If there is a being such as God, at least as we have traditionally
thought of that being, it stands to reason that He (or She or It)
would prefer intellectually honest people to people who are not so
intellectually honest (other things being equal).

Many people believe that agnosticism is the most intellectually honest
position on the question of the existence of God, and to the extent
that this is true, it stands to reason that God might prefer these
people.

I must say, it seems to me very strange that we think that a being
such as God would give a flip as to whether we believe He/She/It
exists! If such a being does care about what we do, I have to think
God would care about whether we live our lives in accordance with the
principles of Wisdom, Compassion, and Truth much, much, MUCH more than
whether we believe He/She/It is "out there"!!

Perhaps God reserves the highest realm of heaven for ethical
agnostics! Perhaps they will receive a very nice surprise after
death. Who knows?!? It would make much more sense than some schemes
of the afterworld that are much more popular!

Your feedback is always most welcome.

On Jul 13, 11:28�am, Berkeley Brett gmail.com> wrote:

"Berkeley Brett" gmail.com> wrote in message
news:719ca29a-1168-403b-bffe-68036fe22915@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

If there is - he would probably have a name eh human?

Well, let me start by thanking you for **not** cross-posting this to
either alt.atheism or alt.agnostics.

Also, you’ve picked an excellent time to broach this subject as the
forum terrorist, “The Scourge of New Zealand”, has personal issues
(and my **sincere** condolences to Mikey for that) and so he probably
won’t show up and then go off on one of his repetitive tirades on the
“cowardice” of agnosticism.

Philosophically speaking (after all, it is a philosophy forum) I find
I’m very much in agreement with most of your salient points. I’ve long
considered agnosticism as the most logical position to take concerning
“the God question”. While there might be a question (mystically-
speaking) on the “power” of belief itself, that would be more along
the lines of an “intuitive feeling” rather than a logically
constructed argument.

The trouble is that agnosticism is a dead end street. It shows a lack
of opinion and a lack of the sort of honesty of which you speak. If
you think that something is not valid then it is your duty to try to
resolve that position by argumentation. It is the act of a coward, a
person who does not care, a person who would rather keep his head
down, a person who prefers to sit on the fence, an agnostic.
How could god respect such a person?
However, as an atheist, or even a theist, the debate, the struggle -
the search for the "truth" is kept alive. Nature is combative and
competative. If god is the originator of nature then this struggle is
natural, how we are made to function.

On Jul 13, 7:28 pm, Berkeley Brett gmail.com> wrote:

...

On Jul 14, 6:37 am, C3 aol.com> wrote:

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:28:53 -0700, Berkeley Brett wrote:

If the given here is god and if the given is also that god created the
human being AND given that, conveniently and shockingly, this god thinks
much like one of us....

Who would god prefer most? One who is guided by reason or one who was
guided by faith? It might be 'reason' only because they would be a much
more interesting dinner guest. But that's just me and, therefore, god.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:28:53 -0700 (PDT), Berkeley Brett
gmail.com> wrote:

I imagine the Source of Being as a mystery we cannot plumb.

I agree.

On Jul 14, 3:51 pm, Art zilch.com> wrote:

On Jul 13, 11:28 am, Berkeley Brett gmail.com> wrote:

Agnostics are chicken. God likes to eat chicken.