Worship | Way of the Mind

It depends on what you mean by “worship”. If you mean admire, respect, try to emulate, or believe in, I can’t answer your question, as every atheist is different. There’s nothing in the “atheist” tag that specifies any of those about a person.

If you mean in a religious sense… the answer is simple: nothing.

Now, many believers are brought up to believe that worship is an essential, universal part of the human condition; in other words, everyone worships someone or something. Since atheists don’t believe in gods — and, more specifically, they don’t believe in your god –, you may have been taught, or may have concluded yourself, that atheists worship someone or something else. Common theist claims about our objects of worship include:

ourselves
humanity
Darwin
Dawkins
materialism
wealth
science
reason
evolution
nature
communism
nihilism
other gods than yours (which contradicts the definition of “atheist”, but never mind that…)
Satan (!)

Needless to say, all those claims are false.

Atheists don’t worship, in the religious sense. We may respect, we may admire, we may even feel awed (and many of us frequently do — for instance, by nature or science). But “worship” implies something different.

Worship, much like religion, or having a car, is not an essential part of what being a sentient being is. Some do it (believers, in general), some don’t.

(Note: please keep any comments related to the above question / answer, and not to other subjects, such as whether God exists or not. Thanks.)

A technique I like to employ when discussing a subject is to say: “OK, let’s say you’re right,” and then follow it to the logical conclusion.

For instance: I don’t believe there is a god. But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that there is one. Let’s say he is a typical monotheist deity: created the world, has some rules he wants obeyed, desires our worship, never provided evidence of his existence except for some old books, and sends people to paradise or eternal torment after they die.

My question is: even assuming the above, why worship him at all?

I believe that this is a subject most theists never actually think about. Does God (Yahweh, Allah or a similar one) deserve worship? Why? Why should we ever make him an important part of our lives?

There are several common theist arguments, and I’ll try to answer each.

1- “Because otherwise you’ll go to hell.”

That’s nothing but an argument from intimidation. “Worship me… or else”. It’s not much different from supporting a brutal warlord, a dictator, or the Mafia. I’d like to believe that such a being should be opposed with all our might, not obeyed. Live free or die, and all that. We are not slaves, or playthings… to accept being so is cowardice, and a being who treats us as such is a monster.

2- “Because God created the entire universe, including us.”

The implication is that, if we owe our very existence to someone, our lives are his. But… do children belong to their parents? I don’t think so.

If there really was a god who created us, if he did communicate with us, he might deserve our thanks. But not worship. Not slavery. Sentient beings are not property — even if they are created by someone else (much like, if we ever create true artificial intelligence, such beings should have rights. Sentience deserves freedom.)

3- “Because God is good.”

This might deserve a full post about it, but, basically, the God that’s described in the Christian Bible or the Qur’an is, by human standards, anything but good. I could go into detail, but, basically, Richard Dawkins said it best:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Dawkins wasn’t trying to offend people when he wrote that. All of the above is in the Bible.

“Ah,” many theists will say, “but we can’t apply human standards to God.” That is, however, an argument from authority, and a circular argument. “God is good because God says so.” makes as much sense as “Hitler is good because Hitler says so.” And if we say that “good” is defined by “what God wants”, then morality becomes arbitrary, it becomes simply a question of pleasing a ~~dictator~~ deity. More about that in The Morality of God.

But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that all of the above was incorrect (it isn’t), and that God, by rational standards, was indeed good. Even so… is that sufficient reason to worship a being? Respect him, probably. Admire him? Very likely. Use him as an example to follow? Maybe. But “worship”?

4- “Because God is far superior to us.”

Again… so what? If some advanced aliens arrived on Earth, would we worship them? Should we? Would they deserve our worship? And if they demanded it, what would it say of them? (Mostly, that they were pretty insecure advanced beings. )