From: theBeaver@nowhere.com   
      
   God reveals himself and performs several miracles in record time, such   
   as raising some people from the dead, curing all victims of genital   
   herpes, and levitating himself.  All are now convinced, beyond any   
   doubt, that He is God Himself.  With all now prostrate before him, he   
   clears up one misinterpretation of the Apostles:  He never had any   
   intention of granting anyone eternal life.  Instead, everyone is just   
   going to die, not just physically, but their quite mortal souls will be   
   terminated as well.   
      
   People were aghast at what they had heard.  Surely this must NOT be God   
   after all, they thought.  But looking again at the baby smooth skin   
   where their herpes sores had been minutes earlier, they realized that   
   this truly WAS God before them.  They then asked him, so why should we   
   listen to you?  What's in it for us?   
      
   He answered that He was Truth and Love and Goodness.  They could live   
   moral and decent lives only so long as they followed His Word and lived   
   by His rules.  So you will not punish us if we steal, kill, or become   
   whoremongers, they asked?  Or commit the homosexual acts that we have   
   wrestled against all these many years?  After several seconds in which   
   He fought for patience, he told them no, that He did not intervene in   
   worldly affairs, as should have been PELLUCIDLY CLEAR to anyone with   
   eyes open to the injustice in the world around them.   
      
   Long, blank stares followed, and many  people shook their fists or threw   
   him a prolonged pair of middle fingers accompanied by feisty expletives.   
     Almost as one, they turned their backs on God, for now they knew it   
   did not matter if they  sinned.  There was no eternal life, no meaning   
   to  their lives, no reward for good behavior.  A few still tried to   
   maintain their routine of worship, but in vain as they saw no savory   
   answer to the question so often asked:  What good will it do?  The   
   answer, of course, was "no good at all".   
      
   For all their lives, they had known that the only thing that restrained   
   Man's indecent passions was the Word of God Himself.  How often had this   
   been preached to them in church?  That without a God to reward and   
   punish, every man was free to act as he wished, and chaos would reign.   
   And so it did.  As if to offend God Almighty, or perhaps to induce Him   
   to change His policy on Eternal Life, they violated every rule He had   
   made.  If it might offend Him, they made a point of doing it in the   
   nastiest way possible.   
      
   But, in the midst of chaos, an unwavering and steady resistance could be   
   perceived.  To atheists, nothing had changed.  They had already known   
   that God did not intervene in worldly affairs and that eternal life was   
   a childish fantasy.  Their moral law derived from their own natures,   
   their own sense of justice, their empathy and compassion for all living   
   creatures.  While the suddenly Godless wrought their terror, atheists   
   fought back, arguing that they could look into their own hearts for   
   their moral compass, that abject despair over the inevitability of death   
   wasn't really so bad, and that you could still find some pleasure in   
   life without imagining that you are made of the same divine essence as   
   God Himself, except in miniature.  Maybe they could take up woodworking,   
   for instance.   
      
   But the best efforts of all well-meaning atheists failed, and the   
   Godless terror, once unleashed, could not be contained, and a virtual   
   war raged for years.  Even the sheep in the fields were not safe from   
   the wanton gluttony and lust of soulless Man.  After many years, a few   
   managed to survive the violence, but the now universal scourge of   
   genital herpes again haunted their miserable lives!  Uh, the end.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)