Love is Greater than God

1) We cannot know. We can only choose to believe based on the facts at hand...with perhaps a calculated risk based on our intuition.Stile, you seem to be suggesting that to risk ones internal belief on an unknown and unprovable relationship with an unknown God (or even a known one, through secondhand reassurances) is too big of a risk to take.My only comment in that regard is that IF such a Being did exist and was as loving as we all hope, such a Being would understand your reluctance and would not hold such a decision against you. If such a Being did not exist, said argument would be moot anyway. What this basically boils down to, in my mind,. is the assertion that our decisions and choices are final. They are greater in that they are allowed.

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I can understand how Love can exist without God.
My wife and I decided to cultivate a relationship together, and we love each other very much. There is no God within our relationship.
A half-arguement (one with no evidential basis) coud be put forth that God created us and therefore is present in our lives. But God did not create our relationship. My wife and I created our relationship, and it is the relationship where Love exists and God does not.

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Is there an area where God can exist without Love?
If God ever exists without Love... is He even still God? Is it worth calling an all-powerful being that has no Love "God", as far as any Abrahamic-related religion is concerned? (I am trying to have the word "God" refer to the being generally identified in a Western religious environment, not any general supernatural-being).

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If Love can exist without God, yet God cannot exist without Love. Doesn't that make Love greater than God?

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If we can have Love... understand Love and base our lives around Love... without God. Why do we need God?

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Isn't it better to focus our lives and efforts on Love rather than on God? That is, wouldn't any attention upon God be taking away attention from Love? If we are focusing on Love, isn't that what God's message is about anyway? Therefore, isn't God an additional factor that can be ignored in order to promote Love as a good guide for life?

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Why must this be a black and white question? What defines greatness? If focus on God detracts from focus on ourselves, is not the issue one of communal selfishness versus communal selflessness?

Just out of curiosity...why would you keep God out of the relationship?Isn't the basic dogma to love Him first? Critics would say that you idolized your wife over God....not I, but some critics, anyway.

It is my belief that love..in its purest sense...is impossible without God. Neither of us can prove it either way... You may suggest that people can love without being religious but my contention is that God....by loving the world(all of us) allowed His Spirit to be present and available. Agape Love is Jesus. Jesus=truth, Jesus=Love. There is no redundancy.As long as I am being opinionated, I might add that humans may deny God and take credit for the love that they have...but that ...again...it is human nature to seek to elevate self over God.My contention? It is impossible to love without the reality of Gods Spirit---though people can and do deny the existence.Does this mean that animals also have the Spirit? Yes...In Him is light and that light is the life of men.Critics may argue that there is more than one belief...so I wont defend my belief over any others. I'm just stating how I feel.

In my opinion, a given communion(community or group) of people will have one Spirit or another. In my belief there is only One Spirit that=love...the rest are all pious platitudes and human generated dogma. I think that I can discern the Spirit and that a group---religious or not---will either have it or not have it. So in answer to your question, loving thy neighbor is allowing the "external Spook" to flow through you unto others.

This is jars argument. In my opinion, God became man(Jesus) so that He could communicate with us. In your example, God would become a tapeworm.

The third person of the Trinity..the Holy Spirit (or as you call him, "the spook" is in my belief a very real and living presence. I talk to Him daily. It is my contention and belief that God does understand us...although I also like your assertion that we ourselves are the liaison to the rest of humanity.It really is not an issue if my belief is right and that the Holy Spirit is available for daily communication/encouragement and interaction from our maker to us...or whether your contention that "we" humans is all there is and that it is our responsibility to communicate with and encourage each other.The communication is happening...even right here on the internet...and we are (hopefully) doing our best to enlighten, joke with, and challenge each other during our daily keyboard time. Perhaps we are that representative....Now if you will excuse me...Im going to help Mom do some shopping... Edited by Phat, : added features