RESOLVED:  THE GOD OF CALVIN IS REAL

from an actual on-line debate with Peter ------.

BILL'S OPENING STATEMENT:  I yield the debate and agree that the god of Calvin is real.  He is a real product of human imagination and ranks on the top shelf with Snow White, Baron von Munchausen, Tooth Fairy, Mithra, Til Eugenspiegle, the new godlet of the mormons and my favorite, GREAT FROG. 

I expect Peter doubts Great Frog's claim to have created the cosmos from holy pond scum.  It is a stupid claim, yet it stands on exactly the same footing as the creation stories of Peter's god's handbook.  (That those stories were copied whole cloth from earlier religions is a clue.)

Peter will tell you his cult's god created us and only he (the god, not Peter) could give us the power to think and reason.  It is a curious assertion  since his god was only recently invented.  The earth and cosmos were going along fine under the long series of prior gods. 

Peter, like all of us, was born an atheist and he remains an atheist toward all past present and future gods except his current pet.  Had we been born in ancient Egypt,  Peter  would be fiercely debating for the reality of The Great Sun God Ra, creator of everything and provider of sun , rain, crops and bla, bla, bla.   I would be saying,  'Not so fast Pete.  Notice that the sun and rain carry on fine even when you miss a day with prayers and burnt offerings."

Gods have come and gone; Yahweh of the Calvin cult is just as impotent as Athena, Ra, or Jesus or Satan.  That is easy to prove with competitive prayers.  If I hadn't already lost this debate we could hold an ox burning for a demonstration.  

I don't know why  Peter has settled in with Calvin's Yahweh instead of Allah or Pat Robertson.  Probably it is what Peter was brainwashed with as a child.  That is the usual way the virus spreads.  But I say, don't give up on Peter; he might yet be brave and face the unknown decently like a Freethinker.  I say, Peter, dump the whole pile of gods and spooks into the superstition trash can.  

Since I have lost this debate we can all go have a beer.  May the Great Frog be in your prayers and ever protect you from the bad boogie man under the bed.