by Brokeback Watchtower 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
venus - Is this our destiny?
Yes, why not? Who said we had a 'destiny'?
The universe owes us nothing. I know it sounds bleak, but reality IS bleak.
I find no evidence of a god or spirit existing.
there exists light for those who try out of the box.
Where are you suggesting out of the box is?
Once mind is stilled, what comes out from deep within is truth, beneficial truth.
How do you know you're just not fooling yourself in believing it's beneficial?
Can you give an example?
punkofnice
This is my experience. You have to try your own experience. Try stilling your mind and experience the difference.
Venus I absolutely do not believe that life is meaningless. Stop misrepresenting my position.
venus - I've done all this kind of stuff over the years and it is a nice experience of restfulness. However, I never found anything particularly spiritual about it. I think it's all wishful thinking.
Reality is harsh, but as my dear old Gran used to say, 'I'd rather be slapped in the face than told a lie.'
Good old Gran. Dead, gone, not anywhere magical and not coming back.
Out of interest, what is your chosen faith?
I go by reason, and I look to the silence within which is the true essence of what Jesus said in Luke 17:21. In this sense I am a true Christian in practice.
I go by reason
That is clearly the last thing on your list of priorities.
Cofty,
In(what) way do you think one leads to the other exactly?
I'm thinking that if one is a Christian and they take the bible seriously and they practice the parts about speaking and finding truth, then one would have to come to the conclusion that science disproves the bible claims that Yahwey created the earth 6,000+ years ago. Also since we are now in the instant information age and Christians are told to speak truth and seek truth this will eventually lead to a life which no longer believes that there is some universal meaning to life, instead one would have to find one's own personal meaning to life. Which is the type of nihilism I speaking of. No universal meaning just personal depending on what motivates you.
Brokeback. Here is an interesting read which may lend support to your proposition, at least to some degree. It is not a long read: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2016/01/is-modern-unbelief-rooted-in-christianity/
Thanks for the link BP. I think it is along the same lines as our topic.
I too read that link. True Christianity does not lead anyone to disbelief or atheism. [Each religion appears as offspring of the time and circumstances and follows the chain of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Hence they are not talking about God, but just are caught up in a web of human questions and human answers. Unreasonable religious stories and corruption of religious leaders gave rise to disbelief and atheism.]
There are few self-evident truths contained in scriptures here and there. For example, I dismiss 99% of Bible as meaningless. But when I read Mathew 5:44-48 it is truth and full of benefits. Between the lines lies the commandment: “Don’t worship me, but become worship-worthy by imitating sun which is a giver (of light and warmth) and never receives anything from any body—a quality that has its source in God Himself. When you imitate qualities of sun, you become like your heavenly father.”
I found my own way of practicing the above principle. I work for Forbes magazine which involves mostly money and money-minded people. Hence I took a hobby of practicing Past Regression therapy without any fee. I treat victim of deep depression and take them back to the incident through their mind journey and erase that bitter experience from their mind.
The best case I handled was of one teenage girl who was brutally gang-raped and thus went into deep depression. Parents tried every form of treatment—nothing worked. Her teacher was my class mate who told me to help her. She brought her to my house. I put her into induced sleep and asked her to relate what happened. When she described every detail I stopped. In the next session, I asked her to relate what happened. When the scene before the rape came, I started saying forcefully—no you did’nt go there, you were in such and such place doing such and such thing along with such and such people … replaced all her rape-memory with something else. After the session she never remembers anything about rape—completely normal and cheerful.
Though I practice this as a hobby, when I see the victims back on track leading normal life—the kind of satisfaction I get is beyond any description. Thus victim benefits, and I benefit more. There is an interesting side to this. Victim is cured, but they never know who cured or how they were cured. The thrill that comes from doing something with no monetary benefit, fame, or thanks is a too wonderful experience which is the fulfillment of Mathew 5:44-48.
People may have different views about this. For example, as a delegate of Forbes I had to cover an event in which Mr. Richard Hawkins too participated in 2010. On my return flight it so happened that I got seat next to Mr. Hawkins. We talked about many subjects and when I mentioned about my hobby, he too was skeptical about it. But when I narrated the above incident to him he then commented “in that case, this can be used to bring back the jihadists who are indoctrinated to kill others.” I said “Yes, of course; it is a possibility. We can reverse anything and bring back the person to be a normal human being.” This incident was before he suffered an intracranial brain hemorrhage.
