Posts by hamsterbait

50

C.S. Lewis statement....

by Shining One in

lewis says jesus' claim to be equal with deity leaves us only one other choice: .

a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

he would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell.

Actually, Romans 2:12-16 shows that even those who don't know the name of Jesus can be saved by God
The crucial thing is that they follow their conscience as they truly see it to be. This is a fundamental teaching of the RC.
As for "doing as Christ commanded" vs "as we belive Christ commanded" - Everything is filtered through our own mind and belief systems.
The Baal worshipers believed that Baal commanded they sacrifice children.
Abram believed that YHWH commanded him to kill Isaac. You choose for yourself if it is the voice of God or the Devil... How do you decide? S.O. you believe is the rep. of God tells you so?? God tells you? You believe the words of a book, where the writers say "God told me this??"

What if you answered the phone and the voice says "this is God speaking. believe this and you are saved. deny it and go to hell" - Why should I not with hold my assent? Can't I refuse to accept something I cannot personally know?

You choose to accept your own emotions as Christ calling you.

Personally, if I went into a church, prayed fervently for divine guidance, and God spoke to me, I would sign myself into a psychiatric ward prontinto. And which God do you want to bless me - the one who sends millions to eternal torture and misery, or the one who will fertilise paradise with the blood of dead babies or one that looks like an elephant or one that lives in carved coconut shells in Haiti? Are you making that choice for me too??

HB

36

New Testament Paradise Earth

by TheListener in

one of the things that bothers me is the very little or almost non-existent way the paradise earth is talked about in the new testament.

i've never heard a dub even think about that for one second.. the only occasions i can think of that the dubs use to show the new testament does in fact talk paradise earth is the scripture at matthew 5:5 (about mild tempered ones, or meek inheriting the earth), revelation 21:3,4 (about no more sickness, sorrow, suffering nor death) and jesus on the cross saying that the guy next to him would be with jesus in paradise.. none of these are overly convincing.

why didn't the apostles talk more about the paradise.

hamsterbait

In the latter verses of Romans 11, St Paul says that God's promises to the Jews as a nation were not canceled out because of the new covenant by Christ. Jews who became christians would of course get the christian hope. Yet the jews as a whole had been promised an earthly paradise in the future according to Isaiah and other OT prophets. Those who God left "bound up in error" would get the earthly resurrection promised to Jews and unbelieving Gentiles alike.

I don't see a problem or contradiction here, as long as Rutherford's delusional twaddle is ignored. Also remember that St John's epistle says that apostates are those who deny Christ "coming in the flesh" - The OT promises that the Messiah will rule the Jews and other nations on earth where everyone knows God to the tops of the mountains.

HB

50

C.S. Lewis statement....

by Shining One in

lewis says jesus' claim to be equal with deity leaves us only one other choice: .

a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

he would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell.

hamsterbait

1: "A man who was a man and said" Replace man with egg, ostrich , you name it. The point starts ridiculously, as only humans actually say words in the way being spoken of here.

2: "and said the sort of things Jesus said" - read the gospels, people weeping burning in hell, destroyed by God for not believing things that are not made logically clear or consistent.

3: "would not be a great moral teacher" Why?

Confucius was a man who came out with many beneficial teachings in common with christianity, as did Buddha, Hinduism, and Zen masters.

Men have made many profoundly moral statements that have inspired mere humans to live better more loving and fulfilling lives without needing to claim divine authorship. They are nevertheless great moral teachers.

A little child who says "Mommy, maybe you should forgive Daddy for .... not stab him to death." Is this childs profoundly moral viewpoint invalid because he is not "GOD"?

HB

Actually, I think "a man who was a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher" is probably true. Christianity is one of the most hate filled and vindictive religions mankind has ever known.

23

Man Will Consume the Planet

by joelbear in

jw
friends

.

man long ago left the natural order of things that keep the earth as a living habitat in balance and healthy.. he now manipulates the earth to make it bend to his wishes so that he can create paper (worthless profit), accumulate multiples of what he needs to survive and make himself as comfortable as he possibly can.. as the billions in the developing countries become more consumptive the world will eventually be used up.. that will be the true armageddon that mankind will face.

hamsterbait

The simple fact is that more and more people are able to imagine a future for humanity.

History shows that what a man imagines eventually comes true.

As people in the developing world become prosperous, they will start using the, by then, cheap new technologies to make their lives easier and more interesting.

Once every household has Sky Sport the birth rate will plummet. (Most men prefer to watch football than copulate) As prosperity further increases, many families will prefer to spend their money on Selfish Pursuits rather than kids.

Because of the rampant Baalism God will destroy us all.

DAMN!!! The future does suck!

HB

16

9/11 tapes - horror revisited

by Shakita in

jw
friends

as they release the 9/11 tapes for all of us to renew the horror of that day again, i feel my anxiety level raise almost as much as it did that very day.

i watched the face of the man i worked for stare in disbelief as he came rushing into the room to watch in absolute horror as the trade centers fell one after the other killing his close friend inside.

as he collapsed on the couch, i knew i would never forget the look on his face for the rest of my life.

hamsterbait

Amen DE.

HB

61

Love is NOT a Human Need

by logansrun in

jw
friends

one of the most difficult things for ex-jehovah's witnesses (heretofore referred to as ex-jws) to deal with is the loss of friends and family -- "loved ones.

" rejection hurts, and the pain seems to be very intense for some.

ex-jws seem validated to feel so awful since most humans naturally believe that love is a human need.

hamsterbait

The socialisation of love is bound up with our prehistory.

By forming bonds with others, we ensured that if parents died, any offspring would be cared for by others in the group, on the basis of a lingering emotional attachment. Look at other primates where babies are killed by other mothers or dominant males.

In our case this meant that more intelligent adults preserved the next generation of more intelligent children.

In the prehistoric world a weakling like Homo would very quickly have been preyed on to extinction unless they cooperated. The pleasure we feel at being accepted and loved is built in to ensure we seek out healthy social patterns, just as the pleasure of sex ensures we seek out copulation.

By your argument sex is NOT a Human need as nobody ever died because they didn't get their rocks off. Our survival as a species is now threatened, because we have lost the ability to see the starving or the poor as our siblings. Now the attitude seems to be "feed them or blow them up - what's the difference? It's not in my back yard..."

HB

13

HOW do doctors cope?

by hamsterbait in

jw
friends

the strain of telling someone they are going to die,.

getting fond of a patient, who dies.. i cannot see that a good doctor is callous.. how many end up alcoholics compared to other jobs.

how does one stay sane when surrounded by so much pain?.

hamsterbait

The strain of telling someone they are going to die,

getting fond of a patient, who dies.

I cannot see that a good doctor is callous.

How many end up alcoholics compared to other jobs. How does one stay sane when surrounded by so much pain?

HB

16

9/11 tapes - horror revisited

by Shakita in

jw
friends

as they release the 9/11 tapes for all of us to renew the horror of that day again, i feel my anxiety level raise almost as much as it did that very day.

i watched the face of the man i worked for stare in disbelief as he came rushing into the room to watch in absolute horror as the trade centers fell one after the other killing his close friend inside.

as he collapsed on the couch, i knew i would never forget the look on his face for the rest of my life.

hamsterbait

Pity and terror are what Aristotle described as true tragedy.

Let us remember the small french village invaded by the nazis, where families were locked inside the church, then grenades thrown inside.

Let us remember those tortured and beheaded by the Japanese.

Let us remember the millions gassed by Germany, the thousands bombed and massacred.

Let us remember the hundreds of thousands murdered by Saddam.

Let us remember the thousands killed by American soldiers.

Let us remember the thousands of Americans killed.

let us remember the children dying in America from guns.

There is no black or white here. Just a human race that needs to stop blaming and retaliating and labeling.

Loving and forgiving is the only way to save ourselves.

That ain't easy.

HB

11

Where did oil come from?

by IP_SEC in

.

i guess there are two theories eh?

one that it came from dead dinos and decaying ancient plant material and the other that it is a normal geological process.. has anyone ever done any research on this?

hamsterbait

I don't think there were enough dinosaurs and other creatures to make the amounts of oil we have.

My personal theory - no proof just a hunch I had in one of my dreams, is that it formed from the vast quantities of organic compounds and amino acids that rained down on the planet at some point in its prehistory. Since the early sun was cooler than now most of these may not have been destroyed, but frozen.

They were of course originally formed as the void congealed and clotted to form timespace as Hamstergod trod the wheel of emptiness.

HB

(of the long toothed prophets class)

17

New light, circular reasoning, and doctrine double standards.

by gringojj in

the wts claims they can make mistakes, fix them, and its all good because the bible says the light gets brighter.

thats all fine and good but if thats true then why wouldnt new light appy to all other religions?

how can the say that other religions are false because of what they teach?

hamsterbait

The WBTS quotes the "Tome of Damasus" and the papal encyclical of St Celestine, and says that since one contradicts the other on details that the Church must be a false prophet.

The WTBS has contradicted itself far more often than the Church of Rome in only 140 years.

Since the RCC also believes in progessive revelation of God's will, I want to know how come the RC has not flip flopped in 2000 years as often as the WBTS??

HB