Does God need to be worshiped and obeyed? (96)

I believe I am Spiritual, believe in my God but don't see the need to worship him/her. As for obey my God gave me a choice to act as I wish and take the consequences

I would say rational belief in God, alone, isn't religion at all. It could be mere delusion. For me true religion has to do with the passions and will and imagination and vision at least as much as the intellect.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/226772/

Thank you for that fine politician's reply

You carefully chose to illustrate how believing in God means you identify as having all those desirable traits that we would all wish to possess...

...and completely avoided addressing the question posed in the OP.

Perhaps you could elaborate by explaining what you interaction with God you feel is needed for true religion?

Subbies are always wrong... even when they are right

Edited 17 Dec 09, 12:17 AM by enquiring_eyes

I don't know about other religions, but in Christianity giving thanks and worshipping God are central to practice. They are very good exercises in humility, opening up, self-emptying, quietening etc., but they are meant to be more fundamental than mere self-help techniques.

Belief itself might the foundation for worship, but if you could imagine a diabolical opposite or opponent of God, that entity presumably would believe in God even though it hated Her (always good to switch around the genders!). Therefore it seems belief itself is not enough.

That we have Faith in him and that we obey his laws. Worship is not a requirement of either.

But he gave us free will... So it's entirely up to us if we obey or not or have faith or not... Of course if you don't you aren't going to 'heaven' and you will be judged by him.

But this could be argued as to simplistic a question... But I see no question as being to simplistic.... That's just a cope out for not answering.

But it does mean it's a simple answer... Sorry it's not more detailed!

Tazallie
Getting there!

Interesting! I am not sure though. If the commandment is "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind", how can it be enough to just to obey the laws?

As I said at the top of the post he wants two things from us Faith and to obey.

it isn't enough to just obey you have to have Faith in him too... you can't love him if you don't have Faith he exsists.... So in order to obey the laws as he asks(comandments etc) you first have to have Faith.

Tazallie
Getting there!

Soprry but I don't think I can. Religions come in all shapes and sizes, and I for one don't want to be overly prescriptive. Many people find their own way. From a personal point of view I could say I find the notion of personal prayer very difficult, but that may because of my limited imaginative capabilities. I'm much more comfortable with the sort of formal and more literary p[rayers used in the C of E, and with notions like meditation and "laborare orare est" than with imagining some kind of 20th century Jesus on the end of a phone line.

Is that a more satisfying answer?

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/226772/

If you don't worship and obey him you go to hell and burn for all eternity. Which probably sucks. The bible is pretty clear on that point.

If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, you might want to stop waving that axe around.

For the initial question to be meaningful in the sense it was asked, it assumes that faith or being "religious" are distinct from "worship".

We need a clearer understanding of what worship IS, than the question as posed makes room for.

Worship is just another way of saying "having and expressing a relationship with God". I don't just have "faith" - faith has to have a connection with an object of the faith. And another word for faith is "trust"; you cannot say "I trust", any more than you can say "I love". There has to be a name to follow those statements. "I trust my friend Bert", or "I love my girlfriend".

And I think many misunderstand the concept of "worship" as being merely an obligation (and hence, something unpleasant or onerous). In just the same way as, in a marriage, the partners have a duty to love each other (even when the other squeezes the toothpaste tube at the wrong end), and not just "love" when they "feel" loving, so in a relationship with God, we are invited to worship Him. But, just as in any human relationship, there are many times when the love simply flows, and you revel in the sheer pleasure of the other's company. So, yes, there is a duty in worshipping God - but that does not make it a burden, since it also much more than a duty. It is an opportunity to enjoy Him.

Remember too, that the commandments God gives are for OUR sake, not His. God does not have an ego problem - His self-knowledge is total, He does not need to be told how glorious He is. Just as He tells us not to murder, because that is for our own good, He tells us to worship Him, because in doing so, we find OUR ultimate fulfilment.

What worship means then is "enjoy the full depths of a relationship" - or, even more simply, God asks us to LOVE Him, because in doing so, we can enjoy Him, and find the satisfaction of discovering more powerfully than in any other way, what we were made to be. Worship is for our good, not His.

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