There has been a lot of discussion on this subject and I wondered what people thought to this.

Christian Herald (http://www.christianherald.org.uk)

Click on the left hand side on an article called 'Joni'

Joni is a woman who had a diving accident and broke her neck, leaving her paralysed. I remeber reading her book when I was once a born again Christian. She say that God did this deliberately to her so she would repent and come back to him. I think that's so wrong, who would want such a god? taken from a pagan post

What are peoples thoughts on this??

Moon

That was, for me, quite a sad article, that really does help vindicate costessy's point about some religious people being deluded.

I've had a Good/Evil dream like hers (except it was a normal sleeping dream/nightmare when i was about 16 - no drugs involved!). It was extremely vivid, long lasting and somehow more 'solid' than other dreams. I ended the dream in hell:
I was stood in an uncountable mass of people, an endless crowd spreading to the left and right disappearing into the gloom. A mile or more away in front of me were three truly colossal (stone?) gargoyles/beaked reptiles holding massive shields like a coat of arms, and the crowd was wailing, howling and beating at these shields. I realised that was it - for eternity. The thought of infinite time hit me and winded me, but in the end all I felt was not terror, or pain but a resigned acceptance of fate.

There's no doubt these things leave a very powerful imprint on the mind, but her interpretation of the dream was clearly coloured by her already extant faith. After a long time trying to interpret my dream, I gave up largely because it just seemed to be an articulation of random ideas about good/evil/god/devil

As for why anyone would want a God like that - well.....

Her version of God seems to be all about creating barriers between us (the saved) and them (the damned) And then a lot of feeling good because we aren't the damned. This is the spiritual version of
"they're all cannibals in the next village"
"they're all thugs in barnsley"
"religous people are all deluded"

I understand the Christian God to be one of infinite love and wisdom. The idea of hell would seem to be mutually exclusive.

MMMMMM NEED MORE MEDICATION.

Nice one Hal, a classic response to Phanny's post in your thread about parents:banana: :banana: :banana:

you may need it hal, but do you get it?:)