God could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet
never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness
unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting
miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell - mouths mercy and invented hell - mouths Golden
Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none
himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for
man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness,
invites this poor, abused slave to worship him! . . .
You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, thesilly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks - in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The
dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier.
It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all adream - a grotesque and foolish dream.
Nothing exists---but YOU!
And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a
homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!
MARK TWAIN--The Mysterious Stranger
The MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.............
by Terry 15 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Terry
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restrangled
God seemed to just let mankind's above destiny rely on a piece of fruit and a sneaky snake.
In order to correct this problem he sent his Son to suffer for everyone, and then left it open to interpretation for every Tom, Dick and Harry that ever lived.....to relive what Mark Twain wrote.
r.
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Terry
Amen.
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bluecanary
Believers like to say that because God is higher than us we can't hold him to the standards we live by. I disagree. In fact, I say that if there is a God he must be held to higher standards than we are. I expect adults to have better behavior than children. I hold humans to higher standards than animals. If we are to be held to a strict moral code why would a supposedly superior being not be held moreso?
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SacrificialLoon
There's a claymation 'cliff's notes' of The Mysterious Stranger from a movie or tv series qute a while ago. It was aimed at children but it seems pretty deep for a kids show.
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glenster
Sometimes people look at the good and bad of the world, God or not, and say,
like Job, I'm glad for the shot at life and what good I found in it. Some
don't. I think Twain had financial failures and lost everyone he loved the most
around then--sort of like Job without the ending. That was pretty dark Mark.
He rallied later, though, which is good. I like Mark Twain, and I'm glad he
came to like himself again, too.
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/ -
beksbks
I love that story! Hardly a book, but sure worth the read.
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poppers
Fantastic quote! Twain is right on the money - There is the "true" You, and there is the imaginary you, and most people are lost in the dream world created by the imaginary you. Thanks Terry.
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Terry
There are several versions of The Mysterious Stranger. One was complete by somebody else. There is an edition that has all the version.
The Chronicles of Young Satan was dovetailed in to the cutoff point and a pseudo ending created in one of them.
The clay figures are indeed quite a creepy idea.
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beksbks
I own the Prometheus Books copy at 121 pages. I haven't read it in at least ten years. Just pulled it off the shelf, and looked at the last page. Damn you Terry!!!