Xref: utzoo soc.singles:12662 talk.religion.misc:4054 alt.flame:1195
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!ptsfa!pyramid!decwrl!ucbvax!rutgers!im4u!ut-sally!utah-cs!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!dale
From: dale@sp7040.UUCP (Dale Clark)
Newsgroups: soc.singles,talk.religion.misc,alt.flame
Subject: Re: Christmas parties
Summary: Christmas parties (Mark VandeWettering)
Message-ID: <209@sp7040.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 88 16:27:12 GMT
References: <8712231623.AA24882@decwrl.dec.com> <1340@vaxwaller.UUCP> <1393@uoregon.UUCP>
Organization: Unisys, Salt Lake City, UT
Lines: 41


	>Your arguments, if designed to convince Christians that they are
	>living a lie, are highly ineffective.  After all, religious
	>convictions are matters of FAITH, not of "secular evidence". 
	>How incredibly poor in FAITH is a man who will only believe what
	>is SHOWN to him, what is EXPLAINED to him, what cannot be denied.

I was not trying to convince anyone of anything (unlike many over zealous
Christians).  If I write an entire book then claim it to be the word of God,
nothing you can say to me will convince me it's wrong.  How can one possibly
argue with the word of God?  Tell me - what do you feel when you are
confronted with areas of your religion that certainly show contradiction or
weak claims?  Are you afraid that to dispute it would crumble your utopia?
The Bible says "prove all things, hold fast that which is good."  Do you just
smile, turn off your brain, form the 10,000-mile stare in your eyes and say,
"Well, some day all these things will be explained." - Bubba, you've got
a long wait in store for you - perhaps forever.

	>It is amazing to me how religious intolerance continues.  From
	>my point of view (a not particularly good Roman Catholic) there
	>is no doubt that Jesus was the real son of God.  What that
	>means?  I have no idea.

No doubt.  First, I wholeheartedly believe in freedom of religion, of speech,
etc.  I am not one for knocking churches in general.  I believe that if you
belong to and live the principles of most any religion, you're probably
going to be a pretty nice person.  I would never want to remove any of those
rights from anyone.  But what about my rights and my freedoms?  I don't
believe in God.  I don't try to force my opinions on anyone.  Does that make
me intrinsically evil?  Am I going to "burn in hell" for being a bad
disbeliever.  Do you believe God created me this way to spend eternity in a
scalding, painful hell?  That's ludicrous.  Can't you even consider the
possibility for one small objective moment that perhaps God does not exist?
If you are going to commit your life to something it's probably wise to
examine it from all viewpoints, and often.  If you can, then let's have
a thought-provoking discussion.  
-- 
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!{ihnp4!hpda!seismo!utah-cs!uplherc}!sp7040!dale
                                   "The agony of my soul found vent in one loud,
                                    long and final scream of despair."     --POE