From: mchenry@latech.edu (Michael Q. McHenry)
Subject: Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER
Organization: Louisiana Tech University
Distribution: world,public
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 18:20:27 GMT

(You are fortunate that I am not in the mood to slip on the
asbestos keyboard cover...)

brian@lpl.arizona.edu (Brian Ceccarelli 602/621-9615) writes:
>It grieves me to hear this kind of discussion.  God gets accused of
>things that are really not his to begin with.  Both Christians and
>non-Christians alike attribute the pain and suffering in the world
>to God.   This is not true.

Nope, not true.  How can I attribute the pain & suffering of the world
to something in which I do not believe?  I would be tempted to blame
this on the bible believers, although this would be difficult to
substantiate outside of my own experiences.  However, reading thru
the rest of your post did cause me a little GI suffering and pain in
a posterior region.  

>   I'll state my point first then back it up.  The point is this.  
>Ultimately, we as humans have chosen death over life.  We had preferred
>cancer and old age a long time ago.   The four year old girl gets what
>she has inherited from the beginnings of humanity.  Death.  Suffering. 
>It is sad.  Truly a pity.  But guess what?  God didn't create it that way. 
>He originally created us to live forever.  God doesn't dole out cancer
>to 4-year olds.  Such is a sad and major consequence of what we as
>humans chose for ourselves a long long time ago.  

Hey, this may be fine for you, but please don't shovel this crap out to
me.  I've read the bible and it _does not_ work for me.  I am a bible
disbeliever and I would hazzard to say that many fellow atheists also
see no truth in the biblical tales.  Hey, if you can stand living in
a shallow world where you cannot take credit or responsibility for
great or tradgic efents, that's great.  Really.  But realize that not
all living beings in this world see things your way and that, in this
group, your scriptures and explanatory words do not fall on blind
eyes, but on eyes which can see through them.

> [140 lines of sciprture & assorted stuff deleted]

I do not accept your explanation of pain and suffering.  I have spent 
countless hours in emergency departments and fire depts and have seen
my share of death and mutilation and tradgedy, but I choose to 
rationalize it in different ways.  I'll admit that I've become numb
to most of it, but 2 years ago when a mother brought her 7 y/o 
daughter into the ED, choking on a piece of jewelery, no pulse, no
respirations, we worked on her for over an hour, then finally let
her go.  I could not tell what was sweat and what were tears
dripping onto my scrubs, but the bottom line is that I did NOT
blame your god, or any god, or anything that I could not see.  We were
presented with a situation, we did everything that we could, and a
little girl died.  I accept death as a part of life, and have
accepted my own mortality, and do not fear death.  BUT I do not
accept the roles of fictional characters as a disclaimer for what
you believe.

-- 
Quinn McHenry               "If you would be a real seeker after truth, it
mchenry@engr.latech.edu      is necessary that at least once in your life
Biomedical Engineering       you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
Louisiana Tech University                 - Rene Descartes