james_woods

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Posts by james_woods

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  317

  Does God's foreknowledge take away from free will?

  by Christ Alone in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just by knowing what will happen, that doesn't mean that we can prevent or cause something to happen.

  my knowing that does not prevent them the free will of making the choice.. it's the same with god.

  if god is not restricted to existence in the present, then the future is known by god because god indwells the future as well as the present and the past.

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  james_woods

  Here is the deal, ChristAlone: The logic is that if a so-called "free will" decision even COULD be known in advance of the person making the decision, then it is manifestly not a free choice at all - there was really no choice involved.

  Instead of the apple in Eden - how about this: If the outcome of the Superbowl of 2013 could be known for certain now (in 2012) by god, by us, by ANYBODY - then is the superbowl of 2013 going to be a free and fair game? One really decided on the field?

  This is what makes the Witness notion that their god COULD have known Adam & Eve would sin, but caused himself somehow to NOT look into the matter ahead of time - so ridiculous. It mandates that god created them without the power to NOT sin, and still punished them for it.
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  97

  Pat Condell on Aggressive Atheism

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is pretty much how i feel.......who disagrees with this?.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yjo4duhmrzk&noredirect=1.

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  james_woods

  Everyone knows that Bible God morals are the only way forward - I mean just look at history to prove that I'm right.

  I believe that Besty said that sarcastically - but if you think about it, there is a great irony in that what he said is actually true.

  For all of the claimed intellectual superiority (and yes, I am myself an agnostic) - atheism has not proven to have advanced human rights or morality in any practical human example.

  Such progress has historically been through religious evolvements.
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  97

  Pat Condell on Aggressive Atheism

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is pretty much how i feel.......who disagrees with this?.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yjo4duhmrzk&noredirect=1.

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  james_woods

  And you too, BTS...
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  97

  Pat Condell on Aggressive Atheism

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is pretty much how i feel.......who disagrees with this?.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yjo4duhmrzk&noredirect=1.

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  james_woods

  I believe that you are correct about WPOTD, Sauerkraut.
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  74

  Living Through the Brief Liberalization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Never Recovering

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with the book crisis of conscience detailing the turbulence at bethel during the early to mid 70's, the transformation from autocratic rule to governance by committee or a body of men, many of us can speak to how that felt among the rank and file of the local congregations during those years.

  we learned new concepts based in large part to research done for the aid to bible understanding volume, then we were asked or coerced into unlearning those principles, going back to the old ways.

  some of us never readjusted, finding ourselves very different from our more hardline compadres.. the inertia for the changes that eventually were initiated in the congregations came from the discovery that the greek words episkopos and presbyteros were used biblically to refer to all qualified men in a congregation, not just one.

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  james_woods

  There was even a very brief interval in this liberalization in which an effort was made to reach out to DFd persons and get them back in.

  It lasted about as long as the "rotation of elders" idea...
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  13

  Curiosity may have made 'historic' discovery on Mars

  by wolfman85 in

  1. social
  2. current

  after reading this news on the link below i wonder, what do you think could have found curiosity on mars?.

  http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_curiosity-may-have-made-historic-discovery-on-mars_1767511 .

  curiosity may have made 'historic' discovery on mars published: wednesday, nov 21, 2012, 13:54 ist .

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  james_woods

  It is my opinion that there is not enough here (at least not yet) to get very excited about.
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  97

  Pat Condell on Aggressive Atheism

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is pretty much how i feel.......who disagrees with this?.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yjo4duhmrzk&noredirect=1.

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  james_woods

  New Chapter, perhaps you are taking my use of the word "contaminate" too seriously - I only used it because of the reference to the Star Trek prime directive. Contaminate, indoctrinate - it is really all the same.

  But your comments do reflect on the natural human tendencies to AUTOMATICALLY view ones own ideas as superior, and to take them far too seriously. You are essentially saying that the east NEEDS to be contaminated or indoctrinated by the "superior" west - for their own good even if they do not know it for themselves. An analogy of this to religionists vx. atheism/secularism is easy to draw.

  We have a cure for taking things too seriously here on JWN, incidentally - it is the Wibble.
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  97

  Pat Condell on Aggressive Atheism

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is pretty much how i feel.......who disagrees with this?.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yjo4duhmrzk&noredirect=1.

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  james_woods

  Hmmm? Contaminate? Should the west 'contaminate' the middle east with our bullshit---like treating women as equals and such? Not executing homosexuals? Not putting atheists into prison? Just wondering.

  Some wouild say that the west may be slowing down the progress in that area by our interference - that they might achieve such human rights faster without our interference.

  Certainly it takes a massive dose of ego to think that you can restructure another society simply because YOUR ideas are so obviously superior.
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  33

  Watchtower's greatest failure: the absence of IGNORANCE

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  knowing is good.. not knowing is bad.. knowing that you don't know leads to inquiry, research and education.

  that is good.. assuming you know the validity of your research material is bad.. sometimes you are stumped but you don't know that you are stumped.

  you proceed anyway.. .

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  james_woods

  Larsinger58, thanks for telling us what you know.

  What is it you Don't know?

  Terry, I suspect that Larsinger is in that blessed state where he does not know what he does not know. But, then - I don't know.
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  97

  Pat Condell on Aggressive Atheism

  by cantleave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is pretty much how i feel.......who disagrees with this?.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yjo4duhmrzk&noredirect=1.

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  james_woods

  Pat Condell takes himself far too seriously, as too many people do. That's the root of the problem, it's not whether you believe in God or not, it's taking yourself and whatever you believe in too seriously.

  Exactly. Maybe there needs to be something like a religious/atheists "Prime Directive" <as in Star Trek> to first of all not try to contaminate other cultures with your bullshit.