Posts by serotonin

54

Who Do You Speak To More - God Or JWD Members?

by serotonin_wraith in

if i thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, i would pray every day, not just if i felt low and had no one else to talk to.

we don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough.

we share the good as well as the bad.

serotonin_wraith

So real one, you've been here for about 10, 15 minutes. Does this mean you'll be talking to God for 20 minutes or more before you go to bed?

54

Who Do You Speak To More - God Or JWD Members?

by serotonin_wraith in

if i thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, i would pray every day, not just if i felt low and had no one else to talk to.

we don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough.

we share the good as well as the bad.

Who Do You Speak To More - God Or JWD Members?

by serotonin_wraith in

if i thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, i would pray every day, not just if i felt low and had no one else to talk to.

we don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough.

we share the good as well as the bad.

serotonin_wraith

The response from the atheists is pretty obvious. More believers need to answer the question really.

real one, and others believers, think about how much time you spend communicating on JWD, think about how much time you spend praying, and tell me which takes up more of your time. I think it's odd that people may talk to their god less, but I have the feeling that's the answer I'm going to get. Especially if it's supposed to be better than any human relationship.

54

Who Do You Speak To More - God Or JWD Members?

by serotonin_wraith in

if i thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, i would pray every day, not just if i felt low and had no one else to talk to.

we don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough.

we share the good as well as the bad.

serotonin_wraith

Yeah, perhaps people see it more as a parent/child relationship than a friendship, Kwin. While kids can grow up to have friendships with their parents, that's usually after they get to a more equal level. While children still, friendship comes more from friends than parents. There's still a barrier from true friendship with parents when you're a child.

49

The Design of Life

by Deputy Dog in

from: http://www.thedesignoflife.net.

the cover of the design of life features an artists portrayal of human brain circuitry as it might appear if magnified many thousands of times.

the portrayal illustrates an intriguing discussion of the human brain in chapter one, quoted here in part: during the first eighteen months from conception, the brains neurons are formed, deployed, and connected in a tsunami of activity, at the rate of 250,000 per minute, until 100 billion neurons are arrayed in a powerful, organized matrix.

serotonin_wraith

There are some alternatives to the supernatural idea:

The universe is expanding. It will then shrink to nothing, and emerge in another space/time dimension as that universe's big bang. All of this universe's matter will be transferred to that one.

There are other universes on the other side of black holes. This universe is on the other side of another universe's black hole.

Maybe saying before the big bang is like saying north of the north pole. You can't get beyond that point, yet the north pole still exists.

Scientists are trying to make their own big bangs. It's possible that our universe is the result of a scientist who succeeded in another universe.

My own feeling is that there was a natural cause for our universe, because we've not found a supernatural cause for anything in nature so far. Universes that make their own universes somehow. This would mean an eternity of universes, with no beginning. If a designer can be eternal, I can't see why universes couldn't.

Of course, none of us knows yet. You may be right. But it doesn't HAVE to be a supernatural cause, it could just as easily (more easily perhaps) be a natural cause.

54

Who Do You Speak To More - God Or JWD Members?

by serotonin_wraith in

if i thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, i would pray every day, not just if i felt low and had no one else to talk to.

we don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough.

we share the good as well as the bad.

serotonin_wraith

If I thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, I would pray every day, not just if I felt low and had no one else to talk to. We don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough. We share the good as well as the bad. But for many, God is more of a shrink than a friend.

It's not very often I'll hear a believer leave a cinema talking to their friends about how great the movie was, then looking up and saying "I know our inferior entertainment methods must be primitive in your eyes, but I wish you could have experienced that the way we did. Thanks for the ability of sight and hearing, it helped. We're off for pizza now, I'll talk to you just before I start eating."

While it may be said God needs to be respected, I don't think talking to him as a friend would be disrespectful, and believers often say you can have a personal friendship with the Almighty too.

In normal day to day situations, I think it's fair to say most believers communicate with fellow humans than they do with God. Human interaction is needed to get by. So to narrow it right down, who do you speak to more - people on this forum, or your personal god? Where do you find your priorities lie?

49

The Design of Life

by Deputy Dog in

from: http://www.thedesignoflife.net.

the cover of the design of life features an artists portrayal of human brain circuitry as it might appear if magnified many thousands of times.

the portrayal illustrates an intriguing discussion of the human brain in chapter one, quoted here in part: during the first eighteen months from conception, the brains neurons are formed, deployed, and connected in a tsunami of activity, at the rate of 250,000 per minute, until 100 billion neurons are arrayed in a powerful, organized matrix.

serotonin_wraith

You may want to ask first if time existed before this universe came to be. You also may want to ask if natural law existed before this universe came to be.

You're the one who said 'before time'. This means there had to be some passage of time, and then our universe started. Otherwise, there's no 'before'. Everything just started with the big bang.

As for whether natural law existed before (if there was a before) nobody knows. If there was a designer, all that designer did was put two gases together, and leave it alone. The natural laws took over then. It's like putting concentrated cordial and water together, and saying you designed the patterns it makes as it mixes.

49

The Design of Life

by Deputy Dog in

from: http://www.thedesignoflife.net.

the cover of the design of life features an artists portrayal of human brain circuitry as it might appear if magnified many thousands of times.

the portrayal illustrates an intriguing discussion of the human brain in chapter one, quoted here in part: during the first eighteen months from conception, the brains neurons are formed, deployed, and connected in a tsunami of activity, at the rate of 250,000 per minute, until 100 billion neurons are arrayed in a powerful, organized matrix.

serotonin_wraith

If a complex designer existed before this universe came to be, one could still ask what made the designer. If it didn't exist before, then did it appear at the same time as our universe? That would be an instant complex thing just appearing from nothing. With our universe, we can see that the stars, planets and then quite possibly life came about over a long process originating from just two gases. That slow build up makes more sense than something just being complex from the get go without an explanation of how it came to be.

34

I'm curious- why 'god'?

by rimfiredancing in

jw
friends

i know how i got sucked into the b0rg- i was a very spiritual, very young and very emotionally damaged 19 year old (raised in a violent on all levels home, the usual stuff) who was having- and had always had- a lot of 'supernatural' experiences that had caused my mother to declare me 'evil' (and try to get me exorcised on the odd occasion).

i'd become confused and was trying to work out if these things were, in fact, a sign of my rejection from 'god'.

if i'd known then what i know now about the christian god, i'd have told the jw's to stick it.

serotonin_wraith

I at no point was asking for analysis regarding these experiences, because I am almost entirely comfortable with them

I understood that with your last post. My questions had ended. You don't want to talk about it - fine. Not inviting questions does not mean someone cannot ask questions.

Being defensive is actually a position that indicates weakness of thinking, in my view

Views differ. I've had to try defending evolution on this site. There's no weakness on my side, but sometimes facts need defending.

I find that people are completely unwilling to take on the burden of 'proving' that the paranormal *isn't* possible, but of course that's besides the point as far as they consider it

Also known as proving a negative. The burden's not on me.

The word 'proof'. Okay, to make it technically correct, testing something so that the probability of it being true is so high any sane person wouldn't deny it.

If by saying you and your family have special powers you're not showing off, I can only apologize. But don't expect anyone to believe you until you offer something more than a statement which you don't want to be examined in any great detail.

You may as well have said 'There's a fairy at the bottom of my garden... why are you questioning me? You don't seem curious about the fairy, you only want to show I'm wrong!'

27

Could You Live Without God?

by serotonin_wraith in

i have said before in past posts - i think a belief in a god is because of two bad reasons.. 1. ignorance (not always deliberate at all) of certain facts.

the universe and life on earth was not designed.. 2. wanting to believe in a god.. so, to focus on the second, i can see why people would want there to be a god.. you see dead loved ones again, you live forever, you have a purpose set out for you, you feel there's always a being with you through even your most difficult times.

for those who believe in a god, could you live without one?

serotonin_wraith

It could just as easily be said that "You don't believe in a 'god' because you don't want to."

Well there are many things I want to be true, but I can't just believe in them because of that.

With a god, there's just no reason to believe. If I thought there was a god, I'd be busy working out which one was real so that I could avoid eternal punishment. It's not something I could ignore because I didn't want it to be true.

serotonin_wraith

Posts by serotonin_wraith