h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Omnipotence and omniscience would mean that indeed God created the universe, and all potentials. How could God possibly create something that would in turn become something beyond His/Her/Its omniscience?

the rationale is that a creation made a choice and in doing so became something that could not possibly be foreseen by the creator of everything? How could one create and fill a universe and have something within it do anything unimagined or unforeseen, especially assuming the creator's omniscience?

That's what people are saying who claim that evil came about on its own.

Really? It wasn't created by anything? Something about that disturbs me more deeply than admitting that the creator of everything had a purpose for everything He/She/It put in His/Her/Its universe.

I want to think that something somewhere is holding the reins. I do not think I want to hear a celestial voice say "oops, that's a surprise."

I am certainly not God. I do not want the job -- ick. But I believe that in each thing, in each person, is an aspect of its creator, our creator.

I see the Divine around me, reflected in the faces and the words of the people of the world. For me, the world and the life that fills it is a celebration of the Creator.

This is my personal spiritual understanding, and for me it works, quite well. As my belief, as my faith, it stands within me and cannot be disproved or argued. It just is. It may not make sense to anyone else -- no biggie.

It doesn't have to for it to work in my life.

Peace,

-Joe G.

Eternity of bliss.. eating fresh fruit.. never having to make a decision.. That sounds alot like the garden of Eden, which is what we had before Adam blew it. Way to go, Adam.

Sounds boring.

I would hope there's at least a great band to listen to, but for some reason I suspect all the best shows are in a much warmer location.

Eating fresh fruit and running about a place without a care in the world is not quite true... You have to keep in mind that all this running about was done whilst completely naked! Now I bet not all plants in the garden of eden were conducive to this naked romp business. The odd thorn or unkindly twig may provide a care or two??????

And don't forget that we were totally ignorant at this point, not having eaten from the tree of knowledge, so no starting a fire to keep warm, and no way of learning that that nice looking green plant causes quite severe stings...

We would no doubt be too busy "being fruitful and multiplying" to care about the occasional rash.

Wait no the fruitful multiplying bit did not happen until AFTER the Tree. Before that we just grazed our way through a huge kid-safe playground. There were no nettles, no poison ivy, and no stinging/biting things. Our naughty bits flopped about in the gentle breezes untroubled by twig, thorn, or purpose.

I wonder what the lions ate? And for that matter all the carnivores? Does anyone else here falter at the thought of a pride of lions munching grass placidly on a grassy plain full of eland, wildebeest, and zebras?

Imagine David Attleboro narrating THIS documentary: "Occasionally after a large meal of grass lions enjoy a snack of bananas or the odd pomegranate ..."

"The jaguar particularly relishes water hyacinths, a fondness which it shares with capybaras, river dolphins, pirahña, and anacondas ..."

Uh huh ...

AUGH?!

Is it Richard, Robert, or David?

Attleboro or Attenboro?

For that matter isn't he knighted? I think it's Sir Richard something, Naturalist Extraordinaire?

I dunno. I just realized the name I used sounded totally wrong, and I think I may have mixed up my Attleboros with Attenboros and mingled my continents. How embarrassing.

There's certainly biblical references to support the idea that all animals were created herbivores...

...which sorta makes the whole BSE thing pale in comparison...

Ok. I can buy the idea that there MAY not have been any poisonous or thorny plants, but I cannot believe that there weren't any sharp twigs, pointy grass, and the odd sharp rock.

The present theory on the actual location of the Garden of Eden places it some where in the middle east. The climate there has typically been mild, tending to hottish. So another concern would be sunburn. Ok, Adam and Eve may have rested under the shade of some tree during the day, but there may have been occasions where they fell asleep, leaving one buttox somewhat exposed, and woke up later with a burnt posteria.

MY PET LEOPARD HAS SPIDER MITES, AND MY TIGER HAS ROOT ROT!!!

Yup.

I take that back.

I cannot buy that all these plants were completely defenseless against ALL these herbivours. Unless somone convinces me that natural selection was totally absent in the time of Adam and Eve, then I'm betting that plants were jumping leaf over branch to evolve defences against all the animal kingdom.

ahh, but Neugen, natural selection is, as you should know, a fabrication that was made up by atheists who were in denial of the existance on divine right to rule of God. They may have had to drug a few scientist christians along the way, but this would be easy, given that they have no morals...

Point taken.

I would like to debate how the "rule of God" is a perversion instituted by religion, and is not part of the concept of god, but my head at present is filled with images of naked people running about a rather pleasant garden. So I think I'll stick to that thought for a while.

Check out the original sins on eve, eh, eh?

Maybe God fed everything with manna?

Or not.

I am surprised there aren't groups of people who believe in ending vegetable cruelty/slavery and the terrible crime of eating any living things. Of course, they'd starve to death ...

Well, there IS a certain cult of the Breatharians, who believe they can survive on nothing but breathing air. There aren't too many of them, however, as they tend to die before successfully converting others.

That reminds me of a Christian cult/sect/whatever I was reading about on my travels through the region they settled. These guys (and gals) believed in, and practiced, abstaining from sex. So each (gender) had seperate buildings they slept in, communicated only when they had to (with the opposite sex), and prayed a lot for new converts. Unfortunatelly they chose to settle in a remote region of the US, so people, let alone converts, were few and far between. Not supprisingly, they died out.