@fmf saidIs your "love" equal to God's love?
I don't think I am being misanthropic at all. I admire, work with, live among, and love countless Christians. This even includes some of those to whom this thread's OP is referring.
But how could you know having never experienced it?
@secondson saidI believe that a sense of being a recipient of "God's love" is merely a kind of euphoric feeling that your religious beliefs give you.
Is your "love" equal to God's love?
I don't see how what or who I "love", and how much, has anything to do with whatever your religious beliefs make you feel.
@fmf saidIf you're wrong in your perspective, and promote an ideology contrary to the truth of scripture, then by default you are indeed a misanthrope.
If you are referring to me, I am not denying anyone "access" to their religious beliefs. And I don't share your speculations and opinions about the "God" that you believe exists so I am not "calling God a liar".
@secondson saidI used to believe in "God's love". It felt real to me back then. But I don't believe in it any more.
But how could you know having never experienced it?
I believe that what you think you are "experiencing" when you feel "God's love" is the result of an internal, psychological process that is going in your thoughts, and not as a result of anything external that is real, aside perhaps from feelings of warmth and camaraderie that you may feel when socializing with other Christians, for example.
@secondson saidI don't see how. My default setting when it comes to other people, including Christians, is respect, admiration where appropriate, empathy where possible, and an open mind.
If you're wrong in your perspective, and promote an ideology contrary to the truth of scripture, then by default you are indeed a misanthrope.
So I am not a misanthrope and I certainly don't have a misanthropic prism through which I see all human as being "evil" and "wicked" and deserving to be tortured etc.
As I said, I admire, work with, live among, and love countless Christians. This even includes some of those to whom this thread's OP is referring.
@secondson saidIf you're wrong in your perspective
If you're wrong in your perspective, and promote an ideology contrary to the truth of scripture, then by default you are indeed a misanthrope.
You can speculate all you want about whether I am "wrong", but if I do not see all humans, without exception, as being "unbelievably evil and wicked" and - indeed - have the opposite outlook and estimation of my fellow man as my default position, then it cannot be accurate to call me a misanthrope.
@fmf saidOf course you don't think you're lying, your condescending "live and let live" rhetoric notwithstanding.
I am not "lying" about anything. If people want to believe in "the salvation of God in Christ" and believe that there is a "proffered gift of eternal life", then they should just go ahead and act on those beliefs.
You label others, especially Christians, and by doing so you act out your misanthropic views, prejudices and attitudes, if in fact you are wrong about Jesus Christ.
And you are. That's the truth. But you have free will, so you have the right to be wrong, and suffer the consequences.
That's not misanthropic, it's love.
To suggest it is misanthropic reveals a basic misunderstanding of the love of God for humanity, a "love" not understood or experienced by far too many.
@secondson saidI am not lying. It's not that I "don't think" I am lying. I am, quite simply, not lying.
Of course you don't think you're lying, your condescending "live and let live" rhetoric notwithstanding.
@secondson saidThe OP is about some Christians, not all of them. Whether or not I am "right" or "wrong" about Jesus Christ does not affect the fact that you appear to have misunderstood the OP.
You label others, especially Christians, and by doing so you act out your misanthropic views, prejudices and attitudes, if in fact you are wrong about Jesus Christ.
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@secondson saidWhat I suggest is misanthropic is laid out in the OP and my first post after that.
To suggest it is misanthropic reveals a basic misunderstanding of the love of God for humanity, a "love" not understood or experienced by far too many.
I am not talking about some "love of God" notion that I believe only exists in your imagination.
I am referring to what I see as the mundane ideology and mean-spirited perspective on other human beings laid out on page 1 which I have found many Christians subscribe to.
@secondson saidSo, if I too believe that you have free will and the right to be wrong, and to adhere to whatever religion you want, is that "love" and "not misanthropic" too?
And you are. That's the truth. But you have free will, so you have the right to be wrong, and suffer the consequences.That's not misanthropic, it's love.
@FMF
"I believe that a sense of being a recipient of "God's love" is merely a kind of euphoric feeling that your religious beliefs give you."
Here again your ideological view is flawed due to the lack of firsthand experience with the love of God. My subjective experience of God's love aside, God's love is real and objective by the mere fact that God's love comes from a real being. Just as you know your wife and children love you, not just because they tell you so, but because they show it. Their love is demonstrated objectively through action and not by words only.
God the father too has demonstrated His love objectively by sending His Son to pay the penalty for sin on our behalf. My subjective "feeling" is secondary and a consequence of the knowledge of the objective truth of the demonstration of God's love in Christ.
"I don't see how what or who I "love", and how much, has anything to do with whatever your religious beliefs make you feel."
Yes, you don't "see".
For this reason: God is one. There is no other being in existence that remotely compares. God has no equal. God's love has no equal. Only God can love as He does. There's no other love that compares.
No one can love us as God does. Once one knows it experientially all so-called "religious beliefs" fall away and are replaced by the knowledge of the truth.
@secondson saidYes, I am well aware you believe this kind of stuff. But it does not affect or address my observations on page 1.
No one can love us as God does. Once one knows it experientially all so-called "religious beliefs" fall away and are replaced by the knowledge of the truth.
@secondson saidI perceive this "love" you keep referring to as merely a feeling of religious fervour. It has very little to do with what I said on page 1.
God is one. There is no other being in existence that remotely compares. God has no equal. God's love has no equal. Only God can love as He does. There's no other love that compares.