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Would You Worship an Indifferent God?

Would you worship a perfectly indifferent deity?


  • Total voters
    22

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Would you worship a deity that was completely indifferent to you or anyone else except in one way, and in one way only -- the deity desires to be worshiped by you? That is, a deity that was utterly apathetic to human wishes, desires, wants, needs, etc, but still wants to be worshiped?

Put differently, what do you expect, if anything, from a deity before you would be willing to worship it? And why?

Please note: For the purposes of discussion, "to worship" can be defined as, "to show reverence and adoration for a deity; honor with religious rites; glorify or exalt." If you prefer another definition, please specify in your post.
 
Last edited:

Gjallarhorn

N'yog-Sothep
Before this gets too far, you might want to include a shared, working definition of "worship."

Seconded. There are people that "worship" the beauty of something like Niagara Falls even while knowing that it would kill them without second thought if they happened to try and give it a hug.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Would said deity desire worship, or would he/she/it not care?

I take it to mean that for you, the deciding factor is whether the deity desires worship? That's a good point to raise. How would you deal with a deity that was utterly indifferent to you, except that deity desired to be worshiped by you?
 

Parsimony

Well-Known Member
I suppose that depends on the consequences of not worshipping. If the deity doesn't care about me, it would be hard for me to be convinced that it is inherently good. As powerful as it may be, I don't see why a cold, uncaring being should deserve worship.
 

Bismillah

Submit
Sunstone said:
How would you deal with a deity that was utterly indifferent to you, except that deity desired to be worshiped by you?
How would you reconcile indifference with a desire to be worshiped? That's sounds contradictory to me.
 

FunctionalAtheist

Hammer of Reason
Put differently, what do you expect, if anything, from a deity before you would be willing to worship it? And why?

Before I would worship a deity

1. I have to know that I am utterly worthless.
2. I have to know that he is capable of torturing me and making existence a living nightmare, and willing to do so.
3. I have to know that there is no chance for me to cease existing.

1. I don't believe in deity that casts away worthwhile things.
2. Any worthwhile deity would neither torture or require worship.
3. If you want me to be a slave you are going to have make it worse than death that never comes.
 

Gjallarhorn

N'yog-Sothep
Please note: For the purposes of discussion, "to worship" can be defined as, "to show reverence and adoration for a deity; honor with religious rites; glorify or exalt." If you prefer another definition, please specify in your post.

Oh then of course. I show reverence and adoration to many things that have no interest in my life.

Pretty sure a lot of scientists are guilty of this.
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
Would you worship a deity that was completely indifferent to you or anyone else except in one way, and in one way only -- the deity desires to be worshiped by you? That is, a deity that was utterly apathetic to human wishes, desires, wants, needs, etc, but still wants to be worshiped?

Put differently, what do you expect, if anything, from a deity before you would be willing to worship it? And why?

Please note: For the purposes of discussion, "to worship" can be defined as, "to show reverence and adoration for a deity; honor with religious rites; glorify or exalt." If you prefer another definition, please specify in your post.

I suppose if I truly believed that God was entirely indifferent and apathetic to everything in the universe except for His own desire for worship, no, I would be hard pressed to imagine wanting to worship Him.

Fortunately, such a theology is entirely foreign to Judaism, and seems entirely inconceivable to me, so I doubt it is likely to come up.
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
Whatever benefits it has seem mostly of a psychological nature. The worshiper gains, say, confidence that their life will turn out for the best.

Don't you think that this hypothesis presumes that 1) The purpose of worshipping God is to ask Him for stuff, and 2) There is some sort of real expectation by the worshipper that God will answer his requests in precisely the fashion that he has requested them?

But in my experience, neither of these things tends to be true-- although I have certainly met some fundamentalists who have some sort of belief akin to (2).
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Don't you think that this hypothesis presumes that 1) The purpose of worshipping God is to ask Him for stuff, and 2) There is some sort of real expectation by the worshipper that God will answer his requests in precisely the fashion that he has requested them?


Nope, because having confidence that your life will turn out for the best (1) does not necessarily mean it will, and (2) the best does not necessarily imply for the good, and (3) the best does not necessarily mean in a way that one expects.
 
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