On Tue, Feb 18, 2003 at 12:10:46PM -0500, John Klein wrote: > I've seen attacks on 1, as well. If you sacrifice the idea that God has to > be omnipotent, it's pretty easy to get out of this trap. Unfortunately, > it's a major component of Christian dogma that God is, in fact, omnipotent, > and if they let go of the idea that the dogma contains essential truths, > how could they look down their noses at the other religions? I use an idea of SimGod as a baseline concept, i.e. if our universe were some computer simulation, consider the person running the SimUniverse. If an entity created the universe and can manipulate it at will and wipe it out in an instant that's bloody omnipotent enough for me. Doesn't matter if it's really some 13-yo hyperacne-ridden punk in some hyperdimension. The thing about SimUniverse is that while it makes God make sense, and provides some varieties of afterlives, the ideas of an immortal soul and of memoryless reincarnation still make zero sense. -xx- Damien X-)