Love me, or else...

In discussions with religious people, often the more liberal Christians will paint their god as this modest loving person who only wants a little love back. 1 John 4:8 is often quoted "God is love!"

Is this an accurate picture? Is Jealous (god's name) the kind of 'being' any of us would in practice consider kind?

Imagine you're in a relationship, and your boyfriend/girlfriend says "I demand that you love me, and if do not I will punish you"
What would you make of this? Most of us who are mentally healthy would consider this a little abusive and tyrannical. If you are a female, and your boyfriend is larger than you, you may even be afraid.

But when you reflect on it, isn't this the kind of attitude Jealous has? Is god a modest friend, or something of an egotistical abusive dictator boyfriend?

Consider the first commandment:

"Thou shalt have none other gods before me." - Exodus 20:3

or to quote Jesus

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." - Mark 12:30

Sounds fair, but then consider the fact that this is not a request, but a commandment.

What kind of psychological problems must someone have to DEMAND love? Or even worse to make it illegal not to love that person?

So what do we deserve as a punishment for breaking the first commandment?

The bible says breaking a commandment is a sin (1 John 3:4), and that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), and ultimately results in eternal damnation where we will be "cast into a FURNACE OF FIRE" (Matt 13:42).

Not only this but the god of the bible gets jealous if we decide to worship some other god (Exodus 34:14), and supposedly it's a virtue to FEAR him (Leviticus 25:17).

Is this the kind of person anyone would respect? Earlier I compared the god of the bible to an abusive boyfriend, but when you reflect on all of the previous verses, the man in the example was rather modest compared to the monster described in this holy book. To be more accurate in the analogy:

Imagine you're in a relationship, and your boyfriend/girlfriend says "I demand that you love me, I establish it as the law of the house, and if you do not love me back, I will throw you in the oven to burn!"

Is this "love?" Would anyone respect such a person who has an attitude like this? Another analogy:

Imagine a new president is elected, and the first thing he says on national television is "I am your new dictator, and I shall make it illegal to disagree with me, if you do you will be put in prison"

Is this the kind of president anyone would respect? Yet, this is exactly what we find in the bible as a description of god. He is a dictator by definition, he commands we love him, at one time made it illegal to not-love him, says we deserve to die in doing so, and ultimately throws us in hell to burn for not being slaves to his tyranny. If you disagree with the previous statement, you disagree with the bible.

Most common Objection:

1. God is not a 'dictator,' he gives us freewill to choose him or not!
The first part is simply false.

A) dictator n. - An absolute ruler. A tyrant; a despot.
B) tyrant n. - An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions.

If you consider the bible-god to be 'all-powerful' then by definition he is a dictator.

Second, fine we have a choice - just as the abused wife has a choice. The wife can choose to not-love her husband and get a beating, just we can choose to not to love Jealous and get hell.

Of course we have nothing to fear, Jealous doesn't exist, and it's sad that some think he does, and on top of that pretend to worship such a monster.
God's policy is truly "Love me, or else.."

By: David Campbell
Originally written: Tuesday, August 15, 2006