Is there such a thing as worshipping the wrong god?

Question

I am an atheist and Ex-Hindu. I used to watch Stephen Colbert (American and Catholic) on comedy central before his current more famous tv show.

In one of episodes, he was talking about Hinduism, and said "Hindus worship the wrong gods" (google search would back me up on this), which I found fascinating -- This point of view about other religions.

I admit that Hinduism seems to have a lot of issues, such as infamous cast system.

I would like to know if this point of view was intended as a joke, or do people think that there is such a thing as "worshipping the wrong gods"

I hope this is a right forum for this. Please edit my question, if necessary, to make the question suit the forum.

Answer 1

In Truth in Religion, Mortimer Adler laid out the philosophical case that addresses this question. He asked the question, "Is there truth in religion?" In a universe of religions, here are the possibilities:

1. No religions make truth claims.
2. No statements making truth claims belonging to any religion are true.
3. Some statements making truth claims belonging to some religions are true and others are false.
4. All statements making truth claims made by all religions are true.

An analysis of actual religions disproves the first. Jesus claimed to be the truth, and challenged Pilate's questioning of the existence of absolute truth.

The fourth case can be easily proven wrong as soon as you identify two statements made by two religions that contradict each another. For example, Jesus is the Son of God according to Christians, while God has no son according to Muslims.

If there is no God or God is not a personal being that can communicate via verbal propositions, then the second case applies. That would mean that everyone who worships a God is worshiping a wrong God.

If there is a God who has communicated verbally and propositionally to humans, then only the third case obtains. Since there are religions with opposing statements, that means at least one religion teaches false statements. A systematic study of religions shows that there are many contradictory statements. However a religion including false statements does not necessarily mean that they call on people to worship the wrong God or even a different God, just that they are doing the worship wrong.

Most religions speak of beings in addition to God, and some to multiple gods. All people have an identity. That identity matters. Your identity governs who has access to your bank account, who can enter your house, and who is guilty of a crime and must be imprisoned. If God has an identity then there must be that which is God and that which is not God, unless God is the totality of all things, which some believe who practice forms of pantheism. If God has an identity, then your manner of worship must address that God according to God's identity. TO address God through worship in a way that does not identify who your worship is directed at is meaningless, and to supply false credentials for identifying God is idolatry. If there is any truth in religion, then there must be truth in defining the identity of the God that you worship.

The Ten Commandments in Christianity and Judaism state unambiguously that God has an identity and to worship anything else is to worship a wrong God. Islam also draws a line between Allah and all other objects of worship.

Getting back to pantheism, even it has a problem. The pantheist worships all that is here in this world and identifies the world as God in some sense. The Jewish and Christian faiths posit a God who is distinct from His creation. Thus to worship the "all" of the material world is to not worship the "other" that is outside that world, and vice versa. The two categories are disjoint.

So yes, it is possible to worship the wrong God. If this were an impossibility, we would have been told so and have one less thing to worry about.

Update - Concerning Logic

The comments include speculations about whether we really have a distinct case if God communicates non-verbally and non-propositionally.

If truth and logic are objective, abstract notions outside of God, then this is not a special case. One can come to conclusions about truth and falsity with or without verbal or propositional communications from God.

If it is as Christianity teaches that Jesus is the truth and all perfect logic flows from God and does not have a separate existence outside of Him, then we have a problem. With this silent God, not only have we not been told the truth, we have not been given the tools to find it. Any logical system we think up is inherently flawed.

Sorry I wasn't clearer about this before.

Answer 2

If anyone desires to worship deity correctly, acceptably to that deity, then that deity should make it known to sincerely searching individuals how to do that. Such divine communication, from above to us below, would actually help prove the reality of the true God. The true God breaking through to us, to bridge the gulf between us and him, doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, would clinch that proof. Christianity proclaims the one true God to have done this through his only-begotten Son, who became human as Jesus Christ.

However, if humans desired to form a religion that they thought would be acceptable to God, they would base it on what they thought about deity, what they thought would please God, which would be back-to-front as they would be trying to reach up to God. Divine revelation might be claimed, and visitations of gods and goddesses, as in Hinduism, but the belief in millions of divine ones (from which selection people can choose their preferred household god) does give rise to the question, "Could I (or we) be worshipping the wrong god?"

This is where the stark contrast between the one God of Christianity and the multitude of gods in Hinduism can serve a vital purpose in helping answer that important question.

If an atheist can assume, for the sake of exploring such a question, that there is a true God, then reads this God's communications with his people as to the dangers of false worship, those warnings could be seen to apply to the myriad religions that turn out to be man-made attempts at placating their idea of God / gods. In Christianity, there are constant warnings from the first book in the Bible to its last book about false worship and false gods. History confirms humanity constantly multiplying gods to themselves, except in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Those three world religions stress only one God, who alone is to be worshipped. He alone is the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who made man in his image.

This should narrow down the search for an atheist wanting this question answered. If there is only one true God, then it would be counter-productive to consult other religions that have lots of deities - a pantheon of them, in some cases. However, Christianity uniquely unwraps God's dealings with humanity, from their creation right into the future where he will bring in a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell; only in the person of Christ Jesus has the uncrosssable chasm between sinners and the holy God been crossed, by the Son of God so identifying with us that he became one of us, to die as Jesus, to bear the just wrath of God for sin in his body, though he had never sinned. This unique event is only detailed in the Bible, setting Christianity apart from all other religions.

The Bible shows that our Creator denies the existence of man-made gods; they are pseudo-gods, would-be-gods, false gods. To his people God declares:

"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me: I, I the Lord, and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Isaiah 43:10-12 A.V.

"Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I the first and I the last, and beside me there is no God... Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. They that make a graven image, all of them are vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know, that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?...

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return to me; for I have redeemed thee... Thus saith the Lord, they redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." (Ibid. 44:6 & 8-10 & 22 & 24)

The New Testament goes on to show how God redeems from sin by the Redeemer, sent to die and be resurrected to deal with sin, once and for all. That Redeemer is Christ Jesus, who reveals God the Father to sincere seekers, who assures us that God is looking for those who want to worship him in spirit and in truth. There is hope for such sincere ones, for God has already done in Christ all that they could never do to be reconciled to him. That is why Christianity is worth considering for those who want to avoid worshiping the wrong god / gods.

Answer 3

There is such a thing as worshiping the wrong gods. Both in a religious and non-religious sense.

I will explain things as much as I kind because you seem to be relatively new to Christianity and it would be unkind to assume you know all the fine details.

The main aspect I believe with the Stephan Colbert's opinion is that hinduism has the same problems as any polytheism religion. In Christianity we don't see each aspect of nature, humanity, or spiritual nature as a god. It would make them flawed and more human, the gods of ancient Greeks or modern Hinduism have this issue. The gods are not all powerful, because they can fight among themselves. As well as other issues like how do you remember them all?

Now for Christianity we believe that God is all powerful and our God is One God. This is repeatedly demonstrated and shown in our religious texts in the section called the "Old Testament". Where the polytheistic other nations are mocked repeatedly and in direct contests between our God and the gods of others, ours always won.

My favorite example of this is when our Prophet Elijah proposed a contest. A burnt offering to our respective gods, except our gods would have to light the fire! So on the top of mount Carmel, both sides made an alter. The false worshipers (850 of them) called out for hours, they attempted blood offers from their own bodies, etc... then Elijah made his alter, dug a trench, poured water over the sacrifice until the trench was full... and our God light the fire, burnt the offering, burnt the stones away, evaporated the water out of the trench...

Another issue with polytheism is that none of the gods are a proper focus for you life. Our God is the ultimate pure ideal. We have literally nothing better that could be an example of how we should live, behave, and act. This is why the word for a mistake in our religion is "sin" which means "To miss the mark". We aim our lives towards the One True God, and when we sin we have missed...

So in hinduism you worship the wrong gods, because none of them are a proper goal and also none of them are all powerful and pure. The goal aspect you could apply to your life without religion, but it has much more deeper meaning and impact if taken personally in the form of religion.

This is my personal thoughts on the matter, guided by Eastern Orthodox understanding and tradition.

Peace be with you.

Answer 4

Is there such a thing as worshipping the wrong god?

The short answer is yes, a least from a Christian point of view.

Let me start off with the story of St. Paul and his visit to Athens and his preaching about the altar of the unknown god.

In St. Paul’s preaching he tries to explain the One True God as being the unknown god they had an altar dedicated to...He had little success in this first endeavour.

In Athens

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. - Acts 17:16-34

For Christians there is only one true God and all others gods are false gods, wrong gods, idols or demons... Ecclesiastical history makes this quite clear.

False gods are any gods other than the Lord himself. Some of these divinities took the form of images, others were mythical. Some Israelites became involved in idolatrous worship of such. These are all considered wrong gods to be adored. False gods are often associated with foreign nations in the Old Testament.

Christians do not share the possible erroneous idea that some gods are the wrong god for this or that purpose or intention as the Pagans do. We have One True God.

The Ancient Romans, like many other peoples, had many household gods which they venerated for specific reasons and or intentions. One venerated one false god for a particular intention but not for others!