Creation betokens a Creator

[Gregory Matthews]

I would not argue at all with what EGW said. I have not spoken to that at all. I think it is clear that he was NOT a Christian.

I have expressed an interest in his statements that seem to reflect a belief that there either was, or that there might be, a God.

It would seem to me that he might have believed in God from a deist sense. But, that is NOT a Christian concept of God. The Christian concept is quite different

In CANDIDE, I find him asking common questions that are asked by people today--e.g. How could a just, loving, God allow . . .? He clearly rejects what was a common concept of his time that everything (Yes, totally everything.) that happens in life worked out for one's good. He clearly believes in the corruptable nature of humanity.

I see his "attacks on the Chruch" as actually attacking corruption, immorality, and all other such. I do not see it as attacking God.

I will acknowledge that Voltaire probably did lead people by the tens of thousands to reject God. But, that was not the focus of my comments. I would want to give more study to it, before I were to say so. But, I suspect that Voltaire greatly influenced the French Revolution, and the Reign of Reason.

If all that I have said is accurate, I suspect that it is accurate because people could not see behind the corruption and immorallity of those who represented God, the the God who actually existsed. That is exactly what people do today, and have done throughtout history.

I do not hold Voltaire up to be a paragon of either virtue, or of Christian belief, and paractice.

The real issue for me, and what gets to me, is that my pre-concieved notion that he did not have the slightest inclination to believe in the reality of God was unfounded, based upon impersonall bias, and not reflected in his literary works, and life.

[Gregory Matthews]

The spark of the divine may exist in people whom I have totally closed my mind to any thought that they might have some indication of the stamp of God.

How many other people have I done such to?

[Gregory Matthews]

That was my intention--one hint a day.

But, with people correctly gessing, I cut it short.

[Paul Beach]

Margaret Gray responds again:

The pertinent question asked above was, "How often do I judge people without knowing anything about them first hand? How many people have I misjudged?"

Well, at least one or two. Maybe more. That is a very difficult question for one to answer on another's behalf.

[cricket]

Sometimes people just write a question. Not intending that anyone answer it. It's common sense to recognize these rhetorical questions.

I, too, appreciate diversity in intelligence.