i don't understand why i should have a love, unselfish or otherwise, for an imaginary being. the rest is kind of irrelevant given that one point. it would've been irrelevant to me even if i were not an atheist, since i have never been a christian, and in judaism, love of god means loving god's creation, not passing tests to show how much you're willing to hurt yourself (the story of isaac notwithstanding). anyway, i have been an atheist longer than my whole adult life, so i have no interest in pretending to please that nonexistent personage. setting god aside, you don't believe that anyone can be unselfish but i do not share your belief. i think we're hard-wired (not that everyone is fully plugged in lol) to care about the group, not as much as ants or bees are to be sure, but enough to maintain the species, and then with our level of sentience, even more than that.

g

I am not familiar with this (to me) rather weird "test of piety". I suppose the general concept is to believe / trust / love god in the "though he slay me, yet will I trust him" sense. I do not see this as pious or virtuous, but as horribly dysfunctional. This is just another way of voicing the little ditty I was taught as a child: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it". Reject 100% of the evidence of your senses and intellect and personal experience -- "let god be true, and every man a liar".

That way lies madness. It is the basis for the failed epistemology of religious faith, the rejection of evidence, the denigration of substantiation, suicide of the mind and therefore of one's humanity.

You’ve lost me on the desire to prove an unselfish love to god. Yeah logically if someone believed in god and wanted to prove that, they would have to be willing to worship regardless of their own fate otherwise they are only doing it in self interest. I don’t have a horse in that race though because no such god exists to try and impress. If egoism means the underlying moral theory that one ought to do right in their own self interest, I would agree with it in principle as being the bare minimum reason to do so. I think it’s a poor reason to stop there though, and that it nicely describes the only real reason Christians display much morality. Id like to think a more pure form of altruism is possible, although I wouldn’t rely on most people for it.

As a rebellious teenager I accused my preacher-father (and Christians in general) of simply doing what he believed would be in his long-range best interest, and I posed what was essentially James' test to him. I asked if he would continue to love/serve God if he knew Satan would win and he would be sentenced to eternal damnation for his commitment.. He didn't respond immediately, but after a couple of days he said: "I can't say what I would do; but I hope I would continue to love/serve God."
I respected that response.

A God that would damn others for his glory. I don't believe such a God exists but if it did then our duty as a moral species would be to seek it out and destroy it.

I have no "love of god", because no gods are real. They have never existed in reality.