From: theBeaver@nowhere.com   
      
   theBeaver wrote:   
   >   
   > 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.   
      
   What I wrote was obviously intended to be an exaggeration, but it is at   
   the same time very much on point.  What I wrote actually should   
   stimulate thinking, and make one thing obvious:  If people's God   
   suddenly did not reward them, they would not suddenly revert to immoral   
   behavior. Suggesting that they would constitutes a kind of thought   
   experiment.  Presented with the notion, everyone immediately sees the   
   absurdity of such a claim, and it thereby undercuts what you often hear   
   claimed:  That without God people would not be constrained to act   
   morally.  This writing is a gedanken experiment.  Most Christians are   
   acting as humanists:  they pick and choose what they want from their   
   bible, or they interpret it to suit their own sense of what is right.   
   That is why people generally love and care for animals, though there is   
   nothing in their bible that suggests the slightest importance of being   
   kind to other creatures.  Christians, to the extent they deserve to   
   continue to breathe the air of this planet, are acting in accordance   
   with a morality dictated by their own natures -- as humanists.   
      
   In addition, it should cause theists to at least briefly confront the   
   notion of whether they would worship a God that didn't punish or reward.   
   They wouldn't, since it would do "no good at all", which reveals that   
   their acceptance of religion is a craven and desperate attempt to quell   
   their fear. This has often been suggested, but it seems to be a logical   
   consequence of the fact that their subservience to God would disappear   
   if there were no carrot and stick.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)