Argument from Conscience

[Whateverist]

Thanks for the reply and the links Kingpin. I'm afraid I'm unimpressed and they sound to an outsider as yet more battered spouse syndrome and mental gymnastics to try and get the bible to say the opposite of what it really says. This is what I'm saying, how can a moral guide be so utterly wrong that you need years of training and people explaining to you why you should actually just ignore it?! It seems simpler to just not present them with the book in the first place and teach them the golden rule. I could go into detail about how rotten those articles are, if there's any point doing so. Anyhow.

These guys have already explained, I'm concerned because although the God is not real, your state of mind is very real. I see most Christians as being in a battered spouse relationship, but making excuses for an imaginary partner. The God has you always making excuses for what is clearly (to us) outrageous abusive behaviour, and that you interpret all of this as "love". It also clearly has you thinking there's something wrong with you that needs fixing, and that you will be lost without it.

Myself (and I'm sure many others here) are concerned about what this mental state can do to people we care about, like you. I don't bother even making this point very often because of the barriers of stupidity and abuse I get way before conversation can get to this point. I'm worried about the long term effects. I am utterly sickened by the way Christianity grips and manipulates its adherents, and I'm seeing that same language come from you. That makes me think that perhaps you're not as happy as you make out.

But I'll leave it at that, I'm not going to pressure you. I'm genuinely concerned, that is all. If another friend was getting abuse I couldn't stand by and do nothing either. The fact that the abuser isn't real makes it awkward, but you are real, and I care about you.

(I make no absolute certainty claims; I can't be bothered to caveat every statement about God.)

I understand your points here Rob and value your concern for my well being.    I actually converted from Atheism to Christianity when I was 18 coming from a horrific childhood.  You may say that I am invoking this idea of a loving God purely out of a need for emotional comfort stemming from a horrific past, and while it does indeed give me immense comfort that is not why I continue to hold it, I hold because I personally find it to be true.  I cannot logically look at this world and universe and not deduce something far greater than ourselves.  Naturalism offers no value, no meaning, just depression and despair.  I look at an intelligible world and have to logically deduce intelligence behind it.  I cannot fathom that this immensely complex universe is pure blind luck, it goes against reason.  It's like someone showing me a dictionary with all of the words in correct order with all of their definitions and then saying it came to be out of an explosion in a printing press by pure luck and chance and that it is precisely what we expect to happen based on the properties we see of this printing press.  To me that is illogical.

You may say, "I don't know" but when facing tough questions in life, the answers that a naturalistic framework offer are bleak.  Maybe you think I'm not happy with those answers so I need to believe in something else to make those answers more re-assuring.  That's fine if you want to believe that.  

All I can say is if you ever decide to divorce that bastard God, we're keeping you Kingy.