Gods

Reading the Bible it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Devil has been unjustly maligned.

From the beginning of time the Devil has been blamed for anything and everything from warts to volcanic eruptions, from haemorrhoids to earthquakes and crop failures to plagues.

* It's the Devil's fault.
* It's the work of the Devil.
* Blame it on the Devil.
* He's possessed by the Devil.
* The Devil is evil.
* To the Devil with you.

Dear Tim,

I was indeed flattered that you took the time to "critically" examine an article of mine: "In God we trust?"

Unfortunately I found your "criticism" rather shallow, a wrong interpretation and wanting in logical construction. However, I have a few spare minutes and I will use them to point out some of your more obvious evaluative errors.

There are a number of references in the Old Testament of man (Forgive the sexist word but we are talking Bible here) being made in the image of Yahweh, but let us preview just one of them, it being part of Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

My remark about sexism in the Bibles is justified by a New Testament declaration on the same subject: 1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

Without even examining the words of the title, we first must ask the obvious question: What does, "In God we trust", mean?

Does it mean at a personal level or at a national level? Accepting either or both of those two, does it mean a trust in God to prevent harm from coming to us, or that we may be able to survive with some comfort.

Do we trust that our nation will prosper, whilst others perish?

Or is it the biggy, a trust that God even exists?

The question of whether or not god exists is still, amazingly, being asserted in the affirmative, even by some very intelligent men and women. In other areas of their thought, their living, they would not normally consider accepting assertions of a different nature, other than the assertion that god exists, without being convinced by evidence. Usually, the god in question is the god worshipped by adherents of the three monotheistic religions of Islam, Judaism or Christianity.

Throughout the centuries a small proportion of people have found themselves in the circumstance where martyrdom for their 'beliefs' has been their fate. Others have found themselves in the unfortunate position of being sacrificed against their wishes.

Nowhere in history, in a time of social harmony, is it recorded that the 'faithful' have killed themselves en masse to be with their 'maker'. Humans of most 'faiths' have proclaimed a convenient law that to kill oneself to be with his/her god, without a 'proper' reason, achieves a rapid trip to hell.

It is in need of pointing out that this question has been asked since the time of our first conscious awareness. Even though it varies in how it is asked, no other notion is anywhere near as universally represented in the thoughts of humans.

From the Saturday Evening Mercury 1981.

Dear God,

I know how busy you must be with a whole universe to worry about. That's why it occurred to me that you probably don't have time to read our papers and your TV reception might not be good. So I thought I'd drop you a note about how things are going here.