These are the WT studies that make the genuinely intelligent JW feel proud about his unique religion.
hamilcarr
JoinedPosts by hamilcarr
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Good Watchtower Study today
by slimboyfat ini am glad we went to the meeting this morning.
it was about how jehovah's witnesses have always taught the paradise earth for most of obedient mankind.
it mentioned how early christian leaders such as origen and augustine introduced neo-platonic thought into early christianity and allowed ideas about an immortal soul to crowd out what the bible says about the earth.
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hamilcarr
Who's going to decide if it's deserved or not.
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Where does evolution leave God?
by behemot inthe wall street journal recently commissioned karen armstrong and richard dawkins to independently respond to the question "where does evolution leave god?".
their thoughts are here:.
http://online.wsj.com/article/sb10001424052970203440104574405030643556324.html.
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hamilcarr
As far as I know evolution has nothing to say about God's existence.
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Morality Predates Religion
by hamilcarr inis the often heard statement 'no religion no morality' in harmony with scientific evidence .... or not?.
if it could be proven that morality exists outside the human species, the conclusion would be that religion doesn't cause morality but only regulate it.. .
without god, we will live like animals!.
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hamilcarr
"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." . . . Well now, that was spiritual freedom. With that the very belief in truth was cancelled. . .
I see a humanist morality isn't truly free because it roams within the firm limits set by christianity, 'written by God in the logic and function of the universe'. How to find though a balance between a spiritually free society where 'nothing is true, everything is permitted' and a functional society? And, more urgent, how to communicate (using solid proof) that a free society doesn't lead to an immoral society?
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Morality Predates Religion
by hamilcarr inis the often heard statement 'no religion no morality' in harmony with scientific evidence .... or not?.
if it could be proven that morality exists outside the human species, the conclusion would be that religion doesn't cause morality but only regulate it.. .
without god, we will live like animals!.
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hamilcarr
So in a sense you could say that there is indeed 'no morality' without religion
Implicit ethics are still ethical.
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Morality Predates Religion
by hamilcarr inis the often heard statement 'no religion no morality' in harmony with scientific evidence .... or not?.
if it could be proven that morality exists outside the human species, the conclusion would be that religion doesn't cause morality but only regulate it.. .
without god, we will live like animals!.
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hamilcarr
It's frightening when you realise some people only help others (or behave morally) because they consider it a divine command.
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New twist on creation story: Academic says God not the creator
by truthseeker ininteresting viewpoint on "in the beginning, god created...".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6274502/god-is-not-the-creator-claims-academic.html.
god is not the creator, claims academicthe notion of god as the creator is wrong, claims a top academic, who believes the bible has been wrongly translated for thousands of years.
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hamilcarr
It was remarkable to see how this news topic has stirred the public opinion of so-called secular Holland.
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Morality Predates Religion
by hamilcarr inis the often heard statement 'no religion no morality' in harmony with scientific evidence .... or not?.
if it could be proven that morality exists outside the human species, the conclusion would be that religion doesn't cause morality but only regulate it.. .
without god, we will live like animals!.
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hamilcarr
Is the often heard statement 'no religion no morality' in harmony with scientific evidence ...
or not?
If it could be proven that morality exists outside the human species, the conclusion would be that religion doesn't cause morality but only regulate it.
Without God, we will live like animals!
After listening to the debate between Bill O'Reilly and Richard Dawkins, it struck me again that the resistance to evolutionary theory largely stems from the illusion that without God there can be no morality. Some believers feel threatened by evolutionary theory not because the theory is right or wrong -- the evidence doesn't seem to matter much to them -- but because accepting it would mean accepting that we have been created by natural processes including our morality. The final part is what bothers them the most.
O'Reilly exclaimed that at least Jesus had "advanced the human condition in a moralistic way" and another believer, Reverend Al Sharpton, expressed the same sentiment in a 2007 debate in the New York Public Library:
"If there is no order to the universe, and therefore some being, some force that ordered it, then who determines what is right or wrong? There is nothing immoral if there's nothing in charge."
Similarly, I have heard people literally echo Dostoevsky's Ivan Karamazov, exclaiming that "If there is no God, I am free to rape my neighbor!"
Perhaps it is just me, but I'd be wary of anyone whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior. Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed for a livable society, is built into us? Does anyone truly believe that our ancestors lacked rules of right and wrong before they had religion? Did they never assist others in need, or complain about an unfair deal?
Human morality must be quite a bit older than religion and civilization. It may, in fact, be older than humanity itself. Other primates live in highly structured social groups in which rules and inhibitions apply and mutual aid is a daily occurrence. Acts of genuine kindness do occur in animals as they do in humans. Altruistic behavior serves a cooperative group life, which benefits the actors of such behavior, yet the behavior is fueled by its own autonomous motivations, which vary from self-serving to other-regarding.
The animal kingdom offers so many examples that I surely cannot summarize them here (see my new book, The Age of Empathy), but the interesting part is not so much whether animals have empathy and compassion, but how it works.
In one experiment, we placed two capuchin monkeys side by side: separate, but in full view. One of them needed to barter with us with small plastic tokens. The critical test came when we offered a choice between two differently colored tokens with different meaning: one token was "selfish," the other "prosocial." If the bartering monkey picked the selfish token, it received a small piece of apple for returning it, but its partner got nothing. The prosocial token, on the other hand, rewarded both monkeys equally at the same time. The monkeys gradually began to prefer the prosocial token. The procedures were repeated many times with different pairs of monkeys and different sets of tokens, and the monkeys kept picking the prosocial option showing how much they care about each other's welfare.
A flourishing new field of evolutionary ethics focuses on how humans solve moral dilemmas (usually not in a rational Kantian way), which parts of the brain are involved (often old "emotional" parts), why moral tendencies evolved in the human species (probably to promote cooperation), what kind of animal parallels can be found (from prosocial tendencies to obeying social rules), how empathy evolved out of mammalian maternal care (which explains why in human adults the hormone oxytocin stimulates trust and empathy), and how religion piggy-backs on moral sentiments to promote a cohesive society. The sequence of how various tendencies came into being is: first social instincts and empathy, then morality, and finally religion. This is of course quite the opposite from the origin story of Christian religion.
If human morality is part of the larger scheme of nature, there is neither a good reason to look at evolutionary theory as undermining morality nor to look at God as a requirement for it. Raping your neighbor is destructive to society whether you believe in God or not. Conversely, I have never seen convincing evidence that a belief in God keeps people from immoral behavior. Those who think that without God humanity would lack a moral compass totally underestimate the antiquity of our moral sense.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frans-de-waal/morals-without-god_b_316473.html
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OBAMA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
by WuzLovesDubs inhe couldnt bring the olympics to chicago but he accomplished this coveted award after only a few months in office.
somebody out there sees this man as doing what the planet needs.
perhaps.. but i for one am not as shocked as most.
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hamilcarr
Societies are not static, they change.
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hamilcarr
I always thought a person actually had to do something, and not just talk about it.
Apparently not. That's what I've read all over the net:
• Myth: The prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful.
More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_norway_nobel_peace_myths