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Date Posted: 00:13:20 12/23/02 Mon
Author: Callus Clyde B...
Subject: Re: what are the reasons for being an athiest?
In reply to: Miguel G 's message, "Re: what are the reasons for being an athiest?" on 20:49:32 12/22/02 Sun

Many, Many good points Miguel. And I have to agree stongly with your last portion. The "Golden Rule" is the best rule with concern to the positive crowds. We should try hard to treat others the way we want to be treated. Freedom and peace has brought the best changes to our world.
Most of the comments about "why" the bible and God do things is certainly not the way I think every situation of war or disagreement should be handled today or in the future. Destroying everything is not very productive or moral. With or without God, man seems to commit acts of horror, in our distant past and present. It's unfortunately part of human nature and hopefully our race evolves beyond it.
The bible does not go into statistics very often, and there is certainly a level of drama presented. Tom Clancy wouldn't have many readers if the world wasn't on the brink in each novel. I stand by must of what I wrote but think it was taken as a way of doing things, instead of a possible explanation or possible reasoning.
The comments I have read here have deflated me a little but I still hold that a belief in "God" is healthy and productive. My line of work (emergency medicine) has shown me first hand that "it" helps me keep my sanity and direction when things fall apart. Many anti-religious persons speak about how God doesn't care because horrible things happen to good people. Free will and the ability to choose is at fault. Someone somewhere makes a choice, and someone pays the dues. Life isn't fair and you don't always get what you put in. That's not a reason to cast away a belief in something higher than man like "God". Beleive me, I've seen some wierd things and wonder how things stay as safe and calm as they do. And I've seen and experienced events that are hard to explain. But I never seem to blame God, although I do sometimes give him credit. It's like the firemen. When you see them save a life you credit them fore they did something not seen in nature. Animals don't risk life to save another animal unless it's their baby. But if a house burns down in a fast moving fire we don't cast the firemen aside. Crap happens. We learn from it. Maybe the batteries in the smoke detector were neglected and it cost someone there time on earth.
Disease and old-age aside, Man has killed more
people than natural disaster in the last hundred years by a ratio of 10:1. And it's usually those person's own leaders or governments that kill them. Stalin whacked about 25 million, Hitler got at least 7 million, China wiped out at least 20 million for politcal reasons too, PolPot (Cambodia etc.) got a few million, Sudan murdered a few million last decade, Indonesia did in half a million around 1995 I read, African nations and Europe have allowed AIDS to infect the whole continent not to mention the wars for land and food. Most of the men responsible for these atrocities had no faith in any God. And communism certainly killed as many people as any holy war. We could risk historical accuracy and say at least 100,000,000 have died at the hands of governments in the last hundred years comared to 1.5 million deaths in the last 100 years by Earthquakes. Build stronger homes and this number will be way down in 2100.
Robert Heinlein wrote one of the best descriptions of life on Earth; One birth, one death, sooner or later. What matters is what you do in between. The bible says man has free will and God alone will not stop evil by heavenly action. It seems that is true regardless of your beliefs.
The other thing is if you are talking to God in the park it is called "praying". If you are an aethiest in the park and talking to yourself the cops may start asking you questions....I'm really tired and have said quite enough for now. Thanks for the critique!

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