-----Original Message-----
From: paul_deema@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:40:16 +0000 (GMT)Neville J
I would miss the forum. It has made me exercise my mind trying to visualise the universe from someone else's perspective and indeed from the commonly held perspective. I am going to try to limit my input this year though as I've come to appreciate the absolutely inordinate amount of time I've invested in what often seems like pointless debate. Most areas of my life have in fact suffered significantly as a result and I must make some effort to redress this. But I will probably fail. Sigh!
I wonder what you would consider "progress" in theology? To my mind, all religious holy books are merely collections of history from the point of view of the victors and advice for living which may have been relevant at the time and in the location in which it originated. Their value today is determined solely by the philosophical nature of some of their observations. As an infallible guide to the nature of the universe and one's obligations to its creator however, one can only observe that as time progresses the number of versions of these 'ultimate truths' seems to increase almost exponentially and still there is no objective method for determining whether any version of any part of any book has any validity at all. One would think that if God is the omnipotent omnipresent omniscient entity we are led to believe, then He'd have been rather more successful in His effort to inform his followers of His requirements. It seems to me that whose ever version of ultimate truth triumphs will be determined by how many 'infidels' have been killed. After all, God, we are told, rewards those who follow him.
I'm looking forward to the Debate of the Five Points.
Paul D