From: lung@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Terence Lung)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Homosexuals anywhere are wrong
Date: 27 Jul 92 16:49:32 GMT
Reply-To: lung@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Terence Lung)
Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD

simon@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Simon Clippingdale)

>>> Well, we *do* know something, if indeed _The Bible_ is true, about
>>> God's image. If you're made in God's image, Terence, when do you next plan
>>> to massacre entire populations, children and pregnant women included, as
>>> The Good Lord [promised to] in Hosea?
Answer:  I don't have any such plans.

To whatever extent I am made in the likeness of God, I remain only a
creation not the creator.  The author of a play can do whatever he 
pleases to do.  A character can have all the semblance of the author
possible but remains only a character. [BTW, this is C.S. Lewis' analogy,
not mine. viz. When the author walks on stage, the play is over.] 

[talk about painters and paintings translated into creators and creations]
>...But the [creation] is hardly "created in the image of [creator]" 
>in the way that you would like to think that Man is created in the 
>image of God.
It becomes a play on words though.  I think it is precisely what
these particular words are saying.

>You believe that humans are created in the image (figuratively, of course!)
>of a vengeful slaughterer of nations, babies and pregnant women included.
>And you say that this in-His-image business is "a spiritual reflection of the
>Creator". 
>This begs the question of the desirability of the spirituality you
>would have Man inherit from God.
It does?

>Here's the bit from Hosea I had in mind (KJV):
>* 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her
>* God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in
>* pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

>I didn't think the Hosea quote above referred to Sodom and Gommorah.
Obviously you were referring to a different passage.  Sorry.  I assumed
you were thinking of the passage in Hosea that is directly tied into the 
Sodom and Gommorah destruction.  You notice from ancient history and not
so ancient history (like the Nazis in France or the Nanking massacre), 
that people have used this same tactic.  They'll make a first destruction 
particularly gruesome to dissuade resistance to subsequent activities.  
So to answer your question in another light, yes, people are known to be 
mass murderers too [i.e. the creations still tend to resemble the creator].
But we also know from history that this tactic does not work too well.  
So personally, I don't think I'd plan any such massacres.

>As to the main point of Hosea, it seems to be largely about dire warnings
>and threats of destruction, torment and violence against those who fail
>to follow the One True Religion, since you ask.
emmm hmmm.  I basically agree.  BTW, I'm impressed.  Most people who
claim to have read Hosea haven't really got a clue.  I would add however 
that the Hosea message is also a reminder and pleading with the people 
of Ephraim to remember the promise that their forefathers agreed to.  
I think God is actually backpeddling in this message.  It seems to me that 
He regrets having made the stupid promise with the people because He still 
loves them and He *doesn't want* to implement such destruction.  But He 
also doesn't want to forsake His promises.  So what to do?  His side 
of the deal must go on.  But next time, it's time to get a Messiah.  
Too bad for Ephraim, it's too late as archaelogists can prove.

Terence
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc