Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gymble.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!gymble!bennet From: bennet@gymble.UUCP (Tom Bennet) Newsgroups: net.religion,net.religion.christian Subject: Re: QUESTIONS FROM A FRIEND Message-ID: <109@gymble.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Mar-85 03:57:38 EST Article-I.D.: gymble.109 Posted: Mon Mar 4 03:57:38 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 04:19:16 EST Distribution: net Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD Lines: 77 Xref: watmath net.religion:5865 net.religion.christian:357 >From hua@cmu-cs-gandalf.ARPA (Ernest Hua) Tue Feb 26 20:01:53 1985 >Subject: QUESTIONS FROM A FRIEND >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- >God supposedly sent his only son, Jesus, to die for man's sins. Why? >If god is omnipotent, he could have just forgiven us. Why "kill" his >son? But Jesus really didn't die. He went to heaven, which is better >than being on earth. Then what was God so upset about? I'm not sure I quite follow what you mean. God is upset by sin, and would be so if Christ died or not. God is angry at the killing of Jesus because it was murder, regardless of what good resulted. >It seems God was making a sacrifice. To whom? Himself? Huh? Is there >a more powerful being? If so, God can't be omnipotent. To himself. Strange-sounding stuff like this is one reason for having the doctrine of the trinity. The basic idea is that God wanted a perfect sacrifice for sin, but of course, only he himself could come up with one. This perfect sacrifice was God's gift to man. >If God is omniscient, he knows what I'm thinking and what I will do. >Therefore, I don't have freedom of choice. If at some point in my life >I will have to choose between a or b, God knows I will pick "a". Therefore >I can't pick b. But yet he gets upset at people's choices, even though >he knows they had no alternative. > >The only way out of this is if God doesn't know absolutely everything. >Therefore, he isn't omniscient. Since omniscience is a power, he can't >be omnipotent. The problem with this argument is that it assumes that God is locked in time as we are; God is omnipresent in time. For this reason, God's knowledge (now) of your actions (future), are not really separated in time from his perspective. Granted it sounds a little odd, but that is because we _are_ locked in time. Try thinking about it a while. >Some christians believe people make a choice whether or not to believe in >God. Bull. I could no more decide to believe in God or Christ than you >could decide not too. (Try it. Just not believe in God for a minute or so >and then switch back. Maybe then you'll be a born again christian). A person changes their beliefs about anything only after becomming con- vinced of a different position. When this takes place, there is a conscience decision to accept the new evidence. I agree that such a choice cannot be made arbitrarily. Christians who expect people to change their minds about things must give them good cause to do so. >What really pisses me off is when some christians (read Jerry Falwell and >the like) say that christians are happier and more content than people of >other religions. How can they know? They must ask people who have been >both. Either they ask people who were x and switched to christianity, or >visa versa. I think we can deduce which method was used. What ninnies! >Do they seriously think they are getting an unbiased opinion? Which side should they get the unbiased opinion from? :-) Actually, which religion makes people the happiest is really irrelevant: true religion is following God, and if he says to do things that make you miserable, you'd better do them. In the case of Christianity, we see God as loving, so he would not deliberately make his people miserable, yet I think we also see that God's concern is for the redemption of the Creation, hence he sometimes calls on believers to sacrifice and perhaps be less happy. Bottom line: who's happiest doesn't mean much, and Christians should not expect to be. >Comments, anyone? No, I refuse to say anything. >Chris Larsen at CMU >CL1C@CMU-CC-TD [BITNET] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Bennet @ University of Maryland ihnp4!seismo!umcp-cs!bennet