craig@think.ARPA (Craig Stanfill) (10/23/85)
Paul, First, I apologise for misunderstanding your premises and labeling them illogical. If I may, I would like to first summarize some points of Judeo-Christian faith on the God of Abraham (as I understand it) and then compare it with your beliefs on the matter. The Judeo-Christian Beliefs, based primarily on Genesis: 1. God created the universe and man. 2. God is benevolent. Your beliefs: 3. God did NOT create the universe and man. 4. God is malevolent. The Judeo-Christian belief is based on the Bible and on our individual relationships with God in prayer. We believe what it says about God. And we feel His presence when we pray, and we hear His voice when he talks to us. The two agree; when God tells me something, it is understandable in terms of the scriptures. As I understand it, you attempt to refute (1) and thus support (3) by arguing that God could not have created the universe because He is part of the universe. But we believe that God could not possibly be part of the universe because if something is in this universe it is bound by physical laws. The acts of God in the scripture make it clear that God is above physical laws. You attempt to refute (2) and support (4) by asserting that God is responsible for human suffering, and that suffering is evil, and therefore God is evil. The best answer I can give is that suffering is an individual thing, and that the relationship between God and man is an individual thing. I know pretty much where I stand with God, and when I suffer I do not attribute my own suffering to ill will on His part. It is not for us to look at the suffering God visits on our fellow man, and judge God as good or evil WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THE RELATION THAT PERSON HAS WITH GOD, and WITHOUT KNOWING THE FULL CONSEQUENCES OF GOD'S ACTIONS. I would like to know the basis of your beliefs about God. I contend that you are using only those parts of the scriptures that suit your arguments, and combining them with your own observations on the world. It is dangerous to take the Bible as being partially true. If you accept Biblical accounts of God drowning the Pharoh's army and destroying Sodom, but do not accept the Biblical perspective of God as the benevolent creator of the universe, you are doing just this. Half a truth is not the truth, half of God is less than God, and half the Bible is not the Bible. -Craig Stanfill