If such a being existed, i suspect that much of it's behavior would resemble that of a spoiled petulant child. I guess that would explain a fair portion of the OT.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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5
No Heaven For God
by Coded Logic inimagine, for a moment, that you are the christian god.
and you have been around since before time began.
what would it be like to never be able to learn anything .
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Pope says Big bang and Evolution are correct !
by Phizzy infrom the u.k independent newspaper :.
" the theories of evolution and the big bang are real and god is not a magician with a magic wand, pope francis has declared.. speaking at the pontifical academy of sciences, the pope made comments which experts said put an end to the pseudo theories of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, benedict xvi.. francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator arguing instead that they require it.. when we read about creation in genesis, we run the risk of imagining god was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything.
but that is not so, francis said.. he added: he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.. the big bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.. evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.. the catholic church has long had a reputation for being anti-science most famously when galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his heretic theory that the earth revolved around the sun.. but pope franciss comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of pope pius xii, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the big bang theory.
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OneEyedJoe
All good questions theredeamer. I'd add: If evolution is real, in what sense could it be said that we were "made in god's image?" I don't know what typical christian doctrine is on this point but the JW assessment that we have essentially the same emotional traits (most notably, love) seems like a reasonable interpretation of this verse.
If evolution is true, we evolved from single-cellular life, which certainly could not be said to have been made in god's image. So, all traits that we possess that are a reflection of god would've come about through an unguided process.* What does that say about the one in whom's image we were supposedly made? That seems irreconcilable.
* if you want to assert that evolution was a guided process, you've got an uphill battle against all manner of things like male nipples, eyes that were origonally better suited for seeing underwater, the appendix, our broken vitamin C gene, etc, etc. There's too many "mistakes" in our makeup for it to be possible that our evolution was guided by some perfect, omniscient, omnibenevolent being.
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Pope says Big bang and Evolution are correct !
by Phizzy infrom the u.k independent newspaper :.
" the theories of evolution and the big bang are real and god is not a magician with a magic wand, pope francis has declared.. speaking at the pontifical academy of sciences, the pope made comments which experts said put an end to the pseudo theories of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, benedict xvi.. francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator arguing instead that they require it.. when we read about creation in genesis, we run the risk of imagining god was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything.
but that is not so, francis said.. he added: he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.. the big bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.. evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.. the catholic church has long had a reputation for being anti-science most famously when galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his heretic theory that the earth revolved around the sun.. but pope franciss comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of pope pius xii, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the big bang theory.
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OneEyedJoe
Vidiot - you're right, there's no way they could change the stance on evolution without a major overhaul in doctrine. They could probably do it, but they'd definitely lose a few donating members in the process.
I remember a while back I hear a public talk about evolution. The entire thing was basically just an appeal to consequence - If you believe in evolution, then you can't possibly believe in christianity, therefore evolution is false. At the time I wasn't awake to TTATT, but I had sorta figured that evolution must be true (and everything the WTS printed on the topic was riddled with holes). The brother giving the talk was by far the most intelligent one in the congregation, so I got rather excited - part of me hoped he'd finally point to some irrefutable evidence contradicting evolution and I'd be able to shed the lingering doubts that I'd had for years. Needless to say things worked out a little differently.
Sure, creation and evolution aren't mutually exclusive, but it seems to me that the JWs have one thing right in that christianity without adam and eve essentially just becomes a nice feeling because your imaginary friend loves you and tells you there's life after death.
That said, I do like the current pope. The way things are going he'll soon be advocating for condoms and doggie-style.
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What will cause 1,000 year rebellion in Paradise....veggie diet..constant kingdom songs!
by Witness 007 inimagine you somehow got ressurected in paradise.
oh hell no nooooo!
life is one long convention.
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OneEyedJoe
Yeah, I was always a little wary of living forever in paradise. So many of the things that I enjoy doing would probably be forbidden or impossible in the JW idea of paradise. When they'd say things like "no matter what it's like, we know that we'll all be happy" to my ear it sounded like we'd all be lobotomized to the point that "learning about Jehovah" for eternity would somehow be enjoyable.
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A question that bugging me
by wheelwithinwheel inwhy it has been deemed appropriate to assign brothers and sisters in each international convention city to spend hours and hours making souvenir grab bags full of knick-knacks.
and to assign other brothers and sisters to spend hours and hours preparing choreography, music, lighting, costumes and props, and practicing and practicing cowboy songs, pop music, dance and jw.org skits.. .
and to assign other brothers and sisters to spend hours and hours constructing giant bibles popping out of jw.org boxes and giant bibles turning into baptismal pools.. .
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OneEyedJoe
there was an article on jwsurvey about this very inconsistency. It's clearly hypocritical of them, but the reason is clear - international delegates pay a premium to the WTS to go to these things, so they have to make sure that they're entertained. Since serve-us is just to keep the r/f busy anyway, they see no problem with redirecting them to helping them make money in a more direct way since it'll still keep them busy.
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Social media strategy to expose JW molestation issues
by JimmyPage inthere are a lot of jws who will never hear about the molestation issues the wt has because all their friends on social media are fellow cult members.. what i'm going to attempt is to create a profile for an alter ego.
it will have a profile pic and banner that says "jw.org" or some other pro-jw nonsense.. then i will attempt to befriend a jw.
when one bites and accepts me the others will fall like dominoes and also accept my friendship.. at first i will post pro-jw things that will get me "likes", subscribers, and promotions in their news feed.. then i will lower the boom by posting the recent news video from the texas molestation story.
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OneEyedJoe
If it's to work, you'll have to be somewhat subtle. I'd say posting one article (like a link to fox news where they talk about the texas 6) accompanied by something like "I don't understand how something like this could happen." If you just post up a dozen links on every court case out there, alarm bells will go off. If they think they're helping a fellow JW deal with something, they're more likely to be strung along a little longer. Asking questions (or implied questions in the case I gave) is the best way of getting someone to think. Just asserting that something is true can easily be resisted (unless it comes from god the governing body) but if you ask a question and you get it to where they actually want to help you find the answer, they'll devote some mental resource to it and a seed might be planted.
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Pope says Big bang and Evolution are correct !
by Phizzy infrom the u.k independent newspaper :.
" the theories of evolution and the big bang are real and god is not a magician with a magic wand, pope francis has declared.. speaking at the pontifical academy of sciences, the pope made comments which experts said put an end to the pseudo theories of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, benedict xvi.. francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator arguing instead that they require it.. when we read about creation in genesis, we run the risk of imagining god was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything.
but that is not so, francis said.. he added: he created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment.. the big bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.. evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.. the catholic church has long had a reputation for being anti-science most famously when galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his heretic theory that the earth revolved around the sun.. but pope franciss comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of pope pius xii, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the big bang theory.
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OneEyedJoe
He's still wrong about the theories "requiring" a creator, but I do suppose this is progress. Expect all the JWs to pile on hatred for the gay-loving evolutionist catholic church now.
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To Whom Shall We Go You Have The sayings Of Everlasting Life
by frankiespeakin inof coarse any one claiming to be god's son, is pretty heady stuff.
i look at the words that are found john 6:66-70 and picture a delusional person faced with a huge loss in followers because he wasn't able to make his words pleasing to some and he lost them:.
53 so jesus said to them: most truly i say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.+54 whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and i will resurrect+ him on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
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OneEyedJoe
Peter (if he and jesus actually existed, as such) was just about as important to the creation of christianity as was jesus. He was, as you say, the loyal follower who'd stick around for anything. Without him jumping up to affirm his loyalty, the other disciples would've had time to think and might've figured out that they were following a new cult leader. Humans, as the social apes that we are, instinctively rely on the valuation of others when we decide on something's value. If a friend is hot after a girl, suddenly she looks better to you too. The same thing was probably in play here, the other disciples may have had some doubts about this new guy coming along and basically throwing their entire religion in the crapper, but Peter was always there affirming his loyalty and indirectly pressuring the rest of them to go along.
Personally this scripture always bugged me. Not just because the way it was used was always sort of said to me "This religion may suck, but everything else sucks a little worse" which was never satisfying, but more because of 2 Timothy 4:3 - "For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the wholesome teaching, but according to their own desires, they will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled." Whenever they read this scripture where peter's stated reason for sticking by jesus wasn't because he was the messiah, nor was it because he was backed by god as evidenced by his miraculous works, nor was it because he spoke "truth" nor was it because his "load was light" - it was because he had "sayings of everlasting life." How is that anything other than following someone to have your "ears tickled?" So it's OK to do it as long as you follow the right guy?
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How to make the most of wife not going to service meeting?
by FadeToBlack inout of the blue, my wife told me that after this week's service meeting on friday (co visit) she is not going to anymore meetings during the week at night.
only sunday (am) meetings.
she explained that it is difficult and not safe for her to drive after dark (vision issues: i have the same problem so i couldn't help her if i wanted to).
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OneEyedJoe
dont need to drive at night---take a taxi---go to a restaurant--dress up for it--make it a special night out. not every week--unless you can afford it
That's dangerous since she'll think "if I can take a taxi to do something fun, I should be able to take a taxi to meetings." At least, I'd avoid taking a taxi anywhere on meeting nights for the first few months of the newfound freedom.
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Are you afraid something horrible will happen to you now you have left the Wt.
by Still Totally ADD ini remember many years ago we would talk about those who leave the org.
something bad will happen to them.
because god was mad at them for turning away from the wt.
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OneEyedJoe
Richard - you're missing the obvious thing, for someone to have come to an accurate knowledge of truth, then turn back to worldly ways leaves them as worse than a man of the nations! If you leave the cult, you're worse than anyone who's ever been in the cult, no matter what they did.
It's so disgusting to think that I once thought things like that...