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Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 12:30:25 +1200
From: [Family member A]
Subject: Thomas Paine
To: "Mike Ryder" <mike@mryder.com>
Cc: [Family member B]
hi. firstly just checking to see if you got the last e mail i wrote re
the book Jeffrey as there was a little bit of drama when sending
it. if not let me know and i will re-send it.
well i have read the first 9 pages of Thomas Paine age of reason
section 1 as you recommended me to do. First off i agree with two
points being
1. man does not always believe as he professes
2. the church, particularly catholic as he is referring i think, has
set up a system of religion contrary to the character of person it
applies with its pomp and revenue in pretend imitation of a person
whose life was humility and poverty.
however i think his tone of sarcasm and contempt for the bible is thus
far unfounded by what he says. to sum up his reading so far with
my response:
a. he says prophecy is fiction and just poetry. While it is
poetry often it is not fiction in my opinion. i have already in
the last email pointed to some current day prophecies concerning Israel
that refute this i think. further more Paine writes it is
absurd that God would prove himself through the Jews who rejected
him - therefore the bible is a fable. Does he not realise i
wonder that this was prophesized in the Hebrew old testament in Isaiah
53, years before the event of the Jews rejecting Jesus took place in
the Greek new testament gospels. surely this adds more proof to
the authenticity of bible prophecy, not less?
b.he says putting the serpent in the garden was not a wise move for a
creator to do as it gave man his down fall and thus made the creator a
nasty being? but he misses the point again. God wants man
to have free choice, he doesn't force anyone to serve him - remember
Jesus' nature was gentle and his nature reflects God we are told.
c.he writes the story tellers of the bible would have made the bible
sound more credible if they have put Satan on the cross rather than
Jesus. This is because Satan deserved to die not the
latter. However he misses the point once more - the sacrifice for
mans sin had to be sinless - Satan did not fit the bill i don't think.
d.he says the world goes on no matter if we do good or bad or what we
believe so this means God is not real also. yes it does for
now ... however the bible says it will not forever. he adds
to this, that Christ's resurrection, and therefore the Christian's
inheritance of eternal life is a myth because the Christian like the
non Christian dies. Does he not realise that even Christ died
before he was resurrected and it will be the same with man according to
the bible.
e.he says there is no evidence outside the bible to substantiate the
reality of God. This is not entirely true and i have already
mentioned things like creation which surely reflects a creator,
archaeological discoveries etc in my last e mail
f.Furthermore Pain sorry Paine says atheism denies God and believes in
man and this is a good thing to adopt and he is glad that scientist and
fellow learned people like himself i can only assume adopt this far
superior thought. Does he not remember the original sin in the
bible - "eat the fruit and man will be like God".
Any way like you i shall keep on persevering... keep you posted.
By the way i read through my email i sent you on Jeffrey book this
morning - it was late at night when i wrote it and got a bit
muddled. I meant to say God is spirit and i don't think the bible
was talking about us being made physically in his image necessarily but
i could be wrong there I'm not sure. I also meant to say about
Israel being a burden to all the nations with the bible verse i
quoted on that that Dave Hunt (a Christian author) says that the UN
spends 1/3 of its time on issues surrounding Israel. I don't know
if this is true because i don't go to the meeting obviously but if it
is that is interesting in terms of being a burden don't you think.
anyway i better sign off because we are going shopping and i love that
lately. see you.
bravenet.com