neither you nor I nor anyone else (even the holy saints) will follow it day in and out.
And now I turn to washing the dishes.Peace,
Preston
Dear Preston,
I appreciate your answer. In response, I can only offer this, one of my favorite quotes, which describes the
heart of my beliefs and provides an empirical observation of humankind's intellectual history:
The most astonishing logical paradox ever to be cherished by man is presented in the circumstance
that the theologists, convinced that God in his omnipotence had predetermined the fate of every man,
and in his omniscience had from the beginning of time foreseen that fate, should yet hold to the belief
that he nevertheless holds every man responsible for his action, rewarding him either with eternal
beatitude or eternal punishment. For theology the invention of free will to which culpability could be
assigned only formalized the complete abandonment of reason in order to keep the system in
operation. (Homer Smith, Man and His Gods)I couldn't have put it better myself. Perhaps the world is based on an astonishing logical paradox. But I
don't believe in free will, and I don't think theology can survive without it.
In Niger, a desert country twice the size of Texas, most of the 11 million people live on a dollar a day.
Forty percent of children are underfed, and one out of four dies before turning 5. And that's when things
are normal. Throw in a plague of locusts, and a familiar picture emerges: skeletal babies, distended
bellies, people too famished to brush the flies from their faces.... [Niger's] desert is getting bigger and
drought is unrelenting.
Todd Pitman, journalist (2005)
Of course ignorance is lenient, and if we close our eyes to science, or we fail to learn about biological
phenomena (such as neuroscience) we can readily believe that we have special powers of free will. We
"feel" free. Unless, of course, you are among the large proportion of humans on this planet who are
seriously suffering.
Theology depends on such ignorance.Sincerely,GregDear Greg:
A former student went out and bought a bunch of BR CDs, so you owe me.