Posts by jstalin

in addition to showing our children the famous landmarks, we were able to have lunch with narkissos in paris, and with englishman and ignored one in england.

narkissos has no problem with his picture being posted (i don't think the others do either, but our jw friends were with us too that day and are in the pictures so i don't think they'd want their photos on an ex-jw site -- at least not yet!).

jstalin

Nice pics. Of all the cities I've been to in Europe, Paris is the most beautiful - despite the dog feces everywhere.

46

Is Change Possible for Homosexuals?

by nicolaou in

i don't know, you'd think we'd be used to reading crap like this but it still gets my goat.. nic' .

*** w74 8/15 p. 487 is change possible for homosexuals?

thinking transformed.

jstalin

Since a person chooses to be homosexual

The ignorance is stunning. I can only argue from experience - it wasn't a choice for me.

2

Inefficient god

by jstalin in

i've been thinking about what it would take to earnestly believe in the god of the bible as well as have assurance that one would achieve salvation and everlasting life.

i would argue that this could not be done, and i call it the inefficient god hypothesis.

the argument goes like this: assume i am someone who genuinely wants to believe and do what is necessary to be saved.

jstalin

I've been thinking about what it would take to earnestly believe in the God of the Bible as well as have assurance that one would achieve salvation and everlasting life. I would argue that this could not be done, and I call it the Inefficient God hypothesis.

The argument goes like this: Assume I am someone who genuinely wants to believe and do what is necessary to be saved. I would then open the Bible and try and make sense of everything that is said. However, the Bible is not clear and concise on many points, so I would want clarification. This is where I run in to a problem. I can ask 100 people and get 100 different answers, for a variety of reasons:

1) The Bible can and does lose meaning because none of us live in the centextual culture or time of when it was written

2) Translation poses problems of meaning, context, insinuation, and expectation of certain cultural, historical, and linguistic foreknowledge from the period in which it was written

I propose that God would want us to understand his guidance and requirements without much room for misinterpretation. However, the Bible is the most interpreted and reinterpreted book ever. I propose that it is essentially impossible to understand the meaning of everything in the Bible, thus it is impossible to know exactly what God wants. One would expect God to anticipate this and make sure that a more clear and concise compilation would be written so that room for error would be minimized, yet we have thousands of Christian denominations that insist they are correct, and we have arguments over single passages which could never be resolved.

Even the United States Constitution, a document of only several pages, is open to interpretation which is never settled to everyone's satisfaction.

Shouldn't God be better at transmitting his Word than this?

This is a summary of the Inefficient God hypothesis. In short, this is a reason why I do not believe that the Bible is divinely inspired.

128

It Seems That My Children Are Not Trained

by Gary1914 in

jw
friends

i just returned home from the kingdom hall.

i am an elder.. after the meeting all the elders were called to the back room.

i thought this was an impromptu elders' meeting.

jstalin

Gary: welcome to the board. I'm glad you've found someplace to talk about what is eating at you - that's the first step toward the sweet taste of freedom for you and your family.

31

JW's: Polytheists?

by jstalin in

i was thinking today about the issue of jesus' deity (or lack thereof), according to the wts.

they say that jehovah is god, jesus is not the same as jehovah, but that jesus is a god.

doesn't that make jws polytheists?

jstalin

Gumby,

I'm not saying that JW's worship Christ. I'm simply saying that it's interesting, and I believe unique, of the JW's to believe in more than one god. Polytheism doesn't require multiple god worship, simply belief in multiple gods. Traditional Christianity is strictly monotheistic, in both worship and belief. I'm not attempting to get JW's to question their belief in any way, I'm simply trying to clarify, in my own mind, some doctrinal issues the JW's have regarding gods.

Since it has been established that JW's are, by definition, polytheists, I then wonder how JW's define the term god. What makes Jehovah, Jesus, and Satan all worthy of the same title?

Auldsoul (or anyone else) - do you know of any WT publication references of Satan as being a god?

7

Never a year like 2005 for disasters

by Bonnie_Clyde in

that's what the speaker said today.

he spent a lot of time on hurricane katrina and other disasters.

quoted luke 21:11, "and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages, and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.

jstalin

He stated that never before in history has it been as bad as it was in 2005.

That's the problem with subjective, anecdotal evidence. It's his opinion, nothing more. Not exactly something folks should be betting their faith on. But then again, I guess faith itself is essentially anecdotal and experiential.