On Apr 21, 2005, at 3:35 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
Presuming there is a God, and He/She/It fits the standard job description for such a Being, e.g., Creator of the Universe, etc., then presumably God is unique.
One would probably be safe in drawing that conclusion.
If so, perhaps the way to do away with such misunderstandings is for us to do away with trying to understand the nature of God and what He/She/It wants through intellectual discussion and debate and rather go to the source and ask God for an understanding of His/Her/Its nature and what He/She/It wants for us to do, how He/She/It wants us to relate to each other, what His/Her/Its standards are for "right" and "wrong", etc.
Umm, but, that's sort of what I was referring to earlier, I think. The different sects of different faiths all believe that's precisely what they've done, which is presumably why they felt it necessary to form the religions they have as opposed to aligning with one that had the truth as they received it.
How is that possible if simply asking God for guidance will allow it to be dispensed? Shouldn't everyone get the same answers and be in complete accord?
That this clearly is not the case indicates to me that -- assuming there is a god dispensing wisdom when it's sought -- the signal is being covered by noise, possibly human desire to receive a given answer regardless of whether that answer is received.
The only other real option I can see is that there is no one on the other end dispensing anything, which is why there are nearly as many ideas about what God wants as there are believers.
Of course, that takes a certain amount of humility on the part of each human to admit that his or her personal concept of God may indeed not be correct and to approach God, perhaps following the example of the father of king Lamoni:
"And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying: O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day." (Book of Mormon | Alma 22:17 - 18)
Unfortunately the above quote is doubly cursed, so to speak. Atheists aren't going to accept its premises *or* the possibility that it's scripture as historically valid as more traditional works -- after all, the text has absolutely no provenance; and non-Mormons won't accept its validity of authorship either.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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