(May 19, 2012 at 12:37 am)MysticKnight Wrote: If you believe in God, you naturally believe he is the greatest being such as nothing can be greater then it.
Such a being deserves to be honored to the maximum degree we know of. That is called worship.
Since that is what he deserves and is worthy of it, then I worship that being.
Worship is a higher form of honoring. Honoring honorable people is a good things. Honoring Ultimate Goodness is a good thing for us as well. It's healthy to love good people. It's healthy to love the most good. That love and honor is what worship is. Doesn't mean you have to bow or pray or prostrate to him...it's enough that you honor and love him understanding he is the highest possible existence.
Why honor and love that being to the highest way you know of? Because he deserves to be honored and loved to the highest degree possible.
My problem with this argument is the very vague terms such as "greatest" being used to describe god without specifying why he is greatest. For example, even Christians might agree that Satan is the second greatest being in the world when it comes to power or foresight.
Secondly, the ultimate goodness argument doesn't really cut it for me because all conceptualizations of god, while claiming ultimate goodness give a different meaning to that term. So, even if god exists, he may be ultimate good by one person's standard and ultimate evil by another. Then obviously, that another person would not and should not be expected to worship him.
For example, back in my theist days, I conceived of god as some sort of mix between deism and pantheism and borrowed from the Hindu myth that universe goes through cycles creation and destruction. I conceived of god as a scientist doing iterations of the universe to create the perfect one. Now, that is a god I could have respected and probably worshiped - though in my conceptualization, worship would be as meaningless as unwanted. However, there are other conceptualizations, like the Abrahamic god, that I simply cannot conceive as being good, let alone the ultimate good. And therefore, worship, respect or honor in that case would be unwarranted.
