(March 17, 2014 at 5:21 pm)discipulus Wrote:(March 17, 2014 at 5:17 pm)Deidre32 Wrote: discipulus, I know where you're going with this. God doesn't force "himself" on us. I get it because I once preached it. But, I don't believe what you believe anymore.
For good reason.
Anyway!
That actually was not my point at all, but yes I would agree with what you said.
My point very simply is that love is something that must be freely given and freely received. Since the very nature of love requires this choice, it can be rejected or accepted. This applies to any relationship.
Hahaha.
This is sad. Speaking as a cured former Christian this is simply not an accurate analogy in the least.
The bible uses a very old technique to bind the victim to it. It teaches it's followers that they are weak, that they are sinners, that they are undeserving of god's grace.
That eternal torment in hell, a place that god himself created, is something we do to ourselves, even though he set up a binary choice to obey him and go to heaven or suffer there forever.
God is the classic abuser. Any psychiatrist can tell you how abusers break down their victims, make them feel like they are the reason the abuse happens, that they are worthless and undeserving of the magnanimity of the abuser. That only the abuser could ever care about the victim.
It's classic Stockholm Syndrome.
Everything I needed to know about life I learned on Dagobah.
