funkyderek

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Posts by funkyderek

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  41

  Anybody ever read any really thick books?

  by JimmyPage in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  anybody ever read any really thick books?

  (i mean besides the one with the talking snake and the dragon that got hurled down to the sea).

  books like "anna karenina" or "the brothers karamazov"?

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  funkyderek

  No Tolstoy and little Dostoevsky (none of the long ones) but I have read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (~1,500 pages), The Lord of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (~1,200 pages), Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, (~1,000 pages), Ulysses by James Joyce (~1,000 pages), Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (~1,000 pages).

  A long book is not necessarily a harder read than a short one (or at least several short ones), although it can be daunting and I'll generally only start a book of 800+ pages if it's "worthy". Of course that usually means more difficult to read anyway, so now I tend to save the chunky ones for holidays when I will be forced by circumstance to plough through them. Perhaps Vanity Fair next, or one of the Dostoevskys that are currently gathering dust on my bookshelf.
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  30

  Without God then the bad people get away!

  by easyreader1970 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the reasons (there are many) i think people adopt a religion is to comfort themselves with regard to "bad people" and "good people.".

  people do things against the society's accepted norm.

  murder, theft, rape, or sometimes they just act like complete asses.

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  funkyderek

  Junction-Guy:

  But that is just it, without an ultimate authority, then who are you to tell me what I should think is ethical?

  So might makes right then? Whoever has the most power makes the rules? How is that ethical?

  by the way you are totally off the map with your analogy,

  Is this addressed to me? I don't believe I used an analogy. (Hard to know if you meant me as you didn't quote or address anyone directly.)

  not everyone was raised as a JW, and not everyone has to deal with the baggage of being in a cult. If I were raised anything other than JW, I most likely wouldnt have the anger issues that I have dealt with, and then I wouldn't even be here, or even entertaining the idea of revenge or anything else.

  OK, stating the obvious but it makes sense. If nobody had wronged you, you would not feel the desire for revenge.

  I am a christian , and I am obliged by my belief system to treat others as I would like to be treated,

  Wow! Obliged by your belief system? Again, I treat others as I would like to be treated because, well, because that's how I'd like to be treated.

  however I am human, and when other people offend me, I am not above getting angry and hurt.

  Nor should you be. It's a normal reaction. However, as a civilised human, you should be above plotting elaborate revenge on those who have offended you, even if you do it by proxy.

  I am not perfect and don't claim to be. I am just a sinner saved by grace.

  Unless of course your god chooses to resolve the injustices you have caused, i.e. if he does unto you as you wish he would do unto others. But you want "justice" for your enemies, and "grace" for you. Double standard, no?
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  30

  Without God then the bad people get away!

  by easyreader1970 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the reasons (there are many) i think people adopt a religion is to comfort themselves with regard to "bad people" and "good people.".

  people do things against the society's accepted norm.

  murder, theft, rape, or sometimes they just act like complete asses.

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  funkyderek

  Junction-Guy:

  On the same token, without a belief in God, it would basically be no hold barred for me, I would seek out a plan for revenge, carefully execute it. Belief in God has basically held me back from doing more destructive things. Put it this way, if I had no belief in God and I knew I had a short time left on this earth, I would get revenge believe you me I would.

  Then I'm glad you believe in a god! In your case the belief that a deity will torture your enemies for you prevents you from doing so. As for me, I would consider it unethical and demeaning to engage in such behaviour so, like you, I do not. The end result is the same so it doesn't matter how we get there, right? Well, my concern is that just because you are not a moral person and would behave abominably without belief in your god to hold you in check, you may assume that other people are the same and therefore that atheists are likely to do the sort of inhuman things that you wish to do but delegate to your god. Furthermore I am concerned that in so delegating your moral responsibilities you may be more inclined to allow injustice on the basis that your god will put things right in an afterlife.

  But I suppose that's a small price to pay for something that prevents you being some sort of psychotic vigilante!
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  50

  Atheist need to start fighting fire with fire LITERALY

  by 5go in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was watching some program on the inquisition.

  you know that thing christianity would love for you to forget happened.. when the court system of rome failed the christian courts took over they instituted trial by ordeal.. simply put any accused of a crime would be tortured tested to see if they were innocent by many forms of painful test to see if god would come to the accused's defence.

  if they were innocent then no harm would happen to them because of their faith, of course pretty much 100% of the time they were hurt an were summarily executed punished with all the love of jesus in mind.. atheist should due the same accuse all of christians of crimes and force them into trial by ordeal to prove their innocence and backed by god.

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  funkyderek

  If atheism were a religion, I'd be petitioning Pope Dawkins to have 5go excommunicated.

  5go, even apart from your inability to form a coherent sentence, or correctly use (or spell) the word "literally" your argument, such as it is, is embarrassingly stupid. Please stop.
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  30

  Without God then the bad people get away!

  by easyreader1970 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the reasons (there are many) i think people adopt a religion is to comfort themselves with regard to "bad people" and "good people.".

  people do things against the society's accepted norm.

  murder, theft, rape, or sometimes they just act like complete asses.

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  funkyderek

  Junction-Guy:

  That was a really good thought provoking post, it probably sums up the reason why I could never be an atheist.

  Perhaps not so thought-provoking then.
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  49

  The Dawkins Deception (bogus reasoning on the "improbability" of God)

  by hooberus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  recently i carefully read (and highlighted) chapter 4 of richard dawkins book "the god delusion".

  dawkins argument is meant to show that "there almost certainly is no god".

  his reasoning (taken from various points on different pages by myself) is basically as follows:.

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  funkyderek

  hooberus:

  Recently I carefully read (and highlighted) Chapter 4 of Richard Dawkins book "The God Delusion".

  Well done! Good to see you doing something other than copy-and-pasting from AIG or the like.

  There are several problems with Dawkins argument, however the main problem is is equating improbability of coming about by chance with improbability of existence.

  They might be slightly different but both are about the improbability of something complex just happening to exist. If we allow that something might exist without having a beginning (which I'm quite happy to do, despite the absence of evidence) it soon becomes obvious that the probability of something like a simple set of rules always existing is much much higher than the probability of a person with memories and plans and emotions always existing. Although, to be fair, it's hard to quantify either of those probabilities. So let's (generously) allow that they're equally likely. Unfortunately for your hypothesis there are so many things that might have always existed that it again becomes vanishingly unlikely that the thing you have imagined is actually the one that exists. Why not a complex computer program being executed by a complex (but non-sentient) computer. Ah, you say, but who wrote the program? Nobody, it always existed. As did the computer. Why not a giant dandelion spewing out universes like seeds on the wind? Or a hedgehog whose wanderings around the multiverse determine the fundamental constants of our universe? It could be anything you can imagine and more. Why would it be an old man with a foreskin fixation?

  By inventing an exception to the rule that complex things cannot come about by chance, there is no limit to the possibilities that can be hypothesised. Your god is only one of an infinite number of these, and as his existence is unnecessary (i.e. it has no explanatory power) there is no good reason for hypothesising such a being.
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  7

  WHAT KIND OF BLOG SHALL I START NEXT?

  by badboy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any ideas?

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  funkyderek

  badboy:

  If you don't know what you want to say, why do you have a compulsion to say it publicly? If you can't even think of a subject for your blog, the world can probably get by without it.
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  53

  Without God - Questions?

  by Blueblades in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  without god, what is left of morality?.

  without god, what purpose is there in man's life?.

  if we do not believe in god, how can we be certain of anything?

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  funkyderek

  

  Hmmm, popular motif!
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  9

  Sarsparilla (smilax regelii)

  by Taveras25 in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  sarsaparilla is native to the tropical americas.

  the roots contain the active ingredients used for ayurvedic treatments, and are long and tuber-like.

  the plant itself is a ground-trailing vine, which grows as a perennial.

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  funkyderek

  Looks like another one has managed to pass the Turing test!
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  22

  Older generation JW's are being sacrificed by the Society? Why?

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what has changed in the last few years?.

  cheap paperback books.15 minute rule.reduced pioneer requirements.public/private watchtoweronly one pair of mags to public per month.doctrinal changes re 'generation', 1935 etcpublic talk cut to 30 minutes.and now the book study kicked into the long grass.this is an organisation that, since the big 1995 'generation change', is clearly slimming down and planning it's future srategy.

  real estate is being sold and essential operations are being relocated to more cost efficient locations.

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  funkyderek

  carla:

  What is the 15 minute rule?

  As long as whatever you're doing is over in less than 15 minutes, it doesn't count as fornication!