Phreak,

If God is as perfect as his advocates here claim, the human body wouldn’t need a different design. Nor would humans need to behave differently. They could “practice” making babies all they want. A perfect and omnipotent God would bestow the birth of children only to couples ready and responsible enough to assume the duties of parenthood. This “design” works throughout human history, with children being born when parents are the right age according to capabilities and lifespans of their era.

I don’t have to allow for “free will,” as an omnipotent God and human free will are mutually exclusive. And yes, I’ve read the arguments for both cases. I’m partial to the case that humans cannot possible have free will if the omnipotent God knows their predestination to accept or reject him. I accept that if God knows, then it ain’t free will (kind of like Aunty M’s stance on unconditional love - and your mailbox story is not an analogous fit BTW.). And if it is free will, then God ain’t omnipotent, which also means not perfect, which also means not God as described by you and most “true” believers.

Further, what is so perfect about a God, who first makes Adam and Eve, but demands that they not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? He wants them to be illiterate, but happy, retards? I thought we’ve come to understand that all good and responsible parents want to educate our children, and that includes knowing about both good and evil. Doesn’t this story stretch it a bit for you?

And if the NT is about breaking people free from the laws of the OT, are Jews condemned to Hell?

Grumpy,

You got it right as to why healthy responsible parents have kids. ‘Cept my daughters never did learn to mow the lawn.

Rory,

Thank you for pasting the story of the Prodigal Son. It’s the perfect story of lunacy, and the complete justification for irresponsible “Christian” behavior. If I’d read far enough through my Bible as a young boy, I would have stopped then and there at the Prodigal Son and made that my model of personal behavior. The Prodigal Son gets to have his cake (actually someone else’s) and eat it too. I can’t think of a better religious lifestyle than to spend it boozin’, whorin’, and being a general reprobate, and then just shy of my deathbed proclaiming my acceptance of Jesus as personal lord and savior. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

The Prodigal Son, along with the far right wing whacko fundamentalist non-Christian Cult, have done more than anything else ever could to steer me toward my present spiritual soup of semi-Christian, Pagan, Heathen, . . .

Are we far enough off topic yet?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.