Why Worship God?

In my book, The Big Picture, I criticize religion pretty strongly, as I feel that it holds humans down by stifling free thinking. Religion relies mostly on tradition. People believe things without question, even though many of these beliefs don't make much sense, and some are even dangerous. In a way to get people to think more critically about religion, I ask 13 very basic questions and invite anyone to provide viable answers. On the other hand, if you can't answer them, then you need to examine your beliefs more closely. Here is question 1. I'll share the other questions and my thoughts in future posts. As always, I invite reader feedback.

Why Does God Demand Us to Worship Him?

Religions emphasize that God demands people to worship Him, but this makes God appear vain and not humble. This is problematic because God should not be vain but humble. Isn’t vanity one of the seven deadly sins?  Doesn’t God expect us to be humble?  Being humble is good, therefore, God would be humble, not vain. The worship of God or gods sounds to me like an idea that humans would come up with. If God or gods exist, do they automatically deserve our worship?  Throughout human history people have believed that if they worship God (the gods), then He/they is more likely to be good to us, to protect us, and take care of our needs – like food. But when primitive peoples put their fate in the hands of capricious gods, they sacrificed animals and people in order to please the gods. Everything that happened was attributed to the temperament of the gods. When things were going well, i.e., good weather, good crop yields, the gods were pleased with human behavior. But when people did things to piss off the gods, the gods were prompted to punish the whole group by besetting them with some sort of plague. Even today many individuals still believe that when bad things happen to them alone it is due to something they’ve done to draw the ire of God.

Evolution of Intelligence

What if human intelligence is just a step on the way to more advanced intelligence, which may eventually evolve into super intelligence? Our intelligence might turn out to be extremely primitive compared to what might evolve on earth in the future or what we might find somewhere else in the universe. I believe that the purpose of the universe is to spawn and nurture intelligence, as it has here on earth. Evolution is the mechanism employed by the universe to cultivate intelligence. We don’t know if this process has worked on other worlds the way is has on earth, but considering the sheer size of the universe, the odds are good that it has. We must consider the possibility, or likelihood, that humans are just another transitory species that has inhabited the earth for a period of time and which, like all other species, will not be able to escape extinction. While this future may come true, we, unlike any species before us, have the capability to affect our own evolution.

We seem to be at a point in the history of the entire universe where we can have a profound impact on the evolution of intelligence. We have used our intelligence to create another, potentially greater, intelligence in AI. Now, we have the opportunity to merge with this new intelligence to enhance our own. We will also continue to enhance AI indefinitely until it has the capability to enhance itself. At that point it will be well on its way to becoming the super intelligence. This coming super intelligence will be able to reshape the universe and thus give us, or more likely our descendants, continued life. The thought of us being an important part of the evolution of the super intelligence should fill us with a sense of profound purpose. 

What is God?

Religions claim to know the nature of God. But, if God exists, how can humans begin to comprehend the nature of God. So, I put the question out there: What is God, assuming that any sort of God exists at all? I don't presume that God must necessarily exist or not exist. However, I find the notion of a personal God, as depicted in the major religions, extremely problematic, and thus, in my view, very unlikely. I am interested in how others approach this issue.

Throughout the book I use several similar terms, often interchangeably. What are the differences, if any, among self-actualization, self-awareness, higher consciousness, and enlightenment?

Life

I'd like to know what you think about life in general and whether you feel that life has purpose and meaning. Why are we here? Since we are here, what should we be doing?

The Big Picture first post

This is my first post.  With this Blog, I want to discuss ideas and issues that I cover in my book, also titled The Big Picture.  The book examines life, meaning, and human potential.  Some specific concepts covered in the book include happiness, personality, intelligence, success, freedom, gender, relationships, work, religion, spirituality, and fitness.  I ask a lot of questions because I want people to wrestle with these important concepts.  Often, we don't see how these concepts are interconnected.  Our primary purpose should be to learn as much as we can so we can become more self-aware and strive for self-actualization.

Let's start out with a question that I talk about in the Introduction: How do you define human potential?  And, how does one's potential differ from ability?  Is one more important than the other?