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From: kfk@ccieng2.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: critiquing the (yawn) followups
Message-ID: <108@ccieng2.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Feb-84 16:47:49 EST
Article-I.D.: ccieng2.108
Posted: Wed Feb  8 16:47:49 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 03:24:09 EST
Organization: Computer Consoles Inc., Rochester, NY
Lines: 39

I have this weird desire to stick my neck out today, but hopefully not too far.
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	From ihopa!dap Sun Feb  5 14:36:14
	Subject: Re: critiquing the (yawn) followups

	Larry, I believe that Adolph Hitler is God.  What I would like you to do is
	to show me that this isn't the case.  By the way, please make sure that you
	do not judge Herr Hitler's actions by any moral standards since he IS the
	standard and to judge him would be putting yourself above him.  That is,
	everything Hitler does is right BY DEFINITION and I can never accept that
	any of his actions are less than perfect so please don't use any such
	illogic in your proof.
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Can I offer a counterexample?  I would like to suggest that Adolph Hitler is
not God, but I don't intend proving it by some moral standard.  I would sug-
gest that he is not God because Adolph Hitler is like any other man in very
many ways.  If he is like any other man, then he is (regrettably) a lot like
me, and I *know* that I'm not any sort of God.  Therefore, Adolph Hitler is not
(was not) God.  I think that is a reasonable sort of statement to make, since
it avoids trying to pin some moral standard (over which we, as men, are never
going to agree) on God.  What I think my statement does is make Hitler guilty
of non-Godly humanity by proof of human similarity.

To pre-answer a couple of responses:
	Assertion: But since he is human, he is a god.  (I *think* this would
	be Tim's statement.)
	Response: Umm...your opinion, which I don't have to accept, any
	more than you have to accept my assertion that humans are not gods.
	Neither is readily provable.

	Assertion: But you have used an external standard by which to make
	that choice.
	Response: I don't think so.  I think I used a self-evident (to
	me) *internal* mechanism.

Just a thought, seeing what might be generated.
-- 
Karl Kleinpaste
...![ [seismo, allegra]!rochester!ritcv, rlgvax]!ccieng5!ccieng2!kfk