tony (03/31/83)
#R:ecn-pa:-82300:pur-ee:17700001:000:456 pur-ee!tony Mar 30 20:21:00 1983 I didn't refuse to look at religion. I took four philosophy courses my senior year; "philosophy of religion" among them. I read all the classic proofs of the existence of god (no, I won't capitalize it) and found none of them convincing. Of course, you can argue that I didn't WANT to be convinced, and so, wasn't. But I've always tried to keep an open mind and listen to anyone who wasn't interested in a shouting match. Tony Andrews pur-ee!tony
arens@UCBKIM (03/31/83)
From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens)
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id AA26037; 31 Mar 83 15:46:28 PST (Thu)
To: net-religion@BERKELEY
pur-ee!ecn-pa:scott writes:
I realized that God's smarter than I am. In other words, just
because I don't currently understand something doesn't mean that
it can't be true.
That's an interesting thought. Let's continue with it for a while --
* Many good people suffer in this world, and many bad prosper.
* God must have some purpose in that, which we do not understand.
* This then is the RIGHT way for things to be, again, for reasons we
just don't understand.
* There is no reason to assume that our understanding of what is right
in 'the next world' is the same as god's.
* There is, then, no reason to believe that many good people will not suffer
and many bad will prosper in 'the next world'.
* If I were a pious person I wouldn't be surprised by finding the fires of
hell waiting for me. God's a lot smarter than I am, and I don't always
understand what he/she/it does.
Sleep on that.
Yigal Arens
UC Berkeleydjhawley (04/04/83)
FLAME ON !
As well put by the person ( sorry I don't remember your name ) who
quoted the Ba'hai teacher, reason is not ultimate, but neither is
it useless.
We can hardly understand ourselves; how can we claim to understand
the universe or "God" if he exists.
FLAME OFF.
Yours for more intellectual modesty
David ( wish I was as smart as Godel ) Hawley