if there is no god, does this make us the most intelligent animal?.
riddle me this
if the purpose of the sun is to provide us light and heat, but we have no purpose, does that negate the suns purpose
and if our purpose is to love and worship GOD, but he has no purpose, does this negate our purpose
just wondering
cheers
pak
<!-- .style1 { font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; color: #009999; } .style2 { font-family: arial; font-size: 17px; color: #009999; } .style3 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; } --> did anything in field service make you question the society?
an ex-jehovahs witnesses planted a seed of doubt by stating that she felt to be a good .
witness an individual had to be a conformist.
it was a bright sunny morning, i was having a good day so far (not many people home), a big guy answered the door, took one look at us, said in an loud exasperated tone "F**k OFF" and slammed the door
the simplicity of it always struck me - most people were quite friendly even though we were wasting their time but this guy just dismissed the whole thing in the time it takes to spit - still makes me smile
other than that the thing the always made me wonder was that we would spend longer at houses with noone home than we would if someone answered, and rv's - if you're lucky you get to spend all arvo sitting in the car
so the general lack of enthusiasm for marketing the message - six million people pounding the pavements and Ronald McDonald is more well know than Jehoooba
cheers
pak
haha...took them 40 overs...slackers
we dont want to peak too early, seems england is now bottom of the group behind kenya and canada i'll stick my head out and say safrica, windies aus and kiwis in the semis any other takers cheers pak
one of the most humbling things a person can do is to stand at the base of a tall (hundreds of feet) outcrop of fossil bearing sedimentary rocks, wiggle out a piece of rock, and look at the fossils...knowing that they have not seen the light of day in 350 million years (give or take a few million, lol).
ordinary concepts of time disappear with these kinds of numbers, hence geologists resort to the term "deep time.
" when you take the mental step back to try and grasp "deep time" it makes you realize how puny and insignificant the human species is.
In my mind we are like a gawky, out-of-control teenager with all kinds of energy, strength and raging hormones.
In my mind we are more like 3 year old toddlers
- just getting past the idea that we are the centre of the universe
-slowly learning how the world and our bodies work, (science has a long way to go - one day its coffee is good for but the next day its not )
-just starting to venture over the neighbours fence and learn about things outside our house (planet)
-but the neighbours (non-earthlings) still have a scary "they might hurt us" quality about them
-still talking to invisible friends and making life decisions based on their "answers"
-ones that have lots of goodies refusing to share with ones that dont
-refusing to play nicely with countries we dont like
and lots of other toddler traits - I made a list once but cant find it at the moment so that just off the top of my head
disclaimer - talking majorities not individuals
cheers
pak
http://www.monergism.com/systematic.html.
http://www.rtrc.net/documents/wcf/hodge/wcftoc.htm.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.htmlhttp://www.lgmarshall.org/reformed/berkhof_summary.html.
There is but one only living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.
reading this I kept hearing Monty Python voices in my head, Michael Palin I believe it was, making this paragraph a lot funnier than it seems
only comment on topic is that different theists tend to use the same words, say "god", to mean different things so learning what one group means is only going to be of limited use, whereas evos have a widely agreed vocab
cheers
pak
in the wake of richard dawkins bestseller 'the god delusion' (which i and many others here have read) there has been a good deal of rebuttal from the 'faith' community.
now a new book is out published by alister mcgrath, professor of theology at oxford university.
it is entitled 'the dawkins delusion'.. has anyone read it or ordered it yet?
MM
what job done
the cynic in me says that Dawkins job is to sell books and being out there and upsetting people seems to be working for him in that regard
as to converting people to athiesm, I dont know if that is his desire or just to start debate and get people to think about it,
imho, individuals who believe in god aren't likely to change their mind because of Dawkins but young people who are still making up their minds may be swayed, it will take generations to reduce religions power by any meaningful degree
note: havent read the book as I got over my personal god delusion a while ago, have read some of his other books though
cheers
pak
in the wake of richard dawkins bestseller 'the god delusion' (which i and many others here have read) there has been a good deal of rebuttal from the 'faith' community.
now a new book is out published by alister mcgrath, professor of theology at oxford university.
it is entitled 'the dawkins delusion'.. has anyone read it or ordered it yet?
sometimes you need a big ego to carry an unwanted message continually
there are lots of other atheists out there who are more reasonable than dawkins but they dont get the airtime - in the media soup it's "survival of the loudest"
so yeah he has an ego and an attitude, good, it gets the job done
atheists are evolving , muh ha ha ha (cue scary mood music)
cheers
pak
one of my friends parents referred to us (my sweetie and i) as "new wave" apostates.
has anyone else heard this term, been referred to as one?
i was just wondering if this is a new attempt to squash critical thinking?
It's also getting increasingly difficult to explain where are pets are disappearing to.
blame it on the asian family that live down the street, thats what I do
cheers
pak
did that mentality keep you in fear and prevent you from leaving?
how many times were we told that the kingdom halls would be our ark and that we needed to keep going to the meetings so that we wouldnt miss the announcement that the great tribulation was beginning and the doors of the ark were closing...even though the bible says nobody knows the day or the hour?
did any of you ever pray for your relatives to die so they would have a ressurection and not be destroyed at armageddon?
2 plus 2 will always equal 4 and dubdom will always be wrong
cheers
pak
or cookies.. or pie.. or somethin... i was grocery shopping sunday.. went past the cake mix / pudding/ baking needs aisle and thought hmmmmmm if i buy it i'll eat it..so i took the moral high ground and didnt buy anything..... now 2 days later... i want my cake!!!.
betty crocker where are you?.
(i know i'm old..but those confetti cake mixes that are supposed to be for kids?..
oops sorry, obviously a chick thread, my bad, (backing out the door nervously keeping one eye on the chick with the cake knife)
enjoy
pak
ps except for ofg who obviously has the munchies, and carmel (can ba'hai eat cake???? )
pps had a yummy lunch today at a hare krishna restaurant - very exJW thing to do
ppps might just go get some icecream
bye for now
