The Gods are ends in themselves, no promise either of earthly success or eternal life is necessary to make them worthy of respect. There is no hierarchy in the universe, no being fundamentally "deserves" or "doesn't deserve" worship, because moral categories are socially emergent. Ultimately the category of "God" is a social relation between two beings.

In the City of God, Augustine goes on and on about how only the god who made the world and promises eternal life is "worthy" of worship and it's like, why? The only people who should be worshipping Jesus are people who have an edifying relationship either with him as a god, with one of his saints or with his church. Eternal life and his identification with the logos or the demiurge or whatever don't enter into it.

Deity is not a means to an end!

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