God

St Thomas Aquinas defined God as - and I believe this is still considered the Church's 'official' expression - 'that than which nothing greater can be conceived.' God is the be all and end all, the uncaused cause, the Prime Cause - an Effect of pure will.Religion - by which I mean the worship or veneration of a deity, regardless of method or location - is founded on the idea that there is an ultimate being - something omnipotent and omniscient. If God isn't omnipotent and omniscient then, by Aquinas' description, it isn't really God. It might be a vast, incredibly powerful being, but it isn't God.Nietchze, however, described God as dead.In the final analysis there are four possibilities - God always was, is, and always will be; God never was, isn't, and never shall be; God was, but no longer is; or God wasn't, but it is now. When the issue of religion comes up, though, the wrong question is always asked - or rather an important assumption is made which needs to be looked at.Is God worth worshipping?If it never was, isn't and never will be, obviously not. Similarly if it was, but no longer is.If he wasn't, but is now? Well if he 'created' man, by whatever means, and was here before us, then we should treat him as though he had always been - to us it makes no difference. If it appeared after man - in which case there is the argument to be made that Man created God in his own image - then it has to be held responsible for the world as it is. God is omnipotent, and could end all the suffering, all the pain, all the hardships and wants of the world, but it doesn't. Why not? We are, through no cause of its - it didn't create us for a purpose, for we were here first. We suffer, as individuals and as a people, but this latecoming deity does nothing... I see nothing worthy of worship in that.If it always was? This is the typical religious system - the omniscient, omnipotent creator with a divine plan. Which doesn't make sense. The impression is that God is a benificent figure, and that 'life' is for our ultimate benefit - how? How many people are born, suffer, and die lives devoid of real happiness or achievement? If the omnipotent God created a world that was imperfect for such things to happen contrary to his intent then it is neither omniscient - it failed to see it coming - nor omnipotent - its creation is flawed.Which leaves us with the possibility that there is a plan, that this is all part of it, and that the God knows what it is doing, even if we don't. Which makes us, effectively, lab-rats. We are to go through the motions, sampling life, testing, seeking, feeling, fumbling our way through under a watchful eye for no good reason. Unlike lab-rats in our experiments, where suspicions might be confirmed at best, God already knows what the result will be. It is omniscient, and can see how this will end: can see each and every persons suffering and pain, knows the damage being done, but started the world anyway.So I don't worship, whether there is a God or not.I see the places of worship as shields against the infinite, a desperate attempt to be a part of something bigger than we are, clutching at straws of significance as faint hope of defence against the realisation that, in the infinite time and space of reality we don't matter to anyone but ourselves... and perhaps God.