[...]I suppose there’s a certain allure of making unto oneself a god. That way the god reflects what you see as the best qualities you envision for yourself and is a handy standard against which to gauge others. So much more convenient than a god who calls you to be better in ways you’d rather not consider to be deficient The problem such an arrangement poses, however, especially when the new god is a human being, is when the god disappoints or is inevitably shown to have clay feet. Then the worshiper is forced either to turn on the god, claim that the god was a liar all along and what I fool I have been, or he is free to ignore/rationalize the contradictions, attack those who point out the contradictions as non-believers (shun the non-believers) (or as racists, partisans, ideologues, whatever) then deny that the god has ever changed position or that the issues the god has changed on are really that important, and do a little more idol development. Like write a book about how the god really, in its heart of hearts, is a god and we all are too focused on “tiny” matters to realize that. Silly mortals.[...] http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=32902&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
It’s when a great number of worshipers see the god is false, and yet there are still many true believers, that you then have a purge. They are always quite bloody, eventually consuming many of the true believers with the apostate.