Sure, *seems* petty the way you characterize it. But you characterize it wrongly. That's a totally mistaken conception of what Christianity teaches about God, and it is miles away from the reality of the thing. Read St. Augustine or Dante or something, it may help. :)
In a certain sense, God doesn't give a fig whether you acknowledge Him/worship Him or not. You can not acknowledge the law of gravity either, but try to walk off a cliff with that attitude and see how far you get. God only cares that we worship him, because a) that's what wewere made to do, and b) that's the only thing that will fulfill us and make us happy. You can throw your happiness down the toilet if you want, you can refuse to acknowledge the infinite debt you owe to He-who-has-made-all (as the Hurons would say). In doing so, you change Him not one iota. But you change yourself. You deny the very purpose for which you were made, and as a result, you will never be truly happy.
God alone must be worshiped, because God is *the only thing worth worshiping*. Worship a human being, he dies. Worship a tree, it dies. Worship the earth, the sun, the universe--they are not only non-sentient and don't give a rat's rear about what happens to you, but they die too. Worship the higher spirits--call them gods, angels, manitowak, whatever--and you find that they are in one of two states: in allegiance to God, or separated from Him forever. No need to worship the first because they point you toward the Creator. Definitely silly to worship the second because they're even more miserable and hopeless than we are.
Here's the train of logic that leads to where orthodox Christianity sits. God is sovereign over all things. Christ is the son of God. Christ left a Church for us poor sinners to share in the divine life of God.
Heretics deform and despise the very instrument of our salvation that Christ left--that is why they are so injurious to the Body of Christ. It is as if we were drowning in the water, Christ throws us a life preserver, and then some other poor drowning soul starts ripping it and tearing chunks out of the thing. That is heresy, and that's why the people of God should avoid it.
Now folks can say that we "all have a right to worship as we wish." But the drowning man cannot claim some right to be saved in whatever way he wishes to be saved. He has no power to save himself, thus he will only be saved if he accepts Christ's way of saving him. If he does not, he will drown.
Well, you're the ones presenting a demanding God who insists that we follow and worship Him. I think that God is too small. A transcendent God would not care one way or the other. After all, God is God whether we recognize it or not.
God only cares that we worship him, because a) that's what wewere made to do,
So you worship a being that put you here solely for the purpose of being worshipped? That doesn't make sense.
and b) that's the only thing that will fulfill us and make us happy.
Ultimately, yes. And that is the point. God does not want us to be miserable; God's plan is for us to live in joy, peace, harmony, abundance.
God alone must be worshiped, because God is *the only thing worth worshiping*.
I experience God more than I worship God. It's a subtle difference, but a significant one.
God is all there is. There can't be anything else.
they are in one of two states: in allegiance to God, or separated from Him forever.
If God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, then it is not possible to be separated from God. The bigtgest sin is the illusion of separation.
Here's the train of logic that leads to where orthodox Christianity sits. God is sovereign over all things. Christ is the son of God.
And if God made us, so are we.