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From: judy@ut-ngp.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Please try to keep an open mind ...
Message-ID: <541@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Apr-84 01:52:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.541
Posted: Tue Apr 24 01:52:47 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 06:38:00 EDT
Organization: Comp. Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin
Lines: 41



 I realize that there are many people out there (including myself) for whom 
devotion to a religion is not workable. But the fact of the matter is that we 
don't have all the answers either. I know and have known a few people for whom
faith in God (and Christ in particular) has literally been a life saver.
 Obviously, it works for them. There are so many things in this world that we
really cannot explain, why dismiss a possible explanation just because it 
doesn't work for you?
 I remember going to a certain church (or perhaps SHRINE would be a more 
appropriate word) as a child during a family vacation and being awed by
what I saw there. On every wall, column, indeed in every available space
were crutches, braces and folded up wheelchairs left behind by the owners who 
no longer needed them. My very own mother-in-law was faith healed (she was 
stricked with polio as a child). I knew a man while I was in high school who 
told me that Christ had healed him of his addiction to herion. I found this 
hard to believe until a chance meeting with my brother who new him before his
conversion revealed to me what a really dispicable character he HAD been 
(before his conversion)! When he was killed in a car wreck, I was overwelmed
by the number of people whose lifes he had touched and who came to say
goodbye.
 I also have a cousin whose conversion turned her from a sour, boozing (to 
excess), gambling (ditto), self-distructive person to a stable, loving
happy person.
 Now this is not enough for me to turn to religion either, but it has been
enough for me to investigate the teachings of Christ. And what I have found
there bears no resemblance to what many non-believers seem to think is there.
 I too, have been in terrible situations in my life when the hope of a god 
was of some comfort, but I have never had the CONVICTION it takes 
to devote myself to that way of life. Still, it is enough to keep me open 
minded. It is important to remain so, for how else are we ever to understand
all the phenomena that science has no explanation for?
 Is it not possible that the thing we call God has simply been misrepresented 
by mankind through the ages? What about the spiritual world in general? Does 
man have a soul? What causes ESP and other paranormal phenomena? Maybe we 
will only know for sure when we die. I hope to learn a little more before then.


Judy