Obedience, Divine Intervention and Religion

[myboynoah]

Originally Posted by Requiem

Without giving anything away, it is clear that people of that time held an absolute belief that their earthly blessings were inextricably tied to their level of obedience. Religious leaders used that psychology to extract sacrifice in terms of material goods (e.g. crops, goods and money), and blind obedience.

I'll think about your questions and perhaps answer them later.

I was struck by this, having spent time in Europe lately, a place dotted with beautiful cathedrals. BBC did an interesting show once focusing on this very behavior (the church demanding obedience and using it to "tax" the people in order to build cathedrals). Its conclusion was that while beautiful, most if not all cathedrals had been constructed at great cost to the local populations, particularly the poor. Better the wealth had been left with those that produced it or used to make life better for all. It provided another perspective on cathedrals.

Okay, I'll take a stab at some of you questions.

I see the motivation for our obedience as being on a continuum, with one end being gaining some sort of benefit and the other being loving God. While obeying in expectation of gaining some benefit is an okay motivation, loving God is better. Hopefully as we grow, we move closer loving God.

As for divine intervention, much comes naturally from obedience to God's will, although that is probably not direct intervention; it is merely a consequence of obedience, although we may see it as intervention. Then every so often, God reaches down and acts on our behalf according to His wisdom. We may or may not be aware of such intervention.