Monday, May 30, 2005  Why doesn't God make us be good?  If God
is omnipotent, then why didn't he make people who couldn't sin?
This is quite often considered to be an argument against the
existence of God. However, I happened upon this, in Isaac
Asimov's "Second Foundation": They feared him and obeyed him
and, perhaps, even respected him - from a goodly distance. But
who could look at him without contempt? Only those he had
Converted. And of what value was their artificial loyalty? It
lacked flavor. He might have adopted titles, and enforced
ritual, and invented elaborations, but even that would have
changed nothing. Better - or at least, no worse - to be simply
the FIrst Citizen - and to hide himself.  This is a perspective
from the Mule - a mutant, who is able to control people's
emotions - to the extent that he needs no security, because even
people that approach him to assassinate him end up feeling
completely loyal to him.  The point is, from the perspective of
this passage, that compelled loyalty has no