From:    Steve Quarrella
To:      Jesse C. Jones      01-Jul-93 05:45pm
Subject: Re: Salvation

 JC>  JCJ>    From loneliness.  From the emptiness inside.  From
 JC>  ourselves. JCJ> From the despair at staring into the abyss of
 JC>  our mortality. JCJ> From separation from God.  From guilt.
 DM>> inside YOUR skin.  You actually feel this way most of the time you are
 DM>> not thinking religious thoughts?

I also replied to this post.  No rebuttal?  I challenge you to prove
your assertion that "We _all_ feel this way...others deny it and hide."
That's ridiculous. Why can't you comprehend that there are people out
there who don't need theism in order to be happy?  Why?

Again, Jesse, if this kind of spiritualistic masochism is what you
want to do with your life, beautiful.  Nobody wants to deny you that.
However, please do not drag disinterested parties into your fantasies.

For the record:

I am not lonely.  I have a wonderful woman with whom I live whom I am
soon to marry.  Hint:  There's love and affection involved here, and
it even happens when we're pissed off!

 JC> We _all_ feel this way.

I am not empty inside.  In fact, my life is at an all-time high
right now:  I'm getting ready to buy a house this month, I have a job
I love, I have plenty of friends, the whole nine yards.  Can you
elaborate upon this emptiness that you're projecting onto me and
other non-Christians?  I need you to do the same with respect to this
"guilt".  Are you allowing me and others to exhibit normal human
emotions, or must we create the bogeyman to take them away?  Sure
I feel guilty:  I should have kept my old job and never gone to
grad school.  I should have treated certain relatives better while
they were alive.  Geez, I could give you the William Shatner speech
right out of the fifth Star Trek movie:  Why do you feel a need to
wave a magic wand to take away my guilt?  These feelings are part of
what I am, and I live with it (and do quite nicely, in case you were
going to ask...I don't lay awake in bed at night grieving).  Who's
the better human being?  The person who can account for his actions
and take responsibility for them, or the guy who blames the cloud guy
for everything?

As for the "abyss...of my own mortality", well, yes, it certainly
sucks that I'm not going to live forever, so I'm going to make the
best of what I can while I'm here instead of scourging myself in
Medieval style.  Why is it necessary though to create a fictional
character based on an old book to feel better about one's own mortality?
It's just playing "Let's pretend!"

"Separation from God" is not a problem for me, as I'm not a Christian.
This is YOUR problem.

Spare me the denial crap...it's silly.