zeezrom wrote:Did you ever wonder how it would be possible
to love God more than the one person you have chosen to share your life with? I used to wonder this as a TBM. I just couldn't figure out how to pull it off. This woman I met in Provo would talk to me and touch me and laugh with me. One time, we sneaked over a fence behind the stadium and she twisted her ankle. I gathered her up in my arms and carried her back to our car. We bonded during a whole range of feelings and experiences. I felt comfortable asking her to share her life with me.
I haven't felt any of these things during my long courtship with God. I'm not disappointed in God for it nor am I surprised. I would be surprised, however, if I come to find out God expects people to love him more than people.
Good point, zeezrom. According to the theology of faith, god has chosen to abandon you from sight, sound, touch and other sensory perception by you, so that you will without that information discover his existence, and only by doing that, will you be able to see, hear, etc. this god. This god would rather you not use reliable data to make decisions, but make it based on what other men tell you--that this god exists, that he loves you (but won't let you see him), wants you to do X (that just conveniently serves the purposes of these other men telling you all this)--and fear that there will be retribution from this god after this life if you do not believe in this god character that these other men. This same god character, according to scripture, warns us not to put our faith in the arm of flesh, yet that is exactly the medium by which this message about god is supposedly transmitted to us.
Oh, but let's not forget the 'burning bosom'. God forbid, it could be verbal, unless it was to JSJr in the grove. What a crock. We have emotional experiences daily. So playing off of it, these charlatans like JSJr and his GA successors tell us that if you do X, Y and Z the emotional response (that you actually self-induced by doing X, Y and Z) is a confirmatory sign. Why the vagueness and obscurity god? Why not verbalize a simple 'yes' (or 'no') to the question someone asks of you? Because that could not be misinterpreted--and this is a god of vagueness, who likes the lottery that some of us would misinterpret his 'answer', passing it off as a self-induced emotional response? Did I already remark, 'what a crock'?
Now, as you invite us to do, compare that to what companionship from those we associate with 'in the flesh'. Heck, even compare it to those we associate with here on MDB, online. If I post a question or idea, there is actual verbal response.
Obviously from the quality of responses, my fellow man (other than the charlatans that use religion and fear of god to gain leverage and control over others) are more reliable than this god character.