Hi Dhw,
> 
> You are more than welcome to participate in this discussion. A healthy exchange of thoughts and views is always great.
> 
> First and foremost, thank you so much for liking and appreciating my blog and my thoughts. -I have visited your web site. Lovely. I suggest everyone here make a visit.

MATT: I cannot have empathy and sympathy for something so distant, abstract, and so completely different from my own existence. [...] God does not need empathy or sympathy from me. [...] I am incapable of discerning what is coming from me and what is coming from God. Because I cannot make that distinction, I cannot, therefore, conclude that God exists.
> 
> I'm looking forward to Julia's response, as Matt has brilliantly summed up a feeling which I'm sure many of us have. I would only add that the world as I see it is so filled with beauty and ugliness, kindness and cruelty, wealth and poverty, altruism and egotism, love and hate that I cannot find any reason to suppose that it works along lines other than those that we create for ourselves or that impersonal Nature creates for us. A relationship with God can only be a relationship with what we imagine God to be, and the world we live in suggests to me that God may himself be a mixture, may be indifferent, may be absent, or may be non-existent. 
> -There's a deterministic element you're treading upon here, subconsciously perhaps: It has often been said that "God has a plan for everything and everyone" and it has always struck me funny, this observation:-What if its God's plan that I am to be an unbeliever? If God hardened Pharoah's heart, who's to say that the role of unbelievers is determined fully by God to test the faithful? (ie, I've been sent here as a satan.) -I say this, because at this point, my convictions on many of these topics are quite firm. (Or, as David might say, infirm, as a fence sitter could "wobble" either way.) --
> Matt: [Buddhism] defers unanswerable questions [...] and focuses on developing yourself and your capacity to love.
> 
> I think the focus on love is what you, Julia and I may have in common, but it raises the whole question, not of God needing love from us but of whether we need his (imagined?) love. Your experiences and mine, Matt, suggest that we don't, but it's clear from Julia's website and posts that for her, God's (imagined?) love is inspirational. It will be fascinating to see what she makes of all this, although I'm sure neither of us would wish to question the reality or the admirableness of the effects created by her faith-I've never been able to understand inspiration of this sort... it is a welcome addition, I think, to have such a person here with us. While I don't understand, I hope if she reads this that she realizes that I too, don't mean to try and trample underfoot what has clearly inspired her.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"

Hi Xeno,&#13;&#10;> &#13;&#10;> Those were interesting comments. Let me see if I can share my views.&#13;&#10;> &#13;&#10;> God is not distant Xeno. He is as close to you as you possibly can think. He is present in the deep recesses of your heart. Just tap your heart gently, you will find God responding.&#13;&#10;> &#13;&#10;> Just take one step towards God, He will take 10 steps towards you.&#13;&#10;> &#13;&#10;> Just tell God all the issues you are struggling with. I am sure God will answer every single question of yours.&#13;&#10;> -Herein lies the problem: The only outstanding problems I have in life are ones with finishing my Master&apos;s degree. And THAT, is squarely on MY shoulders. ;) I don&apos;t need to pray, I need to study. -Seriously though, if I can&apos;t tell the difference between what&apos;s coming from myself and my own head, and what would be coming from God, I have nothing to claim. <--I know I&apos;m repeating myself here but it is THE fundamental problem. -&#13;&#10;> The main issue is your inability to believe that God exists. So, just try and talk to God. Ask him for something. See what reply God is giving. If you get no reply you can safely fall back on your beliefs that God does not exist.&#13;&#10;> -There are several problems with this:-1. For any question, you either get what you want or you don&apos;t. Meaning my odds are 50:50 either way.-This means that God works, maybe, 50% of the time. But you also can&apos;t tell the difference between his help and random chance... so again, even if I get something that I want, I&apos;m not left in a better position to conclude God exists.-&#13;&#10;> God does not demand love Xeno. He has given us free will. It is upto us to love or hate Him. God loves us whether we love Him or not. Because we are all His children.&#13;&#10;> -This is an interesting claim. God does indeed demand love. The first commandment applies to Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. (Jesus himself said to keep the commandments.) &quot;You shall have no other gods before me.&quot; Note also that there are other verses that discuss God&apos;s jealousy, notably I Corinthians 10:22 where Paul admonishes the Corinthians not to invoke the Lord&apos;s jealousy.-Christ&apos;s crucifixion on the cross was God saving humanity from his wrath. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice of atonement. So... respectfully, I have a very very difficult time accepting that God does NOT demand love. Jealousy means that you want exclusive devotion and dominion. -> I happened to read an article written by Grantley Morris on net-burst.net. There was a small example mentioned there. A missionary&apos;s monthly allowance failed to reach her. For quite a while all she had to eat was oats. To make matters worse, she was sick. Where was God? When she later returned to her home country she mentioned this to a doctor, who happened to also know about the serious stomach condition she had had at that time. The doctor informed her that not only was oats the ideal diet for such a condition, a normal diet could have killed her.&#13;&#10;> &#13;&#10;> Clearly, the Lord had amazingly protected her.-I have to provide some background info about myself here, so that you understand that I&apos;m not being disrespectful. What I&apos;m about to share is not officially a position of mine, but it has tremendously shaped how I personally have thought about God over the years. I do not intend to slander your God, so please don&apos;t think that&apos;s what I&apos;m trying to do here.-I used to work in an Emergency Room in the largest hospital here in Omaha. When you work in the ER, you see the absolute worst of what happens to humanity. I&apos;ve seen 2 year olds die, I&apos;ve seen old men die. I&apos;ve seen shooting victims, rape victims, colds, flu, and burn victims. Many of these people were very faithful, some were too young to have faith, and some had so much that they wanted to die. (A mother superior had to come in and convince a nun that by refusing treatment she would be committing suicide.)-The story I&apos;m going to share is one that both dhw and David have heard on the site. I will leave out the gory details, but a little must be in there. -I was paged into the OR to bring in some blood clotting products for a woman who had suffered a horrible accident. There&apos;s a medical procedure where the doctor will cut your chest open and directly massage your heart. It has only a 1:100 chance of working. In the middle of all the chaos in the operating room, suddenly I hear&#13;&#10;&quot;WE&apos;VE GOT A HEARTBEAT!&quot;&#13;&#10;There were cheers all over the place. Then one of the doctors called out, &#13;&#10;&quot;If you want to see why she&apos;s about to die, come look at her liver.&quot;&#13;&#10;I worked at a teaching hospital, and to the staff, every moment was a teaching moment. -The short of it is, the doctor was right, and despite the efforts of over 40 people... probably more... she didn&apos;t make it. -God&apos;s grace--if he does indeed control everything--is clearly limited. Not everyone gets to have a miracle. And anything that I could possibly ask for is so mundane, so trivial, that even if I asked for it and got it, I would be thinking that I got the favor that should have belonged to that girl back on the operating table.-And you can call me Matt!

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"