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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: The Damager God: Another fool rushes in
Message-ID: <2015@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 23:37:03 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.2015
Posted: Mon Oct 28 23:37:03 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Nov-85 00:40:00 EST
References: <390@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
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I'm going to look down from my whirlwind (it's what I use to trash
net.philosophy :-) and speak on this issue.  This has a fair chance of being
my only posting on this subject, and I am going to be a bit flamy here.  The
reason for that latter should become apparent.

Mr. Zimmerman (like Tim Maroney before him) would use the scriptures to
accuse God.  God has done all these horrible things, and therefore he must
be evil.

It's not like this has not been thought of before.  Anyone who aspires to
deal with the whole question of God's permission (and even apparent
encouragement) of evil has to read the book of Job before they dare speak.
The LORD's reply to Job is quite relevant to Mr. Zimmerman's arguments too,
and so I freely acknowledge my debts to this book.

Mr. Zimmerman's position is built upon a bedrock of pride.  This is a man
who believes he understands the purpose behind every action of a being of 
whose nature he knows nothing.  Have you, Mr. Zimmerman, measured the hand
of God?  Do you know the reach of his gaze?  The length of his memory?  Can
you comprehend what it is to stand out of time, to be omnipotent,
all-seeing, all-knowing?

Not content with one sin of pride, hew must compound it with another.  He
would judge the LORD as a man.  Would you judge a man as a dog?  A dog as a
snail?  An infant as an adult?  What is death to one who can raise from the
dead?  What is blindness to one who restores sight?  Even Jesus, God of God,
would not presume to judge the Father.

Not content with that great hubris, he goes on to claim knowledge of the
very purpose of the universe, revealed to him alone.  Not even the Buddha
had the gall to claim to know why life was suffering.

Mr. Zimmerman, I have suffered.  I have been carried out into the land of
the mystics and brought directly to God.  I have walked through great
valleys of silence.  God is Good.  To one who has been there, there can be
no other knowledge.  I am not so proud as to claim to know why God does
these things.  Maybe in the next life you will have a reason to curse God to
his face, rather than taunt his silence.

C Wingate