thread: 2007-01-10 : Some questions about worship
On 2007-01-16, Jake V wrote:
Worship suggests regarding a higher being as such. When you give thanks, are you directing them to a higher spirit or force, something more mundane, or nothing at all?
Prayer suggests communication. Are your thanks intended to be received by what you're directing them to, or is it an undirected ritual?
If I understand you correctly (and please correct me if I don't) your thanks would be neither prayer nor worship by this figuring.
Blasphemy and idolatry are more difficult as they're functions of religious systems, so their definitions are dependent upon one's frame of reference. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all have teachings, some explicit, some implicit, that the other two would call blasphemous. An accusations of idolatry, similarly, is depends on the assumption that the thing being worshiped is unworthy of that worship.
The only way I could figure this as being blasphemous would be if it's not prayer, it could be taken as mocking various animist beliefs. Within the Judeo-Christian tradition (where I'm more familiar), I can't say it is. If it is prayer, many systems would call it heretical.
If it is prayer, as above, it would be an act of idolatry within any system that recognizes the concept and doesn't hold the recipients of the prayer as proper recipients. If it isn't prayer, then it's more vague. Some religious systems would hold anything taking the place of prayer, worship, or religious practice as idolatry.
