Snake Challenge--A GUT-WRENCHING SCENARIO (slightly
off-topic)
Bruce Monson errancy@infidels.org
Tue, 20 Jul 1999 09:12:17 -0600 (00932501537, 1.5.4.32.19990720151217.006fa7c4@pop.pipeline.com)
At 02:03 AM 7/20/99 GMT, Lee Bowen wrote:
>
>
>
>>From: WBERNE@aol.com
>>Subject: Re: Snake Challenge--A GUT-WRENCHING SCENARIO (slightly off-topic)
>>Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 21:25:42 EDT
>>
>>In a message dated 99-07-19 14:45:18 EDT, you write:
>>
>><< If your "god" wanted to take these lives then what would be the
>>"benefit"
>>of
>> taking them under such tragic circumstances? Why not just have them die
>>in
>> their sleep with no pain, no suffering? If your god wanted to wipe out
>> every breathing thing on Earth except Noah and seven other family
>>members,
>> then why bother with some giant impossible flood? Why not just snap is
>>holy
>> fingers and cause the heart of every living creature to suddenly stop, or
>> just turn to vapor and disappear? When your grandfather or grandmother
>>has
>> a heart attack, Christians think nothing of suggesting that "God" had
>> "decided" it was "their time to go" and simply "gave them a heart attack"
>>to
>> accomplish this end. So why then is pain and suffering a necessary
>> infraction to the "big picture of God's will"? The answer is simple if
>>you
>> will only direct your common sense and critical thinking skills toward
>>your
>> religious beliefs in the same way you direct them in every other aspect
>>of
>> your daily lives.
>>
>> Yours in Truth,
>>
>> Bruce Monson
>>
>> >>
>>BERNE
>>
>>I have sympathy for your feeling, and would not want to find myself in your
>>position or in the position of those you are trying to help. I am not a
>>Christian, however I do have my own thoughts about why there is pain &
>>death.
>> I feel that death on earth is something that has to be so people can
>>learn
>>to respect their own lives and the lives of others, without the experience
>>of
>>death on earth people might not have the respect for life that they do have
>>(normal people that is).
>
>APOSTLE LEE
>Berne,
>This lesson has fallen on the 'deaf ears' of a lot of people. The pain and
>suffering is in the lives of those who live on, there are men that are now
>thirty years dead that I still keenly feel their loss. The really horrible
>part is unless you have experienced it; you can extrapolate, speculate, and
>empathize. But you still do not 'know.' In myself I have found a great
>compactly to care that took a war for me to find, I do not wish that
>learning curve on anybody.
>The lack of learning by mankind, I feel can be traced directly to the
>religions of our world. I truly believe that when religion is finally set in
>it's rightful place along side 'Mother Goose' and the other fairy tales our
>world will be a better place.
>Semper Fi
>Apostle Lee
BRUCE:
---> A lesson in death
THANK YOU! That was precisely my point; it's not the suffering of the dead
person but rather those who live with it afterwards. I happen to know that
death is not the same psychologically for the survivors. For one thing, the
younger the person who died the more painful it becomes for survivors.
Also, the manner of death makes for various degrees of psychological
"torture" for the survivors, e.g., if your 16 year-old daughter was killed
by an allergic reaction to a bee sting you would, of course, be agonized
with the loss. However, if your 16-year-old daughter was brutally raped and
murdered, your psychological torture will be forever amplified even though
your daughter is no more or less dead than after the bee sting.
---> The "evil" of Religion
In the conceit of his "religion," MAN has created the single most prevalent
catalyst to unceasing war, conflict, pillaging, rape, oppression and murder
the world has ever known. It was true 6,000 years ago, it is true today,
and it will be true 6,000 years from now.
Religion has "little" to do with God. Religion is about MAN in all his
weaknesses . . . excuses for his actions. Religion is about Money, Power
and most of all Control! Religion is not the antidote, it is the disease.
When the Christian "witness" offers you this wonderful "free gift of Christ"
they will sometimes use a piece of paper. They lay the paper on the table
and say, "the gift of Christ is free, all you have to do is pick it up!" I
like to turn this around and ask them, "Is there any 'punishment' against me
if I choose NOT to pick it up?" To this they, of course, must confess that
there is a penalty: "Eternal damnation in Hell!" To this I respond, "Oh, is
that all?" and then conclude with, "well I guess that means you LIED to me
when you offered me this 'free gift of Christ' because it ceased to be FREE
when you placed a penalty on failure to accept the gift."
Yours in Truth,
Bruce Monson
Bruce Monson