by nicolaou 70 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Firstly let me say that I am not trying to offend believers - I was one for most of my life. Nor is this a discussion about whether God/religion is a 'good' or 'bad' thing, that argument will rage forever. What I'm asking is really a simple question;
Can you envisage a time when the majority of humankind would affirm that there is no God?
I would answer "hopefully".
yes. i've felt that way for awhile. religion and god in general have occupied a smaller and smaller place in society as history has moved forward. sure, there will be little spurts of fanatacism here and there (like right now) but i think that there will come a day LOOOOOONG after we're gone when the concept that we hold of 'god' is only described in history books.
I've noticed that "god" tends to follow ignorance, poverty, tragedy and misery. Anywhere there is a disaster, the mention of "god" is greatly increased.
As the standard of living increases, the number of believers goes down. Maybe this is why religious leaders like to impose rules and standards that tend to prevent advancement. Some classic examples would be the Moslem middle east, the Christian dark ages and modern religious resistance to more healthy views of society and sexuality.
When the tsunami struck a few months ago the affected populations became very religious and started to speculate that a "god" was punishing them - their response was to leap to guessed conclusions as to what the violations were and then started imposing solutions based on speculation.
So long as their is mysery there will be a "god".
So long as their is mysery there will be a "god".
i know what you mean, but at first i thought you were saying 'as long as there is mystery, there will be god.' i actually believe this. there will always be disasters (and death and misery), but i think (relatively) few people in florida last year really believed that a god was punishing them with hurricanes. as long as people don't know WHY disasters happen (esp natural ones) they will rely on the "god did it" explanation.
humanity is dumb....
and "God" knows it....
and all those selling "God" are making bank!
u/d (of the outgrowing class)
Yes, as education, scientific research, archeology, etc. expand man's knowledge, I believe that the concept of a being the likes of which a "god" is constructed and believed in for same reasons will erode slowly.
As the previously-held beliefs are shown to be just men's fabrications, then people will (hopefully) start to be a little more discriminating of the things they hold dear strictly because of "faith" which, to me, seems irrational. Comforting to many but not all that rational or reasonable if you stop to examine and think about this stuff. It hit me when I finally read the bible cover-to-cover a few years ago. A dazed disbelief came over me after reading some of the stories. Between constant thoughts of "No way!" and "WTF?!?!" it was a sobering experience.
So many things in the bible are just dumb or concepts that are out-dated for thousands of years. They don't make sense, are generally impossible (Just for starters: one guy killing 7000 soldiers with a donkey's jawbone? I don't think so... ) but they served their purpose. At the time.
What makes me angry is my own complacency (borne of laziness, I must confess...) to just allow myself to be led by these teachings from birth. (I am not a JW but was raised catholic. The example is the same.) My parents and teachers told me it was so -- It must be true, right? I lived most of my life under the impression that all the biblical stuff had to be real because so many people I respected said it. Who was I to question them? But I suppose that is/was the product of their laziness and complacency in just accepting the irrational from people they respected and on and on ad finitum.
As discretion and actual thought will hopefully prevail, I expect a lot of the stuff that makes you go "Hmmmm..." will start to make people think and do some investigating which, again hopefully, will lead to rationality. Then control allowed by fear will be replaced by logic, reality and things being done because they are the right thing to do, not just because 2000 years ago some goat-herders wrote a book...
Robert"
Without sounding too silly about it; we talk to ourselves when we pray and pretend somebody else is listening. We project God and lose track of the source signal. What we idealize about ourselves is what we assume for god. What we fear about ourselves is what we tremble before God about. Why do we fool ourselves this way?
I think it gives us a Darwinian advantage. How?
We act AS THOUGH help is out there and it gives us enough hope to perservere. Why perservere if all is hopeless? That illusion of a safety net is real enough.
Try walking across a tightrope without a net---it is terrifying.
Try walking WITH a safety net. It is much much easier. Why? The danger is lessened mentally and the fear does not crowd out the effort to balance your way across.
God is our safety net.
T.
I don't want to divert this thread (and will come back to comment on it) but just need to post the following.
| I cannot post anymore new topics today so could someone start a new thread to inform the board of a radio show going out in a couple of hours on Radio4 (UK) Tonights show is all about 'Jehovah's Witnesses and the blood transfusion issue'. 20:00 Inside the Ethics Committee1/3. Every day, life or death decisions are being made in hospitals all over the country by clinical ethics committees. In this series, Vivienne Parry is joined by a panel of experts including health professionals, religious leaders, philosophers and lawyers. Each week, a new case is put in front of the ethics committee and they examine personal testimonies from patients, relatives and medical staff. As the panel gradually unravels the evidence, they test the moral foundation of how decisions are made in hospitals every day. [Rptd Sat 10.15pm] http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20050511/20050511_2000_49700_25913_45 | |
Good point Terry although fear can spur a person on to accomplish more than he otherwise would have. A safety net can be a 'comfort blanket' that prevents you from growing up.
i think so, and i think we probably have done previously in the distant past, only to revert to back to god, or recreate the idea in times of disaster.
