David:
You wrote:
“I have been besmirching his name for almost all my life, and he has done nothing. He is a detestable coward. The best he can do is cajole his mindless minions into casting threats at me on his behalf. He knows that in face to face confrontation with me I will make him look like the fool that he has always proven to be. He knows that it is better for him to let me blaspheme than to face me and look weak and inept. What an easy way out for him and his followers--”He will get you when you are dead!”
Dude.
Let’s step back and look at this.
First off, let’s draw 3 possible conclusions as to the existence of God.
1. There is no God.
2. These is a God, and he is the anthropomorphic being who you have apparently declared war upon.
3. There is a God, and he is a being of Love and Mercy. A being of whom the entire universe is only an infinitesimal part, yet who knows and loves each of us.
Sounds fair enough?
OK, lets examine the first possibility. There is no God. If this is so, our lives are just a flash in the pan of eternity. There is no lasting meaning from our existence other than what we can contribute to the progress of humanity. One shot and we are done. If this is indeed the case, then you are somewhat justified in your incessant ridicule of those fools who would presume to believe in survival after death, and require the soothing salve of a belief in a deity to shadow their fearful minds from the ever increasing promise of death.
Now lets look at the idea of a God who is so anthropomorphic that he would single out this person or that person for salvation or punishment. A God who would cast a plague of boils upon some poor unfortunate soul, or single out a particular race or religion as favored. And here I am forced to agree with you again. Such a God and the heaven he would create would indeed be closer to hell than paradise.
Lastly lets look at God as I view him… a being so far above the pitiful squabbling mortals of this world that we can not really imagine him (although we do not hesitate to cast him in our image upon a regular basis). A being who was before time, who transcends time. A being who created a universe of universes in which we the creatures of evolution, play only a small part. A being so great, and yet who sends an infinitesimal fragment of himself to indwell the minds of even the lowest intelligent creatures of the universe, evolutionary mankind. That’s the God I believe in.
David:
You seem to love to throw out the Zeus and Loki card. The Volcano God and nature sprites. You seem to really enjoy rubbing noses of the Christians here in the fact that their concept of God is still rather evolutionary. And here, I say, that you are doing mankind somewhat of a service. For it is only thru the likes of you that Christianity (and religion in general) will bring itself out of the dark ages of superstition and into the light of a scientific age. The religions of mankind have spent their existence backing into the light. Guys like you are giving them the swift kick they need (and deserve), and pushing them forward!
But you really do not have to be so nasty about it.
Your diatribe about God, if he exists or even if he does not, was really distasteful, rude and arrogant.
You have as little right to push your beliefs upon the religionists, as the religionists have to push theirs upon you. You do yourself and your beliefs a disservice by acting like this.
I say that everyone on this planet will have the right to choose to survive death. And that right does not include subscription into this or that particular theology or belief in this or that particular religion. I say the you and everyone else is in complete control of your destiny. The way is open to all, but each of us has to make the decision to take it. And you don’t have to have a relation with Jesus to go there. You don’t even have to BELIEVE in Jesus. If you choose love rather than hate. If you choose goodness over evil. If you gravitate towards beauty over ugliness, then you are pointing you life towards real and eternal values, and hence towards God. And knowingly or unknowingly, you are also gravitating towards Jesus when you do these things. Jesus did not ask us to believe IN him, he asked us to believe WITH him. He did not demand uniformity of belief, only unity in belief of those things which stand for real and eternal values. Truth, Beauty and Goodness, these are the things which really matter, not whether you believe in a volcano sprite or in the love of the Universal Father. Jesus came to this world to proclaim that all men and women are the sons and daughters of God, and, because the priesthood of those days was unwilling to lose their power and authority, they hung him on a cross for it!
Basically, I say that it will work like this. If you want to survive death, you will. If you don’t, you wont. If you really don’t want to find God, no one is gonna make you. See, everyone is a winner! Even you. Even Bill. Even me.