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

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Date:         Wed, 08 Mar 89 00:37:17 EST
From:         "Homer W. Smith" <CTM@CORNELLC>
To:           Adore-l list <ADORE-L@UALTAVM>
In-Reply-To:  Message of Tue, 7 Mar 89 20:39:43 CDT from <UWC6NTG@UICVMC>

>   Simcha answered immediately: "What makes you think God gives a damn
>about you or what you think? Where do you get off even imagining that
>he's listening to you? Don't you think he has better things to do than
>worry about a miserable piece-of-shit human being?"

     I presume that this posting was a serious one, sometimes I can
not tell the sarcasm through the slime.  So I will take it at face
value and answer it as such.

     When they tell you that faith can move mountains, this does
not mean you ask God to move the mountain for you.  Especially you
do not ask God to do it in order to prove to you that He exists.
This is called tempting the Lord and is warned against in the Bible.

     WHY it is warned against is a very good question that needs
an answer.  Certainly not some Fundamentalist slough off.

     Further it may not be FAITH that moves mountains.  In the first
place if it IS faith that moves mountains it certainly is not faith
in God's existance or Love.  If anything it is Faith in oneself.

     But you see no one wants the ability to move mountains by
their little ole lonesome, think of the blame that would come
your way.  So everyone wants God to do it for them.

     In any case it is not faith that moves mountains.  It is
responsibility.  He who made the Beast can approach unto it.

     The secret is you can TAKE responsibility for anything,
regardless of who made it.  Then you can handle it or get rid
of it.

     But people understand taking responsibility to mean BLAME.
Thus they rarely make it work.

     The statement that God has got better things to do than
to pay attention to a piece of shit human like you, is ridiculous.

     We are all future Gods, and in fact it is that very Divinity
growing within us that makes it impossible for God or any other spirit
to just manifest themselves in our space with magic or materializations
or any such thing.  It would scare the Jesus out of all of us, it would
violate our spiritual space, and in fact we are refusing such a thing
most of the time.  (Spirits don't mind other spirits, but BODIES HATE
them!  Scares the daylights out of a body it does.)

     The questions 'Why does not God prove that He exists' is a valid
one and has an answer if He does exist.  Most people feel that God is
demanding things of them all the time and so feel resentful when they
can not get God to prove to them that He exists.  But it is very like a
person who can see perfectly clearly shutting his eyes and demanding
that you prove it is daylight outside.  The person is closing his own
eyes.

     Yes God might be able to open them, but you would not be pleased.

     Other people go around with their eyes very tightly shut saying
they have FAITH in God and don't NEED to have proof.  Well their eyes
are very tightly shut and that is all that needs to be said about them.
Faith is not certainty.

     If you want to know if God exists, LOOK HIM IN THE EYE, if you
dare.

     Then report back to me, so I don't have to do it myself.

     Where DO I get all this stuff, anyhow?

 Homer W. Smith      Adore-l list         3/08/89 No subject