And, while I have your ear, why is it that most Christians don't seem to find Adam's Fall from grace harsh? How exactly is creating creatures that kill and poisons etc not so harsh? How would creating that, introducing death and disease to Adam & Eve and the billions and billions of people that would supposedly descend from them, not taking into consideration that the little guy he created might not fathom ALL THERE IS and as such for what's hardly the worst thing in the world decides to curse Adam and all generations thereafter and send them to hell if they don't obey, etc, yada yada, not be considered a harsh punishment? Apparently all of suffering and death to this date can be reduced to nothing more than a stubborn and ignorant child mouthing off with a little defiance which is SINful because, well, that's the way God made him... Nice one. am I being punished with death and the possibility of an eternity in hell simply because the first one out of the box couldn't handle it? People are known to give the sacrifice for all when it comes down to it. Compassion and all that, right? Seems that this first man, created perfect, to fall from perfection didn't have any. So much for that.

And can you sit there and honestly state I have God to thank for doing all that has been done so that I can live in his experiment and likely, as I'm not a bible believer as a holy work of Him, burn in hell (nice compassion)? Simply because an all-powerful entity that seems to have had such a huge hand in vast doings on Earth in the olden days (as shown in the Bible) doesn't feel bothered to drop on by again with another grand miracle to get his point across maybe? Would this little endeavor he seems to be doing out of spiteful boredom (if you're correct that is) not be a tad more successful if he dropped a little show of his holy presence through the sky with all the angels and whatnot and said to all, "Hey there, I'm real, the Bible is an accurate work of my inspiration, and if you don't listen to it and its teachings I'm going to send all of you to hell. B'bye."? If he truly wants results it's better he do it himself rather than laying the task onto people who are both flawed and full of sin themselves, even the best of them. When supposed speakers of God are shown to be doing drugs, having sex with hookers, etc, wouldn't be more prudent (given this is eternity punishment or reward for results produced of a handful of years in this physical life recall) for him to show up himself or use a bit more of that all-powerful stuff of his to show how serious this is? Is he lazy or something? Perhaps he got caught up in another project and kind of forgot about us?

And let me just comment a bit on this "all-powerful" crap. If God is all-powerful, why did it take him six days to create the earth? Why did he need to take a rest on the seventh day? Instead of having Noah collect two of every animal and put them (and his family) on a boat so they'd be safe from a flood, why not just kill everyone on the earth except for Noah and the animals? Why not do a flood again and weed out the winners from the wicked? Oh yeah, the whole "I won't be doing that again even though it might help a bit" notion, right. If he's all powerful, then why doesn't everyone act like he supposedly wants us to? Free will? He can't change free will? He can't? I think you're missing a crucial part of the term "all-powerful." Is it he does have the ability but He doesn't want to, then? He can, but he doesn't want to? He doesn't want to do anything about making us do what he wants us to do? Oops... Remember that war between Heaven and Hell? How did that even happen? God's all powerful recall! Satan and his loyal angels attempted a coup to seize power? But God's all powerful. "Yeah. God's side won," right? But angels loyal to Satan were able to raise arms against an all powerful being. Rather than a war, wouldn't God have known about Satan's intentions and cast him down into hell before he could recruit an army? And speaking of angels, why do they exist? "Well sure," you say, "they're God's helpers." So why does he need helpers? Back to the lazy thing? You might reply, "They interact with humans, God can't talk directly to people." He's all-powerful. For him to carry that label there sure seems to be a lot of stuff he can't do.

Does God not have the foresight to prevent a force that would affect his own creations in a way that would prevent them from going to his great beyond called Heaven? Did he really have to create Jesus to endure so much torture? Couldn't have done it a different way? Or done it sooner? Maybe even later? Another flood would've been good. Or here's a thought, He could have ended it all with Adam and Eve rather than letting this go on to an ugly point, which I'd hope you'd agree its at and has been off and on for, well, since Adam's little tantrum that screwed everybody EVER?

And whilst we're at it, let's cover the "fact" God permitted sin to take place and yet used it for good to ultimately glorify is His Son Jesus Christ. "Awuh", you say? Yup, Paul confirms this in Romans and it makes this entire thing sickening were it true. He PERMITS it but is in no way RESPONSIBLE for it? Is that what I'm reading? If God isn't to be held responsible for his creation Adam's sin, then we should not be accountable (none of us, from Adam's first child to the baby born in the time of your reading this and onward to all) for enduring an eternal punishment for something Adam did. You might argue, "Well fine then, are you stating yourself you're perfect therefore would not apply to the punishment of sin?" Not at all. I'm what the world has made me. I am the result of the people and beliefs I've encountered in my limited lifetime in a world that God created. And he did create all of this. Simply because something shows up later he supposedly didn't initially create doesn't make it "not his" or "not of him". Per you it was God that inflicted a life without his presence (the supposed cause of death, natural death of course as everything more is from diseases of his creation. while man may learn to unleash it, it's still there and his doing) and sent out his creations to suffer for not following his rules (a suffering that will continue for all time. Adam's in hell remember? Or is he the exception because....?) and gave the animals teeth and claws to cut and gnash at the flesh of humans.

You might say, "God knew that He would sacrifice Jesus to save us." Which in turn means he had the foresight to know that this would never work out and be perfect, so he knew he'd be creating sin and eternal damnation for those he knew would either not believe in a book written by men (whom bible thumping folks state are full of deceitful words themselves, wink, wink, nudge, nudge) or never know of how important the issue is. Where's my burning bush? I've led a good life. Where's my red sea? If all you say is true I surely don't want to burn for eternity (nice compassion there by the way) so if it's so important for Jesus to save my soul, why doesn't he visit me and have a chat so I can take his word for it over yours and over a book? Isn't a judgment to last an eternity worth that much?

And, in closing, tell me what you're looking forward to after you die. The whole going to Heaven until he recreates the Earth anew with his forgiven, yes? That's what the Good Book says will happen. Here's the trouble with that everlasting notion. Basically he's cycling everything. He's going to wipe out all except his chosen, start the Earth anew (and supposedly perfect once more) but he'll be doing so with imperfect sinners. Forgiven sinners, but sinners that will sin once more because that's the nature of us, right? Oops on the logic there buddy. If He can recreate the world without the curse, he should have done so with Adam and saved the rest of us perversion, pain, misery, sadness, and death. Lazy again maybe?

Oh, and to answer your question, top blue bar, on the right, fourth option going from left to right.

B'bye.

And understand I blow Mandingo on Thursdays.