Posts by iconoclastic

23

Where is this evil spirit from?

by iconoclastic in

many believe in the wonderful drama of evolution (life evolving from non-life through flower/fruit beautiful trees and variety of species, reaching homo sapiens and finally returning to non-life) through various processes such as mutation, adaptation, natural selection .... yet there is an evil spirit working against the very spirit of the evolution, producing ironical results in too large a scale.

to mention a few:.

1) the really superior beings are kept sidelined (http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2015/07/17-ways-that-science-proves-women-are-superior-to-men/).

iconoclastic

Saintbertholdt,

In the US, how many women presidents do we have? Why not even one so far in its "239 years" of history?

23

Where is this evil spirit from?

by iconoclastic in

many believe in the wonderful drama of evolution (life evolving from non-life through flower/fruit beautiful trees and variety of species, reaching homo sapiens and finally returning to non-life) through various processes such as mutation, adaptation, natural selection .... yet there is an evil spirit working against the very spirit of the evolution, producing ironical results in too large a scale.

to mention a few:.

1) the really superior beings are kept sidelined (http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2015/07/17-ways-that-science-proves-women-are-superior-to-men/).

iconoclastic

Dear DATA-DOG

& Saintbertholdt

I was also believing like you 10 years before. However, this is my experience:

Peace comes with harmony. Harmony comes with accepting the truth. Truth is that woman is superior—something I realized in the second half of my married life. With patriarchal mind-set, I was trying to control my wife with my comments on everything she does, but this reaped only distress and conflict. One day she said:

“By not letting me do things with freedom, you are only safeguarding your superiority which is an illusion. Prove yourself superior letting me do things my own way and seeing me collapsing. On the other hand, if I succeed without your help—you don’t have to approve my superiority, at least you can approve my equality. Fact is that I don’t want to make a big deal about equality; I would be genuinely happy if you could measure up and get it too. True I do sometimes behave as childishly as you. When it comes to equality, I have no problem at all over you aspiring to it. Maybe you are more mature. May be you just know that it won’t happen. But, go ahead, keep trying. All men are born equal; and most women are born more so. Remember, how much you make me sweat for the privilege? Well, what do you know? It made me realize there was no point in getting all hot and bothered about it. The gender equation would always be skewed. Like any other women I am also simply encoded with a superior set of chromosomes. Mine is not to question Y; mine is but to be XXtra strong, mentally and cerebrally. Hence I challenge you—let me do things with freedom, experiment with me, and come to a conclusion after seeing the result.”

I agreed. I let her do without any kind of intervention from me. Now she proved her worth. She is the real hero at home, despite the fact that she also runs a hospital without any kind of intervention/help from me. (I retired from merchant navy only a few months back). She is better than me.

23

Where is this evil spirit from?

by iconoclastic in

many believe in the wonderful drama of evolution (life evolving from non-life through flower/fruit beautiful trees and variety of species, reaching homo sapiens and finally returning to non-life) through various processes such as mutation, adaptation, natural selection .... yet there is an evil spirit working against the very spirit of the evolution, producing ironical results in too large a scale.

to mention a few:.

1) the really superior beings are kept sidelined (http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2015/07/17-ways-that-science-proves-women-are-superior-to-men/).

iconoclastic

Many believe in the wonderful drama of evolution (life evolving from non-life through flower/fruit beautiful trees and variety of species, reaching homo sapiens and finally returning to non-life) through various processes such as mutation, adaptation, natural selection …. Yet there is an evil spirit working against the very spirit of the evolution, producing ironical results in too large a scale. To mention a few:

1) The really superior beings are kept sidelined (http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2015/07/17-ways-that-science-proves-women-are-superior-to-men/)

2) The powerful majority subsist at the mercy of a few rich people. In the US many feel it is 99 vs 1%

3) For the last few decades, policies of the wealthy and (all)mighty nations are determined by a few terrorists (how even the President of the sole Super Power should sleep is determined by them—He needs a no-fly zone above his residence even when he visits other countries). (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/wrost-year-global-terrorism-2014-article-1.2130490) Travel has become extremely difficult even for the former president of the largest democracy in the world. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Former-President-APJ-Abdul-Kalam-frisked-twice-in-US/articleshow/10714158.cms)

39

The only way to know God exists!

by iconoclastic in

do everything as god would do if he were present here.

this will attract his attention, and you will experience his invisible hands blessing everything you do, giving you results more than what you sowed.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

hence put to the test the above, and then you can make really authentic comments!.

iconoclastic

Dear punkofnice

Don't worry about any organization. No one can recruit you without your consent!

39

The only way to know God exists!

by iconoclastic in

do everything as god would do if he were present here.

this will attract his attention, and you will experience his invisible hands blessing everything you do, giving you results more than what you sowed.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

hence put to the test the above, and then you can make really authentic comments!.

iconoclastic

Cofty,

This I not only agree with you—but this is what I have been practicing ever since I left JW org***. But when my wife started a hospital with the money I earned, and later turned into more of a service to the society working in close association with Catholic nuns who also run some orphanages, we began to experience the invisible support of God. Our former life of money-making business and its attendant pleasures are comparable to drainage water where as now as if we are drinking from the pure water. Hence the OP that says--rather than trying to seek proof for the existence of God, attract Him towards you embarking on journey doing exactly what you expect Him to do if He were present here.

***(not much longer association I had with JW. After Bible study was over, I began a practice of reading a chapter daily. When I reached Jeremiah—especially 7:22 and 8:8 I stopped reading the Bible and association with JWs whose basic belief is that every verse of the Bible is inspired whereas Jeremiah in those two verses say much of the Bible is interpolated)

39

The only way to know God exists!

by iconoclastic in

do everything as god would do if he were present here.

this will attract his attention, and you will experience his invisible hands blessing everything you do, giving you results more than what you sowed.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

hence put to the test the above, and then you can make really authentic comments!.

iconoclastic

Dear punkofnice

When the concept of love is mentioned, you don’t ask which love—American love, European love, Russian love, Australian love. Similarly, when the concept of God is mentioned, asking which God—Hebrew, Christian, Muslim …. is not necessary!

People simply ask for proof. If proof is given, they will still cling on to their conviction. Medical Science has coined the word life-style diseases which means certain life styles invite some diseases. What effect does this have on people? Now, we also know that cooking destroys enzymes and brings in loss of protein and vitamins. (for more details: Survival Report into the 21st Century, BY Dr. Viktoras Kulvinskas). Will this change the habit of cooking we are so accustomed to? No chance.

Why, even our own experience does not change our conviction. You think you are the physical body. Yet every night in a dream experience while that body is stretched out on a mattress, a ‘you’ unconnected to the body works through your dream. That dream experience does not shake your conviction that you are the body. Wilder Penfield experimented with patients undergoing neurosurgery and found that the mind seemed to act independently of the brain in the same way a programmer acts independent of his computer, however much he may depend upon his computer. British neurologist and Nobel laureate John Eccles showed consciousness to be extracerebral and specified an area (SMA) in the brain where fusion of the consciousness with brain takes place. He also showed that by a complex code the extracerebral mind is playing 50 million neurons in the SMA region. Eccles holds that such a non-physical mind survives after death of our physical body and brain. Yet what effect did his findings (now more than 10 years old) have on people?

Because if we believe we have an immortal mind, then we will have to believe in a Supreme Mind behind this universe which people in general do not want to accept.

23

Is this a subtle clue that the leaders really see the "great tribulation" of the WT coming soon?

by never a jw in

similarly, we cannotexpect that the future interruption inthe great tribulation will result in aninflux of new believers.

rather, it willbe an opportunity for all true believersto prove their love for jehovah andgive their support to christs brothers.. (par.

7, page 16, wt july 2015).

iconoclastic

Greater tribulation will be for the "Faithful and Discreet slave" who 'started beating his fellow slaves' by abuse such as not greeting ... calling them apostates.

sorry, it is not greater, "greatest" (Mathew 24:51) for teaching God-dishonoring doctrines such as 'God felt challenged by Satan' and so on.

9

Knowing good and bad and being judged for it...

by purrpurr in

the belief is that god created the tree of the knowledge of good and bad right?

but then forbid adam and eve to eat from it because if they did they would understand good and bad.... the belief also is that either at death or armageddon we will be judged as to whether we have been good or bad.... so it seems that god did not want humans to have the knowledge of how to be good or bad in the first place but still wants to judge them on it?!?.

i always thought when reading that part of the bible " what would have been so wrong for humans to have that knowledge in the beginning?

iconoclastic

purrpurr

Here is something my friend sent to me:

Adam and Eve story is just a story—of course with many flaws

1. God, the source of all wisdom, will not act in dishonor of Himself. If God does not want them to eat from that particular tree, simple option is that such a tree should not be created in the first place! (It is like digging a big pit in the middle of an Express-Highway and asking the road-users to avoid falling into it.) Account does not glorify God in any way, because what God said (“in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”) did not take place. Bible says Adam lived for 930 years. (Genesis 5:3) And following the disobedience, in the affirmation of the punishment too God stresses harsher living, rather than the originally-decreed death. (Genesis 3:8-19) Story dishonors God in that He punished MORE severely the children of the violator, rather than the violator. For example, increasing of labour-pain given to Eve as punishment spread to all of her innocent children throughout the history. Some of them had to die in labour-room prematurely due to more pain than Eve experienced, thus delivering children with no mother to care for!

2. “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil” planted by God did not live up to its name. Because account says “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” Sense of good or bad would have arisen in Eve only after eating the fruit of that tree, but here she got that sense even before eating it. Hence the question arises: Was it a literal tree?

3. If Satan is so smart as to scheme against God and his children, he would definitely choose some smart method, not a sub-standard temptation as in this case. It is too obvious that Adam and Eve who had already experienced God as their unlimited benefactor would never believe God as withholding something good from them, nor He is a liar, especially when such a malicious suggestion originated from a stranger—with a strange phenomenon—a snake with speaking ability! Also Satan contradicted only the effects of their disobedience, which of course further weakens his position, because prima facie, it is the Law-giver that knows the effects of disobedience, not the spectators who have never seen a violation before.

4. A) It is unlikely that Adam and Eve would respond to such a lie the way they did. If they wanted to know whether they would die without eating from the tree, it is common sense that they should wait for sufficient time. For need of eating from that tree arises only when they are going to die. Hence no one would choose to eat from that tree before such a need arises. Waiting was safer option. While waiting, either of the two situations will arise—they will continue to live on and on (in this case, they don’t have to eat from that tree), or they will gradually sense that their body is moving towards death (in this case, they can try that particular tree to avert death). On the contrary, if they go ahead and eat from the tree, and thereafter find that they are going to die, what will they do? They have no other option left to try!

B) Adam and Eve who were perfect in their intelligence and reason will not act so rashly with such a life-and-death matter. They will definitely weigh the matter and see all the pros and cons of it. If they really believed what Satan said, they still had another safer option. In their natural wisdom, they would decide that one of them will try first, and after seeing the result, would decide the course of action for the other. Suppose Eve ate first, and then was going to succumb to death, Adam can avoid further testing, and approach God and say what had really happened and request God to take action against Satan, the liar, and deal with Eve mercifully as this was a matter of curiosity and first instance. [Suppose! Your loving Father says there is a lion in a nearby cave, and you and your wife should avoid going into its vicinity Later a stranger contradicts your father. Will you and your wife TOGETHER go straight into the cave to verify the presence of a lion inside the cave? You have so many other options like the medical scientists who try their newly-invented medicines on other species before they try on themselves] Look at the imperfect, distant offspring of Adam and Eve—for example Bank officials—how much checking and documentation they do before sanctioning a loan to an applicant, before parting with the money entrusted to them by others. In case of any doubt, they simply refuse to proceed!

5. Accounts projects woman as solely responsible for bringing suffering into the world, just as in the similar accounts found in Middle East religions of that time. [It is interesting to note that Jesus himself testifies that there has been occurrences of diluting of Bible accounts to suit the perceived superiority of man over woman.—Mark 10:1-12]

39

The only way to know God exists!

by iconoclastic in

do everything as god would do if he were present here.

this will attract his attention, and you will experience his invisible hands blessing everything you do, giving you results more than what you sowed.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

hence put to the test the above, and then you can make really authentic comments!.

iconoclastic

Half banana

You are right: “there is no evidence for god” for those who do not want to see the evidence.

There is enough evidence for those who want to see the evidence.

The pleasure that materialism offers is like drainage water. And if you have been tasting this from the beginning, then you would think that this is what all there is. However those who do selfless service to the humanity experience the goodness of God, and for them materialism is a hellish life of corroding inner boredom and torturing emptiness which can often be discerned by the way they talk—there is nothing up-building. They just tear down others with their talk.

39

The only way to know God exists!

by iconoclastic in

do everything as god would do if he were present here.

this will attract his attention, and you will experience his invisible hands blessing everything you do, giving you results more than what you sowed.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

hence put to the test the above, and then you can make really authentic comments!.

iconoclastic

punkofnice

You ask which God? The one who created and gave us trees as our guiding principle (which in turn gave the energy to ask this question)