To: Eclectus who wrote (70469 ) 5/26/2001 10:44:09 PM From: E. Charters Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 116760 When God wrote the bible he was secure in this knowledge that most men would never become Archaeologists and anyway would never believe those who did. So in order to keep is simple and his sheep flocking in the right path, he cut some corners in the historical description. Those of us he knows have the wisdom to maintain the straight and narrow in the face of all the difficult realities of the world, he let know a bit more by their own discovery. He did this partly as a challenge to them and partly also a gift that man should learn to trust his own god-given powers of investigation and inference. It all depends on the bandwidth of the filter. Same signal, one could say, but a larger, more detailed picture. Actually I like the religions of the world that agree with everybody else's. And it is all subject to an individual's interpretation. and who are we to argue? When we came to this land the priests set about to tell the Indians about god. "Oh, you mean Gitchi Manitou (great spirit) they said. Yep we know him too!" For every story the priest would tell the Indian, he had one to tell the priest. Largely in the end they could see to agree with the priests as there was no argument, and they accepted Gitchi Manitou's book. Why not? Who else could have inspired it's writing? Gitchi Manitou was everywhere. When we meet beings from other planets and they ask us if we have been exposed to the fullness of the revelation, we had better keep it secret that in fact only we know the actual truth. Better to nod enthusiastically and say "Of course not, we have been waiting all these years to find someone who actually knows. Do tell." I have no trouble converting as long as it is obvious that our military technology that we have seen fit to let God tell us how to build is inferior to theirs. They must obviously in that case be further along the pathway to spiritual redemption through studious application of their divinely revealed powers. EC<:-}