hamilcar: If this were true, what moral norm do we have to stick to? What prohibits us to ruin our neighbor's valueless life?
What indeed? Since we do not have much inherent value, and it is only our potential value as a contributor to the whole that we treasure and preserve, what moral norm have we to stick to? More directly to the point, why do we stick to any or desire any, to begin with? Is 'morality' our natural instinct? If the atheists are right, our 'morality' and our 'morality' alone permitted all the atrocities mankind has perpetrated against one another.
In which case, 'morality', or the inherent nature of man, or the results of these is actually the 'God' against which Terry and others truly rail, rant, and raves. Which is an odd display of self-hatred at worst, or possibly of hatred of one's own species, or at very least, hatred of the natural processes which spawned the thoughts of the species.
gopher: Doesn't the Bible teach that without his Son as an intercessor, that God cannot have a relationship with people? So the question is why did he send his Son as an intercessor after condemning men and leaving them to lives filled with frustration? It seems like he was angry in the Old Testament and loving in the New Testament.
That isn't the question Terry asked. But I'll be happy to answer it for you. God didn't comdemn men to lives filled with frustration. He orchestrated the means by which mankind could receive clemency from its self-inflicted frustrations.
In response to the last sentence you wrote to me, I think men have often used the name of God to support their own personal purposes and agenda.
Trevor: Once something is seen to be fictional it needs to be cleared out of the mind to make way for reality. Every moment spent in such an exercise is a waste of mental fuel or energy.
On that, at least, we agree completely. The obverse is also true: Once something is seen to be genuine and real, it should be embraced as such. Every moment spent resisting that (or even arguing in favor of it) is also a waste of mental fuel or energy.
Which is why I wonder both at those who waste energy and mental fuel trying vainly to prove the existence of God and at those who rail vainly against all things theistic. I have done so a few times on this forum and other forums, when asked, and routinely those who asked for someone to waste their time and energy on a futile exercise forget that I wasted my time and energy at their request.
Respectfully,
AuldSoul
