But regarding the title of this thread, "Why do people worship things that
don't exist," you ought to run into others who might not be able to put it
into words, but who will consider your question ridiculous, because it is in
diametrical opposition to their own reality.  To them, the mere fact that
they worship something (they might not be willing to admit that they
worship the thing you accuse them of worshiping) is in itself proof that the
thing exists.  This is in regards to the existence of the thing in question.

The simple reason for this is, that their act of believing in its existence is
the cause of its existence, per se. This is a direct outgrowth of
modern philosophy, which proclaims the first principle of being - which is
actually a false principle, but no matter to them, for they believe it - that
'reality is in the mind,' and therefore if I (for example) believe that A exists,
then my belief of A's existence, in and of itself, evokes the existence of A.
This means that A is in my mind as a subjective reality, and therefore A
exists in my mind, and since reality is in the mind, A has a real being, in
my mind, and nothing you or anyone else says about it will change that
reality.

As such, if I so choose (for example) to hold A in very high esteem, such that
I give it a priority higher than everything else in the universe, even if I refuse
to admit that I am worshiping A, I have a right to believe what I want about A,
regardless of what you think.  And then, along comes this thread, accusing me
of worshiping something that does not exist, and I can then (for example)
claim that you are being rediculous, because A does exist, even though you
claim it does not exist, and also, I do not 'worship' A as you claim, and
therefore you are wrong on two counts in your question, "Why do you
worship something that does not exist?"

Therefore, one of the possible answers to your question is, that people do
these kinds of things, and many other things, because of the false doctrine
of modern philosophy that says, 'reality is in the mind.'