Is the LDS version of "God" worth your worshipping?

[Res Ipsa]

The farther away I am from being a believer, the weirder the idea of any God would demanding "worship" from me seems. There's some kind of paradigm shift there that I just can't reverse.

[Physics Guy]

Praising God does seem weird. I guess it could be harmless if someone just really wanted to express awe, but it's hard to see why a God would want an ego boost from creatures like us. A God who was sitting around in the celestial basement looking for adoration from puny mortals should probably get out and meet some other divinities or something.

But obeying a God might make sense, if the God had good ideas that we couldn't understand for ourselves. If one kid knows how to build a tree fort, and nobody else has any better ideas than sitting around, then we should all get with the tree fort kid's plan. If a benevolent alien appeared with superhuman intelligence, it might be smart for us all to do what they suggested. If we could somehow be confident that we were getting advice from a transcendent being, it might make sense to work hard to understand that advice and apply it.

That's an interpretation I can find for worship that doesn't just seem absurd, anyway. Deciding to give that kind of respect to a dream or an ancient text or a sermon is kind of a hitch, I admit.

[Res Ipsa]

Yeah, I can see trust. I can see respect. I can even see obedience. I think it's the praise aspect I find hard to swallow.

[malkie]

Yeah, I can see trust. I can see respect. I can even see obedience. I think it's the praise aspect I find hard to swallow.

Pete & Dudd have an amusing take on the worship idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v9nzfYZAFk

[Kishkumen]

For me God, in all its forms, is worthy of contemplation, and such an exercise is diminished, in my view, by being narrowly confined to one formulation or conception.

[sock puppet]

* * * If a benevolent alien appeared with superhuman intelligence, it might be smart for us all to do what they suggested. If we could somehow be confident that we were getting advice from a transcendent being, it might make sense to work hard to understand that advice and apply it.

* * * Deciding to give that kind of respect to a dream or an ancient text or a sermon is kind of a hitch, I admit.

It seems to be an evidentiary problem for you. That is one of my problems with the "god" concept--he's supposedly appeared to some, not many, so if anyone tells you they have seen and heard a message from "god", you'd better listen up and obey.

If you were 'somehow confident' that you were getting advice from a transcendent being, would you find the advice (per the Mormon version of God--per Mormon scriptures) to be morally deficient? or would you just lower your morality to that of the being in order to be like him?

[Markk]

There are lots and lots and lots of Gods. Each religion that espouses a supreme being defines it differently than the others. Given the LDS canon and the interactions with "God" of the Restoration of the 1820s, 30s and 40s, is the LDS god worthy of your worship? Keep in mind all the claimed revelations , inconsistencies on polygamy, etc., ordering that Laban be slain, the atrocities contained in the Old Testament and predicted in the Book of Revelations, etc. All in all, a 'marvelous work and a wonder.'

Don't just give a yes or no answer. Please explain your position.

I believe your question is really a misnomer, in that according to core LDS thought and doctrine, when understood, eliminates the need to worship a God for eternity, in that each worthy male is a God themselves…a “God in embryo”.

LDS theology is clear that “your” HF is just one of many God’s…in which each God has a God before them. LDS Theology demands that there are certain eternal laws that govern even the God’s. The main or most important law, is the law of eternal progression, which is governed by the power of the priesthood, which is also an eternal law. Each God became a God by mastering and following all these eternal laws…one LDS teaching manual reads “there is no other way” to become a God.

Gospel Principles (a current teaching manual) teaches that all worthy men will have everything that your HF and Christ have…all “Power, Glory, Knowledge, and Dominion”…so, if a worthy male is 100% equal in all those attributes, where is there a need or room for worship of a God, when you are a God, equal in attributes with all other Gods?

I suppose the argument can be made that those outside the CK, those like most of us, even sons of perditions, may need a God to worship, but after being assigned a final estate…is worship really necessary? Given your eternal destination is settled and as JFS taught, there is no chance of increase?

This is heavy core LDS thought, not taught openly, but passively…yet it is the very reason for the Temple and the endowments, the continuation of seeds, and “families are forever” doctrine.

[Markk]

There are lots and lots and lots of Gods. Each religion that espouses a supreme being defines it differently than the others. Given the LDS canon and the interactions with "God" of the Restoration of the 1820s, 30s and 40s, is the LDS god worthy of your worship? Keep in mind all the claimed revelations , inconsistencies on polygamy, etc., ordering that Laban be slain, the atrocities contained in the Old Testament and predicted in the Book of Revelations, etc. All in all, a 'marvelous work and a wonder.'

Don't just give a yes or no answer. Please explain your position.

I believe your question is really a misnomer, in that according to core LDS thought and doctrine, when understood, eliminates the need to worship a God for eternity, in that each worthy male is a God themselves…a “God in embryo”.

LDS theology is clear that “your” HF is just one of many God’s…in which each God has a God before them. LDS Theology demands that there are certain eternal laws that govern even the God’s. The main or most important law, is the law of eternal progression, which is governed by the power of the priesthood, which is also an eternal law. Each God became a God by mastering and following all these eternal laws…one LDS teaching manual reads “there is no other way” to become a God.

Gospel Principles (a current teaching manual) teaches that all worthy men will have everything that your HF and Christ have…all “Power, Glory, Knowledge, and Dominion”…so, if a worthy male is 100% equal in all those attributes, where is there a need or room for worship of a God, when you are a God, equal in attributes with all other Gods?

I suppose the argument can be made that those outside the CK, those like most of us, even sons of perditions, may need a God to worship, but after being assigned a final estate…is worship really necessary? Given your eternal destination is settled and as JFS taught, there is no chance of increase?

This is heavy core LDS thought, not taught openly, but passively…yet it is the very reason for the Temple and the endowments, the continuation of seeds, and “families are forever” doctrine exist.

[Chap]

Gospel Principles (a current teaching manual) teaches that all worthy men will have everything that your HF and Christ have…all “Power, Glory, Knowledge, and Dominion”…so, if a worthy male is 100% equal in all those attributes, where is there a need or room for worship of a God, when you are a God, equal in attributes with all other Gods?

Sorry? Unless you have a little useless crippled Y chromosome (in place of a second useful X chromosome as a backup), you can't get any of that stuff?

That's a ridiculous religion, clearly produced by a mind in thrall to the obsessions of patriarchy, which are produced by the need to keep intelligent and capable women in a subordinate place, for fear that some poor man's mediocrity might be challenged, and then he might cry ...

So what do women get to do to pass their time in the never-ending expanse of eternity? Let me guess ...

[Physics Guy]

Perhaps it’s different with spirit chromosomes?