' help they could not have made so much money.

Tax benefits alone is just not enough reason for paving a temple dome with gold (to thank the goddess for setting up a fifth jewellery shop in Europe) or diamond gloves for a god (very successful year) , though what a god would do, specially in India, with gloves is yet another mystery. And there was this businessman who volunteered to give a solid silver throne to a goddess saying he is so lucky that her old one need to be replaced during his lifetime.

I really cannot wrap my head round the fact that they give so much credit to their invisible friends. Here they are smart and successful, running huge businesses --- I cannot manage anything they do.

BUT... :confused:

[purple_kathryn]

It also makes it seem that god is penalising someone else - which seems a bit wrong

[DMB]

See also God and earthquakes (http://www.secularcafe.org/showthread.php?t=1224).

Nothing is ever the fault of a god. It's always some shortcoming of the worshipper.

[sidhe]

See also God and earthquakes (http://www.secularcafe.org/showthread.php?t=1224).

Nothing is ever the fault of a god. It's always some shortcoming of the worshipper.

Not necessarily.

In my personal mythology, any given "deity" might fuck you over just for shits and giggles, not due to any personal shortcoming. Or, it might just be because it is how it is. Earthquakes and such...that's just forces of nature. Unbelievably bad fucking luck might just be that you're on the cosmic equivalent of Punked, with Loki as Ashton Kutcher when you die..."Why...why did I get hit by a bus after stumbling into the street, having been attacked by a pack of toy poodles being walked by a transvestite dominatrix? WHY GOD?" "YOU JUST GOT PUNK'D!!"

Hell, that's even biblical...look at Job. That poor fucker didn't do anything to deserve the corncob-sodomy performed on his life, it was just to see if he loved G-d unconditionally, or if he loved G-d only because he was wealthy and happy. I can get behind that kind of petty, arbitrary, mindfucking deity. ;)

[JamesBannon]

Aye, Sidhe, but you're weird! :)

[DMB]

Well, one of my favourite quotations is from King Lear:

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.

But it's not a popular POV.

[Eudaimonist]

I really cannot wrap my head round the fact that they give so much credit to their invisible friends.

Perhaps this is how they were raised. But I suppose that people like to try to reduce the perceived "chaos" in the world by making a supernatural appeal, because that will surely be more effective than one's own attempts to impose order.

Aside from that, it could also be an attempt to keep oneself humble. Personally, I think that can threaten the healthy growth of self-esteem.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[premjan]

If they were to credit luck and themselves it would be perfectly reasonable, so the only problem is that they fixate on the hypothetical rather than the probable.

[HinduWoman]

They try to manipulate luck, not only for this world but also for next life.

I just heard about a Gujrati millionaire who paid a crore for a 'philosopher's stone' (not Harry Potter one but the stone that turns everything to gold). It simply did not occur him to ask why the family who allegedly had this stone was selling this for mere money.
Then after the stone failed to live up to its reputation he took the help of a .. black magician.

It was only after he had lost another hundred thousand rupees on that he called the police.

Oh the sheep that is just begging to be fleeced: great business opportunities simply lost there for us nonbelievers... :rolleyes: