by God_Delusion 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Hi guys & gals!
A friend, and current Witness, says the Jehovah's Witnesses have the truth because they're the only religion that state that Satan is in control of the world and not God/Jesus as some Christian religions state.
How can I counter this argument?
Warm regards and love,
Jaymes
This argument is so ridiculous.
It's a non sequitur fallacy. One sentence does not follow or justifies the other.
It's like say because rains upon churches, they must be the truth.
You can say the other religions preach god exists, so they must be the true religion.
The other religions accept the bible as the word of god, so they must be the true religion.
Etc...
And they are not the ONLY religion that preach this. (just google it and will find hundreds of pages speaking about that).
They are not the ONLY one in nothing at all.
They even are not the MOST crazy religion out there. Islam have the first prize in that.
In thirty years of being a JW, I found no evidence that Satan rules the world, or even exists. The fact that bad things happen is not proof of an invisible spirit being, just proof that we are imperfect souls. The JW worldview is a fairy tale. There are problems, sure, but some things are actually getting better. The JWs like to focus on the bad, because it validates their beliefs, that the world is headed for destruction and this particular religion is the only path to salvation. Don't fall for it.
According to their beliefs, God is going to destroy everyone who isn't a JW. Think about that
Millions of people in China, who never heard of Jehovah
Innocent children whose only crime is to be born to the wrong parents
Sincere Christians who practice Christianity differently than JWs.
Jehovah's Witnesses who don't do everything some men in Brooklyn say to do
If you believe God exists, do you really imagine he could kill billions of people because they didn't know about this obscure religion? Your friend is in a cult. This religion uses mind control to keep its members enslaved. Jehovah's Witnesses practice disfellowshiping. Once you are a member, you can be kicked out if you do anything they do not approve of, like celebrating Christmas. Your JW friends and family will be forced to shun you. Three men will decide your fate and your friends and family will not even be allowed to ask what you did.
You do not want to be a part of this.
You can counter this argument with two words: Prove it.
First of all, provide evidence that Satan even exists. Then show their evidence that Satan is in charge of the world. (To me it looks like the planet is being run for the most part by incompetent thugs, the rest by mere incompetents.) Then show that this wacko religion is the only one preaching that Satan is in charge.
CyrusThePersian
Most of the comments above would not fly well with someone who believes the Bible is God's Word, since they are based on the idea that the Bible is wrong.
For a different view of the topic consider this:
Take Care
The Devil is a Lie
-Rick Ross feat. Jay-Z
Does this world seem "ruled" to you?
It is the chaos of crowds whose personal goals are at odds.
That's all.
One man's toast and jelly is another man's forbidden sin.
Nobody can rule the world. It is too various.
Here is my hint of the day: Any sort of philosophy, belief or religion which purports to divide things into black or white is LYING.
The sheer extraordinary magnitude of variety is a vast greyscale.
It is senseless folly to divide it in half and declare one half better than the other.
Destructive religious cults make reality unfeasible and life unworkable by building walls arbitrarilty.
US versus THEM.
And isn't it a sad, sad pity?
Do the best you can with what you've got and you're ahead of the pack.
Learn, practice some reasonable measure of self-discipline and be impactful on others in a moderately positive and friendly way.
That's way more than most religions accomplish!
Life can't be black or white, good or evil, god or devil---it is richly multifarious and bountifully complex.
EMBRACE life--don't stuff half of it in a concentration camp.
Relax.
Ordinary people who are kind-hearted create a wave which carries the tide of goodness to every shore in the most remote distance.
Fussy know-it-alls who pronounce curses and threaten divine wrath are just a hemorrhoid on humanity's backside.
Chill.
Explore, extend your fences, build gates and throw open bright windows of light.
The mess resulted during the transition from early Hebraic beliefs, which are still reflected in the story of Job, where Satan was seen as a member of the Divine Elohim, a plural word in Hebrew which refers to the Divine Counsel in Heaven, a body of appointed spirit beings who served on Jehovah's Team, under his leadership.
The word 'Satan' was NOT a name (i.e. a personal pronoun), but in Hebrew is a title, lit. 'the accuser', perhaps analogous to some being who served as Jehovah's chief tester who challenged and tempted mortals with various tests in order to prove their worthiness (Jews believed all humans had yetzers, intrinsic tendencies towards both good and evil actions, where the latter must be restrained; Satan tested the evil tendency, called the yetzer hara, of humans).
Of course, the presence of Satan in Heaven should raise some troublesome questions in the minds of the reader in the first place, eg what is the arch-enemy doing serving on the staff? That would be like Bin Laden waltzing into the White House in 2003 and sitting down at a cabinet-level staff meeting, with the POTUS or chief of staff asking him to deliver a report on what he's been up to lately!
However, note in the book of Job that Satan is acting under the direct authority of Jehovah, as seen in the account when Satan requests Jehovah's permission to put the screws to Job (and God signs off on the request). So God ADMITS to being the Divine authorizer of evil, which wasn't an eyebrower raiser to Jews: that was their understanding of the way the World worked, and they didn't see any moral problems with the arrangement.
Only centuries later, after syncretism of Judaism's philosophies with Zoroastrian dualistic beliefs (where the good God named Ahura Mazda fought the bad god named Angra Mainyu, and the good god won in the end) under the fledgling name of Xianity occurred, Satan then morphed into this independent entity who was the arch-enemy and nemesis of Jehovah, the very personification of evil.
Of course, the associated concepts of Satan challenging God's Authority to rule in the Garden of Eden is a late development, too, which emerged in the intertestimental literature (i.e. the non-Biblical writings of the period between the OT and NT). But the story in Xianity hops back and forth to God being control of the Earth, Satan is in control (after being given the Earth by God), etc. God appoints secular authorities to rule on scripture, then they're all under the control of Satan. Hence Xianity shot-guns a theology, and the believers are allowed to cherry-pick scriptures which they want, and ignore those that contradict their desired interpretation.
Adam
EDIT: here's a video called "the evolution of the Devil", worth the 50 minutes:
A friend, and current Witness, says the Jehovah's Witnesses have the truth because they're the only religion that state that Satan
is in control of the world and not God/Jesus as some Christian religions state...How can I counter this argument?..
Tell them WBT$ GB Rock Star Pope,Anthony Morris Said:
.
.....................If your Faithful to the WBT$..
.............Jehovah will give you More Chickens!!..
.........
................................................................................. 
...OUTLAW
