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From: davet@oakhill.UUCP (Dave Trissel)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: How come God doesn't affect Dave?
Message-ID: <521@oakhill.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Sep-85 12:24:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: oakhill.521
Posted: Sat Sep  7 12:24:32 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Sep-85 03:15:10 EDT
References: <305@pyuxn.UUCP> <630@ihu1m.UUCP> <309@pyuxn.UUCP>
Reply-To: davet@oakhill.UUCP (Dave Trissel)
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx
Lines: 79
Xref: watmath net.religion:7564 net.religion.christian:1242

In article <326@pyuxn.UUCP> pez@pyuxn.UUCP (Paul Zimmerman) writes:

>               ...                                 But I also recognize that
>while I continue to live there is an evil pig monster Damager-God who enjoys
>harming people and making mincemeat of out efforts to build and create.

>I go skydiving, I do so realizing that God could do me harm at any moment.
>Why do I do it? Because by beating Him at His own game, by taking the
>necessary precautions and the extra care to watch out for His meddling
>interference, I gain a modicum of pride and satisfaction in showing the
>Damager-God that He is not so all powerful as He would like His sheep to
>believe.

You bring up an interesting idea here - that Damager-God is very evil but
he is not very powerful.  Why wouldn't the D-God cause you to break a finger
each time you jumped?  I presume you like to skydive and knowing you would
break a finger every time should make D-God really chuckle.  But it would seem
he is too weak to do something like that so why fear a harmless D-God?

>       I don't mean to call you a liar, Dave, but no one has lived a life
>of sufficient length and not experienced tragedy or suffering.  When you
>say that no such things have ever befallen you, I have to question your
>claim that you've had ``a really great time for most all of [your] life.''

Of course I have had a few times in life when I have experienced tragedy. But
these few times pale in comparison to the great amount of enjoyment I get out
of life. I am well paid at work, generally work my
own hours, take weekend trips to wherever     (Las Vegus this month), play
with my Macintosh at home, eat wherever I want -
pretty good life if you ask me.  Sure, once a month I may have a headache or
my tasks at work are often things I don't like doing, but these minor things
don't amount to the tragedy or suffering you are indicating.

>I must admit I admire the way you speak in defiance of Him, as if daring Him
>to slit your throat as you speak. I hope you realize that for Him to do
>something horrible to someone who speaks out vocally against Him may be seen
>as proof of His evil, even to the most sheepish of His followers.  For this
>reason, I believe He will purposely not do this sort of thing, thus not only
>preventing this sort of defection but also appearing to discredit people who
>speak out against Him in the process.

I don't agree here.  Horrible things do happen to someone every day, take
the latest spate of air crashes.  If such things don't convince followers
of D-God then why should D-God be afraid to zap me?  Certainly my absence on
the net isn't going to start making them suspicious. Here you are talking
openly about D-God on the net.  If your death in an accident were reported
tomorrow on the net do you think that would convince anyone of D-God?  I don't
think so.

Thus, if D-God is real he/she/it could harm me as much as desired and it won't
change the "followers" position.  Thus, why doesn't D-God harm me? I submit
that there is no D-God, or that if there is it is so weak that it can't do
anything more powerful than make me do a boring task at work.  If the latter
is true then by definition D-God is not a God but more like a gremlin.

>       I find it upsetting that so many people like Dan Boscovich and
>now Dave Trissel must find some ``flaw'' in my character or personality to
>account for my beliefs about God.

It's only natural to try to understand why someone believes something.  Since
I don't find your arguments for this evil God very compelling (e.g. I can
easily picture a MUCH less atractive world for myself yet it isn't happening)
my only recourse is to try to see why you would want to suggest such a thing
to begin with.  Thus, the feeble personality trait guessing.

>In my
>heart, I know it is the work of the evil God damaging their minds that causes
>this sort of thing.

In other words it's wrong for people to try to understand why you hold such
a radical view but correct for you to think their minds are being controlled.

If you could just answer the following simple question I would be glad to
further consider your D-God theory, and if not I don't think it's worth much:

  Since I can picture a MUCH less enjoyable world for myself, why is it that
  I enjoy my life so much?  Why isn't the Damager God making it miserable?

  -- Dave Trissel         {ihnp4,seismo}!ut-sally!oakhill!davet