Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!ANDREW!PC1Y+ From: pc1y+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Peter Capell) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia Subject: Re: Buddha, 700 Club, etc., etc. Message-ID: Date: 9 Feb 90 18:06:44 GMT References: Sender: Practical Christian Life Reply-To: Practical Christian Life Lines: 49 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM Gateway In-Reply-To: Yes Mr. PDB (Whomever you are), you understand my perspectives and beliefs completely. Re: the Father -- did it ever occur to you that Jesus was using metaphor. While I do believe that God can choose to appear to us in any form He likes (burning bushes, people, angels, Jesus, Buddha, your rear view mirror), His true essence is without form. Jesus used the Father, to describe a way of relating to God (I believe), and that one may also look upon God as one's friend if one likes. Re: Christ force -- Are you being sarcastic with me Michael? Sounds a little too much like Star Wars to me. Re: Hindus and Moslems -- I think it is highly presumptuous to say that the followers of a religion (Islam) whose numbers dwarf those of Christians worldwide has left them feeling a "void." This is clearly wrong. Of course they have their dogma which says the same of you. I wonder, when you pull out of the hat, examples of the failures of Hinduism and Islam, do you also consider the Spanish Inquisition, and other such lovely episodes in Christian history. Or do you somehow excuse them. Hitler's Germany was composed mostly of Lutherans and Catholics, and those Christians saw fit to torture and annihilate 6 million Jews. Was this the will of Christ? The pot is calling the kettle black. There are great examples of God's power and love in Hinduism, in Islam, in Zorastrianism, and in Buudhism. I am not saying one must be a little of each, I am saying that to the extent one is one in Christ, one is in tune with the core objectives of each of those religions. Clearly my perspective is beyond you, and I don't intend to continue bumping against your beliefs here much longer. I am not saying that you are exactly wrong -- how can one go wrong in Christ, on the other hand, you are not right either, and my only recommendation was that you not attempt "to remove the mote from you brother's eye" until you have removed the beam from your own. But of course you can always retreat to the position that the forces of evil use scripture too. Well if I am a force of evil, then you're an elephant.