by cofty 2596 Replies latest jw experiences
You are not a theist so you have other issues.-cofty
Thanks for the chat today cofty, and thanks for your professional diagnosis that I have issues. I have just left a destructive cult afterall. I am glad you find all 56 pages useful. I may pop in on the thread from time to time to see if it is progressing at all, but I agree with besty, it all getting a bit repetitive in my case.
I am afraid I disagree with a lot of what you say on this thread, but that's okay with me. Love Kate xx
This has been a fantastic thread, Cofty, thank you for putting together the summary and keeping it updated and keeping on topic despite all the attempts to derail it.
Kate--I am thinking about me in running up against painful reality and yet having a sense of a "Good" beyond the evil parts of life. It is hard to define or name it. It doesn't fit the picture of the god I was taught. I wonder what it is. Earlier in the thread I wondered why, if there isn't a god of love, why we have an immense need for love and value fairness so highly. Others allude to this being an evolved trait, an encoded part of our DNA.
But these are clinical terms that do not translate well to many of the 7 billion+ humans on the planet--If we want to talk to many about god as DNA we are likely to be met with a response similar to "Thanks, but keep your bullshit to yourself."--Yet we on this thread are no longer able to accommodate explanations of human turmoil and transcendence in terms of a talking snake, a great flood.
This thread allows me to hammer away at my cultural idea of God. I can't avoid even the incidental effects of culture since I was bound to be born smack dab in the middle of some culture no matter what--None of us avoid it.
My hope is that this thread doesn't shut down when we hit a critical point. You and cofty are at such a point,imo--I feel that we are finally, after going through 56 pages of draining pus, reaching the site of the injury.
Please let this go on.
I would like to respond to the outright lies and half-truths from tec and strypes about their cult forum, but I shall not Mr. Cofty.
That was a response. A dishonest one, or rather an outright lying one. But it was a response.
If you want to discuss it further why don't you either start your own thread, or take it to pm. Makes no difference to me.
Peace,
tammy
For the record, you didn't respond to my friend's private pm on here' who called you out on some other lies, so I have no reason to believe you will respond to mine.
Kate is right, btw. You will not allow any response other than the ones you know you can rebut (although you have twisted some answers given you to mean something else). You will not allow the very honest statement... "there are things we don't know, so we don't know how to reconcile that. BUT we do know that God is as Christ showed him to be. Knowing this, we are certain that there are factors involved that we do not know, but that the answer will be from love, for His children. As we know His actions are always done from love for His children, and/or those who are seeking Him". You won't allow any answer that delves into the spiritual, even though that makes no sense to me... because God IS spirit.
I answered your request to elaborate on a part of my (on topic) answer. You did not respond to that elaboration. But you did go ahead and make the continued accusation that I am 'preaching' or trying to distract from the topic. (that is your tactic on my threads, Cofty, not mine on yours)
You take issue with me for answering questions asked of me?
And a thread this size... just like its predesessor thread on the question of suffering... is going to veer in a couple of tangents in places. Your thread is very much on topic. How many different ways can the same thing be said over and over? Sometimes people like to delve deeper into the reasons for those answers, perhaps to flesh out the answer itself. That is still on topic though.
Peace,
tammy
Hummingbird... you keep talking about this mysterious friend of yours and I have absolutely no idea who you are speaking OF. I respond to all pms that I recieve. If I missed one, I am sure that your friend is quite capable of talking to me directly, rather than through you.
Peace,
tammy
If all christians comply with Jesus' words to petition god for things, and imitate John by praying that god bless and prosper others, then god is active every second of every day responding to millions of requests. ~~cofty
Pray for all things within the scope of personal needs i.e. good health.. wellbeing. to go beyond that and interfer with natural law of events is not within God's present purpose. Just because you pray for others to prosper does it guarantee that natural evil is not allow to befall them ?
Cofty calls this tempory Deism
I feel this is unfair to label christians this way because for many believers there is moral and righteous purpose both for immediate action by God and for what appears to be delayed action.
Even the Demons know of a timetable
Luke 4:34), .... "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"
intervening in the short-term likely interferes with the prognosis for the success of the long-term 'treatment ~~Adamah
Critical elements of deist thought included: ( God has a purpose for man )
Rejection of religions based on books that claim to contain the revealed word of God.
Rejection of religious dogma and demagogy.
Skepticism of reports of miracles, prophecies and religious "mysteries".
Constructive elements of deist thought included: (God's only purpose for man is autonomy )
Autonomy auto- "self" + νόμος nomos, "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's own law")
God exists and created the universe.
God gave humans the ability to reason.
How many times have Atheist told believers not to label them with the assumption that they are but one unified group ? ( even on this thread Cofty mentions that he and Adamah are both Atheist but that is where there common thoughts end ... )
It is unfortunate that people may think that Adam and I are on the "same side" because neither of us believe in god.
I hope that discerning readers will notice that Adam and I have nothing in else common. ~~cofty
Do you think Cofty, it is possible that you are not discerning the difference in Christians for no doubt some do believe that things are altered in the material because of prayers to God ?
If god answers even one of those prayers it destroys the argument that god was not in the intervention business on 26th December 2004 ( You assume that God not only answers personal prays but that He will actually alter events to bring these about... is this a realistic hope or the thought or promise that God has made in scriptures ? ~~ cofty
I don't beleive this assumption... that all prayers are valid and equal in the eyes of God
John 15:7 contains two conditions for answered prayer: we must "remain in Christ" and His words must remain in us
Many Christians know God has a timeframe and long term purpose. If we know accept the words of Peter below , how can you be said to" remain in Christ "and his words by demainding something beyond personal needs ? Most Christians these two kinds of prayers are vastly different
asking for comfort and strength verse trying to alter world events. most Christians discern that it is beyond God's present scope of things to provide
a miracle for personal escape
(Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you , even as your soul is getting along well." - 3 John :2)
2 Peter 3:9 (KJ21)
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16)
Discern long term effects and objectives
Tammy, can you show a single instance of Cofty now allowing an answer to his question?
And the answer you claim is a VERY honest answer is a mashup of "it's a mystery" and "for the greater good" while saying we know it's not a mystery because of Jesus and love.
That's been answered already, all of tem, I think.
