[geeks] Re: [rescue] It's official, the U.S. is screwedfor4 more years

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 15:36:40 -0500
  Phil Stracchino <alaric at caerllewys.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 03:17:47PM -0500, Michael Horton 
>wrote:
> That, IMHO, is wa whacked as Islam's idea that you go 
>directly to
> paradise if you die fighting the infidel, regardless of 
>anything else
> you may have done.

Don't they also get 70 virgins or some ridiculous number 
like that. Imagine 70 pissed of women at the same time, 
that sounds more like hell than heaven in my book.

The sad part is that Islam in its beginings was a 
relatively liberal religion, as per usual theory and 
implementation are quite different.


> So ....  God loves his chosen people, but forbids them 
>to defend
> themselves against persecution?

The theory behind this, as a recovering Christian, is that 
only god has the ultimate power (i.e. life and death) and 
taking someone's life is stealing god's abilities since 
he/she is the only one who can create life AND destroy it. 
We just rent our bodies for the time being if you wanna 
think of it that way. As per usual the bible can be 
interpreted to basically support any position you want 
(that is one of my main beefs with using a book with 
serious continuity problems as a moral guide). The whole 
notion of christianity is the duality of heaven/hell and 
our earthly existance being nothing more than a testing 
ground to see where you are supposed to go when you die. 
What the ultimate purpose of that is, it is really beyond 
me... but it is a neat way of having a carrot at the end 
of the stick if you ask me.

> 
> See, it's things like this that are one of the reasons 
>I've never been
> able to accept the basic ideas of Christianity.  If God 
>exists, and the
> Bible is an accurate rendering of his acts, intentions 
>and grand design,
> then the old guy's got to be crazier than a fruitbat.

Maybe he is a she, who knows... but the problem is that 
God is not there talking to us directly... which should 
not be much of a problem if he/she is trully omnipotent so 
I do not think that a five minutes chat from him/her would 
be much of a bother (Hello there, I am god... and this is 
what I want, and voila). The problem is the people who 
tell us what god "wants" because he/she talks to them and 
we must take their word for it. And as per usual, religion 
IMHO is just an evolutionary mechanism to keep large 
masses of humans in check. Which may be a good thing for 
the overall benefit of the species, hence its evolutionary 
introduction.

Of course there is the possiblity that if God does indeed 
exist, that maybe he is crazier than a fruitbar... that is 
always a possibility that should be contemplated. I always 
enjoyed the theodicy paradox regarding god and the 
possibilities it opens.

However after the last election, my first question was 
"OK, who stepped on the butterfly" As a reference to the 
Sound of Thunder short story...

I appreciate the calm discussion in this group, and some 
of the points are rather interesting.