by Happythoughts 59 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Can you please give me ONE argument against evolution?
The hardest thing for me to understand is how life came out of inanimate matter. But that is abiogenesis and not technically evolution anyway. Those that do not find evolution compelling probably haven't researched it enough. I highly recommend http://talkorigins.org.
Would anyone here EVER subject humankind to go through this hell we have been in since our extistance?
I don't think anyone ever would. Yet your "great god" sure has no problem with it.
And the only reason anyone makes so many excuses for God is for one reason only, FEAR.
If I dare say anything against him, he will kill me. Which proves he is the most insecure person ever.
If I dare say anything against him, he will kill me. Which proves he is the most insecure person ever.
That sounds more like a regular human than an omnipotent being with the experience of eternity, which points to all religous books being written by bigoted men.
I like yer thinkin', Mike.
ash
Your very right ash, reading the Bible, right from beginning to end it has the fingerprints of men all over it. I really expected something much more divine, superior, worthy. But instead it has the looks of some guy named "Frank Smith" on it.
If you are saying that God has forgiven you - how do you KNOW?
This is an interesting question. Before Christ, I would have to say that I couldn't be sure, but could guess/hope that my various animal sacrifices might make a difference. (And it seems I needn't be Jewish to have a sacrifice mentality--here's another odd idea that people have all over the world, the need for sacrifice--)
But I would say that it has roots in the veracity of the death and resurrection of Christ. I think it's rather amusing how people apply theories for Jesus that they would never apply to anyone else in history, simply because the ramifications of his resurrection being true means that We Are Not Alone Afterall.
(BTW, I used to think a person could kill himself and offer that to God. But a pig is not acceptable as a sacrifice, and a pig is less sinful than a man. The only acceptable sacrifice must be sinless, and Jesus filled that bill.)
God is not limited by time or space. Jesus said that his death was for all people--"whosoever"; Paul mentions that my salvation is to come thru trusting that Jesus said it was all done and paid for. In deciding to have faith, my experience has confirmed it.
Another note. Someone believes that if they have good thoughts, they begin to feel better about themselves. This is only the case if one has something worse: idiotic pride--a condition that nullifies all your good works. The truth is, the more I realizes how good God is, the more my own little charade is exposed! ...and then I wonder anew at how God ever puts up with me. And I appreciate Him a lot more.
What is love, then? How do we love our wife/husband? If our wife/husband refuses to do as we wish, do we cut them loose? If they won't keep us happy, do we leave? If we feel that marriage isn't rewarding us, do we leave? What conditions do we have? Why are we always ascribing our own methods to God? Why do we talk as experts about God's love when our understanding of it is so poor?
I'm afraid by the time this posts, this answer will be well past-due. Oh well.
I really gotta get back to my regular life here: my little daughter has taken this opportunity to completely raid the licorice box.
bebu
If we feel that marriage isn't rewarding us, do we leave?
I'll put it to you this way. Would you talk to your mate the way God talks to you?
If you don't do what I feel is right, I'll kill you.
If you don't believe what I do, you're immoral.
If you don't follow the letter of my law, you're condemned.
If you don't beg me for forgiveness, you're condemned.
Now, if you wouldn't talk to your mate that way, how is it better that God, a supposedly humble, caring, kind being, can talk that way to you? Doesn't those condemnations sound more like the male attitudes, say, about two to four thousand years ago?
Logic, people, logic.
ash
I think it's rather amusing how people apply theories for Jesus that they would never apply to anyone else in history, simply because the ramifications of his resurrection being true means that We Are Not Alone Afterall.
No that doesn't apply to me. First of all, I have my doubts about everyone I have never met. The longer one is dead the more exaggerated their life is. They are now greater than they really were. Now I am not saying this applies to Jesus, what I am saying is that I do have my doubts about people who have long died. The thing with Jesus is that he attached himself to things no one else had ever done before or since. Now one person would say, "see that makes him special" or someone else would say,"you see, too good too be true." It all comes down to personal opinion.
And as regards the "ramifications" you refer to, that is similiar to the old JW line" athesists do not want to believe in a creator because they do not want to be accountable". Yeah whatever, I WOULD LOVE TO BE ACCOUNTABLE. I WOULD LOVE NOT TO BE ALONE AFTERALL. But it really seems like God just is not trying hard enough to make us want to believe. And quite frankly I will not change my life so drastically for something that has a million question marks all around it. If God were on a football team he would have been cut long ago.
Hi friends!
If there was no reward for serving God, nobody would serve Him. (See Hebrew 11:6)
Ask yourself: If you knew there was no reward for going to work, would you still work? No, I don't think so! Do you?
Benny Sikter, Sweden
I think if you care about whatever is best or whatever is right, then you are happy as a matter of doing that, and not requiring another reward in order to act in that manner.I actually am sure there is a reward for serving God, but it is not the reward of "getting stuff" (even Paradise Earth (TM)). I think the reward is God's Presence:
Good stuff, bebu, but being a poet I feel compelled to illustrate your remarks.
There's rewards - heaven/paradise, the granting of urgent prayers, or as bebu puts it, "getting stuff" -
and there's rewards: the smell of incense lit in Their honor, the hypnotically restful shine of candles or scrying mirror, the pleasure of preparing a little food- or drink-offering, the beauty of a well-retold myth...
the presence: the flicker of Their fondness or amusement in your mind's eye, the toe-curling power as they overshadow you with a message just for you...
So, in conclusion, what was the question? Oh yes.
Um, any god who does not reward you with his love and company as you serve him ... is a false god. For you.
GentlyFeral
whose altar awaits
If there is no reward, then as they said in the olden times, indeed yes eat and drink and be marry". In other words why not, if God don't care enough to reward you for being in pain for him then what's the use.
