pez@pyuxn.UUCP (Paul Zimmerman) (09/03/85)
Tim, I hope you realize that it was not my intention to misrepresent your position as culled from your essay ``Even If I Believed in Your God.'' In that essay, you say that if God was a being of the type depicted in the Bible, you would not whorship Him. I certainly commend you for reaching that conclusion. You explained that the reason you don't believe that He exists has to do with a lack of the ``extraordinary proof'' necessary for a belief of that magnitude. I had gotten the impression from that essay that you reached that conclusion by seeing contradictions in the Bible itself. My article then explained that such contradictions could better be thought of as proof of the contradictory and deceptive nature of the author than as proof of His non-existence. Of course I agree with you that whorshiping such a God is an abomination. Where we differ is that you think He doesn't exist (whatever led you to that conclusion) and I have come to know that He does. And of course I also have to agree with you, Tim, regarding the number of posters engaging in ``wishful thinking,'' as you and Rosen would label it. I would think that part of the reason that they think of it as a virtue is because God has infused into them the belief that faith is a positive thing. In so doing, God has ensured his perpetuation in their minds, since faith is the absence of a desire to ask questions and seek knowledge. And asking questions and seeking knowledge would lead to a realization about what God really is. Also I commend you and Mike and Rich for your stalwart efforts to expose such wishful thinking among God whorshipers. I hope that you come to see where your own denial of the evil of a very real Damager-God may be rooted in the same thing. Be well, -- Paul Zimmerman - AT&T Bell Laboratories pyuxn!pez