I must admit, this is also something I personally struggle with.
2,000 yrs.
It's a long time.
by smiddy 268 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I must admit, this is also something I personally struggle with.
2,000 yrs.
It's a long time.
Lost said:
I must admit, this is also something I personally struggle with.
2,000 yrs.
It's a long time.
Especially when you consider it's 2,000 yrs since a series of questionable hear-say accounts which were recorded at least 30 yrs AFTER the accounts were said to occur, in a region that was, even by ancient standards, notorious for how uneducated and superstitious the people were.
Reza Aslan is the lastest author (a historian) who's written a book on the topic, and he describes at least 10 others who performed miracles at the same time as Jesus, all offering a messianic hope. It was a trend, something of a fad; the others ended up just like Jesus (dead), but his story "stuck" and made history by becoming a full-fledged religion.
Heck, National Geographic even made a TV episode a few years ago on the rivals of Jesus, where a few are even mentioned in the NT:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/rivals-of-jesus/
Gopher said-
But the same deity lets the prayers of innocent suffering ones go unanswered for decade after decade, century after century.
Nah, those kids are being punished by God for dissing Noah (talking smack about Noah behind his back, telling his brothers): remember "the curse of Ham"?
God apparently has the memory of an elephant for insults and slights!
Adam
I’m not talking about the experience of belief but real things that happen in the objective world from an intelligence beyond ours cofty. That is what you have not experienced. Some have and that is a fact that won’t go away as it still goes on, even now.
The shroud is most likely not a fake either. You have not kept up with developments. There is even a scientific peer reviewed paper by a sceptic in the Turin shroud who was in the original Sturp team showing why the carbon dating needs to be done again. Along with that, the so called Pray manuscript dates the shroud to before Leonardo da Vinci. So for anyone to say that radiocarbon dating places its origin in medieval times in incorrect. What was dated is a middle ages repair patch. The date of the whole shroud has not been done.
real things that happen in the objective world from an intelligence beyond ours cofty
Such as?
Maybe he is reflecting on the mess he created. Everything
he have tried have backfired. Right from the beginning (Adam)
he made a huge mistake and then he tried correcting the situation
by cleaning the slate (flood). Well we know how that worked out.
He is probably thinking what the hell do I do now, I have a mess
on my hands. I better have my act together before I show up.
Cofty, how about getting up to date on the Turin shroud first, before I give you answers that you will attempt to discredit because you haven’t seen such things personally? At least then the debate might be a bit more fruitful.
Seraphim said-
but real things that happen in the objective world from an intelligence beyond ours
How about answering his question of an example?
On this:
That is what you have not experienced. Some have and that is a fact that won’t go away as it still goes on, even now.
How do you KNOW cofty or someone else hasn't experienced it?
In fact, with the way you've worded that ("some have"), I'm wondering if YOU'VE personally experienced this, or if you're only reporting what someone else has claimed to experience, but not you.
(And FWIW, I felt what I attributed to being filled with 'Holy Spirit' when I was a kid, and it was a moving experience. Later on, though, I got the same feeling of euphoria from playing secular music, too, so it likely was a self-induced trance of feeling a rush of endogenous neurotransmitters like serotonin, etc).
You cannot deny what anyone else experiences, just as no one can deny whatever you've claimed to experience.
HOWEVER, that doesn't mean you CAN attribute that experience to whatever you'd like to be true, and then expect anyone ELSE to rely on your self-diagnosis to be particularly persuasive. Why not? Accounts of personal experiences are considered to be amongst the weakest forms of supportive evidence available, simply due to their subjective nature (their inability to be tested and confirmed by objective testing).
The shroud is most likely not a fake either.
(BTW, I AM up to speed on the shroud of Turin, and the question of whether the sample used for carbon dating was taken from material used for a later repair, etc...)
You DO understand that 'not proven to be a fake' doesn't automatically imply it's 'proven to be genuine', right?
Adam
real things that happen in the objective world from an intelligence beyond ours cofty - Seraphim
Such as? - Cofty
Cofty, how about getting up to date on the Turin shroud first, before I give you answers - Seraphim
Cop out.
Seraphim your an idiot!
TEC
God now speaks through His Son.
Christ has not been silent at all. He speaks. His sheep hear His voice.
mP:
Of course they do, thats why everybody who hears has a different message. How many xian variations are we up to now ?