Animal Gods on the Altar

It is critically important that you get this idea right. The only purposes for using a symbol like an animal for God is to get your attention. It also emphasizes a point of discussion.

That point is, I want you to step up to a new understanding of God. An understanding that has little to do with animals. An understanding that has a lot to do with our being failure prone humans. An understanding that has a lot more to do with our being a part of God's Plan as God shows it to us by what exists.

I don't usually spend much time worrying about religion, and God, and my relationship to Him. I thought I’d resolved my concerns a long time ago. I thought I had an understanding with God, and we didn’t bother each other very often, or very much. I don't know about God, but I was comfortable with the arrangement.

About seven months ago that changed. I don’t even remember the context of the question, or why it came to my attention. However, I did some idle exploring on the internet, and there are a lot of possibilities for a non-human God form in the history of human religions. Humans around the world have used a large variety of animals, from insects to elephants, as symbols of God.

Don't think this is just an old primitive idea. I took a quick look around our house and was able to find images and small art objects depicting: cats, mice, dogs, frogs, ducks, geese, seals, lions, horses, songbirds, seagulls, chickens, alligators, and two dragons. Several I expected to find are unaccountably missing, so they’ve probably been packed away for a rest.

Today repetition is the soul of advertising. And advertising bows down before the icons of various animal gods of tremendous profits.

Without a strain I was able to recall ad campaigns with bears for selling soft drinks, beer, and fire safety. Tigers were featured to sell gasoline and breakfast cereal. Frogs were used to sell shoes and beer. A dinosaur and a flying horse sold gasoline. A duck has done tremendous things for insurance advertising. A bull has been used to sell beer and securities brokerage. Who has not seen the gecko selling car insurance?

Where would we be without our animal icons for sports teams: rattlesnakes, dogs, birds, horses, dolphins, lions, and bears? Sometimes the living animal is brought to the stadium. Sometimes we dress up a person in an animal costume to lead the cheering and entertain the crowd at halftime with funny antics.

Why are so many children’s stories, cartoons, and video games about animals?

We use these animal symbols because they help us identify with the teams, or products, or Gods. When we associate a sports team with a bear we think of the attributes of bears: fierce, tough, long teeth, sharp claws, aggressive, and fighting spirit. As far as I know no sports team features as its icon a chihuahua, although chihuahua’s have been used recently to sell products due to their “cute” factor.

Animals as gods are still with us today.

Article Source: http://www.religionarticlelibrary.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace completed an MA and taught in the public schools for 28 years. He recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, the layers of money sucking priesthood, and their departures from the fundamental ideas and messages of Religion. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will outrage everyone. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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