pez@pyuxn.UUCP (Paul Zimmerman) (08/28/85)
Jim Campbell writes that he feels sorry for me for having the opinions of God that I do. Well, Jim, your concern is appreciated, but it is I who feels sorrier for those who simply avoid seeing the truth about God, due to fear or due to sheer stubborness. You say that many people who have had terrible things happen to them still have faith in a beneficent God. I can only ask why, in complete amazement and stupefication. You assume for some reason that I am not happy (others have said the same thing), and that some tragedy must have befallen me. Jim, tragedies befall all of us every day. And do you know who causes those tragedies? The evil pig filth Damager-God! I wonder what could possibly make someone like you continue to believe His lies and frauds. No, you didn't sound patronizing, you sounded like you had genuine concern, and I appreciate that. It makes it all the harder for me to understand how you can still believe in and whorship the Damager-God. I am not ``exclud[ing] the reality of a loving, caring God.'' I am simply denying the existence of such a beast in light of the evidence that the God we know is not loving and caring, but heinous and evil. Your explanation of ``why bad things happen to good people'' (which I discussed in an earlier article) is unfortunately just another example of a contorted accommodation for your assumption that God simply must be good, loving and caring. My explanation (that God simply is vile and evil) cuts through the eroneous contortions and offers a more clear cut answer to the question. You're right, there is an objective reality, and we can do nothing to change its form. (I disagree when you say ``and we can do nothing to it,'' because that sounds like a caving in to the will of God and accepting slavery as a way of life.) Who do you think causes all the damage to the simple perfect forces of nature, leading to destruction, violence, and death? What is it that makes parts of existence unpleasant? It's good to see that you agree with me that we must struggle against God, but I'm saddened that you feel that your struggle is also with the universe or with others. The universe is a great place, were it not for the Damager-God. And people would offer you no harm in a world without the pig monster animal God to damage them and cause them to harm people. You say ``take away water for a week, and we are reduced to lifeless masses.'' Who throughout the history of mankind has had the power to simply take away a source of water from people? And who has exercised that sort of power time and time again? Remember who it was that said death was ``a certain end to suffering on Earth.'' You follow those words by saying ``if we believe what we are told of it.'' If indeed! I feel obliged to ask you, since you say that you have questioned the nature of God many times, why you have returned to whorshiping Him after such questioning? Have you ever stopped to think that the Damager-God was brainwashing you, feeding you false information in order to enslave you? It appears to be working, since you say the questioning never returns in as strong a way as it was before. I am saddened to hear that this is happening to you. I can only hope that in the future, your questioning is more successful, and that you eventually come to realize the true nature of God. I don't expect to be ``lifted from'' the pain of God's evil. But I have learned to face it, to recognize it, and to ensure that I will get around it as much as possible to achieve happiness. -- Paul Zimmerman - AT&T Bell Laboratories pyuxn!pez