Thoughts in Journal

Empathy.
It’s a funny thing. It’s one of those things that we often assume about people, groups, institutions, parents, etc etc etc. We assume it because… well. Because to do anything else would be suicide.
I will describe the classic example of God. God is love, they say. His love is perfect. Except, when we examine this, and ask the simple question; “how do I know that God loves me?” Well I guess first we need to define what love is. Love is a verb- it is an action and it is received as an experience. I don’t cannot say that I love someone from the other side of the world with no contact and no connection, for example. They would not even know of my existence, and would never experience love from me. So then, to say that I love, I must first extend both empathy and sympathy toward the object of my love. I must know their experience, and sympathize with their preferences, needs and wants. I must act in consistency with that knowledge, and continuously receive feedback from my love-object through the effort of empathizing and sympathizing.
But when we ask, “how do I know that God loves me?”, we are immediately and unavoidably faced with the opposite dilemma. I must first attempt to understand God in order to know if he loves me. This is, obviously, begging the question. Because asking if God empathizes with me is to deny His empathy with me.
Now I’m not saying that to ask this question of anyone is an automatic null hypothesis. Especially not one who never claims to love, to empathize, or to sympathize. But, it does seem to prove the null hypothesis if these claims are made. Since God makes these claims, or at least the promoters of the God delusion make these claims, asking this question proves the claim null.

To demand empathy is to deny love… and to make such a demand cannot be consistent with the act of love. Since to claim to love is to empathize, sympathize, and act in accordance to that ongoing knowledge, one cannot be consistent in demanding that the love-object empathize with them in order to experience and to know, or validate, that love. To make the claim to love is to claim of the responsibility of knowing whether the love-object experiences love.