Can God be loved even as a fictional character?

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Absofuckingluetly!
I adore villains!

[brewer]

Re OP: There is no if. It is fictional. Being fictional, you can choose which ever traits you want to love and have a relationship with, look to for guidance, ......... Just understand that that love, relationship, guidance, ......... are also fictional. So you'll be going through life directed in part by a non reality.

You want fictional characters to have a relationship with in your life and give it some meaning, try reading the Silmarillion.

[drfuzzy]

Been a while since I've posted but I had a thought the other day and I am curious what all of you would say about it...

 When I read novels I often get close to the characters. I always love when the character displays traits that I can relate to but also to their humanity. By that, I mean how I love when they'll do something seemingly stupid, cruel, flippantly, etc. but you understand why they made the decision. But I have been thinking a lot on how hard it is to give up my faith in god because of a relationship I feel I have developed with him. I believed that the relationship had to be real because of how real it felt. But as my faith in god has slipped I knew there would have to be some way to get over this conundrum. I think the solution is that I can love god even as a fictional character. I know that many atheist hate how the god of the bible is portrayed. But if he is just a fictional character and all of the stories are made up, I think that I can still draw close to him while learning from those "atrocities." I personally get annoyed when certain atheist can almost never ascribe any single good trait or quality to god or Jesus. What comes to mind is an essay Matt Dillahunty wrote about how horrible the sermon on the mount was. But there are many other examples. It has really helped me to come to peace with a non belief in god and my still lingering love for him. I have been reading the bible more than ever with a whole new perspective.

So what do you think? Putting aside your feelings on religion and god of the bible, is it possible or healthy to still feel affection for god and even Jesus even if you acknowledge them as mostly fictional? I say mostly because even if Jesus or some actual man that Jesus was based off of walked the earth, he was almost certainly not truly divine.

Ok, I have 5 minutes left on break, so I didn't read the thread.  Please forgive.

But isn't this precisely what xtians do?   Love a fictional character?

And isn't it an immature trait?  I remember when a friends' 14-year-old daughter was obsessed with the Twilight series.  To tell her that vampires didn't exist would send her into a fury.  A lot of xtians behave the same way.

[abaris]

Absofuckingluetly!
I adore villains!

I only like the well written ones. This is what's called a Mary Sue.

[Spooky]

Nope.

[Jenny A]

Which Christian God?  In Genesis there's the disembodied almighty, and the god with peers in the form of angels who tends to walk around talking with people.  One is not really anything you could identify with and the other a kind of Frankenstein who's afraid of what he created in his own image from the get go.  He floods the earth in a rage, and destroys a tower out of fear.  He chooses a single people out of all humanity for reasons unstated.  He appears to need and like animal sacrifice. He's often arbitrary in his punishments, big on ceremony, genocide, and young boys who aren't going to inherit without divine intervention.  His gifts to his favorites are victory, and political power. In the later part of the Old Testament, he spends half his time punishing the rich for being rich and the other half punishing the poor for not following the rich.  But mostly he remains jealous of his own worship.

In the New Testament he's more disembodied in comparison to his rather fleshy son/messenger.  And there's the even more (if possible disembodied holy spirit.  With the exception of Jesus' baptism it must speak through angels (and Jesus of course).  And then, he gets into thought crimes.  

There are two rather different Jesus' too.  The one in the synoptic gospels who is not god, but "the son of man." And the one in John who knows he's really god.  Both have a martyr complex and value faith over reason. Though the one in John preforms miracles to make people believe and the one in the synoptics preforms miracles as a kind of prize for those who already believe.  In either case he's self righteous, a little whiny, and occasionally petulant.  In either case he's a kind of pacifist, communistic moral philosopher who would like to turn the world upside-down.  But it's not a practical philosophy which is why practically no one follows it.

None of them are loveable.

[z7z]

You are entitled to think whatever you want. I think of God like Santa Claus only not as fun. Therefore I also look at religious people as gullible people with the mind of a child. Sure it's fun to imagine Zeus throwing thunderbolts and Poseidon stirring up the seas, but it's not real.

[Edwardo Piet]

I would feel sorry for God because he doesn't have free will either and he didn't create himself (by definition) and isn't responsible for his fucked up nature. He would be a fucking giant living tragedy of evil and incompetence and have no choice in the matter. He would be a slave to his own motives like the rest of us.

If I traded myself with the supernatural fucked up cunt that is "god" atom for atom I would do the same things and for the same reasons because I would be him. And I'm guessing being him wouldn't be a lot of fun... how fucking bored must you get - I mean The Sims is fun for a while, then you start torturing them and then it gets fucking boring. It's like he would have no choice but to be the sort of cunt that would have that kind of experience.

I guess that's why he doesn't intervene, he's bored of playing the fucking Sims.

Maybe he doesn't know we're alive and thinks we are virtual like The Sims lol.

[Athene]

Sure. People frickin' love Tony Montana, and Vito Corleone don't they?

"I'm gonna make mankind an offer, they can't refuse...bada bing, bada boom"
  God the Spoon and his right-hand, Jesus the Moose

*Thanks, mobster name generator.* http://www.mymobname.com/

[Foxaèr]

Absofuckingluetly!
I adore villains!

That must be why you like me.