God fuels the goodness of us all -- even unbelievers

I'm not surprised to read the overwhelmingly negative responses to Mr. Daly's remarks. I, too, am a Christian and can relate spiritually to his views. The problem becomes when you try to prove faith. The very definition of faith is belief in the unseen (or unproven.)

I don't think Daly is claiming his views are a matter of proof. They stem from his faith and whether you agree with him or not is inconsequential.

As believers, we accept that in the flesh dwelleth no good thing. All that is good and perfect comes from God. Many of you disagree with this because you obviously do not accept the teachings of the Bible/Christianity and that's okay. I'm not trying to convince you otherwise. At the same time, no non-believer--with all his perceived knowledge and intellect--has convinced me that my own faith is foolishness.

Kind of another way of saying, "Everyone else is no good, cause if you don't believe in my religion, it's just my God making you be good anyway."

Why, that way you don't have to treat people of other religions as having any values or ways of their own, do you, Mr. Daly?

Jim Daly said: Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28).

Jim Daly does not KNOW that this statement is true. He may believe it is true, but his believing does not make it so.

All his response is based on Biblical "proof texts" and it seems safe to assume that Daly is a firm believer in the absolute truth of the Bible. And as we all know, the Bible is true because the Bible says it is true.

It is always interesting to read what any person (Christian, Muslem, athiest) claims to KNOW about God. But the real truth is WHETHER DALY ACKNOLEDGES IT OR NOT, none of us KNOW.

Mr. Daly,

Your essay begs the question: "Do gods exist"?

Your conclusions then rest on a false premise because you failed to prove that any gods exist whatsoever.

Sloppy logic is sloppy thinking and is not very convincing at all.

Epicurus:_____________________________

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

Fortunately for the world, science has successfully undermined the simpleminded religions - the Abrahamic cults, mainly Christianity and Islam.

Christianity and Islam have had a good 2000 year run preying on ignorance and the ignorant. This ended for Christianity in Europe with the development of science. It is now looking for the ignorant and uneducated in Africa and South America.

Islam - a strange combination of ignorance and intolerance - has been picking the lowest lying fruit for a 1000 years as apparent in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Now is the time for science, logic, and deeper & truer spirituality - not supremacist, intolerant cults like Christianity and Islam that proselytize and force their views on others. This results in conflict, violence, and suffering.

Now is the time for Vedanta & Hinduism. After 1000 years of anti-Hindu propaganda, many are not prepared to hear the wisdom or absorb the deep & complex monistic philosophy which is consistent with science. Now is a good time to start; at least some will benefit.

A new age of rational spirituality is again arriving, and Hinduism and Vedanta will lead the way again.

"Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28). We can no more escape this all-embracing truth than we can jump outside of our own skin."

Since it is not truth in any way shape or form it, it is ignorable.

"It's critical to add, though, that Christians don't believe this "natural goodness" is adequate, in and of itself, to make us right with God. Like every other aspect of the Image of God in man, it has been compromised by sin, and sin cannot be washed away without a sacrifice. That's why we need a Savior. "

There is no need to be "right with" some creation of the human mind (god), unless one has created the entity in their own imagination. No one factually "needs" a "savior". Some people just think they do.

In the Gita god offers that the most important gift to mankind is yagya - sacrifice. Not sacrifice by proxy but personal sacrifice. Sacrifice not just of material wealth as donation, but sacrifice as karmic actions (your job to help the family), sacrifice as disciplined thinking, sacrifice as doing the right rather than the pleasurable, etc. If that most important gift is given up to a proxy (savior) you deny the very benefit of being given a chance to be human in its full spiritual context.

It is not that the world is made up of sin. It is that the world is a place for us to love. A place to sacrifice our ego and our desires (detachment and renunciation) to some one else. That is the relative divinity of this universe. There is not compromise,not eternal sin, it is opportunity to love.

Don't give up your opportunity to a proxy. In a christian construct, be your own christ.

hariaum