Religion has always included a good deal of bowing, kneeling, praising and other forms of prostrating before gods that demand human worship. While people have come to despise tyrants who demand such demeaning behavior since it serves mainly to expand egos and maintain the status quo, it is still acceptable for their god(s) to demand it. Why should any god act as the tyrants of old?
When one really thinks about it, it does seem odd that any god would be concerned with humans endlessly praising and worshiping it. If a being with the power to create the universe has any concern with the tiny spec of it occupied by the earth and its inhabitants, it should be with how people live their lives and not if they are constantly praising him.
Why would a being with such incredible power seem to have an ego like a petty dictator? Demanding kneeling, bowing and other forms of humiliation are in keeping with what cruel, egotistical people with delusions of grandeur and other emotional problems would do. When leaders make such demands in the modern world, most of humanity will have less, if any, real respect for them.
If a god did create us, then it was just doing what it wanted to do anyway. How much praise does that deserve? Furthermore, people do not demand such behavior from their children they invest so much in, why does a god demand it from people, especially when human beings would be nothing in comparison to an all-powerful god?
Let’s lay these arguments aside and assume that worship is what a loving, wise and merciful god would require. Why does not this god do things that would earn real respect and adulation? For example, a god seen clearly saving people from accidents, healing the sick, stopping natural disasters etc. would all bring true, heartfelt thanks from all.
A god that wants adulation and respect should be seen by everyone. Instead, this god hides all direct evidence of its deeds and existence. It cannot even be demonstrated that praying heals anyone (although modern science clearly does).
Teaching people to degrade themselves and unthinkingly grovel before authority does serve a practical purpose for those in power. When people are in such a state, they are much less likely to question and much more likely to blindly follow. A being with infinite power should not need to use such methods to keep people dedicated to it if that is something that it needs.
It seems that either this god is not as great as people might think, or it was simply created by people for more earthly needs. A being truly so above everyone else should not demand constant reassurances of its superiority from those it created and make people wonder who created whom.
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