[austintorn@aol.com]

I was trying to say, in a sentence that was too long and clumsy, that an arbitrarty belief is highly suspect, for it was just made up by the particular culture.


A Moslem person might say that Mohammed received the right scoop from God from an angel in a cave and that he is to be listened to, not Jesus, for we had witnesses there at the time—and if you don't believe this, you will not be rewarded in the afterlife. It says so in the Koran.

A Christian person might say that Jesus is THE prophet, not this Mohammed guy, and he is even divine, being the son of god, for we had witnesses there at the time—and if you don't believe this, you will not be rewarded in the afterlife. It says so in the Bible.

A Jewish person might say that you are both wrong; forget Jesus and Mohammed; there is only the God of the old testament, for we had witnesses there at the time—and if you don't believe this, you will not be rewarded in the afterlife.

A Mormon might say that Jesus spent his first 30 years in the USA and gave Joseph Smith the right scoop. Sorry, but all the other scoops were wrong. (A Mormon is also running for President and spent 30 months in France trying to convert people to his "right" way. 2 were converted.) It says so in our Bible.

A Lutheran might say no, God gave the correct scoop to Martin Luther. All others were wrong.

An ancient Roman or Greecian person might have said that the gods lived on Mt Olympus.

Need I go on?

All are arbitrary beliefs based on nearby cultural influence of heresay of ancient legends.

(Let's put them all in the same room so they can see that the other's fervor matches their own rightness.)

As Graybeard noted, God has been conveniently located outside of any and all points of detection. Faith in any God then becomes exactly as the word "faith " is described: a belief in the unseeable supernatural, a rather silly stance for anything, if you ask me.

What is realy even sillier is that these man-made Gods (like God the Father) are not even good role models in any way, shape, or form—so bad that many religions have abandoned the Old Testament altogether.


I hereby proclaim that a Cosmic Egg formed the universe, but that it's remains and any other affilations with the universe are invisible and operate in totally undetectible ways. Please convert since I am right.