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Sept. 6, 2004 First of all, I would like to say that I truly respect the opinions and beliefs of others and I also profoundly admire their passion in vindicating and living them. This article is directed towards all individuals believing in a Creator of the universe and especially towards Mr. Michael John McCrae. Mr McCrae reacted on my article “The Question of God” by means of his article “The Answer of God”. Before I continue I would also like to thank Stan Grimes for his complimenting of my article “The Question of God” via an email he sent me. It shows that fortunately there are rational and clear thinking individuals out there besides myself! Off course, those readers who have read Mr. McCrae’s opposing article and who are of the same persuasion as I am would not have been surprised at all with his reaction on it. And also, his reaction on my atheist view is very common – I have never received any reaction differing in the slightest detail from his. It is indeed a very daunting task to sway a believer into a non- believers realm. Just another note: I feel that after this article I will have said enough on the topic of God and the persuasions of believers and that I will not respond to any other articles directed against my ideas about the non existence of God. If someone doesn’t agree to what I am saying on this topic it is only because of the intoxicating effect of the imagination of the existence of a God who “saves” one from this harsh world. Also, rational and irrational individuals find it hard to communicate with each other. McCrae’s first statement opposing my thought is the following: “Werner, God is not a figment of someone’s active imagination.” Here I would like to say that my idea that imagination is at the core of superstition and belief in higher beings than humans, is based on the fact that most human beings experience life as harsh and threatening to human existence. Frankly, the raw mechanics of godless nature disgusts many people. They feel afraid of life and can’t swallow the idea that life is busy devouring them every moment and that it all ends with death. Hence, they create this refuge called God – an omnipotent being full of love and with the promise of an after life to good people, coupled with the threat to evil doers which is off course, hell. Faith in this absolutely just and superior being brings comfort to their souls. The mind is a powerful thing and it can lie to itself very easily. McCrae’s second statement opposing my thought is the following: ““Mr. Reyneke wrote:” “In the religion of Christianity, God is said to have created the whole universe out of nothing. No. Christianity says no such thing.”” Here I would like to say that if there is a God and if that God is a Creator he must have created everything out of nothing – if he used something else that existed before everything else, then he did not create at all, but rather just developed or improved an already existing substance – isn’t God supposed to be an entity from which everything originated? In other words, if God was the first existent then obviously there was nothing else besides him and everything that he created must have come from nothing. The definition of a creator is someone who creates something out of nothing – an originator. McCrae’s third statement against my idea is: “What many of the more philosophic types like Werner fail to understand is that the earth we all stand on today bears absolutely no resemblance to the earth God made. The simple explanation for that is God’s own curse upon his creation upon the disobedience of Adam. Sin brought the creation under God’s wrath.” Here I will say the following: It is said in the Bible that God is omnipotent and that he knows a human being even before he is born. It is also implied by the definition of a God that he knows the future of everything. Now, if God knows the future, why did he create? Why did he create if he knew things were going to turn out as they are at present? Why would a God curse his own creation – it’s like cursing himself. Another quote from McCrae: “Men have subjugated themselves to birds, and beasts, and creeping things and the sun and the moon and all kinds of stars, plants, the ocean, the desert, you name it! They are all wrong. God is none of that. God has asked for none of that.” By implication, if God is the creator of everything, he obviously knows the insides out of everything – he knows every action before it happens, because he created the workings of the universe – so if God is a creator he is very obviously responsible for everything that happens and that doesn’t happen. McCrae: “Did man invent God? No, Werner. It is a stupid thought, and a highly illogical one that men would invent something, and then place the something they invented as their higher power. God assuredly exists.” Here I have no comment as this is a common remark of believers. Well, okay, let me say one thing - the statement or expression “Man invented God” or “Man created God” is off course a metaphor – what I mean is that man or rather some people postulate the existence of a God/Creator i.e. they imagine one and then believe in it – it’s analogous to the psychological condition of a lonely child entertaining the comfort of having an imaginary friend. And yes, it is illogical and stupid to invent a God – but that’s what people do – they can’t accept the rational reality of life and want to hide from it, clinging to God’s leg like a two year old when scared by something and quickly clutching onto the parents leg – I’ve seen this with my 21 month year old daughter. As a conclusion to this I only want to say that everyone should feel free to believe in what they want and to live out that belief in a peaceful manner. ------------ About the author Werner Reyneke: I am a 23 year old passionate writer/poet in my spare time and a computer programmer by proffession. Visit my website to see my first published book. I live in South Africa and have been published in a local newspaper (some poems in Haiku form) for the first time in February 2000. I have also been selected for publication in a VoicesNet Anthology (visit www.Voicesnet.org) and a Poetry.com (ILP Publishers) anthology called "Eternal Portraits"). Visit my website at: http://myweb.absa.co.za/wreyneke/Mybook.htm Email: wreyneke@absamail.co.za Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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