i can see how someone could be agnostic in their view.
who knows, who cares?
thinking that perhaps "god" is just a spiritual santa claus for people who are afraid of death, etc..... but atheism?
Having been an agnostic for several years, for the exact reasons you stated, I've always said it was the only honest route to take. I could neither prove or disprove the existence of a "creator". It took many years and a major paradigm shift to come to a "belief" in a Supreme Being again, but then the definition of that essence was so dissimilar to the biblical (especially the OT) God.
carmel
heres a little something i was wondering about and would like your opinions, .
miracles, can they occur , for instance you have cancer and pray to god and the cancer is gone etc.
i dont believe any man can heal you ( faith healers ), for i believe only god or jesus can heal you through your faith.
Five years ago when I moved to Oregon, a lady in the community had been 99% blind for three years. She had gone to the best of doctors to find out why she woke up on the middle of the night and had lost all sight. About a month after we arrived there was a telephone call from a mutual friend who was absolutely giddy. Seems the blind lady decided since science couldn't help her, perhaps praying for help would be her last resort. Kind of like the vision quest of several American plains Indians, she fasted for three days, only sipping water, then booked herself into a local hotel and forced herself to stay awake repeating a particular prayer, which promised in her faith would invoke divine assistance. By mid morning she began to see streaks of light. By noon, she could make out figures in her room and by midnight that day she was able to see well enough to walk out of the room after dialing the phone for a cab to take her home. I've known her these past five years and many community members who knew her and it's pretty much a concensus that it is a "miracle". The power of the mind enfused by faith is a mystery that manifests itself in many ways, some positive.
carmel
your going to the meetings whether you like it or not!
thousands of jehovah's witness children have heard those threatening words backed-up with spankings, whippings, or even severe beatings.
but what if they are too small to understand?
Oh did this bring back memories!! I remember seeing my older brothers severly beaten for the slightest infraction and especially not being home to go to the meetings. I managed to avoid a lot ot the abuse until after I was baptized when I opened my eyeds and took stock in the hypocracy. It came to a head when I stood down my father who was want to whip me with a fan belt. Two days later I hit the road.
carmelbbbbbbbbbb
life as a jw is very...well...sheltered.
many experiences are outright condemned.
still, when others don't have specific rules against them, we more often than not, at least i did, choose not to engage in them so as not to stumble someone who would not approve.. very soon after my exodus from the wt i decided that life is an adventure.
I would have done a lot of things but life did not afford the opportunity. If you beleived the rumors after I left you'd think I owned a distillery, had a harem, invented tobbacco and generally led the world in behavior "unbecoming of a christian". But alas, my stint with smoking lasted about four months, married the same person I'd been dating in highschool and never likedb any booze. Life has been a great adventure, however. One forbidden fruit I did taste was politics. I became very active while majoring in Political Science in college, but found it to be too distasteful and concluded it would destroy my integrity as it seems to have most others that engage in the partisan arena.
Can't say too much about any "naughty" stuff! Don't want to give you the wrong impression. We "elders" have to talk the talk, you know!!
carmel
hello all.. i have always wondered what feelings people have in the hours/minutes prior to getting baptised, the seconds immediately afterwards and then the first few hours thereafter?.
i've never done it, but it seems like it would be a real head f-!.
anyone willing to share their experiences?.
I'm with misspeaches! Profoundly dissapointed! I was promised all kinds of things. Whenever I asked a question noone could answer, it was always, "when your're baptized, you'll understand". Guess what, they still couldn't answer the questions, and the dunking was only a stall tactic.
carmel
im interested in hearing what your personal reaction would be if (i say if because probably 99.9% here believe this will never happen) all the religions of the world were to be suddenly banned/shut down/decommissioned/liquidated/dismembered/etc.. by the political powers of the world.
what would your first post here say?
would it change your view of jehovah...of the "org"?
My faith is banned in several countries (all Muslim) yet it continues to flurish! I suspect it would even if the ban were universal. It would simply outlast the constraints.
carmel
did/does discovery of new fossils make you/or those around you doubt the creation version of things?
....that spear head was put there by Satan to just fool the fools....
carm
many are, but most are simply "fading flatulence" from filthy fart factory on Brooklyn Avenue!
carmel
was it possible that we were taught that all races came from the same family?!
when i look back at that idea it seems very awkward and flawed.
i believe there was some mention of one of the early bible charactors as having darker skin - as though adam was a white man to begin with!
Icbehind,
Well it's certainly true that you need to understand the concept of "natural selection" better to consider whether or not "evolution" answers the questions about our origins and the mechanisms that caused speciation. No one that I know beleives that we "will our way" to new morphology. That said, having studied the neo-Darwinian evolution theory, there are still some puzzeling questions yet unanswered, but all in all, it seems to me a "creator" with the ability to put this universe together, could and would use an elegent method, not some magic wand that poofs us into being instantly. IMHO science and religion are binocular perspectives on reality and if they differ, I will tend to trust science first. Of course one can get themselves in a corner trying to see the world in only a "cause and effect" relationship.
There are too many unexplained phenomena that do not meet the materialistic model.
My morning ramble!
carmel
i have forever made fun of all those people in their rv's.
they never could enjoy camping, when they spent their whole time in an rv.
then a couple years ago, i went on a road trip with some friends and we road in their rv as we went there.
I travel the Oregon coast highway a lot and you dam RVers are a pain in the back sides!!! Why don't you move over a the turn outs when you have thirteen cars, trucks and motorcycles backed up?? HUH?? HUH??
I'd rather camp at the Radison or Comfort Suites and not plug up the road with huge moving mansions plugging along at fifteen miles under the speed limit!
Remove the dams and the RVS, I say! Let the fish and folks migrate uninteruppted!!
Yeah!!
carmel
