Ok so you left the idea of God - what would it take to come back?

by Qcmbr 63 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

LittleToe

I think Terry's thread, about the bible, is worth advertising here:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/80859/1.ashx
Evanescence

Well said lehaa
No one can really prove Whether there is or isn't a god. So i'll just conclude it at that
Look deep in your heart and just follow what you believe in, remember to look out for signs.
just remember if you ever want to return to god (and I know most of you don't want to)
God/Jehovah is there with open arms waiting for you to come back quick to forgiveness like the parable of the prodical son.
If you want help with your faith then go to,
bbs.crystalcathedral.org click on enter one community then click on share and care. Its a christian forum.
The people there are very nice and understanding.
Or go to www.newhopenow.com and talk to a christian counsellor.
I don't want to force people into doing things they don't want to do, and I don't like shoving religion down peoples throats.
You all have the free will to reject or accept gods grace.
I'm sorry if I caused any offence. My peace be with you all
From Evanescence
ezekiel3

Evanescence says:

God is from a religion!
God was infuenced by our ancestors!
Well said! I guess you do agree with Terry after all.
zugzwang

Fe203Girl said: "I would like a universal manifestation - i.e. everyone on earth gets the same message, at the same time. Then I would like her to clarify whether she wants something of us or not, and if so, why she didn't say so clearly in the first place.
I would also like her reassurance that if the Incas, ancient Greeks, Southern Baptists or Druids got it wrong, she wouldn't hold it against them, given that she didn't bother making herself clear."
I find it amusing when people (usually women) feminize God. But you would think that God would be male, after all he appears to have a problem with communication. Now if God were female, he would be talking all the time. But since he doesn't do that, it is pretty clear that God (if he is anything) is a guy.
Abaddon
Evanescence
There was a story of an athiest who had written on his gravestone "never to be opened for eternity!"
a chestnut fell from the tree(I think it was a chest nut I can't remember), the nut grew and bursted open the grave breaking the message up into many peices! Thats a true story!

I just re-read this in a previous post. It is illustrative of your standards of evidence. Even if it did happen, you have failed to discount the myriad of other graves disturbed by tree growth that contained theists and are seeing a significance in a random event that is purely synchronisitous. i.e. a coincidence.
Jehovah's Witnesses do the same thing with the suicide story; you know "I was going to kill myself but the Witnesses came"? First of all, think of how many people commit suicide. Think of how often Witnesses call on doors. Think of the likilihood that a Witness will at somepoint call on someone who is suicidal. Think of the deceptively redemptive and comforting message JW's push; just the sort of beliefs to attract a person in a crisis. Think of how most suicides are not serious suicides. Think of how often Mormons must make the same claim. Think how often door-to-door brush salesmen or Avon ladies must distract someone from a suicidal chain of thought which never reaches the same crisis point again.
It's just 'magical thinking', subscribing a magical cause to a banal coincidence.
The tooth fairy is a silly theory made just to entertain kids like santa claus and the easter bunny. The tooth fairy isn't even a religion.
Only because people know it's a joke. If you wanted to you could write a book, and raise children to believe in the tooth fairy as much as you belive in god, provided you stopped them accessing information that would allow them to find out it didn't exist. All a 'religion' is is a system of beliefs that boils down to the explanation 'because I believe it', rather than a system of beliefs that provides evidence.
God is from a religion!
Ah, so Zeus, Shiva, Loki, Queztecotl etc. also exist; they alo come from religion.
Their are evidence from history of his existance eg. the bible.
This is no more evidence of god than 'Lord of the Rings' is evidence of Balrogs.
Historians have also uncovered sites mentioned in the bible like the wedding a cana and where john the baptist baptised people.
Has the tooth fairy been worshipped since b.c? no it hasn't!
israel and jerusalem has been mentioned in the bible and such cities exist today
Yes, and other claimed "Holy books" refer to real events and places. Does this mean their claims about other gods are also true? How do you know they aren't true and the Bible is false.
Religions offer the way god offers the way.
The tooth fairy just leaves a doller next to your bed
Which religion is right then? I believe in being nice to my fellow man; what god should I choose? I've heard worshipping Bacchus is fun.
Oh, the Bible is also demonstrably wrong beyond any doubts as regard some of the claims and stories in it, let alone its contradictions.
How do you explain this?
For example, are you saying god made the world in 144 hours, about 6,000 years ago, even though the bits of it millions of light years away are observable as the light has had millions of years to travel to us?
Are you saying we all decended from a single man and woman who had immortality taken from them because a snake told a woman to eat fruit?
How do Ex 20:5 and Deuteronomy 24:16 not show god to be two-faced?
How could there have been a flood like the Bible says when there are still trees standing today that were standing when the flood is meant to have taken place?
It would seem my assertion, that there is no more evidence of divine inspiration in the Bible than in 'Lord of the Rings' is one you will have a problem challanging unless you can satisfacorily answer the above (and the several thousand other examples I have).
I hope you have the courage to actually defend your beliefs; it's awfully dull when someone tells us all the things they believe in and then doesn't stand up for what they believe in when questioned.
Fe2O3Girl

I find it amusing when people (usually women) feminize God. But you would think that God would be male, after all he appears to have a problem with communication. Now if God were female, he would be talking all the time. But since he doesn't do that, it is pretty clear that God (if he is anything) is a guy.

Maybe I was referring to the hypothetical deity as female to challenge the preconceived characterization of the masculine. If I rewrite my comments, thus:
I would like a universal manifestation - i.e. everyone on earth gets the same message, at the same time. Then I would like him to clarify whether he wants something of us or not, and if so, why he didn't say so clearly in the first place.
I would also like his reassurance that if the Incas, ancient Greeks, Southern Baptists or Druids got it wrong, he wouldn't hold it against them, given that he didn't bother making himself clear.
What do you think of my proposal?
googlemagoogle

No one can really prove Whether there is or isn't a god.

noone can really prove whether there is or isn't a tooth-fairy or santa clause either. all we know is that humans put the dollar or the presents instead of them. and all we know is that humans wrote books and talk instead of god.

If you want help with your faith then go to, bbs.crystalcathedral.org ...

why would anyone need help with their faith? ah, because those people know all about god, right. just like daddy knows all about santa.
Sirona

LOL @ the comment about god being male because he finds it difficult to communicate!
We put sexuality onto God - so the bible refers to God as male because it was a male dominated society. God is neither male nor female, but we "see" god through our restricted lense of being human, so God has to be either male, female or some type of androgynous being (less likely, harder for us to imagine)
Sirona
sweet tee

UD Said: I think everyone needs to give "religion" a rest, and just live decent lives without sweating the details (like the Pharisees) and just be good little humans making the most of our short time here by working hard and enjoying ourselves. Gee... that's even in the Bible.

That's my stance on it too. I don't know the answers. But my 'common sense' tells me that it is most likely impossible that any person can live up to the Bible's moral code. Any takers on that? So, since I know I can't live up to that and have no faith in organized religion (which is a HUGE money maker) I just try to live the best life I can and treat others the way I want to be treated. And try to save 10% of my income for retirement rather than give it to somebody's ministry.
This releases me from the burdens of guilt for not living up to the Bible God's perfect standards; and fear of the end of the world, hellfire, etc. For me life is much better here. But as I've said before, some people NEED Religion. More power to you. I am no man's judge on that one.
Also, do you think the fact that the majority of mankind expect God to either save or destroy the earth affects the way they treat it? I mean, if God can straighten everything out, why worry about pollution or global warming, depletion of earths natural resources, clean drinking water, extinction of plants, insects and animals .....?
(sweet tee of the 'on account I used to be one' class)
louieb78

hmmmm, communication. This always seems to be the problem in life, weather its in companies, families or relationships. The overall effect of poor communication is always destructive. It also is usual proved to be down to misinterpretation of communication which is actually taking place, this can be in the form of failure to recognise communication, a lack of understanding or mixed messages.

I believe that this is also the case with god, As our creator i can hardly believe he would just ignore the millions of attempts at communication people of all faiths make every second through prayer. I believe it is our inability to recognise communication or a lack of understanding which causes our poor communication with god.

To answer Qcmbr's nicely put question, just because a person leaves one faith/organised religion, doesn't automatically infer they stop believing in god. 95% of the planet Believes in god in one form or another, but not everyone attends a building to worship, or takes anytime at all to even think about god or how to worship him. I once spent a considerable time with an Disfellowshipped JW who although the though of stepping foot inside KH ever again would have probably resulted in either a sick bucket or a fight, my friend still had a deep belief in god and desire the example of Jesus christ.

I guess for me the question i would like to pose and fits nicely into this post is what would it take for any of you to join another faith?

A lightning bolt in the head is a valid answer :)

Ok so you left the idea of God - what would it take to come back?

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