This is rather similar to the argument I've often used on theists who insist that I'll go to hell for not believing in god. How on earth could a just god punish somebody for not believing in his existence when he simply doesn't believe it to be a true story. I could just pretend to believe and not let on that I reckon it's a crock of shit but that would be assuming a pretty stupid god if I reckon he'd fall for it. I could also do what the theist does and regard a belief as simply an act of will and that if I wish badly enough to believe the story then I will. Except I believe I know myself too well to believe that I will ever believe something simply by believing that I will believe it.Harbal wrote:You can't just love on demand, Manden. If love or trust doesn't spontaneously arise in you it can't just be conjured up out of nowhere. If it could then it wouldn't really be worth much, would it?
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"... Sir Walter Scott.
Beliefs are strictly for the credulous by their very definition because to hold a belief is to accept as true that which is not supported by any evidence. Any god who would place such a conceptual strait-jacket on his own creation is no better than a sadist and to love such a villain would be an act of masochism.