From: dxf12@po.cwru.edu (Douglas Fowler)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: dealin w/atheist
Date: 14 Apr 92 07:03:56 GMT
Reply-To: dxf12@po.cwru.edu (Douglas Fowler)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)

In a previous article, rone@carina.usc.edu (Ron A. Echeverri) says:

>In article <Apr.9.23.36.58.1992.25239@dumas.rutgers.edu> ceb@dbrus.unify.com (Caroline E. Bryan) writes:
>>
>>God "allows" suffering and pain because He allows people just like you and
>>me -- no! He allows you personally and me personally to act like real slime
>>balls to the rest of humanity.  He also allows you and me to wise up, make
>>amends, and work on employing our talents more productively.
>
>Aren't you a little old to be believing in god? :-)
>Seriously.... Every image of god brought up by any of the present religions
>are incredibly inaccurate, as god's perfection is touted by them. If there WAS
>a god, he'd be unperceivable by us mere and imperfect humans. So don't worry 
>about it.
>
     PRECISELY!  He IS imperceivable, at least the vastness of His power is;
that's why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us.  He wanted us to be
able to understand, and He knew He had to come down to our level, because we
couldn't approach His.

     Paul Harvey tells a great parable on his noontime "news and comments"
every Christmas.  Seems there was this man, a very just and caring man, who
loved his family and did mostly good in his life, but who just couldn't
understand why a God so powerful and majestic would have to come down as a
person.
     One Christmas Eve, his wife and children went to church, but he stayed
home, apologizing but saying:  "I would be too much a hypocrite to attend
Xmas services with you."  Well, it was snowing hard, and the wind was howling
that evening, when suddenly he heard a "thump" at the window, then another
and another. "Must be someone throwing snowballs," he said to himself.  However
when he got up to look he saw a flock of birds standing outside; they had been
trying to get in his house."
     "Well, I have to do something," he thought, "I can't just let them
freeze out there."  He paused for a moment, then thought of the barn; "if I
could just get them in the barn, where it's nice and warm, they'll be safe."
     But how to do that?  He bundled up, and went out to the barn door and
opened it, but they wouldn't go in.  "They must be hungry," he thought, so
he crumbled up some bread and sprinkled a path to the barn door, but they just
stood there blankly.  He then tried scaring them, running around clapping his
hands and making loud noises, but they just looked at him, not moving an inch.
"Maybe I can scare them," he thought, so he ran right at them, and while some
flew up as he got very near, they settled back to that very spot an instant
later.
     The man stood silently in the snow, and pondered the situation deeply,
wondering:  "How can I help them.  All I want is to save them from this
terrible cold, to provide them with comfort, but they won't listen.  I've
tried bribing them, I've tried scaring them, even running straight at them and
maybe picking them up one by one won't help - they're too afraid of me.
     "What must I do - I am a man, with all these powers, and all I want to do
is help, but I can't help these poor, little creatures. They have no way of
understanding me.  I would..I would have to become like one of them to 
understand; I would have to bcome - a bird..."
     And just at that moment, the midnight church bells echoed their glad
tidings throughout the land, and he sank to his knees, and prayed.
-- 
Doug Fowler: dxf12@po.CWRU.edu      :    "Every baby born into the world is
Real home: Canton, Ohio             :  finer than the last."--Charles Dickens
 Trying to follow in the path of our :     "A baby is an inestimable
Lord;anything close will be a success:  blessing and bother."--Mark Twain