God Fearing

I totally agree with you. The idea of fearing God is a patriarchal archaic notion born from superstition. This is a perfect example of man creating God in his image. It was this kind of thinking about God that created a feeling of separateness from God and from there it all went wrong. But I think that is slowly changing as more and more people have an understanding of God as you do.

In my mother tongue, a deeply religious man is called "cu frica de Dumnezeu" which means the same "God fearing". I think it's more like a way of saying that a person has strong believes and he/she respects the word of God. It's not necessarily fear what they feel, but love and respect.

Not only fear but our every concept of God is limiting and misleading. Actually all religious books tend to give human characteristics to God (which is not possible)…we think of God in our own mould that is why we say ‘God-fearing person’. Actually religion itself was created to bring in fear into the minds of people and thus start a civilized society where people will adhere to religious laws and abstain from all such activities which would harm others. So when we say God-fearing, we actually mean fearing all those laws which were created by us in the name of God.

i think when we say God Fearing, we are referring here to God's other side. Yes, we know he is loving, all forgiving, and faithful and generous... remember though that when we turn against his will, we could be siding with his enemies and when we are not saved by his grace then we sure are to fear what's in store for us.

God is not Someone we should fear. Often times mankind will use fear to get you to follow.