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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Machaon who wrote (38379)	9/20/2000 2:31:27 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 769667

Well, let's see. In Deism, to which Jefferson and Paine subscribed, God set things in motion, and was responsible for the natural order, but did not miraculously intervene. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Problem of Evil is no greater because of the enormity of the murders than it is when a child falls ill and dies of leukemia. In fact, in some ways the Holocaust is easier because it directly involves free-will, which is the means through which evil was introduced into the world. When a child falls ill and dies, that is when one has to fight against despair. The common explanation is those faiths, at least in their traditional versions, is two-fold: the universe has been disrupted by the fact of rebellion, first among the angels, then among men, and therefore is no longer perfect, but fragile and subject to disease and disruption. However, free- will is sufficiently important an element of God's plan that it is worth the travail. The second element is the supposition, not that this life doesn't matter, but that the ultimate fate of the soul matters more. Neither thing makes it right that terrible things happen to people. It just says that is not the whole story. In Christianity, it is supposed that God sacrificed His Son, who was one facet of Himself, to satisfy the demands of justice, and rescue souls. Since only a perfect sacrifice could take on the burden for the whole world, He had to send the Son. Whether or not you find the rationale satisfactory, it is not arbitrary. It assumes that God's justice is as important as His mercy, and that the evil of the world cannot be entirely written off.......... One might dispute whether early term abortion is murder, but late term abortion, when the baby is fully formed, and especially a procedure such as partial birth abortion, is certainly murder. You are either disingenuous, or intellectually incompetent......