David S. said: > Mm. Problem-of-evil time in your model: How do explain natural disasters that kill and maim thousands? How do you explain disease (that doesn't just kill, but kills as slow torture)? How about genetic disease (that doesn't just kill slowly, but kills an innocent child slowly)? > You've got me! My model does not explain evil well; bad things happening to good people or innocent people. It's got everything else pretty well covered . . . What was the science fiction story that had a man's wife dying on an alien planet of cancer? His (alien) friend gave her the antidote to her painkiller so she could die in pain--it was an important issue in his religion that her death be a struggle. The point of the story was that in this universe, our religious thought can explain death well, or suffering well, but not both. In the alien's religious model, there was a good explanation for suffering, but a poor one for death. The fact that I don't understand everything in our universe doesn't change my beliefs about God, though. Mia