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From: polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry Polard)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: What God Wants
Message-ID: <4655@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Nov-84 20:06:28 EST
Article-I.D.: fortune.4655
Posted: Fri Nov 16 20:06:28 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Nov-84 02:41:41 EST
References: <1376@pucc-h> <1731@nsc.UUCP> <603@bunker.UUCP> <462@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry polard)
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 53
Summary: Humans not infallible re: God

In article <462@uwmacc.UUCP> dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois) writes:

>...People don't want to believe that there is a God who
>might (gosh!) make a *demand* on them for something.  As long as God
>remains vague and amorphous, saying "do what you like, as long as
>you don't hurt anyone", everything's cool.  As soon as God says
>"thou shalt not ...", or "this is right and that is wrong", well,
>that's a different story.  Man does not want to acknowledge 
>an authority above himself.


If God speaks to me directly, I will acknowledge his authority.  
But on the Net a few HUMAN BEINGS
insist that they alone know what God wants.

Humans beings can make mistakes even when speaking about God.
Human beings can make mistakes about themselves.
Human beings can make mistakes about others.

Therefore:

If human being says that the Bible is the only word of God,
that does not make it so.  It is only a human being voicing
an opinion, to be treated with the respect due to that
human being.

If a human being claims that the Bible says that God will 
do thus-and-so, it is a human being making a claim.

If a human being says that Gods wants something, it is only the
opinion of a human being. 

If a human being says such-and-such is a fact, that does not make
it a fact.

Those who claim that God will save or condemn those who believe
or don't believe certain things do not appear to me to 
acknowledge a higher authority, but appear to claim to 
BE that authority.   If I don't believe them it is because
those human beings are either presenting arguments 
unskilfully  or the claims of these human beings do not seem valid.
It has nothing to do with accepting or rejecting the
direct voice of a higher authority.

If those who believe in God or Jesus are correct, it is not 
those human beings who go around saying who shall be saved 
and who shall burn who will have the last word, but God or Jesus.

-- 
Henry Polard (You bring the flames - I'll bring the marshmallows.)
{ihnp4,cbosgd,amd}!fortune!polard
N.B: The words in this posting do not necessarily express the opinions
of me, my employer, or any AI project.