================================================ Subject: Re: About all of this religious talk.... From: "Tara" To: Date: Fri 11 May 2001 09:27:58 -0400 ================================================ I don't know if I've clearly stated this or not in prior posts... but I am neither atheist nor Christian. I don't know if I believe in God (or at least a higher power) or not, but I don't disbelieve it either. I still have many unanswered questions about the Bible, and about a lot of aspects of different religions that seem to contradict themselves. The way I see it is this: If there's a God, the human race are supposed to be God's children, right? So, I take a look at my own children. Would I send them to hell because they don't always make the right decisions? Hell no!!! (Pun intended). Would I kick them out of my house (or the Garden of Eden) because they got curious and got into something I specifically told them not to? No again. Would I expect them to "tithe" to me, and give me a percentage of their earnings when they're adults? Nope, though I hope they'll take good care of me in my old age if I can't do it myself. That line of thought continues a lot further, but I know a lot of people are sick of the religious discussion. Different people who believe in God have different ideas of what exactly God is and how he behaves. In my opinion, if there is a God, he should be like the most perfect parent ever imaginable. I think most of the parents on here would agree that you love your children no matter what. You might get mad at them for misbehaving, you might be angry because they make wrong decisions... but you're not going to stop loving them, and you're not going to want eternal damnation for them just because they're not perfect. So, if there is a God who created us, I don't see how he could inflict long-term punishment on us for screwing up. Being that he's supposed to be omnipotent, I don't understand why he would create imperfect children to begin with... I don't believe in genetically altering DNA to make "wonder babies", but only because it would greatly divide the human race even more into the haves and the have-nots. If I were the mother of all creation, I don't think I would have created anything that would lead to pain, suffering, evil, etc... at least not on purpose. And if I accidentally created something negative... well, then I wouldn't be omnipotent then, would I? From what I understand, God isn't supposed to be able to make mistakes, supposed to be all loving, all forgiving, and so on... but again, different views - because people also say he's a vengeful god, a jealous god, and all that. Makes it all rather confusing for those of us who don't know what they believe in. In the philosphy class I took, we covered philosophy of religion... and one of the ideas that popped up was that maybe this was a "practice world"... a rough draft before the perfect world was created. Make Earth, work out all the bugs, see what works well and what should be excluded from the final draft... and then go off, leaving the rough draft behind, and make that perfect world somewhere else. Whether you believe it or not, I think it's a very interesting idea. Long enough ramble for everyone? lol If anyone on here wants to respond to me or try to answer any of my questions, I'd love to discuss this further... e-mail me privately if you want to. Tara To unsubscribe or change your preferences for the Creed-Discuss list, visit: http://www.winduplist.com/ls/discuss/form.asp