From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 13:01:11 MDT
Louis Newstrom wrote:
> I disagree. There may be no difference in the position of matter and energy
> that I perceive, but there IS a big differnce.
>
> It would mean, for example, that those in pain could be cured, but that some
> intelligent being has decided not to. Also, our loved ones who die, need
> not die. They could be saved. This is diferent from reality, where these
> things are beyond anyone's control.
God is provably unprovable. Although I personally suspect against the
existence of the supernatural, how can we say for sure that this *would*
be different from reality? How do we know with certainty that we were
not made for the entertainment of a sadistic diety who derives sheer joy
from all the troubles and failings and misery of the human condition,
letting through enough successes to keep hope alive in the human race in
general (even if not in some individuals) and then some for safety
margin?
> As a related analogy: Imagine a child on the railroad tracks gets killed by
> a train. Now imagine that an adult knew this was going to happen and didn't
> stop it. Would you say "the result is the same, so it doesn't matter"? I
> wouldn't.
From the child's point of view, yes it is the same. Being permanently
dead kind of makes "why" irrelevant. As for the adult...you did not say
whether the adult was capable of stopping the train. What if the adult
was a bystander who saw what was going to happen about two seconds
prior, and was too far away to do anything but shout warnings to the
child? Or what if this adult was an ambulance driver who witnessed the
accident while driving some critical condition patients to the hospital,
who could only have slowed the train (enough for the child to get out
of the way - and even that would be uncertain, if the child was
paralyzed by fear) by driving said ambulance, and everyone on board,
into the train's path? Or maybe the adult was the train engineer and
could have stopped the train in tiem - but this was in Israel, and the
engineer saw explosives strapped to the child's body, and thus knew the
child was going to kill other people (say, in the mall just across the
street, too close for anyone else to react even if warned) if not
stopped.
What matters, in the end, is that which can be perceived (like results),
not that which can not (like intent, though some signs of intent are
perceptible at times).
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