Who Could Make Up Such an Idea?

God cares for you. Who could make up such an idea? Unless it were true, no one could possibly invent such a concept. Where would it come from? Upon what evolutionary model could they have patterned such a myth?
This morning I was on the net following some links on Christian history and found an article about people in the 19th century who converted back to Christianity after years of living as skeptics and atheists. (There were quite a few famous ones in the 19th century as well as quite a few famous and infamous ones in the 20th and 21st.) I found a quote from a man named George Sexton that mirrors my feeling, but concerning the person of Christ rather than the love of God.

Even if the miracles were proved to be false, and the supernatural halo that continually surrounded Him were shown to be mythological accumulation of after ages, or a pure invention of the time, still that would in no sense explain away the life of the Being depicted. The character of Christ is perfect, and that perfection has to be accounted for. To say that it was fictitious in no way gets out of the difficulty; for that is only to shift the ground from the real to the ideal, leaving us in the dark as to how the invention came. For, if Christ be simply an ideal picture, the man who sketched it will be as difficult to account for as the Being himself.

Same principle. He says no one could have contrived to invent the life of the man Jesus as it is written. I say no one could have invented, as a mythological conjecture, the concept of a loving God. From where would come the imagination that could compose such a character out of his or her imagination. I know I wouldn’t have it in me.
For quite a few years I have been mulling around this thought. The absurdity of it, if the loving God were a mythological invention. Because there are no independent models of love and caring in the universe.
Suppose the studier of myths is trying to explain to you how the myth got started in the first place. He will say primitive man just extrapolated from the warm feeling of mother-love and father-love and invented God’s love.
Just think about that for a minute. Think about it as a grownup. Is there enough real love and care in the historical world to build a model? Remember, we are going on the assumption that there is no Supreme Being, no Intelligent Designer. We are considering inventing one along the lines of the flesh and blood parent-figures who we actually have. Are you full of awe as you remember the love of your mother and the caring of your father? Are you inspired to invent a father in the sky who loves like your dear old dad did? I could try to embellish a little more, but I don’t think I have to. I just don’t think there is enough evidence of much real love and caring in the natural.
What I am saying is that if human beings, primitive or modern, want to invent deities they would invent cynical, demanding deities. They will conceive of manipulative deities. And they did invent these. All the mythologies have them. But a loving, caring God? There is only one way this kind of story could have originated—and that is if it is true. No one could possibly have dreamt up such a thing.

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