Praising everything someone does, while ignoring all the things they do that would make you wretch if it was anyone else doing it.

I feel like I've said this before.

(January 9, 2015 at 2:00 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Praising everything someone does, while ignoring all the things they do that would make you wretch if it was anyone else doing it.

I feel like I've said this before.

I feel like it would have been ignored before, just as it may this time. If it's any consolation, I agree.

Worship is just the highest form of honoring.

Coming from Islam the notion was that humans worship Allah for their own benefit and that when understanding the truth about Allah we would have a desire to worship him selflessly. In Islamic theology Allah created human beings to worship him alone after all

(January 7, 2015 at 9:59 am)robvalue Wrote: This is something that's been bothering me lately. Why would anyone think it's a good idea to worship anyone or anything? If Yahweh was real, I wouldn't worship him because he's a dick. But even if he wasn't, even if he was the most kind and loving God ever, why would I worship him?

I can be thankful, have admiration and respect, offer friendship, whatever. But what do either of us get out of worship?

The only real reason I can think of to worship anything is because you want to receive better treatment. Either in the form of gifts, or out of fear to avoid punishment. In other words, you're begging for stuff. The only other possible, and ludicrous reason would be that the God or whatever literally could not exist without this worship. Ironically, that is kind of true, but I doubt theists would even claim this.

So why worship anything other than for personal gain? Why not just say thank you? It's fucking creepy.

No matter what I did for someone, I would never expect nor want worship. Why would I?

More importantly, why does a god need worshipers?!? An omnimax god wouldn't, even if it deserved them.

(January 9, 2015 at 3:13 pm)GalacticBusDriver Wrote:

(January 7, 2015 at 9:59 am)robvalue Wrote: This is something that's been bothering me lately. Why would anyone think it's a good idea to worship anyone or anything? If Yahweh was real, I wouldn't worship him because he's a dick. But even if he wasn't, even if he was the most kind and loving God ever, why would I worship him?

I can be thankful, have admiration and respect, offer friendship, whatever. But what do either of us get out of worship?

The only real reason I can think of to worship anything is because you want to receive better treatment. Either in the form of gifts, or out of fear to avoid punishment. In other words, you're begging for stuff. The only other possible, and ludicrous reason would be that the God or whatever literally could not exist without this worship. Ironically, that is kind of true, but I doubt theists would even claim this.

So why worship anything other than for personal gain? Why not just say thank you? It's fucking creepy.

No matter what I did for someone, I would never expect nor want worship. Why would I?

More importantly, why does a god need worshipers?!? An omnimax god wouldn't, even if it deserved them.

Well, the Judeo-Christian God openly admits to being a jealous fuck, so maybe he's just a bit insecure? Needs a pat on the back...about 7 billion of them..for eternity.

(January 9, 2015 at 2:59 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: Worship is just the highest form of honoring.

Interestingly, someone demanding to be honored with the explicit threat of torture if they aren't honored doesn't actually deserve to be honored.

My reply isn't going to be one which says why worship is important or anything. After all nothing regarding religion is important to you guys after all. I'll just say why faith is important. Since if you have faith and honor the creator, you would most likely feel like worshiping one of that magnitude.
I got this from a Catholic forum but it has my words exactly-

Christianity doesn't say faith alone will send us to heaven. Our actions play a big part. We are to do our works with- love, joy patience, gentleness, kindness, self control, goodness, peace, faithfulness. With these "fruits" or blessings of the holy Spirit, we are to deal with others. It makes the world a better place.
THIS is why god needs us to trust in the holy Spirit ( so that we may get the blessings.) I'm not saying atheists don't have these traits, but I stand witness to say it is hard without faithfulness/ worship (belief that god will guide your heart even when you get discouraged by humanity) and joy (joy knowing someone up there is smiling when we do good). That is why the saints gave their lives to serving others. They had all nine fruits. Maybe that's why it is called a sin-because it must be thought that without faithfulness and joy how can you have the other fruits of the spirit? If you don't have them how can you make the world a better place? Sadly, such Christians are rare to non existent nowadays.

Also I don't believe in hell for non believers. As for why worship, probably it's acknowledging something greater exists or that you have faith. You're talking as if all we ever do is worship. It all boils down to works as I wrote above.

And if one thinks they're not worshiping because their correct posture is on their feet not on their knees, two words- Pride and Humility

Faith = believing stuff with no evidence

People can be entirely good, indeed spending their whole life helping others, without any religion or worship needed.

As I've said, if there's a creator, we know nothing about it, so we are worshipping a question mark that may not even be there at all. What's the point of that? There is nothing religion provides that cannot be accomplished just as well without it.

Jesus does say that works are important at one point. I will admit that. The bible also says that your good works are like filthy rags, and Jesus is the only way into heaven. So the emphasis is still clearly on who you know, instead of what you know. They expect you to do good works, and unfortunately some of those "good" works don't seem so good to outsiders, because the priority of belief over deeds causes people to attempt forceful conversions on pain of torture, banishment, and death.

Ironically the act of demanding worship actually disqualifies you from being worthy of worship.

There is a place for pride, and a place for humility. Pride has its place when faced with unproven concepts like gods. Humility has its place when faced with proven concepts like science. One works, and one doesn't. A person's false humility, where they worship whatever their parents brought them up in, to the point where they're prepared to kill, torture, or banish someone for believing differently, is not needed.