two main one's for me were god being capricious and serendipitous..
How do we take photos if we can't see them?
Take photos of what? Other planets? How many planets pictures can you show me from beyond this solar system? The only thing you'll be able to see is their nearly microscopic sillhouette as they make an eclipse like passing in front of their sun. It will look like a black dot, several pixels in width. There is absolutely nothing in science that can even remotely tell you if there is any sort of life existing there.
two main one's for me were god being capricious and serendipitous..
The same reason why we let our children "skin their knees." If they don't break their skin they won't know why not to. That's a concept we can wrap our heads around so I just think of God as that on a much larger scale. I think all worthy sentient life will eventually be brought back after our species grows up enough to handle the population and all that comes from that.
Thats wrong IMO on several levels:
#1: If the parent was all-powerful, he or she would probably find a way in which their kid could learn to ride a bike, say, WITHOUT having to fall and risk breaking their arms. If I COULD prevent their pain as a parent, I WOULD. Its simply that my lack of power means they have to take some risks in order to progress.
#2: Your logic MAY be able to be twisted into something like: god allows us to get broken hearted during dating for us to find out for ourselves what love is. Or god allows us scientifically to search for answers to help our ability to learn and expand our capacities. There seems to be NO way to positively twist the reasons god allows hurricans tornadoes which rip people apart, volcanos to see them burn or suffocate to death, floods to make them drown, horrific, specifically designed viruses (say ebola) that cause people's bodies to erupt and liquify in a grotesque and brutally painful way. Or plague. Or leprosy. Etc. Equate that with "lets a kid skin their knee in the process of riding a bike"? Come on now.
two main one's for me were god being capricious and serendipitous..
And everytime we press the magnify button and see more no life, even remotely comparable to our own, is found.
This is not correct. The magnify button is essentially able to detect stars. We can infer the existence of planets but not actually "see" them. If civilization as advanced as human being circa 1800 existed on the closest planets of the nearest stars, there would be no way to tell. Detecting a civilaziation capable of sending radio wave messages would increase this radius of possible detection (although quite a bit of luck would still be needed) but even then it would still be a tiny fraction of our galazy that we could hope to "confirm" in this way.
So really the only evidence of absence we have is that there is no major life in our solar system currently living on planet surfaces and that we have not been visited by any alien civilization.
i resigned as an elder some time ago, have been working on fading, the wife is getting used to the new 'me' (not stressed, better husband and father, etc.
), been missing a lot of meetings... even received a few statements such as: 'hi burnedout, it's good to see you!!!
last sunday, i took my one of my sons to the local dragstrip to show him the races, oops missed the meeting.
On the "go out with a bang" method, You could get a bunch of people from the forum to attend and vivaciously cheer at the end lol
wouldn't a loud voice from heaven asking for a show of hands pretty much do away with the need for the preaching/evangelizing work?.
why is this a stupid question?.
no, seriously!.
maybe we can vote oh who should rule: god man or satan... that would eliminate many needless delays
how about that for a discombobulated thread topic?.
i think we are in the midst of a new civil rights revolution - this time the oppressed who are overcoming prejudice are homosexuals.
now new york has legalized gay marriage.
Since the government didn't strip the Watchtower of its tax exempt status over the clearly obvious cover-ups of child molestation, I seriously doubt it would do so over discrimination against homosexuals. Very sad, but true. I truly believe that the Watchtower will bring about its own undoing. As society becomes more enlightened, jws will become more and more of a fringe group. There will probably always be some nutcases like my mom hanging onto the organization for dear life, but most people with common sense and internet access will avoid the cult like the plague. Even the majority of born ins are leaving.
Why would some cover-ups make JW's lose their status as "a religion" in America? Come on thats just silly. Then they'd have to declare basically every religion a non religion for the same reason.
Its not so much the government that would do it but the perception of the entire population. If gay&Lesbians become as accepted as African Americans then having a group completely intolerant to that will bring A LOT of public pressure and heat.
it's tiresome and it doesn't add up but it's one of the most popular arguments for god's existence, "the argument by design.
" jehovah's witnesses and other believers point out a wonder of nature like the eye and compare it to a 'lesser' mechanical wonder of human design like a camera.
the supposed conclusion is that this natural wonder is evidence of creation by a powerful designer; god.. .
"Perhaps referring to "the proven evolutionary process" or something similar but less ponderous, then the onus is on them to prove that evolution does not, and did not happen."
Ehh, thats really misleading as well. Technically theories like the evolution of species have not been "proven" in the strict sense of the word either. They are a theory in that all observable data indicates them to be true. Just as the Newtonian theory of gravitation wasn't proven when it fit all observations of the time, and indeed it turned out to be incomplete (and thus incorrect in some instances). No one can PROVE that man got here by evolution, even if all things point to it. You can even go so far as to say that God could always have made man and made the earth to appear as if evolution took place. I would say some of the principles of evolution have been directly observed but I don't think I'd be comfortable saying that macro-evolution and the entire theory has been "Proven" per se.
they regard themselves as "true christians".. do you view them as christians?.
Of course they are a Christian religion. Anyone saying otherwise is simply bitter or wants to distance their own version of Christianity from other versions of Christianity that they don't like.
this brother was sitting near me today at the hall and when the public speaker started talking about the signs of the last days this guy started whispering something to his wife and kind of mocking the speaker in a quiet voice.
his wife looked really pissed off.. i've suspected this guy before by some of the stuff he's said and done and some of the #3 talks hes given he's gone off the assigned topic quite a bit.. during the wt study i was doing mics and i happened to walk by him several times.
his wt was on the floor and his bible was opened to topic for conversation at the end of the bible at the last days part.. a little while later his wife gave him the look and said something to him and he picked up his unprepared wt and followed along.. hoser.
Its pretty easy in conversation to figure out what someone believes or might not believe.
If they don't they kind of give the subtlest of hints that things aren't rock solid but its clear. Then you can respond with something slightly doubtful/inquistive/questioning. Its hard to explain but anyone with good social skills should be able to figure out a way to get to a mutually shared belief (or disbelief)
Its kind of like being back in high school when you and a girl are trying to figure out if you like one another. After you each give a few awkward steps at admitting your feelings, it becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly.
it's tiresome and it doesn't add up but it's one of the most popular arguments for god's existence, "the argument by design.
" jehovah's witnesses and other believers point out a wonder of nature like the eye and compare it to a 'lesser' mechanical wonder of human design like a camera.
the supposed conclusion is that this natural wonder is evidence of creation by a powerful designer; god.. .
Actually the watchmaker argument is really an argument AGAINST intelligent design in disguise. What allows you to distinguish the watch from everything else is the fact that it WAS designed and everything around it (naturally occurring things) were not!
Good thread topic to the original poster
