Worship is an act of devotion to a god that is one of the central most teachings for believers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and many other religions. Whether it's in the form of prayer, song, dance, fasting, or another means, worship is something of which virtually all theists believe their god is worthy. Their reasoning for such a belief is typically based on any one of numerous attributes given to God, like his goodness, mercy, or love. So important is worship with the notion of a sovereign god that religions like Christianity even declare that in the end 'every knee will bow and every tongue confess' (Romans 14:11) that God is God. But before we are all forced to accept Jesus as savior, let's consider the issue of worship and how such blind devotion might affect morality.

I. Unconditional Obedience

To say that something is worthy of worship is to say that it deserves our unconditional obedience. When most people think of worship, specific actions come to mind, like praying or singing, as mentioned above. Yet these actions are only ways of expressing worship, and God does not consider it worship to merely go through the motions. Amos 5:21-24 speaks of how God hates heartless worship, and the story of Cain and Abel is also traditionally taken to mean that God wants the best of what we have to offer, given in the right frame of mind. Worship is more than just praise, it is unconditional obedience, and this can be seen from another angle too.

Believers usually maintain that worship is not just for the benefit of God, but for the benefit of the worshiper as well. Things like prayer and fasting are done so that one may grow in their relationship with God, in addition to giving God the reverence it deserves. Growing in a relationship with God is another way of saying, 'becoming more obedient to God,' and thus worship is not only unconditional obedience, but it is also the act of striving to be as obedient as possible. As already explained, God will not honor half-hearted attempts or compromises as worship - nothing short of complete devotion is required.

II. Moral Autonomy

A moral agent is a rational being that is responsible for its own moral judgments, one who can form a distinction between right and wrong. Moral agents require autonomy, which is the ability of an individual to make free decisions, uncompelled by any outside party, force, or circumstance. If a being is not autonomous - that is to say, it is compelled to make decisions by something outside itself - it cannot be a moral agent, since it is not actually forming moral judgments on its own will. For example, if an innocent bystander is forced at gunpoint to commit a crime, they do not make a free decision to commit the crime, rather it is a decision made under duress and under the threat of harm or even death. Because they were compelled to act by something other than their own judgment, the bystander cannot be held responsible. Thus a moral agent must be morally autonomous.

Human beings are, for the most part, moral agents, and few theists dispute this. Unless one subscribes to the doctrine of Predestination, human beings are autonomous moral agents, capable of making their own decisions by which they will be held accountable. If God does not allow us to make our own judgments, its condemnation of unbelievers is entirely arbitrary, creating souls specifically destined for an eternity of unimaginable torment for no real reason at all. Understandably, a great deal of believers reject this unjust doctrine and argue that God gives us free will. Many religious apologists even use free will in an attempt to explain the evil in the world, suggesting that God so highly desires our autonomy that he places more value on it than the annihilation of evil.

If a moral agent gives up its autonomy, it ceases to be a moral agent. Theists consider it a good thing to worship God, but a moral duty to unconditional obedience directly conflicts with moral autonomy. As already stated, autonomous beings are able to make free choices, uncompelled by any external source, yet unconditional obedience means that choice is surrendered for guidance. To obey God unconditionally would prevent one from choosing anything outside of God's will, so should a moral agent worship anything, it will cease to be a moral agent. Blind devotion has inhibited moral behavior many times in human history, from the Inquisition to the Burning Times. Therefore two resolutions are available: either human beings are not moral agents or a god worthy of worship does not exist.

III. Pick Your Problem

If we are not moral agents, then we are moral robots, built for God's own amusement and even cast into hell for its amusement. This deity is much more like a cruel child with an ant farm than a perfectly just and perfectly good supreme being. Few theists agree with this idea of God, because if we are not capable of making our own independent decisions, being held accountable for our behavior is grossly unfair (and unbiblical, they would say). Suppose you create a robot capable of feeling pain, but you program it to kill. Would it be fair, just, or good of you to then punish the robot for something that was out of its control? Most people would call you sadistic, yet if God does the same, 'he can do what he wants, because he's God.' Without free will, differences between good and evil and right and wrong are of no use to us. Without free will, God set us up to fail from the very beginning.

Another problem arises if we are not moral agents. If we cannot form judgments of right and wrong, we are not capable of justifying something like worship, and so worship is not a choice we can make. Yet many of us do seem able to choose worship or to choose not to worship. Moral autonomy is necessary for us to choose to obey God, thus even if a theist argues that we need to obey God in order to have a correct understanding of right and wrong, we must first be able to choose obedience. If we can make that choice, we are moral agents, and the argument still holds, as no moral agent can choose unconditional obedience and remain a moral agent, and neither can a non-moral agent justify a choice of obedience to God.

I know of no Christian, Muslim, or Jew who thinks their god is unworthy of worship, but what about other sorts of god-believers who perhaps reject the idea of worship? Deists believe in an impersonal god that is indifferent to human affairs, and worshiping such a god would be quite fruitless it seems. But what is it that makes a god worthy of worship? Note that the question is not if a god demands worship, but if a god is worthy of worship. Would something greater than ourselves deserve our worship by that fact alone? What about something that created us? A god that is undeserving of worship might escape the argument from moral autonomy, though this objection is not likely to be raised by most believers, who feel that God is worthy of worship.

Some believers will raise another objection, however, that God will only tell us to do what is right. This would not be autonomy though, because even if worship would guide us in doing right, it would prevent us from doing wrong, and the name of the game with autonomy is free choice, to make a right or wrong decision. It could also be asked how we would know that God tells us to do what is right without some ability to make that judgment on our own. The capability of making moral judgments is logically prior to determining whether or not a being only commands what is right.

IV. The God That Despises Autonomy

The argument from moral autonomy shows the inconsistency in a god that supposedly created us as moral agents, yet desires our unconditional obedience. Many theists will jump to the free will defense when questioned on evil or suffering, and they will assure us that God wants us to be able to choose him. But they seem to ignore the fact that, if God so desires our free will, it should not want us to make a choice that will cause us to forfeit that free will. Choosing to worship, or give something unconditional obedience, is the forfeiture of our autonomy. If God is deserving and demanding of worship, then it does not desire our free will as anything more than a vehicle for getting us to give up our free will.