Do other religions change doctrine?

by serenitynow! 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  not a captive

  What happens with a one-off event? A fact that is not repeated.

  On another thread I posted a story of a grey whale and a man meeting and becoming friends. He told the villagers what he had experienced and they said he was crazy. What if the man had died before the villagers saw the whale also?

  Would that be a fact even if he was the only witness of it?

  I find that religion is anyone who forces another to agree with their perception of reality.

  I do not want to do that. But I do accept that a fact can occur that no one else believes has happened.
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  Terry

  What happens with a one-off event? A fact that is not repeated.

  On another thread I posted a story of a grey whale and a man meeting and becoming friends. He told the villagers what he had experienced and they said he was crazy. What if the man had died before the villagers saw the whale also?

  Would that be a fact even if he was the only witness of it?

  I find that religion is anyone who forces another to agree with their perception of reality.

  I do not want to do that. But I do accept that a fact can occur that no one else believes has happened.

  People who make claims of SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE or INSIGHT which invite your participation AND which require your obedience and performance of duty should set off loud alarms and red flags.

  People can claim whatever they like as long as it stops righ there. If they ask/demand/threaten my participation there is something going on well worth being skeptical about.

  Religious delusion is willing to demote your status as a living being to that of a slave of inferior worthiness to live and deserving of eternal death and/or torment. That's rather different from claiming you are buddies with a whale, wouldn't you say?
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  not a captive

  People can claim whatever they like as long as it stops righ there. If they ask/demand/threaten my participation there is something going on well worth being skeptical about.

  That is precisely where you and I agree, Terry.

  It should be noted that there were people who became "buddies with a whale" after they made fun of the old fisherman. They were not forced to believe anything.They considered his story and went out with him in his panga--without a harpoon. They wanted to know for themselves if it was true that the Grey whale that they killed or that killed them had made friends with the fisherman. They took the risk themselves.

  This story is anti-religion, anti-doctrine. It is "come and see".

  I think it speaks to the raw elements of personal faith. Nothing more, nothing less. Personally, I believe that faith is always this raw. It is never processed for us by others. I think it grows after a moment of conception like the one described in the whale story. But faith like conception-- it's hard to say when it begins. And both need to gestate before they can breathe on their own.

  A whale?

  So what.

  It hangs out by the guy's boat?

  So what.

  The whale doesn't destroy him?

  So what?

  But the guy reaches out to touch it and knows in the moment he does that the whale wanted him to. It moves in closer.

  The fisherman doesn't make the story a religion. He just tells his story.

  And he continues to visit the whale.
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  Terry

  It is a whale of a story to believe alright!
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  not a captive
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  LongHairGal

  I can see some people splitting hairs as to what is doctrine or dogma in the Church but I don't remember. Sorry.

  I was raised Roman Catholic and vaguely remember the 'no meat on Friday tradition'. When they did away with this, I felt they were 'selling out'. My mother thought their teaching was ridiculous and felt that what if somebody didn't have fish they would have to eat whatever they had.

  But certainly nobody changes teachings as much as JWs do. They are laughable and just making it up as they go along. It is almost like they are playing a game of Simon Says. "Simon says, put your hands on your head..."

  I have nothing but contempt for them at this point.