I am forced to love God (if he exists)

[Proinsias]

That line of thinking, in regards to the op, especially the title, is baffling to me.

If God exists and God forced you to love God then surely you would love God. If God does exist, is forcing you to love God and you do not love God then God's force seems to carry less weight than yours. If God's forcing and you're not budging we're approaching the realm that we're all Gods and other unChristianly thoughts.

Anyone can make the claim "love me or be damned", the proof will be in the pudding.

My impression is that much of the power in texts like Job, and Abraham & Isaac is that there are people who will always hold God above all else. These are not people who just like everyone else have been forced to love God by God, these are people who unlike most will still praise and follow God no matter where it leads - almost archetypes of the highest aspirations of the devotional pursuit. It's doesn't get much more hardcore than making the decision to kill your kid based upon the counsel of God alone. As Romeo & Juliet would rather die than be apart these sort of texts speak of those who would give up all the world and endure any amount of suffering to be with God.

[musician]

An atheist would immediately claim that a moral creature would never create such tests.

And an immoral one would not create all life and a magnificent universe in which they might life. He would also not give the greatest possible sacrifice toward saving them from self-inflicted death.

- Nathan

[musician]

I was really, really annoyed to read this... I remember back them I was single, without a girlfriend... I thought : "Hell, if somebody tells me something like what Jesus said, I wouldn't want to have anything with him, I would tell him to get away from me"...

Zvez,

If for the sake of discussion we both assume God as the creator, consider that the entire physical entity and order of humanity comes through the office of motherhood. God therefore has in the most absolute terms affirmed what He intended for us, and indeed gave to us; the relationships that we hold most dear. It is no strange thing then to honor He who gave us our greatest treasure in life, nor indeed life itself - not as a substitute, but a truthful continuation of honoring what is most precious to us. In other words, to truthfully honor God above our relationships adds value to them -- not the other way around.

Consider most of all the scriptural testimony of God being born into human form through a Mother.

We each have our own perspective and our own sandbox. It all comes down to whether or not God is allowed into your sandbox - if He is you will find Him.

- Nathan