> > So God cares more about intent than about results.
>
> Well, I'm guessing so. On a *personal* level.

Okay. Obviously, there is not cut-and-dry answer; I've been misinterpreted as asking for one quite a bit. I was trying to figure out where *you* stand on this issue - frankly, if there was an easy answer, it wouldn't be worth discussing.

> You're completely misreading me. You're looking for something you aren't going to find. Throughout this thread, different people have been talking at different times about very different things. You seem to be wanting a definitive and correct answer to the questions being raised. I, on the other hand, was speculating on all that we CAN do to best work through or around the problem. No, might does not make right. No, whoever is in a position to do something is not always the right person to do it. Of course not. That's absurd. But do you really honestly think there is any better way to handle things in general? I'm telling you that my educated guess about these questions is that there are NO easy or foolproof answers. The *best* we can do (i.e., not a definitive answer in a theoretical world) is if each person makes honest decisions with the interests of God and humanity taken at heart.

See above. I don't want an easy answer; frankly, I don't *care* about the answer. I'm just trying to determine what everybody's point of view is, how strongly he holds it, and how well he can defend it. (Enough itty-bitty-detail holes have been poked in *my* arguments that I don't think I should be singled out for doing the same. :-})

> > But impact on humanity isn't always bad - you can't shy away from important, influential decisions just because there's a chance that you'll screw up!
>
> I don't think anybody said that. I didn't. It's not true. But if that "chance" is large, and the potential benefits aren't large enough to compensate, my "honest decision in the best interests of God and humanity" would be not to try. If the benefits outweigh the potential losses, maybe I should try after all. But before you ask, no, there is no easy or definitive way to estimate those values, and it's fruitless to try to find one.

Oh. But, before you - darn it, too late - I'm not asking for an equation.

dkd1