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From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Response to Tim Maroney - The character of God.
Message-ID: <586@ames.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Oct-84 16:19:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.586
Posted: Tue Oct 23 16:19:41 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Oct-84 02:37:14 EDT
References: <239@qantel.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 90

[]
	A while back, Tim Maroney wrote an essay giving his opinion that
the morality of the god portrayed in the Bible was very low, and showed
him to be unworthy of worship. Ken Nichols responded with a rebuttal
of 650 lines. Since I suspect few on the net had the patience
for such a long posting, I have collected a few of the more pungent quotes
from this offended Christian's essay. These should help reassure us all
that Yahveh's not the nasty sort that Tim portrayed Him to be. I have
added just a few comments of my own; the quotes speak for themselves.

[re the necessity of worshipping God]
>If God is the creator of the universe, and of you and me, why wouldn't that
>give Him the right to desire glorification.  Since He is self-sufficient, he
>needs no one to glorify Him.  He gives us the privelage to add a very small
>iota to His glory.  Why should He even allow that (I don't know)?

	[me] I'd feel better about this God-given "privilege" if God didn't
send us to the flamey place for declining it.

>No human or animal or plant or planet or star or sun or anything in this 
>universe has the "right" to exist and not be blown to atoms by the breath of
>Almighty God.
...
>We have no "rights" in the sight of a perfect
>God.  Every person has one right on this earth, the right to go to Hell. 
...
>Man deserves even worse for his blatent hatred and rebellion against God.
>Look what mankind did to Jesus Christ.  Was it justice that had Him murdered
>when He had commited no sin?
   
	[me] Doesn't the Bible show Jesus' execution was planned by God
to save mankind from sin? Seems to me those who slew Jesus were acting
in accordance with God's will.

>Tim is totally lost here.  God does have amazing infinite compassion and mercy.
>Why look, he's letting your body live another second!  That's more compassion
>and mercy than any of us deserve.  We all deserve to be damned right now!
...
>God is perfectly justified in having the Israelites wipe out the other races
>in Canan, all mankind deserves anihilation. 

	[me] I see Meir Kahane has at least one non-Jewish supporter.

>Anyway, why should God have to
>be justified in doing anything, he is all powerfull, are you.

	[me] Ahhh, might makes right.

>No one on this earth is blameless in any near sense of the word.  They are
>sinning humans that were given life by God, and can have that life taken away.
...
>Things such as hunger, disease, etc. will be abolished at the proper time
>(I don't have the date), when Christ comes back to reign upon the earth.  
>Until then, the earth is under Satan's authority, and he can do with it as he
>pleases (with God's permission).
   
	[me] I see; God is good because he contracts out all evil deeds
to Satan.

>God is good.  God is just.  Man is sinfull.  God is holy.  Man deserves
>death and punishment forever.  God must give that punishment no matter how
>good He is.  See the balance? 
...
>YES, HUNGER IS BECAUSE OF SIN.  How many times do I have to say it???????
   
	[me] This would be easier to believe if the greatest sinners
suffered the greatest hunger.

[speaking of good deeds]
>However, when a non-Christian does own of the above things to another human, it
>is either for their own glory, or maybe because they think it's the 'right'
>thing to do.  In either case, it means nothing to God, and you might as well
>not have even done it.  Doing 'right' things will NEVER SAVE YOU FROM THE WRATH
>OF GOD.
...
>WHY DO YOU EXPECT ALMIGHTY GOD TO LIVE UP TO YOUR PUNY STANDARDS OF MORALITY??
>DID YOU MAKE THE STANDARDS???  I don't think so!

	I hope the above has helped to reassure any doubters that Jonathan
Edwards' (oops, I mean Ken Nichols') God is the most loving and merciful
deity that could possibly be imagined. Since no rebuttals to Nichols'
posting has been made by any of the vocal Christians on net.religion,
can I safely assume the God described is the same one you all worship?
Just asking.

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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