.ll 72
.fo off
.co on
.ce ((Editor's comments in double parenthesis - Homer))

.ce ADR - 32
.ce

.ce Copyright (C) Homer Wilson Smith
.ce Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes

======================================================================== 116
Date:         Mon, 06 Mar 89 22:08:39 EST
From:         "Homer W. Smith" <CTM@CORNELLC>
Subject:      Re: Pranab
To:           Adore-l list <ADORE-L@UALTAVM>,
              Pranab <PRANAB@KSUVM>
In-Reply-To:  Message of Sun, 5 Mar 89 17:22:00 CST from <PRANAB@KSUVM>

>
>How the hell did you know what God thinks? Do you claim to be GOD himself?
>Don't fool yourself!

     Pranab is mad at me.

     He wrote me a very reasonable letter concerning a certain person
working for his PhD in mathematics.  This person could not understand
why Pranab did not think there was a God who controlled everything.

     When Pranab tried to explain the theory of evolution ala Darwin,
the math student apparently had never heard of it.

     I have myself run into a number of people who honestly think
that the world was made by God 6000 years ago to LOOK like it has
been here for billions and billions of years.  Since its virtual
age is its apparent scientific age of billions of years, there is
no physical evidence that it was made only 6000 years ago except
the evidence in the Bible which these people believe.

     I have asked these kind of people why God would make
a Universe with millions upon millions of light years of space
and time, with billions and billions of stars, galaxies and planets,
if the entire usable span of the Universe were going to be only
around 9000 years.  (3000 years from now it will all be over.)

     I also asked them if Heaven will be populated by only the few
people that could come from one planet as their view is there are
no other planets with life.

     Just what was God doing for all of Eternity before 6000 years ago?
Arn't we going to get bored as Hell living forever in Heaven with
only a finite number of people all from Earth, to meet?

     Are these fundamentalists even capable of conceiving a space
larger than a few thousand miles across?  Do the Iranians have
any clear concept of the percentage of land their country takes
up on Earth?  5 percent?  Someone tell me.

     I would have to agree with Pranab that these people that make
him so iritated are a bit hard to understand and even harder to
just let roam free, but then I had to post another question to him,
for which I have now obviously fallen out of his favor.

     Is it not possible that God/Gods created the Universe at the Big
Bang and have been letting it evolve ever since?  Maybe once in a long
while they tinker with the DNA but in general they leave it alone.

     At least this way Heaven could be populated by zillions and
zillions of spirits who have come from zillions of different worlds, and
if the Universe is cyclical, then there would be an infinite number of
possible inhabitants of that place.  (I hope they have different
bathrooms though for men and women.  And dark beer.)

     Further, even if this Universe is not Cyclical, but a one shot
deal, could there not be other Universes that God made before this one,
and ones to be made later?

     Could not spirits who did not make it to freedom at the end of this
Universe, be transfered to a new Universe to continue their Karma their
until they attain the awakened state?

     To further answers Pranab's charges, one does not have to BE God to
have had some direct experience with Him.  The assumption, and wrong it
is, is that no one knows anything for sure and all who claim they know
something are raving fanatics.  But THAT view is also of a raving
fanatical nature and enforces ignorance of God as a sign of wisdom,
because those that claim knowledge of God have become to be considered
unwise.

     So, Pranab, in a reasonable manner,

     'How the hell do I know what God thinks?'

     Well, God can let anyone know what He thinks if He feels like it,
No?  (If there is a God that is.)

     'Do you yourself claim to be God?'

     Have I claimed in any of my writings the be the one and only true
God of all People on Earth, or even a Messiah (Reluctant)?

     I do claim that if there is a God, we can know that and Him/Her/It.
If I have done such, it might be foolish for me to let anyone know, but
anyhow ADORE is a religion, and religious writings are written BEFORE
the research is done not after, so ADORE is certainly not a record of my
conversation with God.  It might be a record of a conversation with
myself, in that if there is going to be a God that I am to love and
ADORE, it will have to be God that knows no Blaspheme.

     Who am I to say what God is?  Who are you to say I can't?  I am me.
ADORE is the God/Universe/Religion that I could love.  In fact I refuse
to love any other.  So if it is not so, then that God will be lonely all
the rest of His days, because I certainly will not idolize Him.

     'Do not fool yourself.'

     Being a fool is what life is all about.  If there were no
foolishness, Divinity would reign everywhere.

     The biggest fool there is is one who thinks he is not a Fool and
not Divine at the same time.

     In fact Divinity and self imposed practical jokes are
what it is all about.  The Imp Soul.

 Homer W. Smith      Adore-l list         3/06/89*AVL NO. 1