BurnTheShips

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Posts by BurnTheShips

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  109

  Pro-life arguments

  by Skimmer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a thoughtful series of twenty six pro-life arguments specifically against abortion can be found at: .

  http://www.all.org/article.php?id=10229 .

  through (following down the links the left side of each page) .

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  BurnTheShips

  Wow. I never thought of it that way before BA.
  
  That one blew me away. I am going to bookmark. Thanks.
  
  Burn
• 
  76

  Staying a Christian Upon Leaving (cont.)

  by serotonin_wraith in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  writetoknow, you can paste in those articles again if you like.

  could you just put in the first two for now (the one with the sunset on the right side, and the one about the author's atheist friend?

  no one is making anyone read this.

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  BurnTheShips

  Athiesm isn't a belief system.

  EVERYTHING is a belief system. Your weltanschauung is just not the same as mine. But to say you do not have a belief system is untrue.

  And yes, there was Marxist Atheist indoctrination of children in Cuba using your definition of indoctrination (still is). "Religion is the opium of the people" and all that. Why the heck do you think so many people fled, my family included? They know all about atheist utopias.

  Best advice my grandfather (nonJW) ever gave me: "To be successful in life pick a convincing line of bullshit and stick with it".

  Your mind is made up and so is mine. So good day to you.
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  171

  Have you changed your mind about ABORTION?

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not after a discussion on the rights or wrongs on abortion, what i'm asking is whether or not your views have evolved over time.. perhaps leaving the watchtower was enough to allow your true feelings on abortion to find expression.

  maybe abortion is one of those subjects where you still find yourself in agreement with your old jw self.

  did becoming a mother change your perspective in any way or solidify your views?.

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  BurnTheShips

  My baby was pro-life but now that he is born he is pro-choice
• 
  53

  What has this religion become? THE WATCHTOWER madhouse

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  c.t.russell began with a personal "purpose" which was to find a way to believe in/worship god while doing away with the beliefs he found to be personally uncomfortable such as hellfire.

  he shopped around and cherry picked 2nd adventist views as a foundation.

  to this he added pyramidology.

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  BurnTheShips

  Well written!
• 
  3

  Mosaic idea of charity.

  by BurnTheShips in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  charity and the "abrahamic" religions .

  maimon schwarzschild.

  the new york times ran a front-page story recently about an elderly man who starved to death in japan, having been denied help by the welfare bureaucracy.

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  BurnTheShips

  Thanks Terry, with regard to Carter I would think that it is rather early to see how long term it is. However, I know some that have personally benefitted from programs such as "Habitat For Humanity".
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  76

  Staying a Christian Upon Leaving (cont.)

  by serotonin_wraith in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  writetoknow, you can paste in those articles again if you like.

  could you just put in the first two for now (the one with the sunset on the right side, and the one about the author's atheist friend?

  no one is making anyone read this.

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  BurnTheShips

  Prevents independent thought.

  No it does not.

  Children are indoctrinated.

  in·doc·tri·nate

  Pronunciation:

  \in- ' däk-tr?- ? nat\

  Function:

  transitive verb

  Inflected Form(s):

  in·doc·tri·nat·ed ; in·doc·tri·nat·ing

  Etymology:

  probably from Middle English endoctrinen, from Anglo-French endoctriner, from en- + doctrine doctrine

  Date:

  1626

  1 : to instruct especially in fundamentals or rudiments : teach Children are indoctrinated regardless of whether their environment is religious or not. My family fled Atheist Cuba, I could tell you a couple of things about their attempted atheist indoctrination in the state religion.

  Fear of hell/ armageddon.

  Fear of death.

  Fear of life without an invisible friend.

  Sounds like an atheist problem to me.

  People may pray instead of getting or giving real help.

  The one does not preclude the other. Classic "false dilemma" logical fallacy.

  Keeps people ignorant of the facts of life.

  Which are?

  Creates a lack of concern for humanity's problems (if it's believed Jesus will be back any day now to help us out)

  On the contrary, at least if we are talking about Christianity here, an adherence to its precepts creates an interest in the well being of others. Check out all of the Christian charities.

  Holds back science.

  No it does not.

  Killing 'witches' (which continues to this day in some places)

  Chalk this up to ignorance and a human tendency to demonize that which is different.

  Suicide bombing.

  Yes, all religions teach this of course!

  Planes flown into buildings.

  Ditto..

  Killing apostates.

  Ditto.

  Wars.

  Lets talk about the millions killed by avowed atheist states in the last 100 years. Wars persist, despite religion.

  Catholics in Africa telling people condom use is immoral- not helping with the AIDS epidemic.

  Catholics in Africa teaching monogamous heterosexual married sex-the one thing that can stop AIDS. You must admit that those that ignore this are also likely to ignore condoms as well. Read Humanae Vitae sometime.

  Opposing euthanasia.

  No argument there.

  Discrimination of homosexuals.

  This is a social problem. If your argument is correct, this would not exist in atheist societies.

  Killing homosexuals.

  Ditto.

  Women not treated as man's equal.

  Ditto.

  Guilt. Masturbation becomes a sin, people are made to feel they're not worthy and deserve death and that only religion can 'save' them.

  Guilt is the natural response of a well formed conscience.

  People may give up on their dreams in this life hoping for a better afterlife.

  Atheists may give up their dreams in bitter hopelessness and futilty. I've seen plenty of bitter angry hopeless atheists in my time.

  In short, to listen to you would make one think that a fully atheistic and areligious society would not have any of these problems. I submit to you that all of the above would be WORSE.
• 
  3

  Mosaic idea of charity.

  by BurnTheShips in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  charity and the "abrahamic" religions .

  maimon schwarzschild.

  the new york times ran a front-page story recently about an elderly man who starved to death in japan, having been denied help by the welfare bureaucracy.

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  BurnTheShips

  Charity and the "Abrahamic" Religions
  Maimon Schwarzschild

  The New York Times ran a front-page story recently about an elderly man who starved to death in Japan, having been denied help by the welfare bureaucracy. The man kept a diary as he died: heartbreaking to read. The Japanese welfare bureaucracy seems to have been notably heartless, and not only in this case. There are other, similar cases of starvation in the past year or two in Japan, according to the Times.

  There is this brief throwaway in the lengthy Times story:

  With no religious tradition of charity, Japan has few soup kitchens or other places for the indigent. Those that exist — run frequently by Christian missionaries from South Korea or Japan’s tiny Christian population — cater mostly to the homeless.

  Say what you will about the "Abrahamic" religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - can there be any doubt that they have brought an ethic of charity into a world that would otherwise be a crueler place?

  The ancient, pagan world, for all its brilliance, was coldly cruel. The Hebrew Bible put enormous emphasis on charity, which was something radically new.

  Jewish communities have always been noted for charity, but Jews have never been numerous enough to change the world, in any fundamental way, on their own.

  Islam, on the other hand, is a world religion. Islam embraces "zakat" - charity - the Hebrew word is cognate: "zedaka" - as a basic principle of faith. As a practical matter, I don't know what a needy person's chances have been of receiving charity in Islamic societies. Often those chances have been good; at other times and places I think not so good. On the whole, I would certainly prefer to take my chances in a Muslim society than in a pagan one on this score. But has any impartial historian tried to assess this soberly, and over the span of Islamic history?

  Christianity has been unique, I think, as a world religion, for its missionary tradition and its history of charitable orders of nuns, brothers, and lay people. As the Times story about Japan suggests, charity runs deep in Christian life - in notable contrast to many other ways of life in human history.

  If the Christian world is on its way to being post-Christian, will the tradition of Christian charity persist?

  Or is the ethic of charity liable to go down with the faith that inspired it?

  http://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2007/10/charity-and-the.html
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  171

  Have you changed your mind about ABORTION?

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not after a discussion on the rights or wrongs on abortion, what i'm asking is whether or not your views have evolved over time.. perhaps leaving the watchtower was enough to allow your true feelings on abortion to find expression.

  maybe abortion is one of those subjects where you still find yourself in agreement with your old jw self.

  did becoming a mother change your perspective in any way or solidify your views?.

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  2. 
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  BurnTheShips

  Tertullian: "homo est qui venturus est." [trans: he who will become man is man]
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  171

  Have you changed your mind about ABORTION?

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not after a discussion on the rights or wrongs on abortion, what i'm asking is whether or not your views have evolved over time.. perhaps leaving the watchtower was enough to allow your true feelings on abortion to find expression.

  maybe abortion is one of those subjects where you still find yourself in agreement with your old jw self.

  did becoming a mother change your perspective in any way or solidify your views?.

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  BurnTheShips

  No, the moral argument is the same. I still am pro-life.
• 
  4

  WHAT WAS THE BONUS ARMY AFFAIR?

  by badboy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think i know what it might have been.. what was rutherfor'ds connection?.

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  BurnTheShips

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
  
  Please tell about Rutherford.