[Siegmund]

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If a God created the universe, why would he want you to serve or worship him? Why wouldn't he want you to enjoy your life without living for his glory (which is already self-evident if he exists)? And why would he want you to be with him for eternity (if you "choose" to believe in him using faith) or not want you to be with him (if you use your faculties and decide that faith is not warranted)?


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Here's one possible basis.

Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him."

We know from our own life-experiences that it gives us a warm fuzzy feeling inside when our achievements are recognized and praised by others. Each of us has certain people in our lives we wish we could have at our sides forever - usually people with whom we spend a lot of time, share common interests and views. Each of us has certain people in our lives we'd prefer never to see again - usually people who have slighted us or had some violent disagreement with us.

There are plenty of specific instructions in the Bible about particular commandments he gave, some of them with reasons, some of them just common sense, some of them with no explanation beyond "I said so." But all of these got added one at a time in response to people straying from the path. In the beginning there were no rules except not eating from the tree, and God came and walked in the garden and had a daily chat with his newly created friends to see how they were doing - until one day they hid from him instead of chatting.

You can argue the specific demands for particular kinds of worship are all artificial in a sense, not God's original intentions for mankind, not what he originally told us to do.

But it you believe in those 3 universal aspects of human nature I named - as far as I can tell they are sentiments shared by almost everyone in a wide array of cultures for a long time! - you might reasonably say, "How is it that everyone shares these common ideals? Adam and Eve must have had them and passed them on to all mankind. Why did they feel this way? Because they were made that way. And since they were made in God's image - it's logical to conclude that this the image of God's mind."

Disclaimer. I am not claiming to be a believer in the Biblical God. I was raised around parents who made sure I studied the Bible, and I was raised to think. The result was perhaps not what my parents or other believers would wish for.