> That is one of the views I have held for quite a long time. The Christian
> Old Testament god is a particularly nasty critter..if this is the way things
> actually run, I will be quite happy to take my rightful place in Hell.
Fact check: the Old Testament god is Judaic, not Christian, and Hell is not an
Old Testament concept.
An interesting afterlife is not a Judaic concept, unless you go to the
mystics. However nasty the behavior of Jehovah he at least inflicted his idea
of justice in the real world. Adam and Eve weren't sent to hell when they
died, but sentenced to labor and death in this world (along with their
children.) The snake got to crawl. When the Jews ticked off God he went
ahead and killed them, or let them be enslaved. When he was happy he let them
genocide the natives.
The Jews did have 'sheol', which as far as I know was similar to the default
Greek afterlife. Real dull. "We have a soul, but there's not much point to
it."
At any rate, I share Max's view. I am not a theist, therefore 'a-theist' is
a perfectly appropriate label.
> If there are gods or a God, I have a hard time seeing any reason why this
> being would have any particular interest in the goings-on of Terrans or any
> other lifeform, except as far as these beings could evolve to a level
> capable of providing stimulating conversation or competition...
"Pets."
-xx- GSV Urban Chauvinist X-)
"Umm. Systems analysts rarely call their parents from across the country in
response to mysterious problems. Still more rarely do they disappear. It is
not part of the technical mentality to disappear."
-- R.A. MacAvoy, _Tea with the Black Dragon_, Oolong