Monday, May 03, 2010

Is God incapable of unconditional love?

Love, to be truly love, must be unconditional. God loves you is what most religions say. But such religions also seem to be saying God loves you but you have to do such and such a thing or behave in such and such a way if you want God to continue loving you. Can God be capable of conditional love? God would not be God if His love was conditional. In the Bible it is said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." JOHN 3:16. "So loved" yet conditional. I shall love provided you believe, God seems to be saying. In the Quran it is said, “Say (O Muhammad): ‘If you do love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.’” (Qur’an 3:31). Very clearly, it says that if you love Allah you have to follow his messenger Mohammad and only then will Allah continue to love you. Conditional love again. I think it is a suspect God who needs something in return for His love. It would seem that such Gods suffer from a sense of lack as ordinary men do, who were probably, in the first place, the creators of such scheming Gods. Maybe this is inevitable (the conditioning of love) in religions which separate God from His creation.