With a snort and a head shake.

Which God?

I would ignore them and go on with my life.

Not trying to be all judgy or anything, but why are you still attending church?
How is that benefiting you in any way?
You can stop going without "coming out". You don't have to tell anyone anything.
If people ask, it's okay to tell them it's none of their business, and not give them
anything else.
You owe them nothing.

Usually, with "fuck off".

I don’t participate in 3ways.

......but you csn have truly good sex.

Say bull shit

Love with an imaginary being is an imaginary love, or so my imaginary girlfriend tells me

Bullshit

There are two options:

1. If you genuinely cannot have true love without god, then no-one can have true love because god does not exist - this applies to christians as much as to atheists.

2. The fact that true love exists, though god doesn't, means that the statement 'you can't have true love without god' is shown as false. Therefore god is not necessary for true love.

So, christian, which is it?

Buwahahahaaaaaaa!

I would ask the ignorant ass to prove it. First by a definition of "true love" then factual evidence of the lack of said love in atheists. Ask him how he came about his baseless theory.

My response would be, "If you need a god to truly love then you, like god, have FAILED completely since your loving god has a record of slaughtering literally MILLIONS."

I would simply laugh.

BOLLOCKS!

I grew up in the Bible Belt, and understand the unstable logic that is often used to facilitate the "Word of God" in sermons. Used to boil my blood, not being able to get to the bottom of anything with logic. As I got older, it became clear to me that the earliest religions were just shots in the dark to create an explanation for our (seemingly) solo adventure in self awareness and the world around us. At one point, our people didn't know much about how to care for ourselves or one another. In fact, some were probably still eating one another.

Eventually, in all the scurry to find irrational explanations to describe our universe and existence, humans made up this figure in the sky that loves us so unconditionally that anything in our life that goes poorly is by it's design. Cause it LOVES us, and created us. It laid out rules for us to follow to exist in a society, but gave us the idea that without it, we perish. While that might have helped our evolution towards a semi-collective existence, at some point, we've got to get off that stupid fucking boat.

I have a theory about the way that preachers and worshipers use the "love" of God or Jesus, or whoever, to speak life into an individual's love of their church and religion. Long ago, when these religions were created, the idea of original sin came into play. That no matter what we did in life, we go to rot for all eternity in the pits if we don't "accept the Love" of these figures in the sky.

My thoughts are that this could be reinforcing, from a young age, that we are unloved without the church. Without that figure in the sky or the one with the holes in his hands, because they DIED and gave up their kin for you to love them. Also, that self-love, or love from family or friends, doesn't really count unless that first void is filled.

To defect from this line of thinking leads to rejection, being ostracized, etc, because most of those taught about sin were taught at such a young age. It's ingrained into our bones how unworthy someone is after they reject the figure in the sky, so people act accordingly over the pretenses of their own internalized shame.

Before we even got to think for ourselves, we were unworthy.

This is why I think people like that genuinely believe that God should be their first love. And, to be without it, sets a foundation for people to not really ever get passed the kiddie pool in depth of what kind of love they are capable of.

I argue this is a crock of horseshit. Love yourself. Love your loved ones. Love your neighbor, and not because the man with the holes in his hands told you to, but because you can always find part of yourself in anyone you meet if you look long enough. We are one and the same being, just occupying different meat suits. Love the planet. Love the creatures on it. Love YOURSELF in radical ways that make people question their own self care standards.

The man in the sky is never going to be able to fill that void for us, the original Love void. It's up to us.

Like most of the crap that the religious baldly assert, there's nothing to back up what the preacher says. He just says whatever and the sheep nod their heads in agreement.

The same way I answer the "You can't be moral if you don't have God".

I tell them that if what I've been seeing in the world from Christians is a byproduct of having "God" in your life, then I will pass.

So, Jewish people don't love reach other? Hindus? Muslims? Buddhists? Confucians? Jains? Sikhs?Does it have to be a specific god, or will any convenient nearby deity do?

I am surprised you still go to a church. It is your life so do what works but I could never go.
How do you define love? What is love? Why does anyone need a god or gods to embrace love? The god or gods have zero to do with such ideas.
Where is love from people who will condemn you if you are open about yourself? How is that love?

I would say, "Prove it".

I would probably have laugh-snorted when he said that.
(It's happened to me before. The last time was during a eulogy for
a friend's mother.)

If I did respond directly to that preacher, I'd say that love is an emotion, and believing in gods is a mental illness, because god is a delusion.

A hearty laugh and a "have a good day".

See ya!