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An
Experiment That Is Hard On The Rats “I would not for my
life destroy one star of human hope, but I want it so that when a poor woman
rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the dimpled darling, she will not be
compelled to believe that ninety-nine chances in a hundred she is raising
kindling wood for hell.” * Robert Green Ingersoll, "How To Be Saved" (1880) “If there is a God who will damn his children
forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of
such an infamous tyrant. I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine. It has
covered the cheeks of this world with tears. It has polluted the hearts of
children, and poisoned the imaginations of men.... What right have you, sir,
Mr. clergyman, you, minister of the gospel to stand at the portals of the tomb,
at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future with horror and with fear? I
do not believe this doctrine, neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep
one moment. Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent,
throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not
go insane has the heart of a snake and the conscience of a hyena.” * Robert Green Ingersoll, "The There is a compelling logical to what Col. Ingersoll
has written, at least for those of us who believe that God, Heaven and Hell
exist. As a believer along Jewish lines, I do not reject the notion of judgment
and purgatorial cleansing for some, and eternal punishment for “everlasting abhorrence”
(Daniel 12:2).In looking over the biblical record
(Hebrew scriptures - Tanakh) it is obvious that not
only do most fall short of the Almighty’s righteous standards, but in
most instances profoundly so. There is repentance and forgiveness
for missteps, yes, and the kipur (Atonement). But
even so it is difficult to conclude but that most of us wind up in Hell (Gehenna), though for how long is debated (Learned Rabbis feel
this is a purgation process that lasts on the order of several years at best. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_eschatology
Christians generally believe that those in Hell are consigned there for a time
then tossed into a “lake of fire” for eternity). And to Ingersoll’s credit,
yes, the realization is enough to drive one to distraction --
“insane”, as it were. And this even after one shifts through the
ancient record and extracts truth from the obvious hodgepodge of human
blunders, transpositions, interpolations, myths and such. As I indicated in my brief essay, "Rats
in the Cosmic Laboratory: Is God A Scientist?
– I am inclined to believe
that God is indeed conducting an experiment or series of experiments involving
humankind. Guidelines and revelations are deduced, assumed and given –
and then tests arise both naturally and from “without” to see how
faithful, true, and loving we each are. For most us, our performance is surely
a mixed bag; a mishmash of missteps and hits. I think, however, that
by-and-large a hefty percentage of each generation has more of the former than
the latter. We are the failures – so often derided by clerics and
reminded that “broad is the way to destruction, and many are they who
enter into it”. While the experiment in-process
seems to be coming out favorably in terms of the realization of God’s
specific designs and desires for the nation of Israel and the people of the
Covenant (Jews and Geirim), most of the world’s
participants look to be falling way short of the proverbial mark. There will be
(it would seem) incredible success, yes, but also profound failure. Success for
the few and failure for the many. Why bother setting in motion an
experiment almost certain to send more folks to Hell than to Heaven? As I
contend in “Rats in the Cosmic Laboratory”, this is no doubt due to
the fact that God does not know the outcome (in advance) when it comes to
individual choices. True enough. But an intellect as vast as His must have
calculated the odds and known the general drift. And if not from the “get
go”, then certainly by the time He had dealt with humankind for a few
generations. So with so much misery lying ahead
for so many – why did He not just terminate
the experiment? That is, before making promises to All things considered, it seems
highly probable that the biblical revelations that “can drive sane men
mad” are part and parcel of the grand test; a component of the
Almighty’s experimental design that helps automatically sort the
“wheat from the chaff”.
Revealing, yes, and possibly beneficial insofar as at least a few folks
lost in the moral wasteland will take to heart biblical admonitions and make
their way back onto the “straight and narrow”. But for the vast
majority many clerics contend, the experiment ends for them in being consigned
to some kind of purgatory or Hell. This may be very telling about moral choices
and failings, but in the final analysis is definitely
hard on the rats! Offered for your thoughtful
consideration by Dr. Anthony G. Payne © 2005 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne.
All rights reserved. Things to
wrestle with: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/paul_carlson/nt_contradictions.html http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible4.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~pgwhacker/ChristianOrigins/PaganChrists.html http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7273/restofOT.html Resources: |