by Shining One 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Rex,
I recommend you read the Dune series by Frank Herbert. One on the themes is the accountability and growth of the individual is refelcted in society.
Have you ever considered how false religions like the american indian spirit world or the australian aboriginal dreamtime came about? I would be interested in you thoughts on this.
steve
More often I am distinguishing between "evil" and "sin". My definition of evil is deliberately doing harm to someone weaker than you for personal gain. Sin, however, is much broader, and has different meanings for different civilizations. Sin is breaking a taboo, or law designed to protect. The problem with laws, however, is you can never make enough to cover every exception. Jesus explained the principle is always master over the letter of the law with various examples, such as the donkey in the ditch. It is not a sin to work on the Sabbath if you are helping a suffering animal.
I suspect, "Shining One", that you make no distinction between sin and evil. Would it be evil for me to pray in the presence of a man with my head uncovered? Biblically speaking, of course.
The fatal flaw is in man himself: he seeks to elevate 'self' to Godhood above all else.
As we are allegedly made in God’s image - One would have thought this is our destiny. If this is a fault then it is the responsibility of man’s creator.
Shining One and the Rev Frank link hands and ride off into the sunset away from the world of ignorant sinners.
A happy ending.
Yeah - Ha!
"Why 'Rex' being on this board is fruitless"
you're not even an exJW are you? you're just here to preach to us hey?
may jebus be with you...
TS
What I hate about all this "God tells us to do it, so its okay" is that it actually makes many actions morally neutral.
I was at a friends house and we saw a program about the holocaust. He started going on about how detestable it was to kill innocent people and kids. I said but God told the jews to do that. (jericho Stone Ax Massacre)
He reacted angrily and shouted "That's different!"
In other words, if you smash a baby's head against a door post because you feel like it, it is wrong. If you smash the same baby's head because Satan told you to it's wrong. If God told you to it's okay. The act itself has no moral weight apart from who told you to do it.
I asked "would you kill children if Jehovah told you to?"
"Yes, but I wouldn't enjoy it." He was shocked when I said that if Jehovah told me to kill children I would refuse.
After all, the God of the bible has a proven talent for slaughter. Let him do it himself for a change. Even God can only kill me once, and at least I wouldn't be living with the memory forever. I don't want to live in a paradise fertilised by the blood of dead babies.
Most christians believe he drowned millions of children in the flood. Does this make God evil?
I think Plato's arguments in the Republic are interesting on this point. Derek Parfit "Reasons and Persons" deals with the whole issue of what it means to be a morally upright being without recourse to religious systems. Godless morality if you like (bet not one of those christians will dare read or learn from it)
HB
It's really amazing how real double-think really is. And Scary.
HB,
nice post. liked it a lot.
Let him do it himself for a change.
this is my quote of the day...thanks.
TS
It is hard enough to define "GOOD".
Erasmus said that Aristotle and Plato should be saints because of the lofty morality in their writings. Fundamentalists would cavil at this, because some of the reasons for right action do not appeal to the authority of a higher imaginary friend.
GOOD is what God says is good.
(This includes killing babies, male genital mutilation, slaughtering animals in the desert at the rate of 1.8 per second, and viewing women as flowerpots for babies ("two wombs for every able-bodied man"))
How WT are those double brackets.
HB
Slavery came to an end as a result of humanism arguing the value of every being who is born free.
The Bible says that slaves should "remain in subjection to your masters with all humility."
If every slave in the South had believed this, they would have been fighting for the Confederacy to stay in bondage. The christians in the north actually encouraged the slaves in the south to go against the divinely inspired words of St Paul and rebel.
Therefore the Northern States were evil for promoting unscriptural ideology.
HB
Of course hamster. Anything that can possibily put christianity in bad light has to be apologized in order for it to look good. It would be a lot less confrontation if many (can't be wrong) christians would just the possibility that they can be wrong. Would be a lot less homeless gays and a lot less of a lot of things (said, "a lot" a lot).
