“What does it mean to feel something similar to the wayGod feels? Is that like saying a pebble is similar to the sun because both are round?” he responded.“Maybe God designed our brains to feel love the same way he feels it. He could do that if he wanted to.”

“Love? Do you mean love in the way you understand itas a human?”“Well, not exactly, but basically the same thing. I mean,love is love.”“A brain surgeon would tell you that a specific part ofthe brain controls the ability to love. If it’s damaged, peopleare incapable of love, incapable of caring about others.”“So?”“So, isn’t it arrogant to think that the love generated byour little brains is the same thing that an omnipotent beingexperiences? If you were omnipotent, why would you limityourself to something that could be reproduced by a littleclump of neurons?”

“The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.”

“Love is not first a feeling. Though the feelings come later and grow thick in the basic loam of love, they don't constitute the sum and substance of love. Love is doing whatever good God says you must do for another, to please God, whether (at first) it pleases you or not. You must do so because He says so; and you don't wait until you feel like doing so. Love begins with obedience toward God in which one gives to another whatever the other needs. Love is not a gooey, sticky sentimental thing; it is hard to love. Often it hurts to love. Love meant going to the cross through the garden of Gethsemane. Christ did not feel like dying for your sins, Christian, but He did so nonetheless. The Scriptures teach that he endured the cross while focusing on the subsequent joy that it would bring.”

“What does it mean to be yourself?” he asked. “If itmeans to do what you think you ought to do, then you’redoing that already. If it means to act like you’re exemptfrom society’s influence, that’s the worst advice in theworld; you would probably stop bathing and wearing clothes.The advice to ‘be yourself’ is obviously nonsense. But ourbrains accept this tripe as wisdom because it is more comfortableto believe we have a strategy for life than to believewe have no idea how to behave.”

“Okay, I can accept the idea that God doesn’t have apersonality exactly like people. Maybe we just assume Godhas a personality because it’s easier to talk about it that way.But the important point is that something had to create reality.It’s too well-designed to be an accident.”

“People who do affirmations will have the sensation thatthey are causing the environment to conform to their will.This is an immensely enjoyable feeling because the illusionof control is one of the best illusions you can have.”