Unconditional devotion?

As a very occasional visitor to this site, I thought I’d like to pose a question that does not require much input from me should any level of debate ensue.An area that’s always interested me is the relationship many believers feel they have with their god or gods. A sentiment that is often expressed by believers is that their god gradually reveals itself to them, much as might be the case in human relationships.Of course, in human relationships we frequently find that as we learn more about another, our feelings towards them can change quite significantly — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.So I suppose the question I might want to pose to believers is, if their god is revealing itself to them, can they ever imagine a time when what is revealed is so unacceptable to them, they no longer wish to continue the relationship? Or is their devotion unconditional, i.e. nothing could ever be revealed that could damage the relationship, no matter how grotesque it might appear to an onlooker?I ask these questions because sometimes when I hear believers talk about their god, it reminds me of what might be described as battered wife syndrome. The phrases that can be heard aren’t so different from, he’s a good man really, you don’t know him like I do, I know he loves me in his own way and it was my own fault, I forced him to do this to me.In conclusion, should this topic get promoted, I hope some interesting points of view might emerge.

I assume from what you say, you are very much a believer in unconditional devotion and you cannot imagine your god revealing anything of himself to you that would ever change that. Do you believe that to be a good thing, or is the goodness, or otherwise, of it irrelevant? Is the unconditional nature of the devotion the only thing that matters to you, the consequences of such being irrelevant, whatever they may be?In other words, can you imagine your god ever asking of you anything you would feel unwilling to do? Edited by dogrelata, : Too many "evers" in one sentence!

I did wonder from the tone of your response in the third paragraph of [Msg=-3], and from your avatar, where you might be coming from. Hopefully some true believers will come along and offer some thoughts that will start the ball rolling

You say that as your knowledge and understanding has grown, then so has your devotion to your god. Would you now say what you have is a relationship with your god? If so, would you also say that the relationship grows stronger as your knowledge and understanding increases?I also want to ask whether you think your dependency on your god has grown along with your devotion? Do you feel you now have a greater need for your god than previously?

Thanks for your candour.It sounds like you have a very large emotional investment in your relationship with your god, so I’m not going to probe any deeper than that. Perhaps if the thread develops, we’ll get a chance to explore some other areas.

As you say, not everyone needs a god or gods in their lives, but there are clearly those who doand as we know, necessity is the mother of invention.Which is presumably why humans have created or invented so many different gods over the millenniaand why most of those inventions have fallen by the wayside — the invented god or gods is no longer seen as being ‘fit for purpose’, but the need still exists so a new model or models is rolled out.I expect it also goes some way to explaining the number and diversity of gods that are still believed in today. The needs of groups and individuals vary greatly, so the gods they invent to believe in reflects that variety. You need only check out some of the debates that take place on this forum between believers who purportedly believe in the same god, but who can’t reach any kind of agreement about what this god is revealing to each of them in turn. From my point of view, when I read one of these debates, what I’m really observing is the differences in the needs of each individual rather than any theological interpretation.It’s difficult to imagine that much is going to change going forward — there will be those who choose to believe because they need to believeand just as the gods they invent have changed significantly over time, so that process will continue. If humans are still around a million years from now, there will most likely still be believers. The gods they believe in will most likely be different to those that are ‘doing the rounds’ today, but they’ll still be there, regardless of what the non-believers might think.