PE writes:
What would you have the voice do to convince you?
The problem that I have with the Christian god is that he is too lazy to come up with his own creation myths and chosen people myths. Same with the Moslem god. Not that I don't respect good, wholesome laziness, but those really nasty hebrew laws in the OT can be downright dangerous. Suppose an honest and kind man named Fred is reading the OT and is moved by the Lord's words in the middle of reading Genesis, and becomes devoutly inspired by the bible. Fred's belief becomes so overwhelming that when he spots his neighbor out gathering firewood on the Sabbath, he runs out and stones the poor sucker to death, as commanded by god. Well, imagine his chagrin when he finally gets to the New Testament, and finds out that law that he faithfully fullfilled by honoring the Lord's convenant with Moses, has been changed. Who does he sue for not having a disclaimer at the front of the bible? And why in heavens name are the 'real' laws at the
back of the bible? But I digress.
Your question, I believe, can only be answered by god himself. Look at what it took to convince the pharoah of Egypt to let the Jews go. Is the man an idiot? Of course not, his heart was 'steeled' by god so that Moses and Aaron could plague Egypt almost out of existence (so the story goes, anyway). Evidently, god needed to show that the size of his penis was bigger than the other gods, and so instead of just 'un-steeling' the pharoah's heart about letting the Hebrew people leave Egypt, he needed to first devastate the entire nation, kill off the first born child of every non-Hebrew family in Egypt (what, he couldn't figure out who to kill without bloodstained doors?), and then massacre the entire army. I would say that this is slightly more than just a jealous god. And why would the god of the New Testament (the prince of peace) suddenly throw out most of the old covenants and laws that he made with the chosen few, and then decide the chosen few now includes everyone? But I digress (again).
While it really wouldn't take much to convince me, and assuming that god didn't steel my heart, I hope I would have enough fortitude to verify any miraculous evidence. I am partial to Math, so if a hidden message becomes revealed in the calculation of pi (l Carl Sagan), that is all that it would take. Or, a few minutes of intellectual conversation with Norma Jean.
And I don't care if it is satan or god. If it is satan doing the miracle, then the Christian god is thereby demonstrated, and at that point, I would just have to be judged for my goodness and integrity, because it would be too late to change allegiances.
This message has been edited by mogur, 05-16-2004 01:30 PM
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