Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here? (page 4)

Knowsnothing

Jam, may I add this excellent video by QualiaSoup/TheraminTrees?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU6bc_Gsp7s&feature=channel_video_title

Hey Knowsnothing! The Watchtower has taught us that a "believer" is someone who believes in and keeps a set of religious doctrines (and rules), and an "unbeliever" is someone who does not believe in and keep a particular set of religious doctrines (and rules). That makes all Pharisees (religionists) "believers", and all who disagree with them "unbelievers" including Jesus.

Sorry, its plain wrong and also unscriptural.

(James 2:19) . . .You believe there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well. And yet the demons believe and shudder.

That having been said, I think I would tend to go along with your observation.

ldrnomo

Faith is somthing you don't have to have in life. Of course if you need to have faith, I'm sure you will find somthing to have faith in. At this point I don't need to have faith I may or may not in the future however if I do develop faith in somthing, it will be on my own terms.

Paulapollos

Knwsnothing,

great video. Any idea what that piece of music is?

PP

jam

Knowsnothing: Thanks, the ending quote, "we live

because things change". Interesting, thanks again.

Paulapollos

Jam,

Perhaps you should, if you haven't already, read Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. I think it would speak to you, especially where you seem to be mentally. Maybe take the time to think on what he wrote there - it certainly helped me:

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia....

Here, it seems to me, lies the best answer to those petty-minded scrooges who are always asking what is the use of science. In one of those mythic remarks of uncertain authorship, Michael Faraday is alleged to have been asked what was the use of science. 'Sir,' Faraday replied. 'Of what use is a new-born child?' The obvious thing for Faraday (or Benjamin Franklin, or whoever it was) to have meant was that a baby might be no use for anything at present, but it has great potential for the future. I now like to think that he meant something else, too: What is the use of bringing a baby into the world if the only thing it does with its life is just work to go on living? If everything is judged by how 'useful' it is -- useful for staying alive, that is -- we are left facing a futile circularity. There must be some added value. At least a part of life should be devoted to living that life, not just working to stop it ending. This is how we rightly justify spending taxpayers' money e species and beautiful buildings. It is how we answer those barbarians who think that wild elephants and historic houses should be preserved only if they 'pay their way'. And science is the same. Of course science pays its way; of course it is useful. But that is not all it is.

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an s sssssenlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked -- as I am surprisingly often -- why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?"

[http://richarddawkins.net/articles/91-to-live-at-all-is-miracle-enough]

PP

Fernando

Thanks, Tammy! Peace to you too!

Glander

FAITH = hopeful outlook, 'the assured expectation of things hoped for" (key words - "..hoped for."

HOPEFUL OUTLOOK = being positive about the future.

For me, this site has had no effect on my "faith", as defined above. But if the "Faith" refered to is confined to a faith in the supernatural or a magic afterlife, then I am faithless.

I prefer to live without that kind of so called 'faith'.

Fernando

I am not convinced that being Agnostic is a bad thing, and I still need to learn and understand more. I am wondering if Agnosticism is the opposite of Gnosticism?

However I am certain that religious Gnosticism, of which the Watchtower is a foremost supporter, is from the "god of religion" who Jesus described as the spiritual father of the Pharisees. Gnosticism postulates that one can be right with God by following and embracing the "right" knowledge as determined by other fallen, dysfunctional and bankrupt humans - a road to nowhere at best.

(Compare John 17:3 NWT vs Greek KIT both by WBT$)

man oh man

faith in bible stronger. middle finger is up to governing body!

Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

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