7/2/2003: "Finger" of God

[Elspode]

I am always up for the inclusion of a rational, tolerant Christian viewpoint. It is just that they are so difficult to find nowadays. However, the Christian version of deity and creation is just as valid as any other version of the same things. It is, however, no *more* valid than any other version of the same things, and that's where we get into trouble.

Whenever anyone tells me that what they believe is *the* way things are, I stop listening. No one has a handle on Ultimate Truth, and anyone who ways they do has stopped paying attention to the world with an open mind.

That being said, I was a defacto Christian for the first half of my life, until I came to realize that Jehovah, if you read the Bible like I read the Bible, is a very insecure, petty and vengeful deity with a real problem with women. Even the whole 'love for mankind thing', which is pretty much a New Testament concept (New Improved Deity! Now with 50% more compassion), is suspect for me since it did in fact involve human sacrifice, and the acknowledgement of which requires ritual cannibalism in some sects of Christianity.

But...these are *my* problems with the religion, and I do not expect anyone else to believe what I believe. All I ever ask of anyone who professes to follow a certain faith is that they walk the talk.

That's damn hard to do, even for me.