Re: [asa] Dawkins, religion, and children

Iain Strachan wrote:

> The woman in the n_th quote you gave said that telling children about
> hell is an abuse of trust. Not so, IMO. It can only be an abuse of
> trust if you deliberately lie to the child. (Like telling him that oral
> sex is a form of holy communion).
>

Pim and Iain

I certainly do not think that telling children about God's punishment is
abuse unless it is dwelt on or is repeated over and over, or is made
overly dramatic. It seems to me that God wants people to turn to him of
their own will as enabled by God's grace (or decree as the reformed put
it) but not as a fire insurance policy. I would tend to picture it some
what like CS Lewis did, as a separation from God with grace no longer
restraining evil (or possibly even as conditional immortality as per
John Stott, but I am still thinking that over).

Dave W

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sat Apr 28 17:47:19 2007