From: seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna (S.M.) Watson)
Subject: Re: "Accepting Jeesus in your heart..."
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 48

In article <Apr.14.03.07.38.1993.5420@athos.rutgers.edu> johnsd2@rpi.edu writes:
>In article 28388@athos.rutgers.edu, jayne@mmalt.guild.org (Jayne Kulikauskas) writes:
>
>> Drugs are a replacement for Christ.
>>Those who have an empty spot in the God-shaped hole in their hearts must 
>>do something to ease the pain.
>
>I have heard this claim quite a few times. Does anybody here know
>who first came up with the "God-shaped hole" business?
>
>>  This is why the most effective 
>>substance-abuse recovery programs involve meeting peoples' spiritual 
>>needs.
>
>You might want to provide some evidence next time you make a claim
>like this.
>
In 12-step programs (like Alcoholics Anonymous), one of the steps
involves acknowleding a "higher power".  AA and other 12-step abuse-
recovery programs are acknowledged as being among the most effective.

Unfortunately, as evidence for God, this can be dismissed by stating
that the same defect of personality makes substance abusers as makes 
people 'religious', and the debunker could perhaps acknowledge that
being religious is a better crutch than being a drug addict, but
still maintain that both are escapism.  (And I suspect that there
are some atheists who would find the substance abuse preferable to
Christianity.)

I think that an essential problem with communication between Christ-
ians and atheists is that as Christians we necessarily see ourselves
as incomplete, and needing God (the 'God-shaped hole'), while atheists
necessarily see themselves as self-sufficient.  If the atheists are
right, Christians are guilty of being morally weak, and too cowardly
to stand up for themselves; if the Christians are right, the atheists
are guilty of considerable arrogance.  (I use the term atheist to
refer to a person who has a definite conviction that there is no God,
as opposed to one who does not know and/or does not care about God.)
==
Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research,       | Pray that at the end of living,
(seanna@bnr.ca) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada       | Of philosophies and creeds,
                                              | God will find his people busy
Opinion, what opinions? Oh *these* opinions.  | Planting trees and sowing seeds.
No, they're not BNR's, they're mine.          |
I knew I'd left them somewhere.               |  --Fred Kaan

(let's see...I spelled 'sowing' right; I got the author's name right--maybe
my 3rd iteration .sig will be a keeper.)
