sher@rochester.UUCP (06/19/83)
From: David.Sher I intend in this letter to deal with various things. First of all my call for people to explain how they decided whether a person was a coreligionist went unanswerred. Maybe if I reword it someone will feed my curiosity. Most of the readers of this news group are members of some religion. If you are a member of religion X then how do the relevant authorities in religion X decide who their coreligionists are? I think the answers to this question will show some interesting patterns (if I get any). About my flame "Christ the Antichrist". I got two responses. I thought it would upset people and promote discussion. Well I was wrong. Anyway I will respond to Paul Dubuc and the questions he raised. First the origins of my concept of the adversary. The Jewish religion lacks any concept of Devil or Hell. This I believe is a result of Judaism's strict monotheism. We tend to ascribe all supernatural phenomena to God or agents of God. An example of this is death. In Jewish folklore death is done by the Angel of Death who is an Angel who acts at God's command. So then whence the adversary from the book of Job. Obviously he must be an angel of some sort. Since he is not human and has supernatural powers then he must be an angent of God. Note that he asks for divine dispensation before doing a job on Job. This is the adversary I was thinking of. There are various folktales where demons must follow the exact strictures of the Bible as well. Note that in my article the fact that Jesus' teachings are correct and good is irrelevant. The important thing is that people with weak constitutions can take advantage of these teachings to justify themselves. I am not willing to try and prove this. Anyway this argument is somewhat off the point. The point I was trying to make is that even if the ressurection happened it proves nothing. There are an infinity of scenarios where christ was ressurected but the religion that developed around him is totally off-base. This is one of them. About Blasphemy if christ is as you imply he hardly can be hurt by petty insults. What would upset him is if I drew people from him with my logic. But since there was little response to my article I think this is not the case. Anyway for various reasons I could not accept Christianity in any case. (if I broadcast my reasons it might hurt someone). So if you are right my fate is sealed and I might as well go out and commit a few murders as well. (see what I mean about giving weak minded people an excuse) About the lack of substance in my article, Paul do you often broadcast your opinion of substance free articles? Why? In answer to your question of whom the article was convincing to: Me, who else's opinion is important to me? -David the blasphemer Sher (hey that rhymes) sher@rochester seismo!rochester!sher
mark@hp-kirk.UUCP (06/30/83)
#R:rocheste:-199100:hp-kirk:14100007:000:286 hp-kirk!mark Jun 23 08:34:00 1983 One thing that this of all groups does not need is articles that are intended to upset people and promote discussion! Death Rowe hp-pcd!hp-cvd!mark Corvallis, Oregon