Thank you Mark Silvers, for correcting me. I tread on dangerous ground in classifying others' positions. Looks like I stepped on a land mine. I meant no insult to you or Sam, and sincerely apologize if I gave offence.
I've gathered from your posts that you're a gentle agnostic. Sam wrote: "Believe in a God if you will... Have a religion if you desire." I took that Sam excludes himself from these beliefs. Clearly he disagrees with the Bible.
I've met both atheists and agnostics with high standards of morality, and understand the offended sense of justice which demands: If God exists, why the holocaust? why are deformed babies born? Why is half the earth in undescribable poverty? A survivor of the camps said: "If you could lick my heart it would poison you." Christendom teaches that these horrors shall be capitalized by an immeasurably greater eternal horror...hell!
God must answer for Himself. At Isaiah 45:11 Jehovah invites us to command Him for answers. Christendom has not done so satisfactorily. Over the coffin of every raped and murdered child ministers intone: "God wanted another angel."
The answers I've found in a lifetime of study, reflection and testing are simple, satisfying and optimistic, and I'm dedicated to sharing the good news of a Kingdom which shall uphold "justice and righteousness henceforth, even for ever" wherein the slaughtered innocents, however ignorant, shall be resurrected to a restored Eden in which "the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isa 9:6 65:17
Mark, I would consider it a favor if you define your beliefs about God, and any benefits for mankind. For my enlightenment, not debate.
Don |
