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Re: The Resident Christian's Personal Rant
by Maranda (saboneta@aol.com)
on Jul 27, 2001 - 12:48 PM
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Kira,
There is a middle theological ground. Benjamin Franklin once coined the term "deitist" to describe those who believe in a God who created the world, but who also believe that God does not interfere much in our day-to-day lives. Deitists believe that God created the world and is sitting back watching what we do with it, but not messing with the free will of humans or influencing random chance.
Some Christian churches have held a Deitist perspective on God. The Unitarian church, before it joined with the Universalists (yes, they used to be separate) had ideas very similar to this at one time.
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Re: The Resident Christian's Personal Rant
by Schizo on Jul 27, 2001 - 04:24 PM
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I was hoping to get a reaction like yours, full of gleeful anticipation of a theological debate! I was dreading getting a lot of replies full of theophobia and emotional reactions. Thankyou for your understanding!
I've tried to believe in the chaos theory, but personally I don't find the universe chaotic enough. I think it looks designed and planned. With some flaws, of course, but there's definitely Someone who made it. I define that Someone as God.
Then came the question - is God good, bad, or indifferent? I think if He were bad He would be a hell of a lot badder than we see. Which leaves good or indifferent.
To tell the truth, I couldn't tell. So I arbitrarily chose one, and I admit the most comfortable one, and decided to test it out. Which is what I've been doing for the last 3 years or so. And it seems to be holding water.
God is sentient and benevolent. I won't give specific examples of how I have found this out, but I have seen this in emotional, mental and physical ways. I have gone out on a limb over and over and never once have I put trust in God and been let down. This has happened far too many times for me to dismiss as coincidence.
On the other hand, for the brief period of time the past year that I completely rejected God, my life fell to little bitty pieces, everything backfired on me, and I ended up suicidal and nearly psychotic. Admitted my mistake, and now things are working out again.
This doesn't mean that I'm depending on God for a free ride. Anyone who thinks that trusting is easy hasn't tried it. And there's a lot of hard work involved, because God rarely puts His finger in unless we're doing our best, too. But He will fill in the gap when our best isn't enough, if we want Him to. That's what I've found.
I hope I'm not coming across as preachy. I don't want to force this on anyone. But it seems so common for people to express their anti-God views, that I feel there needs to be someone to balance it out. So here I am, resident Christian, doing my little thing!
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