Susan,

Not at all, my friend. I've perfectly willing to be shown something that I can believe in and I do look, but if it gets past social mores and ethics, I have some difficulty.

Right off the top, I think Bertrand Russell and Father Copleston proved in their famous debate that you cannot prove the existance of god without assuming the existance of god. You also cannot prove that god doesn't exist without assuming he doesn't exist.

Presumably, the same holds for the devil.

Since nobody has ever been able to show me god, I have to look around for evidence. Which means I have to make up what god is so I can recognize him/her/it when I find it.

For simplicity's sake, let's stick with a pretty generic definition that fits most of the major religions' beliefs.

God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and the creator of all. God is good. God is love.

First of all, if this being is all that, isn't it the height of egocentricity and arrogance to think he is going to take notice of any single human being, much less take note of who you sleep with or how much money you put in the collection plate? Sorry, that's a little much for me to swallow with no proof.

If god is good and omnipotent, where does all the evil in the world come from? One attribute has to be a lie. If god is omnipotent, then he/she/it must also be evil.

Same thing with god is love. God must also be hate. By any definition of love that makes sense, if you love anything then you must hate anything that threatens it. Or, if you don't actually hate it, you must at least destroy it or alter it to the point at which it is no longer a threat and therefore no longer what it was.

Sorry, WYS, but I don't think my mind is any more closed on the matter than someone who believes, but I can still ask the questions —— as opposed to holding "revealed" truth. Until someone can demonstrate something to me, I'll just have to rely on experience and after a career of documenting the atrocities human beings perpetrate on each other, that may take some doing.

gotta go —— it's time to fill another newspaper with the wonderful events going on in the world around me......

cheers,

david