Ed, Ethnic RLS, & God

[Guest guest]

Hi Ed:

First of all, I hope that I misinterpreted you posting, and that you are

not considering leaving us. I, for one, have always enjoyed--if not

necessarily agreed with--your posts. Your departure would be a loss to

the entire group.

In that spirit, I wanted to address two of your comments.

Initially, you wrote that: " ... the fact that almost no blacks, American

Indians, or Asians suffer from this syndrome point to a strong heredity

factor. "

If your premise had been formally examined, I would agree with your

conclusion. However, I'm not aware of any studies in this area. If you

are making this inference from the composition of our cyber-support group

(and I realize that you may not be) I'm not sure that's truly

representative--if for no other reason than I doubt the percentage of

black or Native American individuals have as high a percentage of

computer ownership (deduced from various income-level studies) as some

other ethnic groups. Thus, although my perception of our group agrees

with yours in that it's predominantly caucasian (and female), I think the

medium we use might pre-determine those who currently use it.

Secondarily, you wrote, " That is why " supreme " beings are impossible to

explain because those that believe in them also hold that " nothing "

created them, they always " were. "

Unlike my above comment, in this case I agree with your premise ( " nothing

created them " ), but not your conclusion (therefore they " are impossible

to explain " ). The flaw in your reasoning, I think, lies in your view of

time. Orthodox Christianity (my frame of reference) believes that time

is a construct that only applies to--and limits--man. In other words, a

God that is omnipotent can't be bound by anything; including time.

Thus, the whole question of when God originated becomes moot if the

concept of time is thrown out the window; i.e., if there's no time,

there's no beginning or end. Granted, this is difficult to comprehend

for creatures who have known nothing else; but, as C.S. put it,

" Of course we cannot fully conceive a Being like that: Just as, if we

were so made that we perceived only two dimensions in space, we could

never properly imagine a cube. "

proceeds to touch very briefly on this issue in Section Four of

" Mere Christianity " ( " Time and Beyond Time " ).

I'd be glad to send you a copy. :-)

Seriously, Ed, I hope that you stick around; if you're annoyed at the

negative messages you've received about injury-related RLS, just imagine

all the mail that I'm going to get now that I've pontificated about God

and time. :-)

Hal

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