All You Need Is Love
I often wonder why I have problems with Christianity and the Bible that, apparently, few other Christians do. I suspect that the simplest answer is that I start with the wrong assumptions. I picture God as someone who wants something from us: either a master who wants obedient slaves, or a sadist who wants victims to torment. Yet, logically, this makes no sense. We cannot be useful to God in any way, since there is nothing that we can give God that he does not already have. And God has no insecurities that might drive him to want to make himself feel better by hurting those weaker than himself. Therefore, the only possible reason for God to take an interest in us is that he loves us and wants to give us what is best for us. If I started out with the core assumption that God loves everyone, I would have the key to answering most of the questions I worry about. My answers to some of them might be as follows: Does God love some people more than others – for example,