Posts by serotonin

3

OPEN-MINDED IN FAITH - ALL OF GOD!!!!

by www.thefaithdebate.com in

jw
friends

i am so sick of sites that are exclusive or close-mined, why cant all god's (so-called) people stop arguing and killing each other!!!

i have a video on this topic at www.thefaithdebate.com if anyone wants a look.

i would suggest we all get out there (anywhere and everywhere) and tell people the truth!

serotonin_wraith

I am so sick of sites that are exclusive or close-mined, why cant all God's (so-called) people stop arguing and killing each other!!!

It's a spambot I know, but narrowing down the list of gods to just one looks pretty close minded in itself!

108

Athiest what do you believe?

by real one in

jw
friends

im just wondering because it seems like you have no hope.

please set me straight.

serotonin_wraith

See, thats the problem. you have no patience.

2000 years and counting...

Maybe, just maybe, he was a fraud. That's if he existed.

Don't forget, people in the 21st century go around calling themselves Jesus and have little cult followings. Writing a book about one of them wouldn't make them the son of God. The passage of time doesn't make the Jesus you believe in any more true either.

26

I Feel Lost

by insearchof in

jw
friends

i'm a jw in good standing.i was born a jw.my dad was an elder for about 15 years but he stoped going to the hall about 3 years ago.but i have doubts about the org.basically i don't think that we are living in the end,i don't think the earth will ever be a paradise.it really don't seem logical to me.anyway i feel like i'm having an inner fight between what i was raised to be and what i now believe.the only reason why i still go to the meeting is because of my mom and husband.i came here because i think that everyone here can help me.

serotonin_wraith

Hi! I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness too. One of the things I thought about growing up was this: What if my parents had been Catholic? Would I believe in Catholic teachings? What if they'd been Muslims? Would I now believe in Allah? I soon came to see that yes, my beliefs had come from where I just happened to be born. I'd need good reasons for believing a particular religion, and childhood indoctrination isn't a good reason. I stopped wanting to be a mind victim of upbringing, and I got working on freeing my mind instead.

365

Richard Dawkins Gets "Expelled" by Ben Stein!

by Perry in

i just got back from seeing the new movie release "expelled" which is a documentary exposing the militant culture of supression regarding intelligent design in the scientific community.

in a "million years", i never would have imagined that ben stein could get the author of "the god delusion", richard dawkins to speak favorably about i.d.

(intellignet design).

serotonin_wraith

People are free to believe what they want. They are not free to lie to our children.

If someone wants to believe storks deliver babies, fair enough. If they want it taught in biology class, no. Not only do they have no proof for the stork hypothesis, they're also ignoring mass amounts of evidence that babies come from females wombs.

The situation with ID and evolution is just the same as that.

40

God's Plan

by serotonin_wraith in

everything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.

on the flip side,.

some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..

serotonin_wraith

You open a thread with the title God's Plan to attack it.

I was defending 'God's plan'. If he exists, God's plan is for atheists to be more outspoken now. Stop going against God's plan.

This implies that atheists have a superior source of the knowledge of what is right and wrong

In most cases, we all agree what's right and wrong. We may differ on points such as homosexuality. That doesn't go against my morality, which I define as this: Causing the least amount of suffering, while keeping in mind our survival as a species at a particular moment in time. Seeing as homosexuality hurts no one, holding in feelings of love can lead to suffering, and there are plenty of straight people to keep humanity going (with homosexual couples taking care of children who have no parents if they choose, which helps us), I see nothing wrong with homosexuality. You may consider it wrong because your book says it is.

Jesus says some wonderful things. Unfortunately for you, he wasn't the first to do so, and much of the rest of the Bible has rules which are disgusting. Without Jesus' words, would you feel justified in punishing women who don't scream loudly enough during rape or would you stone disobedient children? I hope not, and I hope it wouldn't be just because Jesus' words stopped you.

108

Athiest what do you believe?

by real one in

jw
friends

im just wondering because it seems like you have no hope.

please set me straight.

serotonin_wraith

real one,

People have been waiting 2000 years for Jesus to return. For every generation, it was 'just around the corner'.

In that time, we've invented glasses, contact lenses, laser eye surgery and now the bionic eye, which I think is completely amazing. As science progresses, the bionic eye will get even better.

If we'd all waited around on our asses for Jesus to return 'any day now' who knows? If you have to wear glasses, maybe you wouldn't have been able to read this.

40

God's Plan

by serotonin_wraith in

everything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.

on the flip side,.

some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..

serotonin_wraith

Burn,

God makes the best out of a bad situation?

While I don't think we have 'free will' as earlier posts say, I'll imagine for a moment that we do. God allows the slaughter of millions in wars and millions of children to get raped, and only after it happens does he make a long term plan to make it good. It must be that way if free will is involved.

I don't mean he rewards all innocent victims in the afterlife, how is that good compared to stopping the killing or raping in the first place and giving people their reward after they live a full and happy life on Earth? I mean he makes a new plan after the suffering which shows it was better for those people to have suffered.

Yet you want to prevent the ultimate good? Isn't that what you're doing when you try to prevent these evils today? Stopping something better coming about because of them?

Perry,

If most people didn't believe in a god, I probably wouldn't be talking about any of this. I'm not saying God exists, I'm assuming he does in this thread for the questions that raises. If there were no more believers, I'd sit back and feel relief that humanity managed to get past their superstitious beliefs intact instead of destroying themselves over them. It's touch and go at the moment. Until then, some humans already out of this dark tunnel of non thinking or wishful thinking are calling back and saying 'Get a move on! We've managed to rid the world of most of these mythologies about different gods ( www.godchecker.com ), only a few more to go!"

Atheists want different things. Most don't care about religion, and many will even say it's useful for those who want to believe. There's no belief that ties every atheist together. If you felt I was rude, you can't say 'That serotonin_wraith from JWD shows that atheists are rude for knocking religion!' All you could say is 'Serotonin_wraith shows that he is rude for knocking religion.' I don't represent all atheists, just as you don't represent all people who don't believe in other gods.

Then, how do you determine what is right and wrong? How would you know if your notions were delusional or not? And, if I could prove to you that they were delusional, would you want it any other way?

I've gone into the first question before. You can see my thoughts here-

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/144503/1.ashx

I hope I'm not delusional. I try to base my beliefs on good reasons. If you could show me I was delusional, of course I'd listen. I'm interested in what's true, not what makes me feel better. So far though, every reason I've heard for believing in a god is a bad reason. It's more likely there is no creator who cares for humans personally.

40

God's Plan

by serotonin_wraith in

everything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.

on the flip side,.

some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..

serotonin_wraith

To add: I'm glad you wrote that last bit though.

Atheists rebelling against God must be for the greater good (I agree, though for different reasons) so I don't think you're in a position to say anything negative about it from now on. God has his reasons for allowing it.

40

God's Plan

by serotonin_wraith in

everything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.

on the flip side,.

some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..

serotonin_wraith

A-C, God chooses not to know - I know you don't believe this, so these are just general ponderings...

God either knows everything, or he doesn't. Is he putting up a 'mental block' for himself? "Oooh, I can see serotonin_wraith is going to disbelieve in 15 billion years. I'll wipe that from my knowledge, even though I already know it. How will I ever gain that knowledge again? I'm making myself forget it. I know, I'll set a timer to go off, a memory alarm which will return all this blocked knowledge to me in the future, even though I exist outside time. Time is meaningless to me, so shouldn't I know everything at all times whether it's 15 billion earth years before SW's time, or billions of years after? It's great how I can start the universe off and make sure humans will evolve in several billion earth years to become my favourite species, and I even know the number of hairs on their heads, but when SW dies a disbeliever and I send him off to hell, I'll be genuinely shocked. I won't have seen it coming. Me, the creator of the universe! Once that knowledge returns, I can go 'ah yes, that's right. I set it up that way. I knew he would disbelieve and mock me' and even though I made myself forget, that had no impact on his life as he did what was planned right from the start, when I created hell before knowing humans would sin, when I designed a universe which would lead to SW's birth and disbelief."

Burn,

I'm not choosing. I am how God knew I would be. Just like he knew his religion would only reach a third of the planet when he tried promoting it with his book, so he'd have to send everyone else to hell. Just like he knew false religions existed before his true one and that the human mind (designed by him) usually accepts the religion of its parents, damning all those people born in the wrong time and place.

I can't choose to believe. I either do or I don't. I could pray and go to church and be a good Christian, but that would be going through the motions. It wouldn't make me believe.

It's not just a matter of God possessing the power to stop Satan and choosing not to. Satan was designed to fall. If he's God, he could have given us free will and prevented us from sinning. He blocked our free will in other areas. I don't have the free will to fly unaided or hold my breath for 5 hours. I'm limited. If God put those limits on me, he could have prevented my disbelief too.

If there is a hell, I'm not choosing to go there. I can't make myself believe something that goes against reason and evidence. That's how God designed my brain. God also chose the punishment. He could have made it so every sinner would be forced to eat a cake made of worms when they died if he'd wanted. But he didn't. He chose to make a magical eternal fireplace. I'm not choosing to go anywhere.

I don't hate God. I don't hate any fictional characters.

The first is that God exists outside of time, thus free will can exist for humans without violating God's will.

Can God interfere in things that happen within time? Sending his son, flooding the earth or part of it, the plagues, the handwritten stone of 10 commandments. The Bible seems to be saying he can, so even if he exists outside time it doesn't matter. He can change things that happen to us. He could have 'guided' evolution differently or hid that fruit tree better. Even when creating a universe with time, he was outside time at the time and could have set things up to 'guide' evolution then. He did 'guide' evolution, right? Whether he did that within our time or outside time... Argh, headache!

even when humans think they are rebelling against God they are actually playing into His hands (long term plans). God allows evil but will make it play out for good in the end .

To stop his fireplace going out?

40

God's Plan

by serotonin_wraith in

everything that happens is part of god's plan.. atheists are speaking out against religion.. therefore, this is part of god's plan.. do theists have the right to complain?.

on the flip side,.

some religious people will complain that they aren't getting special treatment (immunity from criticism, for example).. even if their complaining is a part of their god's plan (as everything is).... atheists don't believe in their god so don't actually have to pay any attention to that argument..

serotonin_wraith

If God can see into the future, he knew before I was born that I would do the things I do. In fact, he knew before the universe was created what I would be like. Since he went ahead and made things this way, I can only assume it's God's plan. Afterall, he could have made me have three eyes or to be able to jump 100 metres into the air but chose not to.

He knew my brain or my soul wouldn't accept he existed, before he set things off with the big bang. Free will is a joke. Every chemical reaction in my brain was planned for by God, every interaction I would go through in life, so the way I am is really out of my control.

Or put simply:

Is everything that happens part of God's plan?

Yes - then I don't have free will.

No - then some things are out of God's control and he isn't all powerful.

serotonin_wraith

Posts by serotonin_wraith