Long History of Abuse...

I am a bit of a hedonist. And I enjoy indulging in the pleasures that this world has to offer. And I get people telling me that I'm wrong because of religious mandates, and that things should not be indulged in. It usually ends up with me wondering and asking why these things would be in this world, and why they would give such pleasure and enjoyment, if they were not to be indulged in. This generally prompts one of two answers.

One is that, well, God didn't put them here, the Devil did. They were put here to tempt us, and lead us astray. You know what, this only works if one of two things is true. One is, the Devil is as strong as God, strong enough that God cannot stop him. In this case, a lot of the rhetoric just doesn't really work. The other way for this to be true is if God condones it, in which case he may as well do it himself. If I watch you kill a family, and I stand there and do nothing to stop you or report it, I have committed almost as bad an atrocity as you.

And then there's the worst one I hear, to explain either the original oddity, or the previous answer when I question it. "We're being tested". You know what? I have been in an abusive relationship. After it ended, I went and did some research, kust to help myself over and past it. It was primarily mental and emotional. Things like, being demanded of things I hated, or put into uncomfortable or painful situations, and being told afterwards that it was a test, to see if I really loved her. Told that I was worthless or useless without her. Et cetera. I also recognized my enabling behavior, such as thinking/saying that she should test me, or that she was right.

If you have to cause someone pain, put them in a bad situation, or dangle someone they'd enjoy in front of them, in order to test their love for you, that is not love. That is cruel, and abusive. It smacks of insecurity. And yet, the people that spout this claptrap will say that otherwise, without God, they are nothing. Sound familiar? I am not an atheist, or against belief in some form of creator. But this type of "morality" needs some serious reexamination, to say the least