Unconditional love without religion?

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Background: I have a agnostic friend who thinks of everything in terms of science but is interested in philosophy. I’ve given him some apologetics to read (Peter Kreeft), but says that he is biased and any explanation of how Jesus is God is not practical.

He claims that his self-invented belief of ‘‘unconditional love’’ as the driving force behind everything he does. So, if he already recognize ‘‘love’’ as the ultimate goal of most religion, then religion is redundant.

What good things can I say to him?

Thanks.
 
hgy said:
He claims that his self-invented belief of ‘‘unconditional love’’ as the driving force behind everything he does. So, if he already recognize ‘‘love’’ as the ultimate goal of most religion, then religion is redundant.
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I would ask what he means by “religion is redundant.” Is worshipping God not an act of love? Is praying not an act of love? Is obedience to God not an act of love? According to his apparent reasoning, how could he do anything that is loving, religious or otherwise, without calling it “redundant” and that he doesn’t need it? If there is a God and it is love on our part to obey God, then your friend is not being redundant at all - he is rather refusing to love or simply does not recognize that particular call to love.
 
The real problem is that he has generalized Catholicism to one idea. The Good News wasn’t that Christ loved people. It was that Christ had risen. He didn’t say, “Go forth and love each other.” He said to go and make disciples. He didn’t say he was coming to make everyone get along, either.

He said,
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.” - Matthew 10:34-36
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There is a real danger in removing elements of Christianity and taking the focus off of God. People who do this end up reducing Jesus to just another teacher or philosopher. He was not.
 
There is a sense in which this agnostic is right - it is all about love - but love is not just a something, a warm benevolence - even unconditional. Love is first of all a Somebody. He does not have love, He IS love. Without Him human beings are confined to human love. By becoming one with Him, we can experience and manifest Divine Love; which leaves our poor human efforts in the dust. Atheists and agnostics can’t begin to experience this, the real thing. I have yet to hear of one atheist or agnostic laying down his life for another - I’d be interested to know if anyone else has. That degree of love is supernatural.
 
hgy said:
Background: I have a agnostic friend who thinks of everything in terms of science but is interested in philosophy. I’ve given him some apologetics to read (Peter Kreeft), but says that he is biased and any explanation of how Jesus is God is not practical.

He claims that his self-invented belief of ‘‘unconditional love’’ as the driving force behind everything he does. So, if he already recognize ‘‘love’’ as the ultimate goal of most religion, then religion is redundant.

What good things can I say to him?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Without religion, or, more specifically, without revelation, how does he know that unconditional love is a universal value, fundamental in some manner to the universe? Without revelation, how can he have knowledge of the resurrection: of eternal life-and without that knowledge how can he know-be assured of-the basic goodness of his own existence and the trustworthiness of the source of it? Without revelation, how can he know that unconditional love comes from anywhere beyond his own imagination, that it has any real value, meaning, or purpose? His “invention” of it is a good thing; it’s an unconscious recognition of the image of God in him, to find His laws written in his mind. True religion would be even better: it would flush out the knowledge to its fuller extent.
 
No offence, but it sounds like sentimental New-Age nonsense. Few achieve unconditional love, and those who do, would never claim it.
 
Don’t babes in arms love unconditionally? A lot of people say their dog loves them unconditionally. Or does some sentimental New Age nonsense say that’s not the real deal? 😃

*A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. ― Josh Billings

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. ― Mark Twain

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. ― Will Rogers

All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog. ― Charles M. Schulz
*
 
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