My new Religion is The Truth.

by LAWHFol 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  millie210

  Village Idiot
  Ideology is religion's sibling. Like ideology religion is an attempt to explain the world. By and of itself the human impulse for religion is not innately evil - Buddhists and Jains are pretty harmless

  I find it fascinating that religion persists in every culture and throughout time. There have to be good reasons for any behavior to continue. If a behavior no longer serves a purpose it dies out eventually.

  This article postulates that one reason for the endurance of religious rituals is economic in origin.

  Ironically, it also explains why the more more forceful and blunt posters among us are ineffective in their attempts to persuade their religious counterparts when the presumption is that the religious person is somehow lacking or deficient.

  How do non-believers understand religion? Simply saying that the believers are crazy or living in a different world will not suffice. The believers are also normal human beings. They are no crazier than anyone else. There is another way to look at religion, through science. Science has provided human culture with an excellent understanding of the natural world and human behavior.

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  Is religious behavior rational? Is it the mobilization of available means to achieve certain ends? The sociologists Stark and Fink (2000) argue that religious behavior is actually rational in an economic sense in spite of the fact that the believers work with unobservable actors and magical processes.
  

  http://www.anpere.net/2007/2.pdf
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  Viviane

  I pay theists the respect of assuming they care about truth despite all the evidence that they mostly don't.
  I'm generous like that.

  You are so very Scottish.
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  Chris Hannover

  LAWHFol: Cofty - If you're not part of the Solution - You're part of the problem.

  LAWHFol, this is judging & rather hateful.
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  The Rebel

  Thanks for the interesting O.P " LAWHF01" which raised some great questions.

  It has always fascinated me that many Christians were strict Stalinists in the field of politics, (the same could be said for Christians who supported Hitler) The argument was that Stalin, the leader of the communist party, fulfils the law of history, or in other words acts by the will of God; therefore one must obey Stalin.

  The above illustration is to show how easily people can be divided into "loyalties" between Caesar and their religion, and still believe " My religion is the truth".

  However for me the contradiction between Christianality and Stalinist philosophy cannot be overcome. What is less obvious is how a person can compromise their personal beliefs to follow completely the teachings of an organised religion ( such as I did as a witness).

  
  Therefore for me personally the line of reasoning " My new religion is the Truth" is a statement, in which I find very ambitious and has a tone of moral authority. I think a better O.P would have been " My new religion is the Truth :-) " because personally "truth" is just a word, and interpretation of words mean so many different things to people.

  The Rebel.
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  Heaven

  LAWHFol said: Simon - I agree that believing in a Fact is not discrimination. What fact are you referring to please?

  The fact is that Christian religions base themselves upon a factually inaccurate, genocidal, homophobic, misogynistic, pro-slavery book. When the foundation for what you believe in is false, then it logically follows that any beliefs derived from that foundation will also be false.

  Start with the order of creation listed in Genesis 1:11-18. According to God, the Earth, the water, the atmosphere, and soils were all formed before the sun. This is 100% false. The Bible calls the moon 'a light'. This is also false. It is a reflector of light not a source/emitter of light.

  "It's called Faith because it isn't Knowledge." - Christopher Hitchens
  
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  AllTimeJeff

  I am not optimistic that the West will figure this out. In times of stress and crisis, it seems that fear rules, which turns off brains. When brains are turned off, one needs a person or group to do their thinking for them. Enter, "Religion", stage right.

  Btw, religions aren't being "persecuted". They're being called out and held accountable. If one chooses to believe that they'll spend eternity with Jesus in heaven, that's their choice. Just don't stand there and expect to not be called out on it. And please don't whine about it. Your rights are not going away at all, save one: God willing, you'll no longer be allowed to inflict your beliefs on others in the name of the law. Your "rights" to hijack, define, and inflict your preferred meanings on words like "love" and "marriage" are gone. That's not persecution. That's taking away your "rights" to persecute others. Sounds fair to me.
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  fukitol

  Cofty is like a radar on this forum for promptly bashing anything even remotely supporting theism. It's like he scours through here 24/7 to be first off the mark for theist whack-a-mole.
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  cofty

  Think of me as your superstition paramedic.

  You are welcome.
• 

  truthseeker100

  Also LSD may possibly be psychologically habit forming (depending on the individual) but is not physically habit forming.

  Excellent point! When one looks at the impact of alcohol on the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and the Inuit. It makes one wonder? Remember Europeans would not have survived without access to wine because of tainted water issues! The Inuit and Canada's Aboriginal peoples had tons of good clean water but no need for alcohol!

  Another good argument for Evolutionary Biology!