Subject:
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Re: Goodness of Man? (was: Re: Merry Christmas from the Libertarian Party
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 3 Jan 2000 00:54:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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1468 times
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Jasper Janssen wrote in message <389ab7c6.963900110@lugnet.com>...
> On Sat, 1 Jan 2000 19:20:13 GMT, "John DiRienzo"
> <ig88888888@stlnet.com> wrote:
> > Jasper Janssen wrote in message <38850a4f.919486838@lugnet.com>...
> > > On Fri, 31 Dec 1999 19:21:12 GMT, John Neal <johnneal@uswest.net>
> > > wrote:
>
> > I take back what I said. I think Larry could tell you his objective
> > definition of good, which I agree with. I will try myself. • Life-affirming
> > = good. Perhaps God has a better definition of good than that, but I
> > haven't heard from him.
>
> You need some qualifiers, or you'd better drop dead now in order to
> avoid your immune system killing any bacteria, yourself from
> swallowing one-celled creatures and eating and drinking, and to
> provide a fertile bredding ground for maggots and funghi (which are
> all life as well, and in much greater numbers than you...)
Search this group for 22/7 - read some of my earliest posts, then follow
the thread if you wish.
> > I guess he could not create other gods (weird, since he is omnipotent • and
> > all - maybe he just doesn't want the competition; he likes his monopoly!),
>
> If I were immortal, and a god (see other discussion), I think I would
> become bored very very quickly (ie, a few billion years, I'd a had
> it).
OK, what if you were a dinosaur? I don't think that makes much
difference what you think you'd feel, because you just don't know.
> > so he created lesser beings. He lets us know pain, so that we might know
> > pleasure. He lets us sin, so that we may know his mercy. (a little
> > plagiarized, sorry Bill). Perhaps we are an ant farm and he wants to see
> > what we do with the tools he has given us.
>
> The last is actually the most likely, IMO, if anything.
They were all illustrations. I should have stated that. These are
things I've heard that stuck with me, whether they are correct or not, I
don't know. There are many ways to rationalize the God's behaviour if need
be. If you haven't noticed that, look at all the religions.
> If there is a god, though, I don't think he would be omnipotent
> (mostly because the very definition of omnipotent is a logical
> contradiction).
I don't find much of anything re: God logical or uncontradictory. I am
less than the it, I am inferior to it, so I don't try to understand it. I
am just as capable as any other man, but there is something greater, that I
am less than. It is one of the mysteries (see dinosaur above) I doubt will
ever be solved, and I am not ~that much~ of a detective. I don't want to
be. I don't need to be.
> > > But since there is no divine guidance, only the
> > > blind-leading-the-blind kind, what exactly are we supposed to do?
> >
> > Seek divine guidance?
>
> Which isn't forthcoming, unfortunately.
> > Seek inner truth? Seek Good? Seek Perfection?
>
> Absolutely.
Ahh. But why seek perfection - you can not achieve it. Its as futile as
seeking divine guidance. But still some of us do. Its a goal, a
destination, maybe that we aim for, not that there is necessarily a chance
of reaching it.
> > Not everyone is blind, and not everyone has to agree. It would be a lot
> > easier, if He exists, if He just told us what to do (and maybe he does, • but
> > we're deaf). But like life is not fair and is harsh, it is also not easy.
>
> I'm not sure that absolute good, as defined by the supreme being,
> exists, but if it does, it's quite possibly not what we or anyone else
> thinks it is. Therefore whether it exists or not is meaningless.
Perhaps it is meaningless for you, for now. Change is constant...
Be open to it and don't give up.
> Jasper
--
Have fun!
John
The Legos you've been dreaming of...
http://www114.pair.com/ig88/lego
my weird Lego site:
http://www114.pair.com/ig88/
"Censorship is yet another tool in the dumbing-down of America
by a power structure that relies on a populace too lazy or ignorant
to think independently." -Vanessa McGrady
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