Arguably, a consumer society shops in the marketplace of ideas to select the God of the buffet and comes up with the God they think they deserve, generally speaking.
Those who end up with a God they don't think they deserve are simply shopping in the wrong aisle!
In Christianity alone, there are almost 40 thousand denominations! Each is a wee bit different than the next.
Seriously, why not simply do what the others did so long ago, invent your own. Build a better God; build one you can believe in who does all the right things and chuck the rest.
Compared with Judaism, all the others are Jehovah-come-lately Gods.
Posts by Terry
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14Thoughts
by thinker11 inas much as i want to believe in the bible and wish for a god that is watching over us and love us; i find it difficult to comprehend that a loving god will erase mankind with fireballs, earthquakes, and kill childrens, mothers, and fathers who refused to believe in the bible.
and i can’t help but to take their side in all these.
i mean: what has god really done to show that he is love and that he exists and is watching how we act.
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Terry
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Peddling God’s Timetable: the Men Who Failed
by Terry inpeddling god’s timetable: the men who failed.
james ussher (1581-1656).
your name is ussher – james ussher – and you are the archbishop of all of ireland.. you are living in the 1600s and are obsessive-compulsive when it comes to speculative ideas.
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Terry
I was speaking to a "fading" JW in person the other day about chronology. When I casually mentioned ,"There are no dates at all in the Bible," I thought he was going to faint!
It took the fella about five minutes to wrap his head around something I simply took to be an obvious truism.
Now, what does that signal but an unquestioning, passive, incurious openness to indoctrination?
I should never take this sort of thing for granted! -
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What does the rise of Donald Trump tell us about the USA?
by fulltimestudent ini thank one of my former lecturers for drawing my attention to this overview.. after some 100 years, living out its "manifest destiny" dream, as the hegemon of the world, what has this 'dream' done to/for the usa?
the approaching presidential election provides an opportunity to examine this question.. and what of all the appendage organisations (like the wts) that rode across the world on the hegemon's coattails?.
the answer may be here: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism.
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Terry
Now a Bernie Sanders supporter (Professor Cornel West) advocates violence (as long as it is legitimate violence.)
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The point being, there are radical thinkers on both sides, each with a moralizing tone in their rhetoric. -
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What does the rise of Donald Trump tell us about the USA?
by fulltimestudent ini thank one of my former lecturers for drawing my attention to this overview.. after some 100 years, living out its "manifest destiny" dream, as the hegemon of the world, what has this 'dream' done to/for the usa?
the approaching presidential election provides an opportunity to examine this question.. and what of all the appendage organisations (like the wts) that rode across the world on the hegemon's coattails?.
the answer may be here: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism.
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40
The two elders threaten my sister again
by opusdei1972 inas i reported here in this forum, some time ago, my sister was constantly harried by two elders so as to be submitted to a judiciary committee for apostasy.
these two elders were constantly hounding her in the street when she walks to go to her job.
so she had to send them a notary letter in which she wrote that she would attend the judiciary committee only with her attorney.
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Terry
The Elders usually take a page out of the lazy lawman's guide to getting the Perp to rat on himself.
By sitting an accused person down and pressuring them to unburden, the Elder provokes the hapless publisher to give up details, loose ends, tidbits, fodder for further investigation. Additionally, by bullying, taunting and deliberately making faluse accusations, the Elders hope to provoke a statement of insult and rebellion, insubordination and self-admission of disaffection to the Organization.
"I have no comment on that" and "I have a right to my own peace of mind which you are disturbing with your uninvited requests. Please desist" might be two things she'd want to practice saying:) -
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What does the rise of Donald Trump tell us about the USA?
by fulltimestudent ini thank one of my former lecturers for drawing my attention to this overview.. after some 100 years, living out its "manifest destiny" dream, as the hegemon of the world, what has this 'dream' done to/for the usa?
the approaching presidential election provides an opportunity to examine this question.. and what of all the appendage organisations (like the wts) that rode across the world on the hegemon's coattails?.
the answer may be here: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism.
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Terry
Los Angeles is larger than most countries of the world with about 500 square miles. This means you can seldom describe the weather specifically and truthfully at the same time.
America has over 300 million people. What those people think can seldom be described specifically and truthfully at the same time.
Trump followers say nothing about "America" any more than Russellites said anything meaningful about America.
Category mistakes are not straightforward – they are pragmatically inappropriate because they suffer from presupposition failures. -
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IS DOUBT always an indication of moral failure---FAITH vs. DOUBT?
by Terry inis doubt always an indication of moral failure-- faith vs. doubt?.
human survival depends upon a rigorous balance between perception and the means of testing first impressions.
nature’s own test is that of eater and eaten.. inside the food chain, predators blend with their surrounding habitat.
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Terry
I know I am a better person today than I ever was as a JW.
Now that's a helluva statement for an agnostic apostate to make!
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172
Are You Raising An Introvert?
by darth frosty inits not easy being an introvert in an extrovert worldespecially when youre a kid.
it is even more difficult if none of the adults in the kids life recognize that the child is an introvert.
this doesnt happen only when the childs parents are extroverts, but also with introverted parents who have never understood their own introverted nature.. .
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Terry
I was extraordinarily introverted until I reached Federal Prison and got the opportunity to study two fantastic people--and to imitate their approach to social interactions.
I learned to "fake it" until the behavior became normalized.
I don't think you can learn personality development from a book or a lecture. It has to be modeled by flesh and blood with whom you have daily contact.
To this day, internally and naturally, I am an introvert. But, like a reformed alcoholic, I take it one day at a time:)
People who know me well, would swear in a court of law I'm lying about introversion. I take that as a tribute to how well I've learned my lesson :) -
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The Remarkable Story of Lili Boulanger
by Terry in_____________the remarkable story of lili boulanger____________.
there are stories that cannot be written and shouldn't be told because the truth of those stories cannot be embraced on first hearing.
this is the life of a real person who appeared and vanished as though only dreamed up by an overly emotional writer.. lili boulanger was born to a father 77 years old, yet they formed an adoring bond almost from the moment she drew her first breath!
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Terry
Yes, indeed! Her work reminds me how many a genius was born and died in obscurity. Mozart came close. Van Gogh owes his fame to his brother's wife!
We live today in an era in which everybody has the opportunity to be heard and loved. There was no internet at the time of Lili Boulanger. I suspect, were it not for the fame of her sister, I wouldn't have discovered her or her story and music. -
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What does the rise of Donald Trump tell us about the USA?
by fulltimestudent ini thank one of my former lecturers for drawing my attention to this overview.. after some 100 years, living out its "manifest destiny" dream, as the hegemon of the world, what has this 'dream' done to/for the usa?
the approaching presidential election provides an opportunity to examine this question.. and what of all the appendage organisations (like the wts) that rode across the world on the hegemon's coattails?.
the answer may be here: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism.
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Terry
The Topic has as a premise a basic fallacy.
It is a Category Error.
Talking about "America" is like talking about "Christianity" because there ain't no such thing--except as a concept.
The article you referenced feels like it was penned by a fringe radical POV rather than a neutral journalist. I did some checking.
Vox senior correspondent Amanda Taub
in each of the articles I've read takes the point of view that Terrorists were created by their victims. That's right, blame the victims.
Radicals exist within every microcosm in some degree.
We are not supposed to blame ISLAM for terrorists, right?
Then why blame America for Manifest Destiny?
Manifest Destiny? Are you serious?
The phrase appeared in an article in a very obscure magazine in Texas in 1845. The article was on annexation of Texas--not the World at Large! It was published in the July-August edition of the United States Magazine and the Democratic Review.
Not one person in a thousand would have read it. It couldn't have influenced people who didn't read it, could it? No.
So, it's silly to extrapolate backwards through actual history and try to make this a rallying cry of an entire nation.One wonders how solution oriented it is to lock the barn door after the horses have run off.
This approach to problem solving harkens back to a time when women who were rape victims were blamed for wearing the wrong clothes because it meant they were "asking for it." This is wrong-headed for rape and just as wrong for terrorism.
What does the USA have in common with a rape victim? Both have been terrorized by radicals.
Is the entire population of the U.S. guilty of "Asking for it?"The people of America have little or nothing to do with the policies of a President and his Military advisors and their often Jingoistic exploits abroad. Most often, the really unfortunate Black Ops, such as under Reagan (Iran-Contra) aren't even known by the President himself!
So, forgot the hegemony as far as dragging the American people into it.
Ideology splits people down the middle!
What Dems do the GOP decry. What the GOP does, the Dems decry.
Half the country, at any one moment, is displeased with what the other half is enthusiastically endorsing.Hillary lovers don't appreciate Bernie Sanders. Bernie lovers are dead set against HIllary.
The Republican establishment really dislikes Ted and Donald down to their toenails.The voting population is pretty much stuck with lousy choices, no matter what.
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