I'm not ready to say that there is no God. But I'm also not willing to say that there IS a God. What I say is that there is no evidence that an omniscient, omnipresent, all loving and all protecting creator/caretaker is with us right now, just due to events in the world - from a singular stillbrith to wars of genocide in Africa. And as Mr. Byrne puts it so succinctly, the Old Trifecta.

Evidence of God, throughout human history, can be explained away by men using the concept of God for whatever purposes they require. Everything is explained in human terms, by humans, and not perfectly clear to every single human. In earlier days, people believed in pantheons, ascribing 'most everything to a number of gods. This died out, but mostly due to lack of believers. And I don't think force of arms is the way that God wants to present His path for us.

And on the other hand, I AM human. If there is a divine being, I may not be able to comprehend His plan and purpose. I might simply have to go along saying, "Well, that's how it is. God said it; I believe it; and that settles it." Some day, our descendants might understand, when All has occurred.

But I'll tell you the deciding factor for me. I don't believe that I am stupid and evil. I don't believe that there's a heavenly plan, but that I'm not capable of understanding it, or not able to pass the test of accepting it blindly. I don't believe that I am opposed to the forces of God, and thus by definition evil; I try to avoid doing anything to hurt others. As for "leading them to the path of the Lord" - that's not my job. That's the way of the Lord, and as men cannot be the Lord, nor can they dictate the Lord's intentions, and enforce the Lord's will.

No one can tell me that the word of God is plain when there are so many words of God, and no single one is patently obvious. Anyone who claims to... I wish them well, and I hope their destiny is a grand one. My path is to wander in the dark, trusting in a scientific method, rather than bask in the faith of a campfire... especially when there are so many fires out there.

There's also the passages about "ask and ye shall receive" (but you must really, really believe). I could do that. This isn't facetious, if I truly believed in the NT God, and that passage, I would, tonight, put out a non-materialistic prayer for every case of cancer to be cured. I would gain nothing material from that, it wouldn't affect me personally, but I'd be willing to do that. Sadly, it wouldn't happen.

"When I was back there in Seminary School, there was a person who put forth the proposition that you can petition the lord with prayer.

Petition the lord with prayer.

Petition. The lord. With prayer.

You CANNOT petition the lord with prayer!"

Good point!

It is beyond bizarre that they have focused on the "abstain from blood" passage whilst ignoring so much else?

Also, isn't suicide against Christian doctrine? Isn't it akin to suicide to refuse a blood transfusion that could save your life? A strong word, I know, but if I refused a blood transfusion, and passed away, wouldn't family say that I chose to die? Wouldn't that be akin to suicide?