by theMartian 121 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
In addition, the only positive evidence for his existence seems to be anecdotal stories from people who claim to have interacted with him. A person who today claims to have such experiences is invariably viewed as a lunatic.
....or a President, presuming one is distinct from the other.
HS
To live a life which puts our mental and physical abilities (which by far surpass all animals on earth) to good use either towards the earth or towards our fellowman. To use our reasoning abilities, to acquire insight about ourselves and why we act as we do. To do good.
Sounds great.... but what does that have to do with god? I think Bill Gates is an excellent example that god does not hold the patent on goodness. He's an atheist, but he's donated over 30 BILLION dollars to charity. He continues to work even though he could easily retire right now and be a louch for the rest of his life.
Evolution has nothing to do with these things, the doing of good is not necessary to the survival of the species on the contrary to give a young life for an old man or woman who are no longer able to reproduce or to help an infant born with a genetic defect are actions which do not serve the bottom line purpose of evolution: the survival of the species and/or the fittest.
Evolution is a fact, not a doctrine. I believe in gravity, but I have nothing against airplanes and space missions. I believe in evolution, it'll happen on its own, it doesn't need help, I can do anything AGAINST evolution that I want. For example I have absolutely NO intention of having children.
You are thinking of 'Social Darwinism' that's not evolution, that's a way of thinking. And has nothing to do with god.
And no matter what, whether you like or dislike the ramifications of a theory, that has nothing to do with whether it's accurate or not.
They in fact work against their evolutionary beliefs
Yeah... like I said, evolution is a natural process, not a doctrine or moral code. We can go against nature all we darn well want.
Lore
"The argument that the literal story of Genesis can qualify as science collapses on three major grounds: the creationists' need to invoke miracles in order to compress the events of the earth's history into the biblical span of a few thousand years; their unwillingness to abandon claims clearly disproved, including the assertion that all fossils are products of Noah's flood; and their reliance upon distortion, misquote, half-quote, and citation out of context to characterize the ideas of their opponents." [Stephen Jay Gould, "The Verdict on Creationism", The Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 87/88, pg. 186]
Uh! OH! Looks like a dead end question as always. We are going NOWHERE fast and will continue that way...until we die...and go to heaven to be with the Lord. Then and only THEN will we have the answer.
jwhater is impotent
O.K mad martian ( I missed you dude ) tell me about these verses
King James Version (KJV)
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
King James Version (KJV)
10 When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
timetochange:
What would god need to do to prove his or her or its existence? Try communicating, being seen, making its presence known.
Do I doubt the existence of George W. Bush? Not at all. Don't you agree that an almighty god ought to be as capable of proving its existence as W is?
AlanF - Nice to have you back on board for a bit. Did you check out the article I posted earlier today about the presidential candidates who question evolution? You might find it interesting. The Edge is a really cool site.
S4
AlanF,
Your comments bring up something that I think is very important to religious people -- the desire to have some sort of "higher purpose" in life. I'm not sure that such people really think about why this ought to be important. After all, they have no problem with the notion that animals have no higher purpose, right? Have you really examined the question deeply?
A higher purpose in life? Of course, but seeking a higher purpose is not limited to religious people. Why are you here, AlanF? Isn't it to do some good to help people see the fallacies of the Watchtower and in your opinion of religion itself? You could easily just go about your life spending all your time on yourself and your family but you sacrifice your time to help others or to expose liars. That is a noble thing and a higher purpose, imo. I know that's probably not exactly what you were getting at but I'll respond more directly in minute.
I believe most people are at heart good and if given the chance would certainly live a life which brought themselves and others some joy, some good. Of course mankind has a higher purpose than just to reproduce that goes without saying. We have the capacity to do great and wonderful things beyond childbearing. We create in a myriad of ways, we are for all purposes gods on this planet and we have the capacity to enrich or to destroy it. As for the animals, they have been exploited and many are forced to life miserable lives. They too have a nobler purpose than to merely feed us or enrich multi-national corporations. We can do better towards them much better.
I believe our great capacity to reason, to love, to have compassion, to produce beauty in art, music and architecture, to grow emotionally and mentally, to be what we are, the most powerful and intelligent beings on earth cannot be explained merely by the process of evolution alone. There is a missing piece, a missing element in all this and I believe that missing factor is a Creator. And since I believe that in order to be able to give intelligence this missing element must himself possess intelligence he must then logically also have a purpose just as intelligent human inventors and artistic creators have purpose. Though at present God's purpose may not be clearly understood by many that does not in itself prove he has no purpose and just as human creators can form an emotional attachment to what they have created and would want it preserved, so too God can have an emotional attachment, a love, for his creation and want it preserved. If we have a higher purpose it is to reach our full potential as our Creator would have us do and wants us to do. God's purpose must logically be one which when reached will justify all the work put into it otherwise his purpose will be out of balance with the end result and illogical. A violation of the natural laws around us.
Yes, there is a higher purpose one which reason dictates must exist IF a Creator exists. But that's a big IF for many here, I understand that.
I think that most Christians would answer the question, "What is the purpose of life?" with something like, "To worship, love and honor God." But then, what's the use of that? Other than showing such emotions, such people still do exactly the same thing as people who don't show them do: eat, sleep, reproduce. Can you really give a good answer to the question of why worshiping God is somehow better than just producing children? Please note that to properly answer this, you have to define what you mean by notions like "better".
I don't think that worshipping God is "better" than producing children. My point was that producing children is the bottom line of evolution but the reality is that people have the capacity to do so many beautiful and powerful things beyond simply having children in order to keep the species going. How does the theory of evolution explain that? A belief in a Creator is better able to explain why man is the way he is than evolution. By "better" I mean more complete, less loose ends, simpler, more in tune with logic.
Some feel to honor God they should go to church or preach the Gospel etc., that's all fine but I believe all one needs to do to honor and worship God is to do right by his fellow and by the earth. If the day should come when a man's future hopes for life depended on his knowing God then God would make himself known to him. For now it is not, for now all we are are fellow travelers trying to make sense of things. To me, the symbiosis, beauty, majesty and complexity and simplicity of life on earth leads to the conclusion that we are not alone, to me this makes sense.
Some feel to honor God they should go to church or preach the Gospel etc., that's all fine but I believe all one needs to do to honor and worship God is to do right by his fellow and by the earth. If the day should come when a man's future hopes for life depended on his knowing God then God would make himself known to him. For now it is not, for now all we are are fellow travelers trying to make sense of things. To me, the symbiosis, beauty, majesty and complexity and simplicity of life on earth leads to the conclusion that we are not alone, to me this makes sense.
Now that's something I could respect!
Gumby:"Bible study requires us to study the Bible. So what book, chapter and verse are we starting with?"
Was trying for Genesis 1:1...I didn't THINK this would work! You were wrong, Alpha!
