Topics Religion

Question Is it possible to deify an object, perhaps a penguin? If so, what qualities and/or properties would make it godlike? D.D.

Accepted:
October 11, 2005

Comments

You might find helpful the article on pantheism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

In Chapter XII of Leviathan, Hobbes says that "there is almost nothing that has a name that has not been esteemed...in one place or another, a god or a devil....Men, women, a bird, a crocodile, a calf, a dog, a snake, an onion, a leek, [were] deified." Hobbes would probably say that somewhere, already, penguins have been deified. So it is certainly possible to deify a penguin.

The question is whether one would be justified in deifying a penguin. Hobbes--and most Christians--would say no, because only a being with all the attributes of the Christian God (omniscience, omnipotence, etc.) is justly worshipped, but no finite being has such attributes, and consequently, no finite being ought to be worshipped.

Perhaps other religious traditions would allow one to deify, and hence worship, a penguin. But I'm not familiar enough with other religious traditions to say.

Question Is it possible to deify an object, perhaps a penguin? If so, what qualities and/or properties would make it godlike? D.D. Accepted:October 11, 2005

Question Is it possible to deify an object, perhaps a penguin? If so, what qualities and/or properties would make it godlike? D.D.

Accepted:
October 11, 2005