The Real God: An Epiphany
Theresa is attracted to Anthony. She asks Anthony out on a date. Anthony isn't interested maybe he isn't attracted to her or he's married. For whatever reason he declines. Was Theresa rejected? Yes. When someone is rejected they're prone to feel despair and frustration. Typically she'll feel resentment and anger toward Anthony. The rejection affected the dopamine and cortisol activity in her brain which can actually cause physical pain.Some short-term effects of this rejection are aggressiveness and anti-social behavior. This type of emotional reaction can also explain why atheists are one of the most hated groups of people. Teresa is a theist and a billboard reminded her that atheists exist, or perhaps Teresa discovered that her acquaintance Anthony is an atheist, or Teresa is in an argument with Anthony about the existence of God. Any one of these things can cause Teresa to feel despair and frustration. Typically she'll feel resentment and anger toward Anthony. Because of this she may even exhibit aggressiveness and anti-social behavior. As you can see there is a fascinating parallel between the typical reaction of someone who is romantically rejected and the typical reaction of a theist who encounters an atheist. But the parallel is practically shouted from the rooftops as the theist actually describes the atheists disbelief as rejection, the atheist rejects God they say. It is no coincidence that the theist chooses the word rejection because there is a disconnect between the inaccurate use of the word rejection to describe the atheists position and the theists reaction which coincides with the exact same symptoms of rejection, thereby compelling them to use that word even though it's inaccurate. The inaccuracy can be easily seen from the romantic perspective, the analogy would look like this: Teresa tries to set Anthony up on a blind date with Gloria. Anthony doesn't think that Teresa even knows Gloria or that she's acting as an agent on Gloria's behalf. Did Anthony actually reject Gloria? No. What if Anthony doesn't even believe that Gloria exists? Perhaps Teresa described her as being too attractive, described her personality as too perfect to be believable. So if Anthony doesn't believe Gloria actually exists, did he reject her even if she does exist? No. All Gloria would need to do is show up and ask Anthony in person for him to accept, or perhaps Teresa described Gloria inaccurately. Is Anthony rejecting the real Gloria or the inaccurate portrayal of Gloria which doesn't actually exist even though she does? In all accounts Anthony is not actually rejecting Gloria and in all accounts Teresa would have no reason to feel rejected at all. So why then does the theist typically show the classic signs of rejection and even misuse the word rejection when encountering an atheist? Because Gloria is Teresa, the believer is God. Your relationship with God is actually a profound dynamic relationship with *thee self with your ego. It is why God knows you so well, it is why his opinions are so often your opinions and why a different believer of the same God as yours can claim that he agrees with God's opinions but not yours. It is why God can seem so very real to you because he is real, he is you. And believer before you deny this, ask yourself are you truly in a position to be able to deny it?
This confusion of skepticism with rejection has caused the persistence of Christianity's fundamental flaw,a foundational flaw that has fatally detrimental implications for the religion. The religion itself is based on a false dichotomy, the notion that you must either choose God or reject him. But belief is not a choice, it's a compulsion beyond the realm of choice achieved through convincing arguments evidence and Trust. I do not choose what I believe because I perceive it as the more attractive option, I'm compelled to believe what I think is true whether I like it or not, because desirability is not a requisite of the truth. This takes honest introspection to truly make a choice. I must clearly be given the option if I can doubt whether the option even exists, then the option hasn't been clearly presented to me thereby preventing me from being able to make a choice. An omniscient God would easily see this flaw in his system but God isn't omniscient, he only seems that way because somehow someway he knows exactly how to answer your doubts; he knows exactly how you think and if you are paying attention then you'd know exactly why that is