Dear Kirk MacGregor
I think the primary purpose of religious worship are 1) To love Him, and to seek His face and do God's will; 2) to do His love to other people and His creation in the world
Let me answer WHY first :
Humans are gifted with an extra-ordinary brain that works even while asleep and rewires when doing other activities , who checks this ???
Are we invincible ???
Are we controlled by some force of nature ???
GOD is the answer - to make us accountable , he/she are needed ...
Primary purpose : Praise him/her , ask for protection and grace and take all the sins (we are bound to commit ) and so on...
To give us assurances for our faith in the higher spirits we believe and worship so that we will have favor and blessings from them.
Gosh folks. The primary purpose is as Jack Son says: peace of mind. All the other stuff mentioned are the rules and traditions we created, the mechanisms we invented, to achieve this peace of mind.
Let's be scrupulously logical about this. No one knows the unknowable. Even as we gain knowledge, there will always be what we don't know. It's virtually certain that no religion has the monopoly on truth, or even anything close to it. So we've made up our moral/ethical codes, we've come up with rules to follow, we've even invented punishments or rewards that will follow, for breaking or following the rules we made up. Different religions claim to know what these rules, rewards, and punishments are. They don't always match up, either. Is that a hint? It should be a hint.
What's the purpose for all of this? Peace of mind. We're clever, insightful, self-aware creatures, who feel terrified about the unknown. A benevolent God gives us relief. Does it matter if all the rules, punishments, and rewards are of our own doing, written down by mere human beings? Well, no, not if these systems make us better human beings. It matters only when these artifacts are abused, to create mayhem.
The purpose of religious worship, surely, is peace of mind. The danger lurking with religious fervor comes when the faithful feel an unjustified certainty, about matters that they cannot possibly know.
There is an ambiguity in the notion of purpose. We might ask two separate questions:
Q1 What is the purpose of religious worship as such?
Q2 Why do religious people worship? (What is their purpose in so doing?)
Why do snowshoe hares turn white in winter? There is an evolutionary answer for the phenomenon and in that sense it has a “purpose”, but a hare doesn't know that and indeed isn't acting for a purpose. It just happens to the hare. Humans of course do things for a purpose. The hoodlum's purpose in demanding payment of protection money is clear enough (domination and personal benefit), and the hapless shopkeeper's purpose in paying such is also clear (safety and peace of mind). The hoodlum’s and the shopkeeper’s purposes are different: it’s not obvious how we can assign a purpose to protection money itself that is independent of the two agents’ purposes, in the way that we can assign an evolutionary purpose to a hare’s changing color independently of any purposes the hare itself might purposely act on (a hare’s own purposes, if any, would be pretty basic, e.g. go to food, escape from predator).
What purpose does religious worship serve? There is probably an evolutionary “purpose” and it may partially overlap with humans’ individual purposes in their acts of religious worship. A worshipper may worship for peace of mind, and peace of mind in some contexts may be survival-enhancing, e.g. if it forestalls rash action or debilitating anxiety.
But how would a nonevolutionary religious story go? Does a deity who requires worship have a purpose in so doing and what would be the worshipper’s purpose in acceding to the deity’s purpose? In that context it seems the worship itself has no purpose independent of the deity’s and the worshipper’s purposes. This looks like a divine protection racket.
The worship of Allah elevates the soul of humans. Furthermore, the reason why people worship is to attain a state of surrender, a state of peace and inner tranquility, for conscious, present and intentional worship, ‘ibadah, leads to such an attainment. This then leads to greater degrees of awareness of the Divine Presence of God, and as the Muslim progresses upon the Path, he or she ultimately attains the state of ihsan, or spiritual excellence, in which one is perpetually aware of the imminent Presence of the Eternal. For more please refer to:
https://www.spiritualexcellence.com/blog/why-worship-allah/
I think that Karl raises the important points here.
Perhaps the most important question is, Why would a real "benevolent God" demand worship? I've asked myself many times. The only logical answer is, he does not.
The most likely explanation is that a religion demanding that the followers worship their depiction of God is far better equipped to control the masses. Just like, a boss, in your job, who demands the utmost obedience and deference, with a threat of firing you on the spot if you don't give him that deference, is far more capable of having his frightened subordinates do what they are told.
Think about it, and it's the only conclusion that makes any sense.
So, again going back to Karl's post:
1. The the religion's purpose of requiring worship is to control the masses.
2. The believer's purpose in worshipping is peace of mind.
And again, just so we don't deliberately ignore the persistent elephant in the room, all too frequently, even if a minority of times, religion is used to push a political agenda. The followers may be too gullible to figure it out, or at times, may be happy to have a convenient excuse to commit the most questionable of deeds. Let's not always ignore this elephant. It's all too visible, to pretend it's not there.
As per my knowledge all religions say 'be kind to everybody and treat all equally'. Get sound knowledge about Good & Bad. If possible help others.
The essence of Astadasa Puranas (18 epics) of Hinduism.
“Paropakaraya Punyaya, Papaya Para Peedanam " said Ved Vyas. Helping others is virtue, hurting others is unbecoming. So as long as one does not hurt others, one is on the right path.
“Ahimsa Paramo Dharmaha”: Non-violence/innocence is the greatest of all religions. (Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "First, do no harm")
“Dharma eva hato hanti/ Dharmo rakshati rakshitah” (One who destroys Dharma is destroyed by Dharma/ One who protects Dharma is protected by Dharma).
What if our lives are difficult and things go wrong? Are our failures and hardships for the glory of God, too? Yes, they are. We often thank God and praise his name when things go well, but we often turn our backs on him and complain when things are difficult. Sometimes our appreciation and trust in God becomes conditioned on how well things are going for us. Ultimately, this is self-centered immaturity. Even though things can go wrong in our lives, the ultimate reason we are here is to glorify God -- even through the difficulties. We do this by praising him and trusting him through difficult times.
We serve God to obey His commandments and make with our Creator. To seek for His grace.
From my perspective as a Christian, I open myself (heart, mind, spirit) to what is greater, purer, more beautiful, and sacred so these can lift my 'soul' high and I can become somewhat free of the limitations or burdens of physical life in this worship.
The primary purpose of religious worship
1- Believe to our God ( Allah )
2- Enforce and pray to Allah
3- Applied the behests of our Creator
a- Justice
b- Integrity
c- Kind
d- Support the people who need to help
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