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A Long Article by tester1Earlier this month I told you that Mike Belkin was looking for an artist to take over the drawing of his syndicated comic strip Unfit. More than 80 people submitted samples. I�m amazed at the level of talent. I was expecting most of the submissions to come from toddlers and the criminally insane. I was very wrong, at least about the toddler part. Those who claim to believe in God, don?t actually believe dave dave 9 40 2004-01-28T04:27:00Z 2004-03-25T22:41:00Z 1 466 2658 DotComFast LLC 22 5 3264 9.3821 Those who claim to believe in God, don?t actually believe. It is not that I am suggesting they are complete hypocrites. I am sure that many people who profess belief in God are sincere in their belief in the way of life that they lead. But I don?t believe that when it comes the test, that they really believe. The test I have in mind is action. Whatever people say, their real beliefs are revealed by what they do, not what they say. The test I have in mind is this specific mind-experiment: First, the ?Control Case?. Suppose the FBI caught a hacker attempting to gain access to their computers. The hacker?s defense is he had been ordered by The President of The United States to attempt this, in the interests of the national security.This defense would be tested. How? The President might be asked if he gave such an order. We might wonder about the President?s motive for giving such an order. If the President denied giving the order we might wonder if he had a reason to lie. But the ultimate test would be to check out evidence for the order having been given. If the hacker had the order written in the President?s hand, on Whitehouse notepaper, that would be pretty convincing evidence. If he did not, then however he claimed to have received such an order would be check for authenticity and credibility. It might be compared with how the President had issued orders on other occasions. Second, the Test. Suppose a man was found in a Red Light district preaching to prostitutes that God had told him that prostitution was an abomination, and instructed him to sell all his possessions, build a college, and offer free training to prostitute to become qualified as nurse or teachers. And another man was found in a Red Light district preaching to prostitutes that God had told him that prostitution was an abomination, and instructed him to sell all his possessions, buy an AK-47, and shoot any prostitute on sight. What would be our reaction to these two men? I suspect the first man would be regarded as a Saint ? or at least as a well-intentioned benefactor ? and he would be encouraged to continue his benevolence. The second would be regarded as homicidal maniac and would be stopped. But if people actually believed in God, both men should be regarded as carrying out God?s will. Or if we doubted their claim to be following the orders of God, we would test their claim in the same way that we would test the Hacker?s claim to have been ordered by the President. If we don?t get to ask God whether he gave the order, we would study how the men claimed to receive the order. Their claims might be compared against the experience of those who actually have received orders from God. But that would never happen. We would declare that the killer was not following the orders of God. Apparently the Almighty ? who works in mystery ways that we are not able to understand ? can have his actions second-guessed and orders countermanded by mere mortals. In reality, they know the killer wasn?t following God?s orders, just like they know the first man wasn?t. Not because they disproved the claim that the orders were given, but because they know that there?s no one to give them.
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