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From: jnelson@trwrba.UUCP (John T. Nelson)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Sargent on reality vs. illusion, etc.
Message-ID: <998@trwrba.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Oct-84 17:46:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwrba.998
Posted: Thu Oct  4 17:46:28 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 02:30:17 EDT
References: <4011@tekecs.UUCP>, <499@ames.UUCP> <1138@pucc-h>, <1123@pyuxn.UUCP>, <1215@pucc-h>, <970@trwrba.UUCRe: Sargent on reality vs. iThu, 4-Oct-84 14:46:28 PDT
Organization: TRW EDS, Redondo Beach, CA
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	There is of course the empty tomb near Jerusalem.

Purely circumstantial evidence ;-)

	No one has yet backed up the claim that physical evidence is
	the BEST or the only valid convincer.  Why this urge to view
	human beings -- those wonderful, ambiguous, irreproducible [in
	the laboratory sense, obviously] creatures -- as no more than
	lab specimens?

Because it offers just one more avenue of exploration... as does
faith.  Alternate views keep our thoughts from becoming incestuous
(and thus dependent upon the individual, not reality).

	There is no physical evidence that God does not exist.

I am the first to agree.  On the other hand, many people have embraced
creation science as a means by which they can make physical evidence for
their beliefs.

> I thought Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden because of their
> search for the knowledge of good and evil.  If this is the root of man's
> sinfulness and fallen state, then surely the search for knowledge is not
> a good thing....

	Knowledge of good and evil is not the same as knowledge of facts about
	the world.

I consider them to be the same.  Truth is truth.

	Nothing wrong with questioning.  "Keep seeking, and you shall
	find; keep asking, and you shall receive; keep knocking, and
	the door will be opened to you."  Of course God would like His
	creations to know more about Him.  Some are so constructed as
	to naturally have simple, strong, readily functioning faith;
	this actually is probably the best way to God's blessings

One could call this blind faith... not a healthy thing in my book.
The questioning of Tim Maroney and others has a positive value when
trying to find the true nature of God, otherwise our thoughts would
indeed become incestuous...


		Look folks, I can take more of this than you can!
		- John