Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxn.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!ihuxn!jho
From: jho@ihuxn.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re:  Nichols on Maroney (A Ba'laam Blessing?)
Message-ID: <863@ihuxn.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Oct-84 12:59:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxn.863
Posted: Thu Oct 25 12:59:41 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Oct-84 09:00:33 EDT
References: <239@qantel.UUCP> <1094@ihuxm.UUCP> <243@qantel.UUCP> <1453@qubix.UUCP> <212@pyuxd.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 38

I have been reading recent posting of Ken Nichols's responses
to Tim Maroney's article: "Even if I DID Believe" as well as
his other posting on similar topics.  I have also been  reading
other net people evaluation of Ken's responses.  Some of these
evaluations conclude that Ken's posting are not a rebuttal to 
Tim's article, but rather reinforce Tim's views on the 
character of God.  Regretfully, I have to concur with these
evaluations.

To illustrate my point, let me draw upon a biblical analogy: 

The king of Mo'ab, Ba'lak, fearing the approaching Israelites,
asked Ba'laam (a prophet) to direct a curse against the Israelites.
Instead of cursing the Israelites, Ba'laam  blessed them. Numbers
23:13 sums this situation in the following passage:

'And Ba'lak said to Ba'laam, "What have you done to me? I took
you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but
bless them"'

It is quite obvious that Ken Nichols, just as in the biblical
story, has accomplished the opposite of what he intended to do.
Instead of rebutting Tim Maroney, he reinforced Tim's thesis.

The only  way I could consider Ken's posting as a rebuttal to
Tim's article is by assuming a double standard - one standard for
god and another standard for the rest of the universe.  Does it 
imply that what we recognize as a low moral standard (e.g. killing
innocent people) is reversed when it is applied to god? When God 
bears the responsibility for the death of the innocent, is he 
to be judged as having high moral standards?
-- 

Yosi Hoshen
Bell Laboratories
Naperville, Illinois
(312)-979-7321
Mail: ihnp4!ihuxn!jho