Posts by inkling

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

One example of the WTS's vacillation on this subject is "guardian angels." Until 1974 the teaching was that angels would actually provide physical protection for true worshippers; in 1974 that was changed to mean only 'spiritual' protection.

This is a hard theory to maintain, and gets harder every time a perfect candidate for angelic protection ends up dead. Bad things DO happen to faithful witnesses, even extremely vital ones, even while in some form of service. Remember last year when a small plane carrying 5 Regional Building Committee overseers crashed, killing all of them? The plane was traveling to quick build project meeting. Where were THEIR guardian angels? [inkling]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

We gave up free will when we went to the "dark side."

ah, of course. Like becoming a crack addict. It was an act off free will to start, and eventually you lose yourself.

[inkling]

32

Society's latest stance on Evolution in Jan 1, 2008 WT (bonus quote mining)

by marmot in

my parents gave me the latest "public edition" watchtower and it has 4-page festival of circular logic and hypocritical quote-mining entitled "is evolution compatible with the bible?

the opening salvo is golden, because they go and shoot themselves in the foot with it later on: "is it possible that god used evolution to create men from beasts?

did god direct bacteria to develop into fish and then to continue developing through reptiles and mammals, so that finally a race of apes became humans?

inkling

When that happens, the Watchtower will ban education past the 4th grade!

haha!

[ink]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

She absolutely believes that demons are sitting our heads and driving us around like a pilot flys an airplane. The influence is direct and literal.

And free will?

[ink]

2

Neck of the Giraffe by Hitching

by Beagle in

quoted 9 times in ce book (*and referenced) - what a good authority to use?!".

hitching is basically a sensational tv script writer and has no scientific credentials.

in the neck of the giraffe he claimed to be a member of the royal archaeological institute, but an inquiry to that institute said he was not.

inkling

It is comforting to know that our education as a witness is in such capable hands.

Really, just trust the writing committee. They clearly are such scholarly researchers.

[ink]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

they(demons) use various ways to lead people into other pursuits that errode the presence of God...

Name a few perhaps?

how? they ultimately mislead people into not thinking/believing in [a] God of Salvation

This is a "what", not a "how".

HOW do they mislead people? A person is born, and lives, and one day they are misled by a demon...
what exactly HAPPENED? What is the mechanism that interacted with our world? Cause and effect... what does the chain of events look like, traced all the way back to the "first cause" of the misleading: the demon (or Satan)

[inkling]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

Which brings us all the way back to the main question of: "How do they do it?" I suppose that should be answered first.

I Agree, and it is a very good question. When speculating on something that has really no anchoring evidence to start from, it is almost impossible NOT to make logical fallacies when talking about it. I honestly found your original question compelling until my friend (who is both smarter and more cynical than I am) pointed out the problem. A related question would be why would God ALLOW them to misuse such power. Clearly, God must draw the line somewhere, because he stops demons from outright killing people, right? There must be some spiritual laws. But I suppose even that is a unwarranted assumption. Maybe the spiritual realm is not bound by the logic of this one, and so on... On the question of free will... I agree that an outright possession would be a clear violation of a humans free will, and therefore whatever they did under such possession would no be held against them is a cosmic sense, even if they are judged and perhaps killed as a danger to humanity. (serial killers?) To my thinking, the most internally consistent model for "demon influence" would be the "Ouija board model"- YOU, out of free will, initiate contact, and all they do is talk to you. They will lie and slander and manipulate, but it is by your own free will that you take their advice, or allow a "evil seed" of their suggestion to grow in your thoughts. Obviously this is speculative to the point of likely fictional. Ouija boards are easily debunked by simply covering the eyes of the users. Gibberish follows. Of course you can then say "well, the demons see out the eyes of the human user" or "demons are sneaky don't want to be caught be scientists" and the like, but I am very skeptical. I have never been presented with compelling evidence that a Ouija board has even once offered a bit of information that was not known or invented by the present human users. I think it likely this whole conversation is a exercise is myth-making, but I am still enjoying it. [inkling]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

citation needed

.....sigh....

ROTFL!

For sure, these perspectives are not for everyone. But scoffing at them rather than researching the serious studies that have been
done to validate them, doesn't advance anything. I'm not in the mood to cut and paste and quote metaphysical ideas as they relate
to scientific studies. Any seeker can do their own study. To each his own, as they say.

Ok, I was laughing at the wikipedia-referencing joke, not at you. Please don't take offense, as none was intended [inkling]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

And the really loaded question: "Why did God give them this ability?"
Think about it, what NON-Evil purpose does possession serve? It strikes me as a rather odd thing for God to create angels with the ability to invade a human brain and take over.

Ok, I see where you are coming from, but sadly this argument holds no water.
(this was pointed out to me by a friend) Let me reword the argument to show
the fallacy:

And the really loaded question: Why did god give humans the ability to strangle someone?
What possible NON-Evil purpose would such throat-strangling ability serve?

Manual dexterity and strength is the base ability, clenching someones neck is an abuse of that ability.

Your whole argument assumes that the people-possesing is the BASE ABILITY.
Perhaps basic freedom to manipulate molecules is the base ability, and there are
millions of darkly creative ways to abuse this mechanism.

Don't get me wrong, on a larger scale I am totally on your side on this issue,
but I just think it deserves more solid argumentation.

[inkling]

53

How do angels and demons influence mankind?

by onacruse in

wts publications, and indeed virtually all religions on this planet, assert that angels and demons have regular influence on mankind, on individual human beings as well as on the general course of human events.. but i've never read anything specific about how they supposedly accomplish this.. do they tweak our neurons?

do they fiddle with our hormones, thereby making us feel good or bad about a certain course of action?

do they inject thoughts into our brains, perhaps in such a subtle way that we think those are our own thoughts?

inkling

[citation needed]

ROTFL!