<< Steven Carr quoted:
(Ian 3/29) Well, how do we know they really died? Surely their bodies
were
there but they knew that would happen. Their souls which were prisoners in
those bodies are still alive and well in a UFO. If I'd have been a computer
whiz I
could have gone with them. Think of how many Fundy-Maniacs I could have
made happy.>>
Steven CARR responded
You are right, of course. After all, if they were wrong what have they
lost? We
will all be as dead as them one day. But if they were right, then they have
already gained eternal life. Is this a gamble you are prepared to take?>>
IAN responded
(Ian 3/29) Steven, apparently you have not read any of my other postings. I
hardly consider it a gamble and if it is a gamble, it is a far better gamble
than
gambling on the existance of your angry, egotistical insane god. I have only
read
and studied the Penteteuch to come to this decicion and I have all but begged
various fundamentalists to tell me anything of value in these five books.
None
has taken me on. Would you care to?
DARREL 3/29
Ian, I think you have misunderstood Steven Carr's brilliant dark humor.
The sign that he puts at the end of most of his posts should have tipped you
off:
Steven Carr steven@bowness.demon.co.uk
Visit the UK's leading atheist Web page
http://www.bowness.demon.co.uk/
In his responses he is parodying two Christian "arguments". I liked his
two
parodies so much that I have put them together as follows and sent them off
to
friends:
Re: Heavens Gate
>>A reminder of what can happen to people who take superstition and wishful
thinking more seriously than known laws of physics and the proven fallacies
of
the Bible. >>
Steven Carr adapts two Christian arguments to the Heavens Gate cult
First, the "disciples wouldn't die for a lie":
CARR
"I wouldn't be too sure of that. Would these people have died for
something
they knew to be a lie? Clearly what they preached must have been true as
they
were willing to die for it. "
And then Pascal's Wager:
CARR
" ...After all, if they were wrong what have they lost? We will all be as
dead as
them one day. But if they were right, then they have already gained eternal
life.
Is this a gamble you are prepared to take?"
DAR
Let me also try a brief one. I'll call it the Dave Court argument:
a) Hey, you can't prove that there isn't a UFO hiding behind the Hale-Bopp
comet!
Or, "God of the Gaps"
b) We really don't know what is on the other side of the Hale-Bopp comet,
therefore....
And another, the "You have faith too!"
c) You have faith that there isn't a UFO behind that comet just as some
choose to have faith that there is one.
Not to pick on Dave in particular but... try inserting the idea of "UFO
behind
the comet" for "virgin" and "virgin birth" in the following:
"I cannot argue in support of the claim of a virgin birth - I have no
grounds to
do so." --Dave C. 2/27
"My belief in Christ being born to a virgin is, again, absolutely
"unprovable"
by me - it is a belief based on faith...." --Dave C. 2/28
"Do I believe it happened? [virgin birth] Yes. Absolutely. Can I explain
it or
understand how it happened? No." --Dave C. 3/10
As many have mentioned there are many similarities to between Xianty and
this Heaven's Gate group. Perhaps others can think of more examples.
Hey, do you think the leader of the Heaven's Gate group would be a Lord,
Liar
or Lunatic? After all, as Helen said:
Helen:
"I have explored their web site a little. Do, also, claimed to be the
Undercover "Jesus", incarnated here on earth again. I bet that doesn't
surprise anyone,..."
I wonder if Dave can prove that he wasn't.
cheers,
Darrel
-----------------------
"Ridicule? Well perhaps. I think it's more healthy to laugh at idiocy than to
get
angry at it." --Yoel W. 3/6