> At 10:25 AM 9/22/97 -0700, Tim Rhodes wrote:
> >David, you said that some explanations were that God(tm) doesn't stop bad
> >things from happening to good people or "the rain falls on the just and
> >unjust". And then the hacks say, "God works in mysterious ways".
> >
> >Did you chose the hacks' explanation for any reason other than to use it
> >as a strawman, Tad? David?
>
> I fail to see how that is a strawman when real theists (including Tad's
> father-in-law) say exactly that. What do *you* mean by strawman?
Choosing the weakest, flakeyest, most marginal version of a position to
attack over the other more thoughtful ones. All you can prove by this is
that the flakes are flakes (nothing new), and very little about theists in
general. This seems less than constructive to me.
Many run-of-the-mill theists (and Tad's father-in-law) may hold to "God
works in mysterious ways" as a last line of defense, but I have yet to
meet a theologian that makes the same mistake.
(Note: theist/theologian is not unlike scientologist/scientist)
-Prof. Tim