Why is God worth worshiping?

[FlyingTeaPot]

He gave us life, and the ability to enjoy it.

Okay, but isn't there something more you would like to add? What I mean to say is, our parents also gave us life, but not all parents are worthy of worship. Just because one is created does not mean the creator is owed anything by the created.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

I worship the gods I do:
Because they called out to me.
I find them trustworthy and honest.
They expect me to be a better person for family and community
They expect me to know myself and to confront even the things that are deep and dark.
They care for my dead and the spirits of the land.

Awesome.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

Opposed to common thought I find that he values my personal freedom and gives unconditional love in spite of my personal failings. My failure does not keep him from loving me.

Okay, so you look at god as a personal friend, a parental figure? I can see why that is worthy of respect.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

Hmmm, here goes...

...Worship, supplication and whatever deed is performed for pleasing God, has a direct effect on the person worshipping and society also. In fact these are the highest training and ethics in the school of Islam because the worship of God creates a sense of thankfulness, respect and honour. To realize the value of the source from where man gets the valuable divine blessings is a sign that the person was deserving of them.

Simplified for the sake of staying on topic.

Peace

I am not asking for generalities. I wanted to know why you specifically worship your god. What attribute of your god were you so struck by that you chose to worship him?

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

Because my "God" will destroy me and I will be liberated

How is that worthy of worship? What will you be liberated from? Do you feel imprisoned right now?

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

why complicate things? being thankful is enough.

It is, but its not worship.

 

[Grandliseur]

Although there are some who welcome Armageddon.

In the past, some of our wars were hailed as the last war. I am not sure which ones this phrase was added to, or if I am wrong. However, if one did have a war that were truly the last of wars so as to render all future wars impossible, one such war might be desired. (unless it became an extinction event)

Armageddon is supposed to be the war that ends the national war problem among the nations by assembling all nations under one government, a government with power off the planet, so to say, but with real power to control the planet. A government that promises to work for the betterment of all, not the Chinese, the Europeans, the Indians, the Americans, south or north, but an impartial government that will also protect the planet, the poor, and not permit the mega rich any longer.

It even promises to bring in armies from other planet/s to finish the job with perhaps UFOs in the fighting Just perfect for a SciFi culture of modern times.
Of course, with what and how they shall enter the fight is not described.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

@FlyingTeaPot
Why do I worship my gods? Because armchair theism is nonsensical and useless. Why bother accepting gods into your life if you aren't going to do anything with it? It's kinda like saying "yeah, I have this friend, but I don't give them gifts, talk to them, spend time with them, or really acknowledge them in any way."

But if you meant to ask why God is worth worshiping, I don't think that god is worth worshiping. I'm not a monotheist of any sort, much less of the Abrahamic variety.

Yes! I think your post hit the nail on the head as to what I was trying to get from this thread. To your second statement, if you do not think God is worth worshiping, then why bother doing it?

 

[dfnj]

dfnj....... Thank you for such a comprehensive reply, it's hard to know where to begin.

And thank you for your reply.

I prefer to begin with the concept of reality,..... is there a 'reality'.... do we all experience the same reality...... what if matter and energy have always existed, and there has never been anything created, only transformed. When I was younger I thought I would find answers, but instead I find only deeper questions...... Science, especially semantics, appears to offer some hope that we may agree with other humans regarding something exterior to our individual consciousness, and if we could agree upon something, perhaps we wouldn't have to kill each other regarding each other's non-reality.

If religion did not exist at all and all we had was just science people would still kill each other. The problem is human nature. Religion did not create human nature. In many ways religions have been created so people have a reason to control the selfish parts of their own human nature.

To agree upon what 'is' is quite an accomplishment, but what if there are no 'referents', i.e. objects of a verb that can be measured and evaluated by the scientific method. We can agree that this is large, or this is red, or that is soft, because the object is part of our world of 'Being'. And what has 'being' has 'isness'. The sun is bright, the rug is soiled, the troll is beneath the bridge, and god is..... what? Humans create their own gods, a fact that we know from our study of the thousands and thousands of years of evolution, each one for unique cultural reasons as I've mentioned elsewhere.

Yes, humans create gods. But you do not understand why. Gods are Jungian Archetypes. They provide a map to our inner psychological World. Yes, it's all imaginary. But it serves a purpose in providing a context in which people live meaningful lives.

And now, finally after all those thousands of years of evolution, our consciousness has emerged with a method to evaluate our experiences. The question that occurs to me is, "Do we want to live in reality, or in a fictional world created by our minds?" I have assumed reality is preferable.

Every religious dogma is built on a set of assumptions that are accepted as being true by choice. These assumptions cannot be proven to be true. Since you can't prove a negative you can deny these assumptions could possibly be true. But regardless, for people practicing the discipline of the religion these assumptions are chosen to be true as a matter of faith.

Why do people have religions you ask? Obviously in hope of perceiving and experiencing a true reality, a true god...... from which follows an endless litany of heavens and life everlastings and such. We all want some idea why we are here, and where will our minds go upon death. Religion purports to answer those questions,

Religions exist to answer the four great existential questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What does it all mean?
4. What is going to happen to me when I die?

Religious dogma does not answer these questions using evidence. Religion dogma answers these questions using faith. Having this faith is a choice. I do not think you understand what is religious dogma and how it is constructed and how it works. People are very uncomfortable with unaswerable questions. Religious dogma answers these questions definitively. You may think it is irrational and crazy nonsense but you are missing the point. Have answers to these questions provides a context in which to live a meaningful life in terms of what is considered to be sacred and divine. Again, these ideas are taken to be true based on faith and not scientific evidence. You don't have to like it. But it works for the people who belief in it.

but no one can agree..... it devolves into supposition entirely, as there is no substrate of reality, no 'being' that can be corroborated by anyone. And regardless of which god you choose, are you not faced with the same enigma? Where did god come from? Where was any god while humans evolved over thousands and thousands of years, likely with pain and suffering we can't begin to imagine. If a 'god' created this world why would he ignore it as he did? Religion and belief raise more questions to me than they do answers.......

Yes, there are many religious doctrines. This is because how one answers the 4 great existential questions has many different answers.

No, you are not faced with the same enigma. The Purpose of religious doctrine is to eliminated enigma.

Gods exist in our words and language. Gods are archetypal energies of the human psyche. The Gods are a reflection of what it means to be a human being. Even though some religious doctrines believe God is out there it really is just a outward expression of something that is personal in meaning. God exists out there because He exists inside our hearts and minds. This is really a matter of faith and not something that requires scientific evidence for it to be useful to the believer.

God did create the World until we have a better explanation as to why anything exists at all as opposed to nothingness. God is word that is a placeholder for what we cannot answer.

Religion and belief raise an equal amount of questions as does science. How many times have we heard the more we know the less we know. Questions are just part of the territory. But when you have a well constructed religious doctrine a lot of the questions go away or become irrelevant. Is it right? Is it wrong? It's up to you to choose to have faith or not to have faith.

For many people they really do not understand what making a choice really means. People make decisions based on evidence. People make choices sometimes without any reason but just for making a choice based on "no reason". Having faith in God is irrational. But having faith in God has its rewards and benefits.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

Allah (God) (SWT) has created us to Worship Him! Our purpose for being on this earth is to Worship Allah (SWT)!

That's circular logic, and does not answer the question at hand.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

Tea pot,

You would like to understand why I worship God?

Very much so.

For me in my life of some seventy years or so I've found worshipping God provides me and my family with meaning, truth and love. When alone or against great odds and when in fear worshipping God provides security and meaning to life and the end of this life as well as the life to come....

Worship is the spiritual core around worship is my life.. how I act and what I work for and this involves teachings that we receive from the Messenger of God in this day.

This provides the answer for both why you worship God and why your god is worth worship to you. Thanks for your answer.

I found a paragraph from an article on "worship" that I wanted to share here:

"The word comes from an Old English term that means “to show honor” or to “give worth (worth-ship)” to something or someone. Of course, many words exist to describe the ancient concept of worship. In the Bible, initially written in Aramaic, the word for worship—proskuneo–meant “to bow down, to prostrate oneself before God.” In Buddhism, the Pali and Sanskrit word for worship—puja—means giving honor and devotional attention. For Hindus, the word for worship—bhakti—means the expression of devotional love. In Islam, the concept of ibadah means obedience, submission and devotion to God. In Judaism, Avodat Hashem means worshipping God through prayer, devotion and meditation."

What Do Baha'is Worship?

- Art

Wow, it's always interesting to find out how words originated. Thank you.

 

[dfnj]

I can't prove to you that you exist, but I'd guess that both of believe that you do.
I can show your persistence and change. Both occur in time.

Now you are being silly. If I hold an apple in my hand and we both look at it we can say, "apple". No one denies the existence of apples. But God and Time I can't hold in the palm of my hand.

Disagree. Time is an irresistible intuition, like external reality.

So is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Yes, time may well be a mental construct - something generated by consciousness like an imagined FSM - but we are unable to have conscious experiences without experiencing time. I don't need to experience space or matter (external reality) to have a conscious experience. Thought alone is enough.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard a theist tell me ALL of existence is evidence for the existence of God. What you said is no different. Time is just two arbitrary points chosen by man to be meaningful. It is no different and doesn't exist like the way "apples" exist.

But I do have to have a sense of a series of ordered nows just to think, thinking being a change of mental state that cannot occur without the experience of before, now, and the anticipation of next or later, even if just implicitly. My dog expresses an ability to remember and anticipate. That is what time is, and there is nothing arbitrary about it apart from the units we choose to measure it.

It only exists in your imagination.

The FSM has no external correlate or referent, and is not only not an irresistible intuition, had the person who created the idea not done so, it is very unlikely that anybody would have had that concept in imagination.

If you say so but I think everything you are saying just exists in your head.

God may also have no external referent, but the idea seems to have been inevitable.

God is just a word. Nobody denies the existence of the word God. What the word means is defined by its usage. There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of God in reality. But it doesn't matter because people choose to have faith in God. Having faith in God provides a context in which believers can live a meaningful life. Is it irrational, yes. But who cares because believers are able to experience what it means to have a meaningful life in terms of what is sacred and divine. Sacred and divine existing is always taken to be real based on faith. What difference does it make if there is no evidence supporting the beliefs. It works for the people who have faith.

 

[Trailblazer]

Yes! I think your post hit the nail on the head as to what I was trying to get from this thread. To your second statement, if you do not think God is worth worshiping, then why bother doing it?

I do not think in terms of whether I think God is worth worshiping. Who am I to say what God is worth? That would be quite presumptuous of me. I TRY to worship God because according to my religion the purpose of my existence is to know and worship God. So I just want to do the right thing.

Admittedly, I do not do a very good job of worshiping God. I am just beginning to know God. Hopefully worship will come later.

According to my religion, knowing God is the beginning and worshiping God falls under that category of observance:

“The beginning of all things is the knowledge of God, and the end of all things is strict observance of whatsoever hath been sent down from the empyrean of the Divine Will that pervadeth all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 5

 

[dfnj]

RE: Why is God worth worshiping?

According to the Bible, because if you don't get on your knees are worship God with all the humility you can muster, then He will curse your life and condemn you to eternal suffering in Hell. If you don't worship God you will not be saved. You will not be allowed to enter the gates of Heaven. And being saved in the afterlife is more important that anything that happens in your alive life. And if you don't go through the gates you won't get to experience eternal heavenly bliss which is better than sex.

So if any of this is worth it to you then that is why.

However, I don't think us worshiping God really matters to God. My faith is in a God of unconditional love. So the God I have faith in loves us no matter what we do in our lives.

 

[SomeRandom]

How is that worthy of worship? What will you be liberated from? Do you feel imprisoned right now?

Because that is literally the ultimate goal. Like Christians who seek Heaven I guess.
Liberated from ignorance

 

[Trailblazer]

RE: Why is God worth worshiping? However, I don't think us worshiping God really matters to God. My faith is in a God of unconditional love. So the God I have faith in loves us no matter what we do in our lives.

I agree. It does not matter to God if we worship Him because God is self-sufficient and has no needs. God only wants us to worship Him for our own sake.

I believe that God loves all His creatures no matter what they believe. God created us all from the same dust so that no one should exalt themselves over any other.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

There is absolutely no evidence for the existence of God in reality.

Then there is no reason to believe that such a thing exists.

 

[SinSaber]

The only other major religion with a different God is Hinduism and they believe humanity was a colossal mistake.

 

[Trailblazer]

Then there is no reason to believe that such a thing exists.

IF there was absolutely NO evidence that God exists, there would be NO reason to believe God exists, but there is evidence.

For obvious reasons, nobody can prove that Messengers of God/Prophets received a message from God such that it is an established fact, like a scientific fact. However, Messengers of God are evidence because they indicate that God might exist.

Please allow me to explain why.

evidence
a. A thing or set of things helpful in forming a conclusion or judgment: The broken window was evidence that a burglary had taken place. Scientists weighed the evidence for and against the hypothesis.
b. Something indicative; an indication or set of indications: saw no evidence of grief on the mourner's face.
evidence

• The Messenger was evidence that a God had taken place.
• I saw evidence of a God in the Messenger.

Nonbelievers constantly tell me I do not know what evidence is, but I understand exactly what evidence is, as demonstrated by my examples. Nonbelievers do not like the idea of Messengers being considered evidence so they do not think it is evidence. But by definition a Messenger IS evidence of a god even though it is not proof of a God.

Let me clarify that a bit more.

• The Messenger was evidence that a God had taken place.

It is evidence because the Messenger might have been from the god, just like the broken window might have been from a burglar. The broken window might also have been because a neighborhood kid threw a rock through the window, and the Messenger might have been a fraud. However, just as we would want to verify that a burglary had not taken place by investigating the burglary, we would want to verify that a god had not sent a Messenger, by investigating the Messenger.

• I saw evidence of a God in the Messenger.

The Messenger was indicative that there might be a god, but it is not proof that there actually IS a God; just as not seeing a sad look on a mourner’s face is evidence that they might not be grieving, although it is not proof that they are not grieving. Again, more investigation is necessary to make these determinations.

 

[Trailblazer]

The only other major religion with a different God is Hinduism and they believe humanity was a colossal mistake.

Can you explain what you mean by that?