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- Xref: sparky alt.atheism:24783 talk.religion.misc:24955
- Newsgroups: alt.atheism,talk.religion.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!nuchat!kevin
- From: kevin@nuchat.sccsi.com (Kevin Brown)
- Subject: Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER
- Message-ID: <1993Jan2.212024.5644@nuchat.sccsi.com>
- Organization: I can't see any in the immediate vicinity...
- References: <1992Dec30.215415.3377@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> <1992Dec31.161100.7162@jcnpc.cmhnet.org> <parsons.725840086@cygnus.cis.ksu.edu.cis.ksu.edu>
- Distribution: world,public
- Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 21:20:24 GMT
- Lines: 71
-
- In article <parsons.725840086@cygnus.cis.ksu.edu.cis.ksu.edu> parsons@cis.ksu.edu (Scott S Parish ) writes:
- >
- >mam@jcnpc.cmhnet.org (Mike A. McAngus) writes:
- >
- >Someone else writes:
- >>: Then we come to the end of the story. Starting
- >>: in 42:7, we read that God restores Job to a position
- >>: twice as great as before (42:10), and chastises
- >>: Jobs "friends" for giving Job bad advice (42:7).
- >
- >>Since Xians like parables and metaphores so much:
- >>There was a father with two boy children. The eldest was a bully while
- >>the youngest was as obedient as could be asked. The father kept the
- >>eldest son from harassing the youngest son and the youngest son grew in
- >>knowledge and contentment.
- >>One day the eldest son appeared before the father and sad, "Yo, dude.
- >>The only reason the runt loves you is because you watch over my every
- >>move and don't let me torture him as I will. If you give me free reign,
- >>your precious little brat will spit in your face."
- >>The father said, "No, my youngest son obeys me because he loves me and
- >>not because I keep you from hurting him. Go, have your way with my
- >>youngest son and he will still love me."
- >>So the eldest son beats the snot out of the youngest son while the father
- >>stands by, headless of the suffering of the little tyke.
- >>When the beating is over, the youngest son asks, "Father, what did I
- >>do to deserve such a beating?"
- >>To which the father replies, "How dare you question my motives? Who
- >>brought you into the world? Were you there when I made your mother
- >>squeal with glee? Who supplies food on your table and a roof over
- >>your head? Who has showered you with presents on your birthdays and
- >>who as bought your books so you could learn?"
- >
- >Then you ask if we would like that kind of father.
-
- Would you? I wouldn't.
-
- >First, I think
- >all of our parents have responded in a similar fashion (just maybe
- >not with the same rhetorical questioning). Who here can say that
- >when you asked your father why he did or did not do something your
- >father did not respond, "Because" at least once? That happened
- >quite often when I was young as I'm sure it happened in others
- >households. Maybe not exact manner of response Job got, but very
- >similar. So before you go exaggerating the audacity and "injustice"
- >of the response, take off your blinders and look around.
-
- So are you arguing that because it *does* happen, that it *should*
- happen? I don't buy that sort of reasoning.
-
- My suspicion is that so many parents say "because" to their children
- as a result of some combination of (a) laziness (they don't want to bother
- to explain to their children the reasons for things), (b) stupidity (they
- don't know the reasons for things), or (c) arrogance (they feel they
- "shouldn't have to" explain).
-
- Are these *really* the characteristics you believe a good parent should
- have?
-
- Tell me, did you *like* it when your parents refused to answer your
- questions, and instead simply said "because"? Did you really learn
- anything useful from it? I doubt it.
-
- >Scott Parish | The Truth is still the Truth | John 14:6
- >parsons@cygnus.cis.ksu.edu | even if you choose to ignore it. |
-
-
- --
- Kevin Brown kevin@nuchat.sccsi.com
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