Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: God's Will Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 90 09:39:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 31 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Dave Mielke writes: > You gave a number of other reasons, but I suspect that I need not > respond to all of them in order to illustrate the point of view which I > believe God teaches. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that all things work > together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called > according to {his} purpose.". Dave, I don't think that anyone is arguing with you about whether it is good or not to try and carry out God's will. The prolem is that you have not provided a useful means of identifying what is and what not God's will. Even if I agreed entirely with your inerrantist beliefs with regard to scripture, I could not apply the contents of your postings to my life. You say that if God wills a child to have birth defects, or a mother's health to be endangered by pregnancy, then that is the will of God. Why then is it not the will of God for a child to get polio, or small pox? Why is it acceptable to use our medical skills to prevent these problems, and yet we cannot use those same medical skills to prevent illness or injury by preventing conception? Where in scripture does it list what matters are to be regarded as entirely in the province of the divine, and those in which we humans may take an active part? Is the weather in the hands of God? If so is it immoral to ``seed clouds'' or even to attempt to predict the weather so that we may take preventative action? Terry Coatta Dept. of Computer Science, UBC, Vancouver BC, Canada coatta@cs.ubc.ca `What I lack in intelligence, I more than compensate for with stupidity'