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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: what does it mean to talk to God [a brief attempt at an answer]
Message-ID: <4048@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Mar-85 19:28:05 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.4048
Posted: Thu Mar 14 19:28:05 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Mar-85 21:24:49 EST
References: <893@topaz.ARPA> <2635@mcnc.UUCP> <660@pyuxd.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 27

In article <660@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Professor Wagstaff) writes:

>Well, it finally happened.  No, really.  God actually spoke to me.
>I now really and truly believe in God.  What's more, I see the correctness
>of the Christian perspective!!!  God has explained it all to me.

[lengthy story omitted]

>I know I'm going to net.hell for posting this, but I really am not concerned.
>The point of this article is to show the "burning issue" of one's personal
>subjective experience of god for what it is.  A person who had the same
>experience I describe above offers nothing more and nothing less than any
>other equivalent subjective experience.  If you are offended by what I've
>said, perhaps some personal reflection is in order.  Of a more objective
>sort.  If you feel I've attacked your personal beliefs, so be it.  It is not
>any individual's personal beliefs being "attacked", but rather the nature
>of all such systems based on such beliefs.  If you take that personally,
>that's your problem, I'm not going to apologize for it.

Actually, Rich, I didn't really read your little story.  All your story
proves is that you can write fiction.  I can make up a story about anything
else in the universe too, but it doesn't make the true stories false.  And
by the way, your little satire upon christian experiences of God can only be
taken as an attack; since christianity seems to be a sore spot with you, why
didn't you talk about Allah instead?

Charley Wingate   umcp-cs!mangoe