Old Soul, what you said is so true, language has limitations, hell, its my understanding that even math has limitations, there are somethings just beyond the ability for language to capture or adequately describe, thus the job of a poet is much more difficult than people ever imagine.
Big Dog
JoinedPosts by Big Dog
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105
How do you defend your god's inaction?
by AlmostAtheist inthis is a question for those that believe in a god or gods, particularly those described as "all knowing" or "almighty".. how do you defend to yourself that your god has not in any modern situation saved his people from anything?.
people of all faiths are regularly killed by various natural elements.
of course, if you knew such a thing was going to befall a person and you could do something to protect them, you would.
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105
How do you defend your god's inaction?
by AlmostAtheist inthis is a question for those that believe in a god or gods, particularly those described as "all knowing" or "almighty".. how do you defend to yourself that your god has not in any modern situation saved his people from anything?.
people of all faiths are regularly killed by various natural elements.
of course, if you knew such a thing was going to befall a person and you could do something to protect them, you would.
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Big Dog
Dave, I get the thunder and lightning analogy, but I guess I see it as we have advanced a fair bit scientifically and while I am in no way science saavy but I like to read and I know of no theory based on scientfic principals that even would begin to explain matter from nothing, that in a vacuum canister energy/matter would suddenly spring into existence. By our own scientific theories that just isn't going to happen.
But, ultimately I agree, there is just too much we don't know, too much to dogmatically argue for or against there being a God. I lean towards there being a God for reasons of my own which I foist upon no one, nor do I feel the need to defend, like my love for my daughter those feelings just exist.
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9
Meat on fridays & hypocrisy
by ackack ini was reading some older watchtower articles on the catholics and meat on fridays.
i only have a couple of quotes here.. tell me, he asked, how can i have confidence in anything?
how can i believe in the bible, in god, or have faith?
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Big Dog
I have spent about equal amounts of time in WBTS and around the Catholic Church and I'll take those crazy Catholics anytime, at least those folks know how to live.
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105
How do you defend your god's inaction?
by AlmostAtheist inthis is a question for those that believe in a god or gods, particularly those described as "all knowing" or "almighty".. how do you defend to yourself that your god has not in any modern situation saved his people from anything?.
people of all faiths are regularly killed by various natural elements.
of course, if you knew such a thing was going to befall a person and you could do something to protect them, you would.
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Big Dog
Without some evidence one way or the other, I agree. However the universe has the advantage of undeniably being here, while god can't make the same claim. While many claim not to believe in god, almost nobody claims not to believe in the universe.
Dave,
Right, but I guess to me that is a loop, yes the universe is here, but we are back to how did it get here, it either always was or something had to cause it to be, so I could argue that fact that there is a universe is as strong an arguement that God exists as anything.
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105
How do you defend your god's inaction?
by AlmostAtheist inthis is a question for those that believe in a god or gods, particularly those described as "all knowing" or "almighty".. how do you defend to yourself that your god has not in any modern situation saved his people from anything?.
people of all faiths are regularly killed by various natural elements.
of course, if you knew such a thing was going to befall a person and you could do something to protect them, you would.
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Big Dog
Dave, my GUESS would be that most believe in God because that's what they were taught as a child. Then as adults they came to a crossroads where the choice is, I can't believe the Universe and everything I see just happened or yes, I believe that all this I see is a mathematical probability playing itself out.
The thing that stops me short of going atheist is where did everything come from, not to be confused with evolution stuff, but why is there anything instead of nothing. Big Bang, well, what caused the big bang? If the universe just always was, then that is no different to me than the arguement that God just always was.
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9
Meat on fridays & hypocrisy
by ackack ini was reading some older watchtower articles on the catholics and meat on fridays.
i only have a couple of quotes here.. tell me, he asked, how can i have confidence in anything?
how can i believe in the bible, in god, or have faith?
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Big Dog
We are truly blessed that the WBTS never changes anything, they are a rock we can depend on unlike the Satan run churches of Christendom.
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28
10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
by avishai in10 reasons why gay marriage is wrong.
01) being gay is not natural.
real americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.. .
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Big Dog
Old Soul, I am going to be opening offices in San Francisco and Salt Lake City.
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64
How many mistresses can a JW elder have?
by Gill insince finding out more about the wtbts over the last year, it has come as no surprise to me anymore that the deceptive actions of the mother (wtbts) are seen in some of her children.
the need for double thinking, self deluding beliefs and sneaky, twisted belief and thought patterns that i have noticed over the years in so many jws suddenly makes sense and is no longer scandalising or suprising.. so when i was told of the behaviour of a 'fine, upstanding, pillar of the community, brother' i simply shrugged.
however, the results of his behaviour are not something to simply shrug your shoulders over.. it turned out for the last thirty years of his being married he has conducted affairs with another two 'sisters' in the congregation.
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Big Dog
People are people, Catholic Priest, JW Elder, President of the United States. People are people and they will do seedy, immoral, whacked out stuff, it doesn't matter what they profess to be or what their station is in life. Cops are thieves, 10% of the physicians in the US are addicts, teachers molest students, the list just goes on and on. Many human beings are weak, slimy, and just plain no good.
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28
10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
by avishai in10 reasons why gay marriage is wrong.
01) being gay is not natural.
real americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.. .
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Big Dog
Old Soul, you've really got me thinking, I'm going to get political and see what I can do to push this gay marriage thing through. I am thinking of all the benefits to yours truly here:
Its my understanding that gay relationships tend to be shorter lived, great more work for me.
Gays tend to be more affluent than straight folks, excellent news, less hassle about getting paid up front to do the divorce.
With heteros, a fair amount of the property issues are fairly easy to settle, she gets the jewelry, he gets the tools, she wants the Escalade, he wants the Porsche, but with a gay couple, and imagine this a gay couple that are roughly the same size, my God we could be fighting over every pair of shoes in the closet, the Prada hand bags, the suits, it boggles the mind.
So the dream case would be an affluent gay couple that can wear the same clothes and have the same interests, ie. they both golf, etc. and both want the equipment.
I've got to write my state legislature, there is a whole huge economic windfall to be had here.
p.s. Old Soul, Pro Bono? Are you kidding me?
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105
How do you defend your god's inaction?
by AlmostAtheist inthis is a question for those that believe in a god or gods, particularly those described as "all knowing" or "almighty".. how do you defend to yourself that your god has not in any modern situation saved his people from anything?.
people of all faiths are regularly killed by various natural elements.
of course, if you knew such a thing was going to befall a person and you could do something to protect them, you would.
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Big Dog
If there is a God I blieve this about him/her/it:
"According to the scriptures, God is … and that’s about all we can really say. God is unknowable. God’s ways are not our ways - God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. We think God should stop storms and prevent suffering, but that’s not on God’s agenda. That’s the human agenda and we are so quick to blame God when things don’t go our way. We stamp our feet like scorned children and tell God to go to hell."
People just keep trying to reduce God to human levels, to human motivations, human reactions, which just makes me shake my head, if there is a God, he/she/it isn't human, so all these little analogies and examples are pretty much pointless in my opinion, you are trying to frame God using human terms and situations which is just not going to work.
So all this calling God to task in my opinion is a waste of time. If there is a God, and he is actually the creator of this universe, or hell, just of this planet, we are so insignificant compared to that, that us down here yelling, screaming, ranting at him/her/it and demanding an explination as to God's actions is just really funny if you think about it. I'm rusty, but wasn't it in Job where the whirlwind asks, where were you when I did all of this, oh, you weren't around, then go take a flying leap with all your demands and questions.believe the hype that God is this super-human in the sky who controls the weather, who controls people who fly planes into building and who controls who lives and who dies.
God doesn’t work that way.
For the same reason I think its goofy for people to claim God saved them in the event of a hurricane, or earthquake or whatever, I think its equally goofy to blame God for natural disasters.
God is not a vending machine - spitting out miracles if we put in the right kind or amount of prayer. God is not a super-human being in the sky, bigger and stronger than we are and all knowing. God is not an evil overlord in the sky, waiting with glee for just the right moment to smite the sinners and bless the saints. God is not even a benevolent, kind papa in the sky, sending waves of “lurve” to us if we’ll just meditate and think good thoughts.
I have always liked the vending machine analysis, that's how most view God, put in worship and love and recieve blessing in return, like a giant Coke machine. You can believe in God or not, worship him/her/it or not, your choice, no one is forcing you to church, or to this forum, or to read the bible.