Someone recently suggested that I might, in fact, believe in God. (A closet theist?) The supporting evidence for this suggestion is that I often write about religion and even quote scripture to support my arguments. Another person suggested that since I profess a belief in love, that I must, ipso facto, believe in God. Allow me a few moments to address both of these suggestions.
I don't believe in vampires and I have been known to post about them from time to time; I am a huge fan of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and thought "Angel" was pretty cool, though not as cool as Buffy by a long shot. That said, while I am interested in vampires (Twilight and True Blood both suck, for the record), I am utterly and completely fascinated by religion. And so you'll find me posting on religious topics more often than about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also, my postings about religion don't tend to flatter religion or gods of any sort; quite the opposite. So, no, I do not believe in any god nor will I ever.
The truth is that, and this is a topic for a future post, I can not imagine a scenario where I could be convinced (without the use of mind-altering drugs and other coersive methods) that any being you present to me is the one true, omnipotent, omnipresent, creator of the universe as depicted by insert-your-favorite-religion-or-holy-book-here. I have written before that I can easily imagine someone creating the our universe, but that's not the same thing as a god.
When this argument was in full swing, another person said, "Marcel hates religion," and to that charge, I must concede, but with an explanation. I don't hate religion, per se, though I believe firmly that it has no place in the world of today. What I really hate is what people do to each other in God's name. I hate how women are marginalized by religion. I hate the class structure or religion. I hate the absolutist lawgivers, priests, and assorted shamen that hand down their rules from the high heavens, seeking to enslave hearts and shackle minds. I hate the idea that people submit to worshipping the most vile being ever created by humans, and yes, I do mean God.
I could go on, but it's only fair that I answer this accusation. And so I attack religion as good people should always attack evil. And before you answer that statement, make sure you read and understand my post titled "Attacking Your Religion: An Open Letter" as it lays it out reasonably well.
On to "love". Of course I believe in love. Whether love is something deeply human that defines us spiritually, or whether it's the firing of neurons and chemical triggers put in place by evolution to insure the survival of our progeny and our gene line, I don't care. Love is real and so I 'believe' in it in the same way that I can believe in any demonstrable fact.
If you want to claim that Marcel believes in God because he believes in love, then you are going to seriously redefine the word 'God' and strip it of any bibles or assorted holy books, any churches, any religious ritual, and anything having to do with anything that you currently ascribe to god, with the possible exception of love. If you're referring to the Biblical God (or the Quranic or the Talmudic versions), you are talking about one of the most vile, vicious, capricious, vengeful, cruel, and pathetically childish creatures ever created by human imagination.
Anything good you can attach to this being (at least through scripture) is pure chance brought about by the fact that if you have enough pages of text, you're bound to find support of any ideas. Good and bad.
God is not love. Not by a long shot.
And so, yes, I believe in love. God, on the other hand, is pure Bogeyman and Freddie and Michael and every other horror movie monster you can conjure up. Fear is what keeps people at his feet. Fear of dying. Fear of eternal punishment. Fear of being cast out from your community. And just plain fear.