Posts by SweetBabyCheezits

76

What prayers does God answer?

by jwfacts in

i have always struggled to understand what prayers god answers and which ones he avoids.

most religions teach that god answers prayers, so people must feel that their prayers are being answered, yet the type of prayers seem to be very selective.. .

if god answered broad based prayers, then children in third world countries would not be starving, so he does not seem to interfere in global issues.

What prayers does God answer?

by jwfacts in

i have always struggled to understand what prayers god answers and which ones he avoids.

most religions teach that god answers prayers, so people must feel that their prayers are being answered, yet the type of prayers seem to be very selective.. .

if god answered broad based prayers, then children in third world countries would not be starving, so he does not seem to interfere in global issues.

SweetBabyCheezits

You said you wouldn't just grant your children's requests when it fit into your grand plan.

On the other hand, children often don't understand why parents say no so often to what seem to them to be great ideas...

You're right about that. But my daughter never has to question whether I'm fulfilling or refusing a request. If I agree to help her with her homework, my actions are never so vague that the completion of it might just as well be attributed to her own positive attitude.

Again, assuming there is a god answering petitions, I'd like to know how the world would be any different if that were not the case.

With so many bamboozlers out there, why can't god make himself known without faith being part of the equation? Why must I leave logic and reason on the sideline to gain his approval? And if I were to disavow critical thinking and board the first Christian ship to everlasting glory, how can I be sure I'm not being bamboozled?

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

Chalam, I watched your videos. Did you watch the one that I posted?

13

For which teeth does the tooth fairy pay? = What prayers does God answer?

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

i just wanted to kick off a topic that i thought might be relevant following what prayers does god answer?.

edit: (jwfacts, i'm certainly not making fun of you or your thread because i understand your rhetoric.

it's a great question.).

SweetBabyCheezits

Dear sweet AGuest, you answered my second question but not my first. What gives? :-(

Also, are those the only disqualifiers for prayers to be answered by god?

SBC - A mere follower of logic and reason

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

Here's a little Isaac Azimov anecdote:

One person goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out, "Don't you believe in anything?"

"Yes", I said. " I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. "

I'm not saying that supernatural spirits CANNOT exist. All I'm saying is that some people choose to suspend belief until sufficient evidence comes along to persuade him one way or the other.

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

Chalam, how much of what you see on the Internet do you automatically believe? Is it a set percentage? I mean what criteria or scrutiny must a video or photograph undergo before it's allowed to pass through your baloney filter?

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

Chalam, a similar question was posed on another thread but I think it bears repeating:

If demons can reportedly make a book fly off a shelf with no assistance from anyone else, why does a Ouija board require users' hands to be on the planchette to move it?

Is a scientific explanation worth investigating?

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

I'll relate my personal experience:

We once had a lamp that seemed to pop ON in the middle of the night for no reason. I walked into the hallway and shut it off then climbed back into bed. A few minutes later I heard it pop on again, but no other noise. Despite the fact that I had already lost my faith in the supernatural realm, it still freaked me out a bit. The explanation was not immediately apparent. I got out of bed and walked into the hall and looked at the lamp for a minute, and fought my old JW-programmed mind by telling myself, "No, there IS a natural explanation. I just have to find it." (My wife, who was still a JW at the time, said "Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah", which snapped me back to reality.)

As it turned out, my little girl was sneaking out of her bed and turning it on and then running back to bed before I caught her.

The moral: a closed-minded (superstitious) person will quickly draw their conclusion, assigning the unexplainable event to the supernatural, and then refuse to consider any other plausible explanation. Their mind is not open to other possibilities.

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

BD: Modern times is what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about experiences in Jesus' time.

Chalam: Nothing has changed, saved the diagnosis.

Another excellent point, but not in the way you meant it, perhaps. "Nothing has changed." So if you don't believe mischievous demons are flying around, possessing smurfs and people in modern times, why then do you believe they possessed humans (and pigs) a couple thousand years ago? If you write off sensational stories (hearsay) from modern times, why do you accept them (also hearsay) from back then?

BTW, which cases are you limiting to mental illness, BD? What about psychosomatic episodes in which a person is sane but superstitious and attributes a moving lampshade (like in the video) to a ghost before ruling out other possibilities. That could simply be closed-minded thinking and superstition. Other possibilities include effects from drugs, a dream state, faulty memory (things we remember from childhood), sleep paralysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis), and the like. Craziness is not a prerequisite. What I'm saying is that there are a number of valid explanations that require less assumptions than a supernatural explanation.

200

Demons and the WTS

by brotherdan in

i remember growing up and hearing all sorts of stories about demonic activity from people.

some would be experiences that people had going door to door and visiting a "witch" or "warlock".

some would inadvertently go to a fortune tellers door and have a demonic experience.. i was always facinated by all the stories.

SweetBabyCheezits

SBC: I think this is an excellent point. If there's no supporting evidence that leads you to believe in demons, what else might that tell you?

CHALAM: The point is Dan does believe in Jesus John 14:6

That may be true but he's no longer certain about demons. That means logic and reason are leading him in what you might consider a dangerous direction.

It reminds me of a quote:

"Once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth." -Robert Heinlein