Atheists: What if God is really just another word for “love”?

grayure: Atheists: What if God is really just another word for “love”?
Just suppose that we theists are wrong in metaphysical terms but are simply using the word “God” to mean “love”. Forgetting the history of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the like, since clearly they didn’t believe in the same God, how would you feel about that?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Unable to Display Name
so ………. I God you.

Answer by Anonnie Mouse
Then christians in Africa need to stop loving witches and albinos to death.

Answer by AngryNoodle
I God you.

I God mint chocolate chip ice cream!

I God it when you say things like that.

Um…. nope. Don’t see it.

Answer by Jesus loves me this I know
Let’s make god everything, because that’s deep.

Answer by love
So if two people are making love, would they be making God?

Answer by silver d
why don’t you go God yourself?

Answer by TheAsker
The crusades were between Muslims and christians. They believe in the same god.

And I don’t believe in love. Love is a man made social construct.

Answer by Sugar♥bunyyy
I get what you’re saying but even if you’re right nothing changes…
There is still no God and love is still just a human emotion.

Answer by johnyblaze28
So…I would be right?

Deities do not exist.

Answer by Samantha
@love
You beat me to it!!!

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!!

Answer by Mackey
It still would not make sense. What if love is just an electrochemical reaction in our brains and God is just a mythical character? That sounds like reality to me.

Answer by Dewheart
Deuteronomy 6:15
for the LORD your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth.

it doesnt really fit

Answer by auntb93
I’ve often felt this had validity. Many years ago when I was working in a radio station, I questioned the DJ who had started up the Beatles song, “All You Need is Love.” I asked him if he thought that was true, and he said not only is it all you need, but it’s all there is. But realistically, there is darkness that makes the light noticeable, there is always contrast in order to define anything.

Answer by XaurreauX
Nobody really means that, though. “Love” may be a great thing, but it isn’t considered the creator of the universe. “God,” for most people is the one who is going to punish you for not believing in their religion. And that’s the reality of the situation.

P.S. You’re not going to get atheists to believe in God by changing it’s name.

Answer by Nyx
Thats awfully convenient. Oh just forget about the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the like…since they don’t believe in the same god.

Thankfully it doesn’t work that way. The theists responsible for the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, The Shoah (the hebrew term for the Holocaust) and all the rest, believed in the exact same god as modern day christians. They used the same bibles, said some of the same prayers, and worshipped the same god in the same manner as theists do today.

Just because you’re not mature enough to face up to that reality, doesn’t mean you can just sweep it all away. How about you face up to fact that your religion has its flaws (some pretty major ones) and look at learning from its history.

You know what they say about those who fail to learn from history right?

Answer by Lefty Proprietor, MMM, Inc. – c2011
What if c-a-t spelled “dog”? That’s deep stuff man…

Answer by steven
I feel the same as if you said what if god is another word for joke.

Answer by Fred
I would feel it no less silly than now.

Answer by Endorse Freedom
It’s a very restrictive love, because it has to be with the opposite gender. I don’t see the problem with love going past opposite gender.

Answer by Ricardo
You would think that if he had a name like that he might practice it, but apparently not.

Answer by imacatholic2
+ The Crusades +

Muslim armies had conquered Syria, Persia, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, Sicily, Southern Italy, Cyprus, Rhodes, Sardinia, Majorca, Crete, and Malta which had been some of the most heavily Christian areas in the world. The even came within 100 miles of Paris before being pushed back.

Thousands, and possibly millions, of Christians died during this drive to eventually bring the entire world under Islam.

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to check the advance of the Muslims and regain control of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

If this defensive war was not fought then we would probably all be Muslim today.

I am sure that some atrocities were committed by individuals of both sides during this war but by most people’s judgment this was a just war.

For more information, see:
+ The Crusaders by Régine Pernoud
+ The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude (1996) by Bat Ye’or
+ God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades (2009) by Rodney Stark
+ Islam at the Gates (2008) by Diane Moczar

+ The Inquisition +

Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth. The Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions.

Heresy was a capital offense against the state. It was considered a type of treason. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw heretics as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath.

When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig. It was not easy to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. The lord needed some basic theological training, very few did. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime.

The Catholic Church’s response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges.

From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.

Most people tried for heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.

If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities with pleas for mercy that were frequently ignored. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.

Where did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World. Most of these lies are still being circulated as fact.

For more information, see:
+ The Real Inquisition, By Thomas F. Madden, National Review (2004)
+ Inquisition by Edward Peters (1988)
+ The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen (1997)
+ The Spanish Inquisition: Fact Versus Fiction, By Marvin R. O’Connell (1996): https://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0026.html
+ The Church of the Apostles and Martyrs (1963) by Henri Daniel-Rops
+ Religious Dissent in the Middle Ages (1971) edited by Jeffrey B. Russell
+ The Inquisition (1927) by A. L. Maycock

With love in Christ.