"If we can prove to the atheist that he needs divine help."

"D. F. Siemens, Jr." <dfsiemensjr@juno.com> writes:
>Your statement is relevant if we can prove to the atheist that he needs

>divine help.

ED: Speaking as neither an orthodox Christian, nor as an atheist, it
should be obvious to all of us that we all need "help" throughout our
lives, "divine" or otherwise. And, being social creatures we each
co-define each other's individuality based on the numberless encounters we
each have with each other from birth till death.

I once believed I had encountered the God of the Bible in both a direct
and personal fashion. But I later learned of many tales of amazing
coincidences (and/or miracles) that people of earnest faith but differing
beliefs, have had. So I grew to doubt my "Christian" understanding of my
own experiences after I began viewing them in the light of many other
people's different beliefs and experiences, and interpretations of their
own experiences. Naturally, we can't all meet the same people, nor read
the same books, so none of us has had exactly the same experiences, nor
will we all have exactly the same interpretations of those experiences.
But that recognition reinforces my doubts concerning, for instance,
whether a God exists who would judge someone eternally for having been
exposed to imperfect information, which appears to be what we are all
stuck being exposed to.
Received on Sat Nov 6 00:10:47 2004