Quote Originally Posted by wmrs2 View Post
Thorne, it is a highly emotional use of logic to blame a God that does not exist for the evil that is in the world. Why not blame mankind for the evil inflected on man. I don't see God killing and bringing sickness to the world. All the evil you speak of, I see man doing it to himself.
I do not blame God for anything, as I don't believe he does exist. My point was that IF he existed, I could still not worship him because of the things he ALLOWS to happen. And if he is the ultimate creator of all that we know then he is, in some sense, responsible. Evil could not exist without God's knowledge and acceptance.

As for the proof of God, the Christ, Western Civilization's very existence is evidence that Christ existed. If you will not accept this, nothing will convince you that Christ lived. Myself, I see Christ's mark everywhere.
Yes, this is an old argument: God exists because I KNOW he exists. Western Civilization has nothing to do with the actual existence of Christ, but rather with the existence of the CONCEPT of Christ. My question is about whether the MAN existed. Any culture which develops a religion can "prove" that their gods exist by the actions those gods supposedly take. The crops grow every year, so their must be a god/goddess of fertility; the moon floats serenely overhead and only a god/goddess could do that, ergo there is a lunar god. You can attribute anything that you don't understand or can't control to the actions or inactions of the gods.
And actually, it's Western Law, rather than Civilization, which owes so much to the teachings of the Church. Like it or not, most nations' laws are based in some measure upon the Ten Commandments. But the Greeks and Romans did far more for the advance of Civilization than the Church ever did.

Think of God as a process. If man would listen to God, observe Him, and learn to use God things would be better for all. God is like a golf swing. It takes a lot of practice to perfect it. If you would practice using God more, you would feel better about the world. (One more thing, God is a Republican.)
Personally, I think of God as a convenient fiction which man developed at a time when he needed something to explain the world around him. As for God's political leanings, I must wonder to which God you are referring. Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, is probably a Republican. Christ, the God of the New Testament, is more likely to be a Democrat.