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johnnyjones
Guest
Do we Christians worship God due to obligation or the astounding fact that we recognize God?. Does God need worship and why?. I worship God out of shear majesty and the awesomeness of his glory.
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PJM
Guest
NEED…NO!
WANT?.. YES!
Isa.43 Verses 7and 21: “every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." AND the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”
God Bless,
pat/PJM
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johnnyjones
Guest
So we were created to praise God, “declare his praise”? That goes to God “wanting” praise. I ask this question because a few atheists have asked , Why does an all powerful God even need/want praise?
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cpernet
Guest
God needs nothing. It is a human choice. Your atheist friends have free will.
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Happy3Mom
Guest
God does not NEED anything. He created us. He created a need in us to worship him. Why?
I believe he created this need in us so that we would want to worship him and in that worship, we would want to follow his commands. He knows that following his commands is the way to happiness and peace for us.
Yes, we have mucked it all up with sin. We have false teachers, teaching us false commands. Our sins lead us down the wrong path, even when we think we are worshiping God.
But what God created was good and if we were not hampered by sin, worship of God would bring us both pleasure and peace.
I believe he created this need in us so that we would want to worship him and in that worship, we would want to follow his commands. He knows that following his commands is the way to happiness and peace for us.
Yes, we have mucked it all up with sin. We have false teachers, teaching us false commands. Our sins lead us down the wrong path, even when we think we are worshiping God.
But what God created was good and if we were not hampered by sin, worship of God would bring us both pleasure and peace.
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Rich_C
Guest
He doesn’t need it. He wants it because we need it. Being in a right relationship with our Creator naturally means worship, because He is so great.
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sw85
Guest
That is the proper reason to worship Him. God, being perfect, has no potentialities in need of actualization and thus no “needs.”
Yep. There is no problem in speaking of God “wanting” anything. He can want whatever He wants. There is a problem when we speak of God “needing” worship and also being perfect, since perfection implies the absence of needs.
We should worship God because He is objectively deserving of worship (i.e., worship is what von Hildebrand called a “value response,” a response to the value of another). It is good to worship Him – indeed, the highest good a human can do, because God Himself is the highest good. And God, being all good, wants the good to be maximized in creation.
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LegoGE1947
Guest
How can one claim to worship and love God and yet hate one’s neighbor because of the color of his/her skin or some other “reason?” There are churches where someone of a race other than the majority of the congregation would not be welcome. That includes black churches as well as white. We are all children of God so why is that?
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sw85
Guest
Are you asking me why Protestants are wrong?
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fhansen
Guest
Once we worship God with complete spontaneity justice is finally accomplished in the universe; we’ll be loving Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, distracted by nothing else, nothing less, and we’ll know why this should be so. That’s the goal, for now it’s still an ideal that we’re growing into as we come to know Him. IOW, to know God is to love and worship Him. And this is man’s justice-as things should be; in this the first and greatest commandments are fulfilled.
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LegoGE1947
Guest
No, I was just wondering why it is so hard to see Jesus in other people. It seemed so easy to the likes of Mother Theresa, but looking at pictures of her all I saw were just ugly, emaciated people living in gutters.Are you asking me why Protestants are wrong?
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johnnyjones
Guest
I understand that God can “want” whatever he desires but I’m not sure that it answers the question of" why". Throughout history many gods, if not all gods, have wanted worship. We could have every other positive exchange of emotion with God but worship is something different. I feel “bad” writing this but I’m coming at it from an Atheist angle. Some of them are saying why would God even “want” worship. Being all powerful He would not want anything, and worship does often come off as a requirement.
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sw85
Guest
Let’s try it from another angle.
God wants what is best for us. That means He wants us to be virtuous. To be virtuous is to possess and exercise the human virtues. Among the human virtues is justice, “the constant and firm will to give [one’s] due to God and neighbor” (CCC 1807). It is the will to give everything what it is owed. It is, in other words, the will to respect the order of being as God has ordained it.
Now the order of being includes the fact that we are created by God and sustained in being by Him from one moment to the next. This fact alone entitles Him to constant worship. It is objectively right to worship Him. Thus, worshipping God is a matter of justice: we owe it to Him. He Himself cannot have ordained things otherwise, because He could not have made it such that we were not created by Him.
Now if a man cannot be good unless he is just, and if justice demands that he worship God, than God wants him to worship Him in order to cultivate the virtue of justice.
In other words, God wants us to worship Him not only because it is good in itself (although I think this is the proper reason) but because it is good for us to do it.
To refuse to worship God is to act as if one does not owe Him anything. It is thus to act in a way that denies our debt to God. Clearly, we do have a debt to God, so to refuse to worship Him is an act of injustice. Injustice is disorder, and when acted on knowingly and willfully, it is a sin. Thus God cannot even command man not to worship Him!
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johnnyjones
Guest
Thank you for an excellent answer. I will ponder it. Although weak in the flesh, I praise God and thank him for his mercy.
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Sample
Guest
Isn’t this ultimately about Holy Mass, the central act of worship? To worship Yahweh perfectly, the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass exists. Only a few faiths do this.
I’m reminded of what Susan B Anthony said,
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
I’m reminded of what Susan B Anthony said,
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
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sw85
Guest
I didn’t know Susan B. Anthony was our standard for philosophical insight here.
At any rate, I hear this a lot from atheists. I believe in Christ because I want to – because it suits me – because it makes things easier for me – etc. etc. Now perhaps that’s true for our Protestant friends who can mutilate the Bible to say whatever they want with the approval of their much-vaunted “consciences,” but for Catholics, it’s BS.
Mine is a religion which deprives me of my ability to do lots of things in good conscience I’d probably much rather be doing, like getting drunk, lying to people to avoid uncomfortable situations, fighting, sleeping with lots of beautiful girls, etc. And it is a religion which, if true, dictates that most everyone I know and love will go to Hell, obstinate sinners that they are. Very likely I’ll go there too, since straight is the gate and narrow the way that leads to Heaven and few enter it.
I’m not a Catholic because it suits me. It doesn’t suit me. I had to remake me to suit it. That’s what you do with the truth.
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Sample
Guest
sw85,
Why, if you weren’t religious, would you probably rather be promiscuous, getting drunk and lying and fighting? Have you shared these desires with the closest people in your life? Are there other desires you have that are only being held in check by religion?
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johnnyjones
Guest
The religious life can prevent these harmful activities. Where does the desire to be moral come from in a person of no faith. Why be good to somebody? Does it just “feel” good? And if it does feel good, why?
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sw85
Guest
That’s a dumb question. I’d rather sleep around because sex feels good. I’d rather get drunk because drunkenness feels good. I’d rather lie because the situations that lying enables me to avoid would be uncomfortable otherwise. I’d rather fight because it feels good to visit vengeance on your enemies rather than forgive them.
If all there is, ultimately, is pleasure and feelings of pleasantness, why not do these things?
At any rate, are you prepared to acknowledge that, in fact, the concessions which religion (esp. Catholicism) demands of its adherents are greater than any earthly, psychological benefits they might reap from it?
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tonyrey
Guest
Not to worship God reveals filial ingratitude…
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