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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: "God Cannot..."
Message-ID: <211@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Oct-84 12:10:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.211
Posted: Tue Oct 23 12:10:58 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Oct-84 04:14:50 EDT
References: <239@qantel.UUCP> <1094@ihuxm.UUCP>, <243@qantel.UUCP> <1098@ihuxm.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
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Mike Cherepov discovered something very interesting there when he pointed out
how many people are claiming "God cannot see beyond man's [sic] sin",  "God
cannot allow sinners to share in a happy afterlife",  "God cannot provide
everything that everyone would like".

Obviously, saying "God cannot" places limits (imposed by the speaker) on the
power of god (who is supposed to be omnipotent---without limits to its power).
These limits sound like what the speakers would desire these limits to be.
God cannot allow sinners a happy afterlife, because that would make my whole
viewpoint on reward/punishment invalid.  God cannot provide everything that
everyone would like, because that would eradicate my notion of a puritan work
ethic, which claims that god rewards only those who work.  God can't see
beyond a person's sin because doing so would invalidate my concept of the
unworthiness of humanity and treat sinners equally with pious people like
me, and I don't accept that.

If these people had said "God does not", one could ask them where they got
their information, where they found the list of things god does and does not
do.  But they clearly exclaim "CAN NOT", which to me means that either god is
not omnipotent or (more likely) that they are (once again) choosing certain
things they would like to see in the world (justice, punishment, etc.) and
TELLING GOD WHAT TO DO TO MAKE SURE THAT THOSE THINGS *DO* EXIST.  "No,
god, stop rewarding that sinner over there.  Reward me instead.  I'm a good
person."
-- 
If it doesn't change your life, it's not worth doing.     Rich Rosen  pyuxd!rlr