Although you may not practise any religion anymore do you......

by JH 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Stealth453

  No. In my opinion, the bible is nothing more than a collection of folk tales, and fairy tales.

  So, for me to defend it as some sort of authority, would be absurd.
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  B_Deserter

  A little bit off-topic here, but yes I do sometimes find myself debating theological viewpoints. However, even though the Bible DOES have some accurate accounts of historical events, that doesn't erase the blatant historical and scientific errors it contains as well. It may jive with Assyrian historical accounts, but it still has talking donkeys, snakes, and every species of animal in the world fitting on one boat.
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  WTWizard

  I don't think the Bible is worth defending. It is all parables and historic references. Most of it happened when man was "bicameral", which means they needed instruction from without. Back then, this instruction came from the right brain, often hallucinated. You may have had this experience if you were half asleep and jolted awake by a dream-like flash. These instructions would come up when the person was under stress, and they would tell the person the way out. Schizophrenics today are the closest example of this condition we have today.

  In fact, this explains most of the miracles. Moses merely hallucinated the burning bush and the instructions from God. That also explains why no one else but the recipient could understand the message at the time. Most of the Old Testament characters were like this. The experiences were put down in writing, and these writings survive as the Old Testament of the Bible.

  Jesus, on the other hand, sought to release man from this condition. By then, society was too complicated for the bicameral solution to work, so man needed to think to solve problems. But a few corrupt people took advantage of the situation, using this new power to hold the masses in submission. That is why Plato and Aristotle's theories differ so much: Plato sided with the few controlling the masses, while Aristotle and Socrates favored liberating the individual. Jesus actually favored the liberation, and created the God concept to allow people to have a tool against the authorities that abused the power to control man. Due to the fact that Jesus was dealing with peasants who were still in bicameral mode, he had to use parables that are not applicable once you are thinking on your own.

  Then came Paul. He already gained the ability to think, but mistakenly took the parables of the Bible literally. That is the basis for a lot of the rules that the Catholic church ultimately took advantage of in order to gain Platonic control of people. And later, the Watchtower Society further altered the Bible to make it even more mystic and usurp more control than even the mainstream religions. It's all about controlling people.

  Now, there are heated arguments about this, and anyone who thinks Christianity is for them is free to continue practicing their denomination. However, anyone interested in an alternate viewpoint of the Bible can find Aristotle and Socrates' works, and compare it to Plato. You may study these in as much depth as you wish (perhaps why the churches, and especially the Watchtower Society, denounce these "empty philosophical debates" as dead works). Ayn Rand is also an author of material that refutes the control elements of the Bible; you may check her works as well.

  Basically, I am more interested in getting as many differing viewpoints in the Bible as possible and still not having it being used by an organization to control people with fraud or coercion. There is no proof which one is accurate, but forming a valid opinion requires checking several sources and several different viewpoints. And that's why I do not defend any one viewpoint, even if I believe one is correct. I feel the correct one will ultimately rise to the top when enough people get sick of high-control groups.
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  changeling

  I tend to walk away from anything "religious". It makes me sick.

  changeling
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  ButtLight

  Although you may not practise any religion anymore do you still defend what the bible says to your best, when someone of another faith says something you know is completely false...

  Kinda like what you do to me? Lmao Problem is........we have to question, or at least I do, whether what we were taught, is the real meaning of the scriptures!
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  Seeker4

  I no longer have any belief that the Bible is anything but history, myth, and the ramblings of some madmen or hallucinators.
  
  The cool thing about being an atheist now is being able to explain stuff to people about the Bible without trying to prove one thing or another. I did a ton of this when the Passion of Christ film came out. There would be four or five people in the office throwing questions at me for a half hour at a time! It was fun.
  
  S4
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  JH

  Kinda like what you do to me?

  Yes, I'm trying to make you realize that the spirit of the dead goes straight to God when a person dies !!!
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  ButtLight

  Yes, I'm trying to make you realize that the spirit of the dead goes straight to God when a person dies

  Then show me where in the bible it says our spirit goes STRAIGHT to god, and I will reconsider

  Ecclesiastes 12: 7........ Then the dust returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to the true god who gave it.

  I didnt see anything to prove that our spirit goes right away.........
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  JH

  Rat 38:19

  When a woman finally stops talking, her spirit goes straight to her creator in heaven.
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  minimus

  yes.....I was watching The Last Temptation of Christ last night with my gf and I was getting irritated by how "unbiblical" it was and I said so.