Why should we worship god?
Firstly I am thinking of a god who has the full set of "Omni"s
Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient and omni-benevolent.
Richard brown suggests the following options
1. Because God is all-powerful!!! He could destroy you in a micro-second or banish you to an eternity of pain and torture…so you had better worship Him or you’re screwed!!
which he rejects because it is not a reason because
This answer makes God out to be a petty tyrant and that is incompatible with the description of Him as all-knowing and all-loving.
2. Because God deserves it! He created this Universe just for us.
which he counters with the problem of evil in the world and by asking "why am I obligated to be grateful for a gift that I did not ask for?"
finaly he suggests
3. We should worship God because he commands us to do so!
which he counters with
‘what kind of God would command us to worship him?’ This seems sort of needy and insecure, something that I take to be at odds with the characterization of God as all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful.
My thoughts as to what would be defendable positions for why one should worship god are
1) god is ultimate good - so we should contemplate him and that the proper approach to contemplating ultimate good is worshiping, and that one who doesn't worship is less likely to be good.
still its easy to think of a person who worships and yet on the face of it is evil.
2) You should worship/thank him IF you are grateful for existing
still not clear why being ungrateful deserves punishment.
3) God has a perfect plan (which flows from being all loving and omniscient), any change you make to it no matter how well thought out will detract from that plan - part of that plan is that you worship him.
Now this might be valid - but that is partly because it is so vague.
So none of which I find compelling but all at first glance defendable.
Now considering this (regardless of whether you believe in god just assume he exists) is there a valid reason why you should be required to worship him? or why it would be valid to punish you for not worshiping him if he is omni everything?
Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient and omni-benevolent.
Richard brown suggests the following options
1. Because God is all-powerful!!! He could destroy you in a micro-second or banish you to an eternity of pain and torture…so you had better worship Him or you’re screwed!!
which he rejects because it is not a reason because
This answer makes God out to be a petty tyrant and that is incompatible with the description of Him as all-knowing and all-loving.
2. Because God deserves it! He created this Universe just for us.
which he counters with the problem of evil in the world and by asking "why am I obligated to be grateful for a gift that I did not ask for?"
finaly he suggests
3. We should worship God because he commands us to do so!
which he counters with
‘what kind of God would command us to worship him?’ This seems sort of needy and insecure, something that I take to be at odds with the characterization of God as all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful.
My thoughts as to what would be defendable positions for why one should worship god are
1) god is ultimate good - so we should contemplate him and that the proper approach to contemplating ultimate good is worshiping, and that one who doesn't worship is less likely to be good.
still its easy to think of a person who worships and yet on the face of it is evil.
2) You should worship/thank him IF you are grateful for existing
still not clear why being ungrateful deserves punishment.
3) God has a perfect plan (which flows from being all loving and omniscient), any change you make to it no matter how well thought out will detract from that plan - part of that plan is that you worship him.
Now this might be valid - but that is partly because it is so vague.
So none of which I find compelling but all at first glance defendable.
Now considering this (regardless of whether you believe in god just assume he exists) is there a valid reason why you should be required to worship him? or why it would be valid to punish you for not worshiping him if he is omni everything?
posted by Genius at 12:32 AM
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