I think you’ll be forgiven for that—if you have to continue to believe in a God of Reward and
Punishment.
And if other people do bad things, like kill, or rape, or lie, because of me?
Then every philosopher from the beginning of time who has ever spoken or written against
the then-current belief system must likewise be guilty of all the deeds of man.
Perhaps they are.
Is that the kind of God you want to believe in? Is that the God you choose?
This isn’t a question of choice. We’re not in a God-supermarket. We don’t get to make a
choice about this. God is God, and we’d better have our understanding about that right, or we
could be going straight to hell.
Do you believe that?
No. Except when I do.
And when is that?
When I don’t trust You. When I don’t trust in the goodness of God, and in the unconditional
love of God. When I see us, all of us here on Earth, as children of a lesser God.
(^)
Is that often? Do you feel that way often?
No. I have to say, no, not very often. I used to. Man, did I ever used to! But not since our
conversations. I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things. Well, not changed my mind, really.
What actually happened is that I allowed myself to believe what I always knew in my heart,
and wanted to believe, about God.
And has that been so bad for you?
Bad? No, it’s been good. My whole life has changed. I’ve been able to believe in Your
goodness again, and so, I’ve been able to believe in my goodness again. Because I’ve been
able to believe that You forgive me for all I’ve done, I’ve been able to forgive myself Because
I’ve stopped believing that someday, somehow, someplace, I’m going to be punished by
God, I’ve stopped punishing myself
Now, there are those who say that failing to believe in a punishing God is bad Yet I see
nothing but good coming from this, because if I’m ever going to do anything worthwhile—