Does God hate you?

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » February 27th, 2011, 9:13 pm

Recently, Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist church has been gaining notoriety for spreading the word that God doesn't love you, but he actually hates you. Many Americans find this alarming and despicable, but I actually find it to be refreshingly honest. It is different then the phony sentimentality of all the people saying God loves you. And it is closer to reality. My experience of life has been that no good deed goes unpunished. The unjust and aggressive tend to do very well, and the meek get taken advantage of. Isn't the "God hates you" message closer to reality? And the people telling you "God loves you" actually secretly hate you anyway. And how did this love message get started? The ancient Greeks never believe their gods loved them, and in fact were afraid of offending them. The ancients sacrificed to appease the angry gods.

Post by **Winston** » February 27th, 2011, 10:23 pm

My friend Darryl Sloan debunks the notion that "God loves everyone" with an obscene graphic image and philosophical points and questions that debunk that myth.

gsjackson · Post by **gsjackson** » February 28th, 2011, 5:07 am

I could maybe be convinced. Certainly there seems to be an inverse correlation between personal worth and the status society sees fit to confer. But I guess what we're doing on this site is trying to figure out whether this perversity of valuation is mostly culture-specific, or universal, in which case God starts to be implicated.

But it is a refreshing perspective shift (always a useful exercise in the U.S.) to consider that God(s) are as randomly punitive as seems to be the case. It would probably cut down on a lot of whining. When considering the old saw -- don't tell anyone your problems; half of them don't care and the other half are glad you have them -- it might be wise to take in the possibility that this includes God.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » February 28th, 2011, 12:14 pm

I agree. It also seems that the concept of God has changed with our culture. Preaching a vengeful god was considered normal just 100 years ago, whereas today it is considered outrageous. God is now required to be politically correct and is not allowed to be any more dangerous then Bambi's mother. The problem is that creates a huge gap between reality and expectations. In older times, especially when there wasn't antibiotics, death was commonplace, and one's life could be taken at an instant for what seemed like arbitrary reasons. People really had fear of God, and for good reasons. Today, people grow up spending thousands of hours watching movies where a defined good guy always ends up at the end of the movie in victory and without a scratch ( he walks slow motion through a hail of bullets and not one of the bullets manages to hit him). People raised with such delusions find it outrageous that God would actually get angry or be mean. Then, the other issue is how do we best relate to God to protect ourselves. The Muslims believe God's will is arbitrary and the safest approach is to bow down and submit. So, should we love our neighbor or would it be more effective to snatch his cat and offer it up as a sacrifice?

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » March 2nd, 2011, 3:29 pm

As a side note, the Supreme Court Decision came out today (Snyder v. Phelps et al.) upholding the rights of the Westboro Baptist Church (or anybody else) to tell people that God hates them.

Here is the decision.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/g ... vol=09-751

Post by **fschmidt** » March 2nd, 2011, 8:11 pm

I am reading the Old Testament now. In it, God hated the Jews about half the time and hated everyone else all the time. God keeps telling the Jews to kill everyone else, and God gets angry when the Jews fail to do this. God is particularly anxious to make sure that the Jews don't spare women and children, that they kill absolutely everyone. The Bible is certainly an interesting read.

odbo · Post by **odbo** » March 3rd, 2011, 5:11 am

grace power's theory should remind you of angry greek gods

Mystery · Post by **Mystery** » March 5th, 2011, 6:28 pm

The word "God" has been misused so much that it doesn't mean anything anymore.

God is a principle. God is not a person. Thus, since God is not a person, it cannot love or hate you. It just keeps working according to the same principles as it ever did.

It's like asking: Does the US constitution love or hate you?

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » March 5th, 2011, 8:00 pm

Mystery wrote:The word "God" has been misused so much that it doesn't mean anything anymore.

God is a principle. God is not a person. Thus, since God is not a person, it cannot love or hate you. It just keeps working according to the same principles as it ever did.

It's like asking: Does the US constitution love or hate you?

That sounds more like "karma" which is suppose to behave similar to a mechanical rule. God, who is usually defined as the greatest being that can be conceived, would subsume principals. The Constitution is a set of broadly defined rights of individuals and power of government. God can be thought of as transcendent, imminent, and/or personal. The Westboro Baptist Church are good lawyers, but terrible theologians, although the "hatred of God" has been extensively discussed in the ancient literature. Maybe Buddha took the most intelligent route - you don't need to know the nature of god to achieve enlightenment so don't waste your time trying.

Mystery · Post by **Mystery** » March 6th, 2011, 1:50 pm

Karma is one of the principles of God. The law of attraction is another principle.

When studying "God", you shouldn't be studying an external entity. You should be studying what's within yourself.

Post by **Winston** » March 6th, 2011, 10:43 pm

I agree with Mystery. There are higher forces that we can't see or understand. Definitely. But there isn't a God as the Christians define it. If there was a God, he would not be anything like what we think he is.

A God as we understand it would show himself to you, stop all evil and suffering in the world. Etc. Since he doesn't do that, either he doesn't exist, is not that powerful, doesn't care, or as I suspect, is nothing like what you think he is. Or, as Mystery said, he is simply a Cosmic principle.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » March 7th, 2011, 11:28 am

Winston wrote:I agree with Mystery. There are higher forces that we can't see or understand. Definitely. But there isn't a God as the Christians define it. If there was a God, he would not be anything like what we think he is.

A God as we understand it would show himself to you, stop all evil and suffering in the world. Etc. Since he doesn't do that, either he doesn't exist, is not that powerful, doesn't care, or as I suspect, is nothing like what you think he is. Or, as Mystery said, he is simply a Cosmic principle.

Bertrand Russel, the greatest logician of the 20th century, went through all the arguments and proofs of God, and concluded there wasn't a god. What that tells me is that if there is a God, the only way to be sure of it is to have some kind of direct experience like the mystics claim to have, because logic will never give you the answer.

According to Aldous Huxley, who went deeply into spirituality and eventually became a follower of Vedanta:

"Reality is such that it cannot be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit".

Adlous Huxley - The Perennial Philosophy

Thus, if there is a God, he only reveals himself to those who are spiritually developed.

gsjackson · Post by **gsjackson** » March 7th, 2011, 11:55 am

MrPeabody wrote:

Thus, if there is a God, he only reveals himself to those who are spiritually developed.

Sounds like AW divide and conquer strategy. I'd like to find a way not to think of myself as part of the chaff, since I haven't had any revelations. I've never been terribly impressed, though, with those pleased to think of themselves as the wheat.

georgewilson · Post by **georgewilson** » June 28th, 2012, 3:23 am

"God Hate Those Who Hate Themselves" and always tell lie.So please say truth and trust in you.Graphic Design New Orleans

Jester · Post by **Jester** » June 28th, 2012, 9:54 am

fschmidt wrote:I am reading the Old Testament now. In it, God hated the Jews about half the time and hated everyone else all the time. God keeps telling the Jews to kill everyone else, and God gets angry when the Jews fail to do this. God is particularly anxious to make sure that the Jews don't spare women and children, that they kill absolutely everyone. The Bible is certainly an interesting read.

Winston has started another good thread here.