Posts by slimboyfat

posted

131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

No I'm not talking about God making it up to people, like the story of Job for example. I mean more fundamental than that. What if God can make it so the suffering never happened? Not just "forget" or "make it better", but literally make it not exist at all, ever. Is that impossible? Who says?
The point is God surely has the ability to see, know and do things we can't even begin to comprehend. So to say "I can't see how a God of love is compatible with suffering" may not be saying very much except our inability to understand.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

The God of the Bible lets people suffer, explicitly. So how can the God of the Bible be incompatible with a God who allows siffering?
Maybe God takes us more seriously than we know or can understand.
For example can God reverse all the suffering when he restores all things? You may say it doesn't count if God puts things right because people still suffered in the meantime.
But what if God can do more than simply reverse the suffering. What if he makes it so it never happened in the first place? You can say that's impossible because it already happened. But are you sure it's impossible? Can't God do anything he wishes, including making past suffering completely non-existent.
Isn't it likely that God has the capacity to perform solutions greater than we comprehend.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

I think a basic conviction for Christians is that God knows better than humans can know.
Whereas some atheists appear to be convinced that God must conform to their standard of goodness or he should not or cannot exist.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

I see you haven't backed away from putting words in my mouth.
How about trying to understand perspectives other than your own, rather than potshots and distortions.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

I know it's not an answer. That's the point. Many Christians accept that they don't have a good answer to the problem of evil. They trust that God has the answer.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

A first cause might be the God of Christianity. Being agnostic doesn't rule it out, it says we don't know.
I think many Christians would agree that evil and God's goodness seem incompatible, and this is a real problem. But Christians also believe the Bible where it says God knows better than we do. Really believing this means believing that God knows the reason for things even if we don't know or can't know. Perhaps as JWs and former JWs we have a particular problem understanding this distinction because JWs believe they have a definite answer to the problem of evil. Many other Christians will candidly admit they don't have a solution, but they trust God.
I am reminded of those legal cases you sometimes hear about where the evidence against someone seems overwhelming, perhaps even including DNA or fingerprint evidence, and almost everyone believes they are guilty. But they protest their innocence and one family member or partner sticks with them for years despite all the evidence. Eventually some new unexpected evidence emerges to reverse the guilty verdict. Sometimes they may ask the partner how they knew. They may simply say: "I just believed him". It's an intuition, a trust, a conviction, not based on identifiable evidence, but not irrational or stupid either.
45
Why Did JWs Abandon Brooklyn for the Sticks?
by Room 215 in
1. watchtower
2. scandals
i may have missed this, but can anyone tell me what was the pretext the gb concocted to justify their abandonment of a perfectly suitable, high-profile, high-visibility complex in what is arguably the world's greatest metropolis for the bucolic isolation of upstate new york.

any how does the move square with their purported belief in the imminence of armageddon?

.
slimboyfat

Do they need to pay that now the case has been settled?
It works out just under $1 each publisher per year for JWs in the United States.
There are other good reasons for concluding Watchtower is fast running out of money.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

Objective fact 1 = xtians believe that their god is love and that love has to do with actions that promote the well being of others.
Objective fact 2 = xtians believe that their god was in complete control of the tsunami that randomly killed a quarter of a million men, women and children.
Chritians also believe that there are things we can't know or understand about God. The Bible says we can't understand the mind of God. So the unreconcilabilty of God's character and his actions is not contrary to Christianity. It's part of the problem Christians have acknowledged from the beginning.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

Cofty gives an example of discovering his friend was beating his wife, not that he suspects abuse based on bruising...
That's the problem. All our is knowledge is based on the evidence of our senses and our ability to interpret it. Therefore no matter how strong the evidence for a thing (even seeing it with your own eyes can be hallucianation) there always remains the possibility that we have somehow got the wrong end of the stick.
131
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Accept Evolution?
by jukief in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
by evolution or by creation?

by evolution or by creation?

"the bible is a myth" and "evolution is true".
slimboyfat

No, I think Earnest is saying that just because we can't think of a solution to a problem doesn't necessarily mean there is no solution.
It's as if nothing surprising has ever happened to an atheist, or they've never been wrong footed in their life. Haven't we all had the sensation of believing we fully understand a situation, only to find out later that we completely misunderstood what was going on? If these things happen every day in ordinary life, can we really rule out the possibility that God knows more about goodness and free will than we do?