I am not trying to convince anyone but it kills me to see someone blindly accept a fact without at least considering the opposing viewpoint which it seems a few have done. It just strikes me as a very JW thing to do and therefore something I stand against. I am not for the pushy anti-god evangelism etiher. However, when a topic asks for my viewpoint I will bloody well give it. :)
I REALLY DON'T CARE...............................
by Warlock 111 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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5go
I REALLY DON'T CARE...............................
I really don't care that you don't care !
Now what is it that I really don't care, that you don't realy care about, not caring about. Not that I care at all about whatever it is anyway.
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Quentin
I've come to a point in my life were a belife in God is personel...between me and God...I no longer have/feel the need to convince anyone about anything...God's there and I'm here doing the best I can with what I've got...say that all the time...got better things to do than get into a pissing contest with either side...
Will say though, those topics make for interesting reading...do enjoy sitting on the sidelines watching these folks stab each other...suppose that makes me strange...dunno know...don't care...
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fresia
I think God is seen in his creation I think religion has just about killed God.
Religion is a drug, and is in oposition to spirituality.
God is nearly fed up.
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Mrs Smith
I believe in God and have often not posted something that I would have loved to share because I know that athiests will rip into me and I just don't have the energy to keep on deffending my RIGHT to believe. I have the right to believe in God and I acknowledge that they have the right not to believe. I just don't understand why the one side have to argue and insult the otherside (that goes for both believers and non-believers).
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funkyderek
Warlock:
I believe in God, but I also realize he may not exist.
He may not exist, huh? How would you go about confirming or dispelling this doubt? Or are you happy to always have that "I might be wrong" thought without ever resolving it? Given that the non-existence of God can never be confirmed, can you think of any hypothetical proof that would move you from belief to disbelief?
Why do some of you non-believers have this starving need to tell others why they should not believe in God?
Personally, I just can't stand people spreading falsehoods, whether intentionally or not. I'll correct people on the most unimportant pieces of trivia as well as the big questions. If someone has reached a different conclusion to me on some contentious matter, I will often challenge them and discuss the evidence and its possible interpretations. If their argument is convincing, I will change my mind. I do not see this as losing an argument. If I've learned something and had an erroneous view corrected, then I've won. I have to constantly remind myself that some people's egos prevent them from viewing things the same way.
Are you trying to convince yourselves?
No, but I do try to constantly check my beliefs as it's the only way to know if they're wrong.
Why do you STILL have this need to preach?
I don't preach but I quite enjoy discussing and debating beliefs.
Do you miss the door-to-door work?
Hell, no. I only discuss religion with people who wish to discuss it. Being on a religious discussion board implies that you want to discuss it in a way that answering your door does not.
How can you honestly say you left a group of "close-minded" people, and now YOU have an "open-mind"?
Because I am absolutely and completely open to any idea. All I require is convincing evidence. An open mind without some sort of filter will soon fill up with whatever nonsense it encounters.
You may have left the Org., but has it TRULY left you?
Absolutely. About the only thing I have taken from it is the importance of continually investigating what we believe, an attitude to which they pay only lip service, but by which I try to live.
Like I said, I'm just curious.
Me too. It's my curiosity that prompts me to investigate the nature of the world we live in. I find "God did it" to be a very unsatisfying answer and am curious as to why so many people are so eager to embrace that answer.
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Finally-Free
Anyone who tries to shove any belief down my throat is incapable of earning my respect as a human being.
W
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nvrgnbk
Missed you, Warlock.
I agree, we shouldn't fight about the matter.
We're all gonna be dead someday.
We need to get along and be there for one another.
The discussion gets heated because of the passion the topic raises.
Many atheists sincerely feel that religion and faith have brought misery to the world and stifled progress and human ascent, on both a personal and societal level.
Many theists feel that belief in God is needed and beneficial, giving the Supreme One His due.
Maybe we argue because we genuinely care about one another.
Let's let God answer our questions.
Peace,
nvr
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Abaddon
Warlock
Why do some of you non-believers have this starving need to tell others why they should not believe in God?
Because we see people believing in god for silly reasons that do not stand up to examination, or having silly beliefs about god that do not stand up to examination, or as funky points out, telling big fat lies even if only through ignorance.
"I believe in the Lord God because Jesus appeared to me, and I know we have to follow the Bible as God's literal word because it is true and accurate"
- is a good example of the kind of slack-jawed nonsense some people come up with.
Obviously a person who thinks this assumes;
- All other visions by all other people of all other entities are false
- All other visions by all other people of the same entity saying something contradictory are false
They thus place themselves in a special group yet are unable to provide any data that differentiates their paranormal experience from others they reject as false. This is not just silly, it is vain, delusional and often dangerous to other's liberty or happiness.
A person believing the above example to be true also obviously assumes almost everything we know about the world around is is wrong. Even though science works quite well with light bulbs, Space Shuttles, computers, nuclear power, brain surgery, etc., the minute the Bible contradicts it the Bible is true and science is false. They have no evidence to support such claims and ignore the evidence showing how silly their claims are for the most ludicrous of reasons.
Now, I admit the example given above is of the sort of religious person many other religious people run screaming from, but this is the sort of religious person that much of the "why they should not believe in God" stuff is directed at, because they believe in ideas of god that are just plain silly, offensive, or downright dangerous, and it's fun to play slap the fundy.
Most of the religious people here have far more liberal ideas about god, and would neither claim exclusivity of divine revelation or sole accurate interpretation. As they don't behave like idiots or believe idiotic things they don't get treated like idiots.
However, they get their feathers ruffled; invariably when you attack silly unreasonable beliefs in god some people who retain vauge beliefs in god feel their faith is under attack, even though their sort of faith (inoffensive and vague) is not under attack.
They're not really under fire; I could care less if someone believes in a non-sexist, non-homophobic, non-racist god who isn't an irrational unfair monster, or if they believe god made things the way they are but that it used the processes we see evidence for rather than magic.
I don't know why people in this category feel under fire when it is really the lowest form of Fundy or irrational idiot who IS actually under fire. Maybe it is because they have to rely on faith? And when you attack the beliefs of a Fundy Christian or Muslim, unfundy Christians or Muslims do not have hard evidence to support their beliefs, only a different species of belief to that held by their Fundy coreligionist.
Now, answer me this;
Why do certain religious people (group A, i.e. modern liberal belief) feel compelled to defend other religious people (group B) against having their beliefs questioned even if there is a vast difference between group A and group B's beliefs, often to such an extent that group B would say that group A are not proper believers?
I think secular people (group C) and many believers in god (group A again) have FAR more in common in terms of their beliefs about how one should act towards their fellow man and how society should work than those in group B (the fundies).
Yet group A and B stick together even when A and C would make better partners.
Why? I can speculate, but I'd like religious people's take on it.
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Seeker4
Nice thread, Warlock, and great post Abaddon. I think I post to these sort of threads because it's a chance to debate and discuss ideas that I consider important - something I don't get a chance to do all the time. I love that we have a full spectrum of viewpoints here, and I love the give and take of open debate.
Now to throw in a little controversy!
In general, the higher your IQ and the more education you have, the greater the probablity that you'll not believe in god. Therefore, in general again, atheists tend to be very bright, well educated people, people to whom reasoning and ideas are very important.
That would tend to make atheists eager to debate ideas that they see as illogical, and to point out logical fallacies when they see them.
For me, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, I was exposed to a huge amount of fuzzy New Age thinking. It was appealing at first, and some of it still is, but most of it is simply silly stuff taken way too seriously. Much religious thinking is the same. So when these topics come up, it's an opportunity to discuss these ideas and see how their defenders deal with logic and reason and fact.
Let the attacks begin!
S4