Is Love of God Real?

donkey

Since we cannot prove that God exists and believers claim that we need to have faith that he does indeed exist one can ask: Can you truly love someone that you do not know exists?

If you went to your friends and declared your absolute love for someone and when they asked you who you loved you said: "I love Jennifer with all my heart." and if the friends then asked to meet Jennifer and you said "I have believe she exists but I have never met her, never communicated with her, never seen her..." would you your friends think you were cuckoo? But if you declare this love for God, whom you have never met, never spoken too, never seen, have no knowledge of his existence.....they will respect you as a stand up fellow!!!

Go figure,

so that brings me to the question of this thread: If the person you love is imaginary...is the love still real?

jeanniebeanz

Stop it! You are making my brain hurt with all these deep questions today, Donkey-Dude...

Now I need a

J

(smart-ass class)

heathen

That's a pretty good question . You are right if somebody loved an imaginary friend they would be in a straight jacket quicker than spit . I've noticed as well that christians are the only ones that even claim to love God .Since God says his love is conditional it even complicates things even more . But to many loving God is the same as loving life itself since they don't believe in evolution .

bebu

Can you truly love someone that you do not know exists?

Know as in, a mental/logical exercise? You can't prove or disprove anything on this method; it runs into a dead end, which is how it was meant to be. Love doesn't really grow from a cognitive exercise.

Know as in, a personal experience or personal revelation? Yes, you can love God in this way. Which is what I think is what we are to pursue... something real, not technical.

bebu

talesin

You have the love, now all you need is your personal definition of G*d.

t

Markfromcali

Actually this isn't so complicated, because we can just look to interpersonal relationships to see how people love not the other person, but their idealized image of that person. Likewise the same can be said of your idea of ultimate reality - be it God, life, whatever you may have read from whatever school of thought etc. etc.

And then there is the difference between love as in having affection for something, and being in love with someone or something where you are just really engaged. You can have feelings for pretty much anything, but being in love in this sense would be a matter of the dynamics of the interaction. In this case it really isn't about your personal feelings.

Evanescence

never spoken too

Umm then what is prayer?

Also many people have had deep conversations with god, and yes he does answer prayers. Well of cause you need faith, jesus commented on faith all the time in the bible.

God cannot communicate with those who refuse to listen to him, its the same in our human life if someone shuns you then you can't talk to them.

Since God says his love is conditional

I've always been told that god's love is unconditional

Evanescence

jimakazi

Why would you love someone who is going to kill 99.9% of the population [acording the JW's], or fry a lot of people in hell [according to the Catholics]?

In the bible he doesn't seem to exhibit a lot of lovable acts; sending Satan and his demons to earth? apparently he is a Jealous god? he let his own son die due to some silly rule he made up.

Evanescence

Why would you love someone who is going to kill 99.9% of the population [acording the JW's], or fry a lot of people in hell [according to the Catholics]?
In the bible he doesn't seem to exhibit a lot of lovable acts; sending Satan and his demons to earth? apparently he is a Jealous god? he let his own son die due to some silly rule he made up.

God hates sending people to hell, he does what he can to save us, but we continue to ignore him and his love and chose our own stubborn ways. Really we are the ones that send ourselves to hell by rejecting gods grace. Don't forget well according to catholics Jesus is god. God is perfect so his judgement is perfect, and in order to satisfy god's righteous judgement he sent his son to die for us, you see the sacrifice of Jesus shows a great deal of god's love to us! "god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" When god mentioned that he was a "Jealous" god he was alking about idol worship at the time, god was the one who did all this great stuff for us and yet we give all the credit to a tree or a rock! how do you expect him to react its just like you making a great story that you put so much time and effort into and then someone stills your story and takes the credit for it! you can imagine how upset you will be! And also "Jealous" that this person is getting all the credit! Evanescence *gone all lubby-dubby christian again*

jimakazi

God hates sending people to hell,

What hell? [I didn't expect someone here to beleive in hell - you don't really do you?] God laid this command upon Adam: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will POSITIVELY DIE.” Not seeing any hell here - did I miss something [this is one the JW's got right - if you assume there is anything divine to the bible - I don't]

he does what he can to save us, but we continue to ignore him and his love and chose our own stubborn ways. Really we are the ones that send ourselves to hell by rejecting gods grace.

Really; When I give my kids a choice of peanut butter or jam, I don't add, and if you choose peanut butter I'll punish you. If I did this I'd be an unfit father. Also I wouldn't leave important instructions for my kids written so mysteriously that they couldn't understand them - or would end up fighting over what I had said - but this is effectively what the loving god has done to us humans. I'm sorry but to me god seems to be the ultimate dictator - I'm sure Sadam "loves" his people, but obey or dies doesn't cut it anymore, not for Sadam, not for god.

Actually I still beleive in a divine being - I just cannot accept that he is as petty as the bible, and most so called chrisitan religions paint him. And if he is as described than I will stand up and be counted - I do not, could not love anyone who acts like this - not a human - certainly not a "God".

Is Love of God Real?

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