Galileo

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Posts by Galileo

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  87

  What do we have to do to get Gods' Attention

  by LouBelle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is *if* you believe in god / a god / gods.

  there are moments when i sit down and have a conversation, almost with myself, because even though i am looking up at the heavens/searching my soul, there is no answer, no supernatural feeling, it is quiet and still, but i speak the words just in case there is something listening.. if there is a god and he is all that he claims to be through all the religions on this earth, why doesn't he rule us as a god should?

  why doesn't he come on down and sort out this world?

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  Galileo

  Just edited my response as you were replying. Sorry about my presumption.
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  87

  What do we have to do to get Gods' Attention

  by LouBelle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is *if* you believe in god / a god / gods.

  there are moments when i sit down and have a conversation, almost with myself, because even though i am looking up at the heavens/searching my soul, there is no answer, no supernatural feeling, it is quiet and still, but i speak the words just in case there is something listening.. if there is a god and he is all that he claims to be through all the religions on this earth, why doesn't he rule us as a god should?

  why doesn't he come on down and sort out this world?

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  Galileo

  Burn - Glad to see you're accepting evolution now! Welcome to the side of reason!

  *edit: I just realized I've never actually heard your take on evolution, so perhaps you actually do believe that god used evolution to create man. Forgive me if I made an unwarranted assumption about your beliefs.*
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  87

  What do we have to do to get Gods' Attention

  by LouBelle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is *if* you believe in god / a god / gods.

  there are moments when i sit down and have a conversation, almost with myself, because even though i am looking up at the heavens/searching my soul, there is no answer, no supernatural feeling, it is quiet and still, but i speak the words just in case there is something listening.. if there is a god and he is all that he claims to be through all the religions on this earth, why doesn't he rule us as a god should?

  why doesn't he come on down and sort out this world?

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  Galileo

  I have no wish to hijack this thread or be argumentative. You seem to be sincere, however, so I will address the issues you raised. I sincerely suggest that you also do your own independent (read: scientific, not creationist propaganda) research. If you wish further discussion about Noah's flood, a new thread would probably be in order.

  Fish swim so no need to rescue fish and all those that swim. Birds fly, others can find refuge correct?

  No. No part of this statement is correct. Sea life have evolved to require very specific environments. Drastic changes in temperature, water pessure, even PH levels would result in the extinction of many, if not all, species. Salt water species cannot live in fresh water and vice versa. The combining of all the worlds bodies of water into one would cause the salt water and fresh water to combine, with obviously toxic results.

  But there is an even worse problem: The sheer volume of water. In order to cover the tops of all the Earth's mountains, it has been estimated that an estimated 4.55 Bilion cubic kilometers of water would need to fall in the 40 days the bible claims for the flood. Water condensing from vapor releases heat. The amount of heat generated by that volume of water would have raised the surface temperature of the earth to around 1600 degrees Celsius, hot enough to evaporate all the water in the oceans, let alone kill whatever miraculous fish had survived the massive destruction of their living environment.

  As for the birds, what refuge could they find? The entire Earth was an ocean. Some could possibly have stayed aloft for a short time in this torrential downpour the likes of which the world had never seen, but surely even the most stout could not have survived more than a few days in such conditions, and that's being generous. It's also clear that Noah is depicted as having birds on the Ark, as indicated that he released some at the end of the flood. This brings up another interesting point: A flood of that magnitude, with the Earth totally submerged in water for over a month, would have killed all the trees. Where was that magic fig tree that the dove found?

  God can guide His creation by Holy Spirit evident by the swines being led over the cliff and many more wonders. So He can easily guide the animals to the Ark. I have a question for you. Did the Ark drift aimlessly through the waters?

  Actually your original point was about the geological evidence for the flood, which is why I directed you to the point on that site where they talk about the geology of an Earth-wide flood event. I will grant you that if the flood story is true God could have miraculously led the animals to the Ark. I will not, however, stand by while you accuse the Hoy Spirit of porkicide! It was the legion of demons that Jesus exorcised from the possessed man that caused the pigs to run over the cliff. The holy spirit mearly directed them to the pigs.

  As to the point about the Ark drifting aimlessly, if the story were true, then I suppose not.

  Did the cities mentioned in the bible exist? What about Solomons temple and Zerubabel (sp) temple? Did they exist and who built them? And what exactly is your theory about the origin of man? And what truth are you talking about? The teachings that JW's give.

  The city of Tokyo exists, that doesn't mean I think Godzilla is a documentary. My theory of the origin of man is irrelevant, as the issue here is whether the flood story is accurate. However, I believe there is massive, overwhelming evidence that man evolved from lower species. That took me a while to come around to, however. I stopped believing the bible was inspired long before I came to accept evolution. In fact I was a atheist before I accepted evolution.

  When I mentioned the truth it was somewhat tongue in cheek, since the JW's call their entire religion "The Truth", yet they are far from it.

  What is it you have to teach me that might better my life? I am reading intently :)

  I don't consider myself a teacher or a leader of a movement. I may indeed be able to teach you things that will better your life, but bettering your life is your responsibility, not mine. But I don't think that's the point you were trying to make. So is your point that you would follow the JW's or some other attractive teaching, regardless of whether it's true, in order to better your life? How sad. The issue for me is the truth. The truth may be that I have cancer. Is that going to make me happy? No. But if it's the truth, I want to know. If we know what the truth is, then we can adjust our lives accordingly.
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  67

  Athiests please answer these questions

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not trying to pick a fight i was just sitting at my desk pondering on some threads on jwd and i would very much like this question answered.. why is it that athiest often (not always) direct their argument for athiesism towards christians?

  why not direct your argument towards buddists or muslims or even new-agers?

  i mean they also believe in a higher power so why is it that only christains seem to get knocked?

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  Galileo

  That might be a good designation. And for the record, Layla, I know a lot of atheists, but I have very rarely met anyone who fits this description. It's simply an irrational position.

  Ditto. This is a point I try to make as often as I can, because it's such a broad misconception. Save perhaps for a few nutjobs, atheists do not believe they have absolute proof that there is no god. Period. That is not what the word means.
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  67

  Athiests please answer these questions

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not trying to pick a fight i was just sitting at my desk pondering on some threads on jwd and i would very much like this question answered.. why is it that athiest often (not always) direct their argument for athiesism towards christians?

  why not direct your argument towards buddists or muslims or even new-agers?

  i mean they also believe in a higher power so why is it that only christains seem to get knocked?

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  Galileo

  good to hear from you. Have you read the God Delusion yet? I assume you have. Dawkins is my God - so I am a theist

  Ha! I love it! God bless Richard Dawkins! The God Delusion is an awesome book. So is Sam Harris' "The End of Faith". Must reads, both of them.
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  67

  Athiests please answer these questions

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not trying to pick a fight i was just sitting at my desk pondering on some threads on jwd and i would very much like this question answered.. why is it that athiest often (not always) direct their argument for athiesism towards christians?

  why not direct your argument towards buddists or muslims or even new-agers?

  i mean they also believe in a higher power so why is it that only christains seem to get knocked?

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  Galileo

  What I am seeing is that atheism means different things to different people

  Well, there are different types of atheism, there is a spectrum. But it is just differences in degrees. You aren't likely to find someone that calls themself an atheist that goes on to say they also believe in a god. That person would best be describd by another title: Crazy.

  Even those that say, they believe there is a God, and that there is a Jesus, but have different ideas on the death penalty, sexual issues, abortion.

  That's why I specifically said "Southern Baptist", not "Christian". There are varying degrees of Christianity, but they are all part of a belief system. If someone is a Christian that thinks there's nothing wrong with homosexuality, they are choosing to pretend their holy book wasn't serious when it said homosexuals will be destroyed by god. There is no such system of beliefs for an atheist to need to circumvent. That's why we are so insistent atheism isn't a belief or a belief system, it's a non-belief.
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  67

  Athiests please answer these questions

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not trying to pick a fight i was just sitting at my desk pondering on some threads on jwd and i would very much like this question answered.. why is it that athiest often (not always) direct their argument for athiesism towards christians?

  why not direct your argument towards buddists or muslims or even new-agers?

  i mean they also believe in a higher power so why is it that only christains seem to get knocked?

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  Galileo

  Why do atheists continually deny they have any belief at all?

  Atheists have no belief in God. I guess a more accurate statement is that atheism is not a belief system, the way a specific religion is. Saying you are an atheist tells a person nothing about where you may stand on abortion, the death penalty, sexual issues, etc. If you tell me your a southern baptist or a muslem, I know where you stand on all those issues. It is simply a lack of belief in one thing. We certainly believe in other things. I hope someday the term atheist will be unneccesary, the way we don't need a term to say we don't believe in fairies, unicorns, mermaids, etc. I don't believe I will see that in my lifetime, but I believe (hope) the day is coming.
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  67

  Athiests please answer these questions

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not trying to pick a fight i was just sitting at my desk pondering on some threads on jwd and i would very much like this question answered.. why is it that athiest often (not always) direct their argument for athiesism towards christians?

  why not direct your argument towards buddists or muslims or even new-agers?

  i mean they also believe in a higher power so why is it that only christains seem to get knocked?

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  Galileo

  The Mother of American Atheism was very hateful, ignorant and attacked people to the point that she was murdered.

  Madeline Murray O'haire was not the mother of american atheism, by a long shot. She was before my time, but she's never been someone I looked up to or even thought much about. At any rate, she was murdered over a very valuable collection of gold coins, not ideology. It was about money.

  atheism is just another interpretation of the world around us.

  I just find that atheism seems to try to suggest they are the opposite of religious, when it seems there are a few very obvious similarities, it just does not believe in a divine

  Lack of belief is not a belief. Religion is largely defined by belief in the supernatural, the antithesis of atheism. It is true that there are activists promoting atheism. I could even be defined as such. But there are a great deal of others that just aren't interested in the discussion. As the Nobel Prize winning physicist Stephen Weinberg said:

  "I've occasionally... not too often, gotten into conversations with my physicist colleagues about religion and I find an overwhelming lack of interest in it. I once said that they don't care enough about it to qualify as practising atheists. They... they just regard it as a sort of question that it's silly to raise, and umm... I, for some obscure reason, I tend to care about it and I'm interested in religion, but most of my physicist friends are not."
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  87

  What do we have to do to get Gods' Attention

  by LouBelle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is *if* you believe in god / a god / gods.

  there are moments when i sit down and have a conversation, almost with myself, because even though i am looking up at the heavens/searching my soul, there is no answer, no supernatural feeling, it is quiet and still, but i speak the words just in case there is something listening.. if there is a god and he is all that he claims to be through all the religions on this earth, why doesn't he rule us as a god should?

  why doesn't he come on down and sort out this world?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Galileo

  Welcome jwblog! It seems by your answer you are a current jay - dub. Forgive me if that's not the case. Either way, let me share some information with you. It is apparent that virtually all of your information comes from one (biased) source, probably the WTB&TS. Many of your claims are more complicated to get in to, so let me focus on one:

  Geologic evidence coincides with biblical accounts.

  This is about as far from the truth as you can get. Let's take the flood for instance. It is an impossibility. There is not a reputable geologist alive that will tell you that a global flood happened four to five thousand years ago. Here's a site for reference http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html, although a google search will net you as much reference material as you care to read. The entire page is good material, although the part that deals with the geologic evidence starts at point 7.

  In general, this is my favorite source of information on Jehovah's Witnesses: http://www.jwfacts.com If you're wondering about my credentials, I am a former MS, regular auxillary pioneer, was married to a regular pioneer. I hope your search leads you to the truth.
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  52

  FW: WHAT A SISITER SACRIFICED TO SERVE JEHOVAH

  by moomanchu in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  witnoid e-mails goin around.. all i can say is wtf.. japan assembly experience.

  date: tue, 22 jan 2008 15:58:51 -0500. .

  convention experience from japan!

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  Galileo

  I heard this story probably ten or more years ago at a convention. My thoughts now are pretty much what they were then: She had already "bought" the right to attend meetings, presumably that includes the conventions. Why the hell would she tell him she was getting babtized and lose another finger? How would he even know there was such a thing? For all he knew (if he even knew what baptism was, being a non-Christian living in a non-Christian country), she was baptized the first day she entered the Kingdom Hall. Does she go up to him and tell him every time she has a talk, wants to auxillary pioneer, or start a study, with her hand outstretched? When will this idiot learn to keep her freaking mouth shut? Total nonsense.