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To: Dimensio
"To which particular God were you denying? Thousands have been proposed throughout human history, so it's hard to tell which is being referenced during any conversation."

Actually, that's a misunderstanding. It is not the case that "thousands have been proposed."

Here's a brief quotation from "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis:

"When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others – not because He has favourites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favourites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.

"You can put this another way by saying that while in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself (things like microscopes and telescopes), the instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred - like the Moon seen through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have horrible religions: they have been looking at God through a dirty lens."

What we have is not a thousand different gods proposed, but a thousand different attempts to discern the nature of the only God that exists.

Some of these were better tries than others, some searchers were deceived by Satan or other malign spirits that wander the world seeking the ruin of men's souls.

But all those tries were attempts to fill that great, gaping God-shaped hole we have in our hearts until we find Him.

These days, of course, people try to fill that hole with sexual adventure or material success, or they just write it off to existential angst and resign themselves to unhappiness.

Doesn't work. Better a good religion than a bad religion, but better a bad religion than no religion at all.
22 posted on 03/15/2004 6:31:42 AM PST by dsc
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To: dsc
Actually, that's a misunderstanding. It is not the case that "thousands have been proposed."

Not true. I can get "thousands" just by talking to the right Hindu. I can get definitions of gods with contradictory properties. You might think of the various proposals as a single God with different attempts to describe its nature, but I can't reconcile the claim that "God loves all humans equally, and is blind to race" with "God loves whites more than blacks, and does not want the races to mix" (note: I'm not suggesting that anyone on FR holds a belief in the latter. Well, there might have been one guy, but just him).

Nice CS Lewis quote, though. He claims that you have to view God through the right mental filter. He does not, however propose (within the context of the quote) a means for discerning when you have found the right perception of God.

Some of these were better tries than others,

And how is someone like me, who lacks belief in all propsed gods, to discern which is a "better try" than another?

some searchers were deceived by Satan or other malign spirits that wander the world seeking the ruin of men's souls.

You've now just proposed two new sets, a "Satan" and "malign spirits". Why should I give this claim any more credibility than I give a "God" claim?

But all those tries were attempts to fill that great, gaping God-shaped hole we have in our hearts until we find Him.

God-shaped hole? What is this? How can it be detected?

These days, of course, people try to fill that hole with sexual adventure or material success, or they just write it off to existential angst and resign themselves to unhappiness.

Interesting. I've never been terribly interested in "sexual adventure" (I've always thought that non-monagamous lifestyles cheapen the experience of sex overall) and while I sometimes experience periods of angst, I suspect that everyone else does as well and the angst hardly defines my life, or even a majority of it.

Doesn't work. Better a good religion than a bad religion, but better a bad religion than no religion at all.

I do hope that you're not trying to imply that it would be better for me to be a militant Fundamentalist Muslim than an atheist.
23 posted on 03/15/2004 9:39:54 AM PST by Dimensio (I gave you LIFE! I -- AAAAAAAAH!)
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