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<br><div><div>On May 6, 2007, at 9:24 PM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 07/05/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Samantha Atkins</b> <<a href="mailto:sjatkins@mac.com">sjatkins@mac.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> I couldn't manage to believe that God would torment people eternally for<br>one life of not managing to belief "the right stuff" or for being as<br>imperfect as the preachers insisted we were created or doomed to be from <br>birth. It made no sense and did not square with what my budding<br>mysticism led me too either.<br></blockquote></div><br clear="all">It's funny how people assume intimate knowledge of God's psychological states, personality, and behavioural predispositions. </blockquote><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>True but what does that have to do with it? I was being asked to both imagine such a being and believe that it was all Good and would do such at the same time. I had little choice but to do what I could to imagine it. Unless of course I just "accepted it on faith" which for most people means just mouthing the formulas they have had crammed into them. I would not believe that the universe was an utter madhouse run by the most mad being of all.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>- samantha</div><div><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></div></body></html>