From: bcash@crchh410.BNR.CA (Brian Cash)
Subject: Re: all this God stuff
Reply-To: bcash@crchh410.BNR.CA (Brian Cash)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 23:18:49 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.134421.6125@ultb.isc.rit.edu>,
sri4495@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:
|>In article <1992Sep27.165604.59222@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
|>writes,
|> 
|>>What was most interesting is the Dead Sea Scrolls recounting of Christ's 
|>>``death.'' I am going on memory here, so excuse any mistakes. If
memory serves,
|>>the crucifiction went like this: First, because Christ and the thieves were
|>>crucified on Friday, they could not (by Jewish Law) be left out on sabbath. 
|>>For that reason, the Roman guards tried to hasten the death of all three. 
|>>They broke the legs of the thieves and gave Christ poison. However,
the poison
|>>only put Christ into a coma, and he was thought dead. He was taken from the 
|>>cross, but one of the ``gang'' (one of the apostles) detected that Christ 
|>>was alive. So, when they put him the tomb, a couple of them stayed in and 
|>>nursed him back to conscienseness. I seem to remember one of the
things they 
|>>gave him to recover was mir (ironic, eh?). So, after three days, one of the 
|>>people who stayed in the tomb sneaked out and told Mary that Christ had been
|>>brought back to life. Mary came back and Christ came out under the
observation
|>>of a Roman guard. The point was, anyway, that a work of ``scripture'' told
|>>of how Christ death and ressurection was faked. I might have some details 
|>>confused, but I thought it was germane.
|>
|>Actually, after reading this, my question is who wrote it.  I doubt it was
|>writen by a beliver.  Now if you did not belive that Jesus had risen from the
|>dead, and you had these people claiming they had seen him after he died, how
|>would you explain it?

If you are refering to the portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were
no 'believers'
and 'disbelievers' at the time.  Christianity started with Paul of
Tarsus.  Jesus had 
followers, but he was not trying to build his own religion (IMHO).
In answer to your question: with logic. (something used rarely back then)

If you were a believer, how would you explain it?  Why would this person
be lying but
everyone else is telling the truth?  Don't be caught in the trap of
selecting data to 
match your results!

|>
|>Oh, and to this jester chap, I'd just like to clarify your arguments.  The
|>basic question you seem to be raising is "Is God so all-powerful that he can
|>limit himself?"  As to that, I'd say yes, simply because <WARNING:  ENTERING
|>FAITH MODE>  I think the he cares for every single human on this planet, and
|>he wants to make things perfect for everybody, but he doesn't.  Why? 
I havn't
|>the foggiest.  Hopefully I'll find out some day.

I guess we all will.  Until then, lets use our minds.

|>
|>PS:  I think the best logical argument for faith was made by Pascal. 
I belive
|>it went: "Either there is a God, or there is not.  Now, if I belive,
and there
|>is no God, I have lost nothing.  If I do not belive and there is no
God, I get
|>nothing.  If there is a God, and I don't belive, I loose everything, and if
|>there is a God, and I do belive, a gain everything."  A one sided gamble, I'd
|>say.

HAHAHAHA!!!(sorry)
This is called Pascal's Wager, and it has a few faults.  The largest is
the assumtion that 
there are two choices 1) Beleive in God(tm) or 2) Don't Beleive in
God(tm):  there
are MANY choices 1) Beleive in the Roman Catholic God 2) Beleive in the
Jewish God (Orthidox)
3) Beleive in the Hindu God 4) Beleive in the Islam God 5) Beleive in
the Mormon God 
6) Beleive in the Egyptian God(s) 7) Beleive in Colleen 8) Beleive in Bob ....
123424) Beleive in none of the Gods  123425) None of the above
If you pick the wrong answer, your toast.  (There may even be a God that
will punish you
if you beleive in a God!)  Now your choise is irrelivent.  You and I
will share a spot in Hades
for not beleiving in the one, true God Squellsquell (number of followers: 3)

If you care to test your faith (and get more FAQs about the wager),
check out alt.atheism.

Brian /-|-\

|>--
|>Life is like a REALLY BIIIG rutabaga./-----\   Shawn, the very,very,very,VERY
|>I think.                        |    | * * |   eclectic. And God of The Funky
|>At least, it tastes like one.  -+-   | \_/ |   Hat. And the weirdo wannabe.
|>Especially with yogurt on top.  |    \_____/   SRI4495@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
|>Except for strawberry.          | (3:16 of the NT)  
                                            
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