by lriddle80 53 Replies latest jw friends
I was wondering if only politics was the answer for them because they seem
to be for my atheist relatives and if those relatives lost hope in politics, then what else was there for them.
So your saying religious adherence (Spirituality) is where mankind should involve themselves with to improve and curtail humanity's problems and enduring perils ?
Human intervention alone without religious adherence is endeavoring futile and redundant !
Is that what your saying Iriddle80 ?
Since you asked :)
I think Ray Comfort explains it well using his parachute story (it's a little long!)
Two men are seated in a plane. The first is given a parachute and told to put it on because it will improve his flight. He is a little skeptical at first; he cannot see how wearing a parachute on board a plane could possibly improve his flight.
After some time, he decides to experiment and see if the claims are true. As he straps the apparatus to his back, he notices the weight of it on his shoulders and he finds he now has difficulty sitting upright. However, he consoles himself with the flight attendant’s promise that the parachute will improve his flight, and he decides to give it a little time.
As the flight progresses, he notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him because he is wearing a parachute inside the plane. He begins to feel somewhat humiliated. As they continue to laugh and point at him, he can stand it no longer. He sinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute, and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fills his heart because as far as he is concerned, he was told an outright lie.
The second man is also given a parachute, but listen to what he is told. He is told to put it on because at any moment he will have to jump out of the plane at 25,000 feet. He gratefully puts the parachute on. He does not notice the weight of it upon his shoulders, nor is he concerned that he cannot sit upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without the parachute.
Let’s now analyze the motive and the result of each passenger’s experience. The first man’s motive for putting on the parachute was solely to improve his flight. The result of his experience was that he was humiliated by the other passengers, disillusioned, and somewhat embittered against those who gave him the parachute. As far as he is concerned, it will be a long time before anyone gets one of those things on his back again.
The second man put on the parachute solely to survive the jump to come. And because of his knowledge of what would happen to him if he jumped without it, he has a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart, knowing that he has been saved from certain death. This knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude toward those who gave him the parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude.
...Instead of preaching that Jesus will “improve the flight,” we should be warning sinners that one day they will have to jump out of the plane. “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
**It's not about "improving the flight experience" it's about surviving the "jump" so to speak.
**But, you do you, I am not here to be right... we're just having an interchange of ideas as far as I am concerned! And I appreciate all of the feedback!
Not all atheists believe in the premise of the OP that we will make utopia happen through socialist intervention.
You can be an atheist and hold to conservative values, a true atheist does not believe in the religion of the woke and their gods, because it's just another religion.
Most people seek group acceptance, clearly too many good people apparently believe that going along with the mob is far better than resisting.
A true atheist has hope that we will better the world through the open and uncensored dissemination of ideas in the public sphere. Sadly, it seems we are temporarily reverting in that course around the world, the EU has become a totalitarian socialist set of countries where free speech is suppressed (Norway just introduced legislation where you can be jailed for up to 1 year simply for reading portions of Leviticus privately in your home) and the US is following them blindly while nobody has the balls to resist China where the unadulterated results of left-wing brutality from Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot never really went away, moreover they are still common and increasing.
But we have hope where the Democrats are now scared, there is a significant amount of people still behind anti-communist values. We will hopefully still have elections in 2 years, which will remove the remainder of the Democrat majority from the House. We will hopefully still have elections in 4 years, which will swing back hard against the left wing. The vote was significantly suppressed over the last few months, as the old socialist media dies and new replacement media springs up (ranging from Vox on the left to BlazeTV on the right), people will hopefully get a more nuanced view of the affairs.
That's my hope as an atheist, that things will change for the better because people know in the depths of their hearts that Biden and co and the policies they will enact are wrong for humanity. I hope people read up on their history and see that socialism (from National Socialism in Germany to Communism in the USSR, Asia and South America to Capitalist Socialism in China) killed more people (~100M people directly through genocide and ~1B indirectly through avoidable/ideological famines and war) in the 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes
I'm an atheist and unsure of why I need any sort of hope. Isn't the need for hope a religious value based on a fundamental brokenness and debt to a sky daddy? I see the entire premise of this thread to be lacking. I dont have need for some overreaching hope. I'm happy and living a good life. Many are. Those that aren't can look inward or toward a governmental shift if they truly live somewhere awful. There's a lot of false hope and comfort given by religion.
What I see is that there is no one size fits all regarding atheists and their hope for humanity. We'll keep shlepping along until the sun explodes or a giant rock hits us or we blow ourselves up or the climate destroys the planet (if you believe science)
Life goes on until it doesn't.
*It's not about "improving the flight experience" it's about surviving the "jump" so to speak.
Following the illustration....
Why would God design a plane that was inevitably going to crash, then force passengers onto it?
Sure, he gives some a parachute, but why not build a better plane to begin with?
Not really being flippant - in plainer (planer?) terms:
Why design life, the universe, and everything such that if someone chooses not to believe in God, or obey God, or love God, or have faith in God, or [fill-in-the-blank] God, the only possible outcome is excruciating pain & death?
Seems like a design flaw - in the very construction of the universe.
**It's not about "improving the flight experience" it's about surviving the "jump" so to speak.
So your just confirming that humanity needs to take certain reactionary precautions instructed accordingly by Jah's chosen pilots (GB) so that humanity wont be killed at Armageddon.
......and this is all based upon the ancient mythological writings found in the bible ???
Could you possibly be a poorly educated fear mongering nutter JWS ?
Politics and Hope
Hope is a tease designed to prevent us from accepting reality. We can claim to know what's going on in the big scheme of things but all we really have is the here and now.
Life has some wonderful aspects as well as some difficult realities. Better to face them head and make the best of things within our own capabilities and within the framework of our own circumstances.
Could you possibly be a poorly educated fear mongering nutter JWS ?
Who am I?
Oh, I am just a middle aged fun loving gal! I love long walks on the beach and having intense philosophical conversations about God and life that make my armpits sweat, lol! I love telling stories about my life and listening to other people's stories about their life. I am a volunteer and I have served at many places over the years and have seen a lot of walks of life. I love healthy food, exercise and am a caregiver for my job. I enjoy psychology and learning about mental illness. I am a diagnosed bpd which I don't think qualifies me as a "nutter" per se, but it's been a tough thing to try to manage. As I have gotten older, it's lessened and I am stable and I have made amends with all the people I have hurt. I strive to be all things to all people and that's an impossible goal, but I like the challenge! Mostly I just want to be a blessing to people because life is hard enough without me ruining things. A lot of people say I am cute or smart or crazy, but they are usually laughing when they say that! I don't really fit in anywhere, but I kind of love that now. I was raised as a JW, but left 20 years ago, got saved about 10 years ago, df'd about 2 years ago and that's a funny story!
Anyway, who are you?
Funky for God 2021?
Just kidding, I got jokes :)
