Three Conditions

You wrote:

The acceptance of "Grace from God" assumes at least three things on the part of the person accepting. That person must also:

1. Accept the existence of an omnipotent and perfect Yahweh
2. Accept that we (humanity) did something wrong, something to upset Yahweh (who incidentally knew we were going to do this wrong thing anyway)
3. Accept that the omnipotent Yahweh wants us to recognize that we need his forgiveness for that transgression

I think it's 1, 2 & 3 above rather than the "Grace from God" that many people have difficulty in accepting. If you believe in 1, 2 & 3 then you may as well accept the fact that you need to accept Grace from God. "We did wrong, we need to be forgiven."

Valid points, all. In fact, I suspect that one of the difficulties the Christian faith has in advancing itself in today's world is with your #1 and #2. To many, the idea of an omnipotent and perfect God is either a distant, vaporous notion in their minds -- not utterly ruled out, but not directly dealt with -- or to the extent it is believed, that God is rather limited. God is a either a faceless "force" of some kind, or God is a benevolent grandfather type, willing to overlook and forget about transgressions. And the notion of our having done something wrong and in need of forgiveness is perhaps the single most imposing impediment. The book from the 70's, "I'm Okay, You're Okay" pretty well sums up the issue.

What I'm fascinated with is your #3 -- "Accept that the omnipotent Yahweh wants us to recognize that we need his forgiveness for that transgression." I'll grant that the point you make is a necessary pre-condition to any true understanding of Grace as it's Biblically expressed. It also strikes me that the three points you make are necessarily sequential -- #2 follows #1, and #3 follows the first two. What I'm fascinated with was the thinking you had in your mind when you considered the third point and typed it into the computer. Care to elaborate?

* * *
Is all life built on left-handed proteins? All animals, all plants, all lichen, all bacteria, all spongiforms ... everything? Interesting. You mention that one thing we all have in common is an inability to digest right-handed proteins. I wonder ... from an intelligent design point of view, that makes perfect sense: we're all eligible as food sources for one another.

* * *
Dolphins -- yes, they appear to be smart. There is clearly a gradation of intelligence among the life forms, and even within a given category of life form. We're smarter than a dolphin; the dolphin is smarter than the dog; the dog moreso than the earthworm. The Border Collie is smarter than the Irish Setter.

Note: of course, we could get into quite a row over how one determines that an earthworm isn't "smart." :-)

The dolphin case you cite suggests they were aware of the threat the sharks posed to the humans. The motivation they possessed to protect the humans is an open question; one we'll I guess never know.

Here's the question: do you suppose dolphins swim around and think, "Hmmm ... I'm a dolphin. Where did I come from? What's my purpose in this ocean? What happens when I die?"

I'm skeptical ... but I'm not clear in my mind if that's not human chauvinism at work.

As I mentioned, the chapter on man's self-awareness from "Case for a Creator" left me unpersuaded. Too, too abstract.

* * *
You wrote: " ... did God really sacrifice his only Son? What did God lose?"

Oh my ... this ties back to a question you posed earlier, but I have not yet come to address ... why would an omnipotent God require any kind of sacrifice as a prerequisite to forgiving us our sins. To the best of my undestanding, the doctrine explains it by first establishing God's holiness. Which is your #1 from before.

That'll be my next post. For now, other things call.

Thank you for the energy to continue this 'Blog. It is rather interesting and challenging.