<DIV>Chas,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>God is the big prick when we were the ones that tortured and made his Son suffer? Something is messed up with that reasoning. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As you understand time, God is not waiting around for hundreds of billions of years. Time doesn't exist outside the Universe where God dwells. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I also don't think you follow that it hurts God for his Son to be tortured as much as it would you. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Best Regards,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Donovan</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><BR><BR><B><I>Chasuk <chasuk@gmail.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 7:29 PM, Donovan Arnold<BR><DONOVANJARNOLD2005@YAHOO.COM>wrote:<BR><BR>> Really Chas? If it was someone you loved nailed to that cross, would you<BR>> feel so lightly about it? I
bet you would break and stop it, even if you<BR>> knew it would end in three days. I know I would, I wouldn't last one minute<BR>> watching anyone go through that, and I wouldn't last one second going<BR>> through what he went through hanging from that cross. If you think what<BR>> Jesus went through for your sins was easy, why don't you try it? You're just<BR>> talk'in big.<BR><BR>Well, to be fair, understand that I consider the<BR>crucifixion/resurrection story to be just a ghoulish fiction. But<BR>I'll play along for a moment. First, I'd have to be God. Omniscient,<BR>omnipotent, the works. God, being God, could have written the<BR>script differently, but he didn't. So I'm going to grant that for<BR>some inexplicable reason the best plan that I could come up with<BR>involved the torture of my son. Second, I would know that my son was<BR>godly, in the literal sense, meaning that enduring the trials and<BR>tribulations of being human -- including pain --
were a lot easier for<BR>him than it was for the mere mortals he was saving. Jesus had<BR>complete knowledge, after all. Knowing for sure that you weren't<BR>really in danger of dying would make the crucifixion business a whole<BR>lot easier. God, being God, knew that Jesus knew this, and he knew it<BR>with absolute clarity. Still, watching your son suffer would suck, I<BR>agree. I wouldn't permit it for my children, not even if it saved<BR>the entire world. Of course, that's because I'm not God, so I don't<BR>get my kids back after three days, and their suffering, being without<BR>perfect understanding, would be a lot worse than what Jesus suffered.<BR>I'm not sure that I would allow my kids to suffer this way even if<BR>they possessed all of the benefits that Jesus did, regardless of the<BR>billions of souls it would benefit.<BR><BR>So yeah, it likely sucked for God to watch Jesus suffer, but it<BR>couldn't have bothered him as much as it would bother me, because
he<BR>planned it. In order to be able to plan, and carry out, the torture<BR>of your own son millions or billions of years in advance, there must<BR>be something going on, some part of the story that we don't know,<BR>otherwise God would just be a big prick, don't you think?<BR><BR>Chas<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p> 
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