david@ssc-vax.UUCP (David Norris) (02/22/84)
Rich Rosen, explaining how Larry (Bickford) and I have logical "myopia": > The crux of the problem may be that Larry and David cannot envision a > supreme god that is different from the one described in the Bible, since > they hold it to be self-evident truth. The proposition (that they keep > tearing down) is this: if god were as abominable as it is depicted to be > in the Bible to be, then I could choose not to worship it based on > my own judgment. I can also choose not to believe that god is that way, > or not to believe that god exists at all. Larry and David apparently do > not see these three choices as alternatives, and presumable WILL not. > And therein lies the problem. Sorry, I'll have to disagree with you. The proposition we keep tearing down was one put forth by Tim Maroney (who, we have been told, is no longer with us) and others. I offered a Christian perspective of THAT argument. I don't recall ever defending the "does God exist" argument here; no one ever asked. Here is a partial list of difficult Christian topics: 1) Does God exist? 2) Was Jesus the Son of God? 3) Why does God allow pain and suffering in the world? 4) Why does God "appear" bad in the Old Testament? 5) Is Christianity the only way to God? 6) Can Christianity accept other religions? (if not, why not) 7) others? This is not a complete list. I only recall addressing #4 publicly. There are many areas of discussion in Christian theology which I have never commented on; A) I am no theologian (and I never said I had all the answers), and B) no one ever asked me to comment on them. At any rate, Rich, please don't castigate us for an omission which we could not have possibly avoided. If you would like to begin a discussion of "Does God exist?", I'm sure that it would be an interesting discussion for everyone on the net (and you can be sure that Larry and I will PROBABLY jump into the fray). But declaring that Larry and I have "myopia" and "a problem" seems a bad way to start such a discussion, don't you think? -- David Norris :-) -- uw-beaver!ssc-vax!david