John_Mann

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Posts by John_Mann

• 
  18

  How to Irritate JWs: The Catholic Way

  by Hernandez in

  1. social
  2. humour

  what's the greatest advantage in becoming a roman catholic after leaving the jehovah's witnesses some 17 years ago?

  why, it's the way it totally irritates people and really pushes their buttons...that is, if you are one of the unfortunate jehovah's witnesses who happens across my door during field service.

  i have developed several techniques to make it very frustrating to the unwary witness who hopes to make headway at my house.

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  John_Mann

  Anyway it's not wise to use Catholicism for humor.

  Bad taste humor.
• 
  18

  How to Irritate JWs: The Catholic Way

  by Hernandez in

  1. social
  2. humour

  what's the greatest advantage in becoming a roman catholic after leaving the jehovah's witnesses some 17 years ago?

  why, it's the way it totally irritates people and really pushes their buttons...that is, if you are one of the unfortunate jehovah's witnesses who happens across my door during field service.

  i have developed several techniques to make it very frustrating to the unwary witness who hopes to make headway at my house.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  John_Mann

  The goal of Catholicism is not to irritate people.

  The goal of Catholicism is the salvation of the soul. And you cannot achieve this by irritating but understanding.
• 
  405

  Origin of Life

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

  as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

  there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

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  John_Mann

  The origin of life is a very hard problem because it appeared so early on Earth (possibly less than 500 million years after the formation of Earth).

  http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/life-on-earth-likely-started-at-least-4-1-billion-years-ago-much-earlier-than-scientists-had-thought

  The other problem is life is only found on Earth and we can see a huge share of the universe and nothing... This fact threatens panspermia.

  And if you add the very late origin of consciousness in just one specie the entire thing becomes a gigantic mystery.
• 
  405

  Origin of Life

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

  as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

  there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

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• 

  John_Mann

  Would the resurrection of a dead body - dead, totally dead, brain dead, not frozen, really dead, dead for a week, stored in a drawer in the morgue - pose a theological challenge for JWs?

  Yes.

  JW theology is a mess.

  They deny it but actually they believe in soul.

  They believe in what is called in theology as the "sleeping soul". But they deny this. Worst of all they believe their sleeping soul are kept inside Jehovah.

  They mentioned the spirit of Jehovah returning to Jehovah after death but this spirit is impersonal and can't be their souls. So they must accept something in them survives death.

  Is astounding how someone can accept something so messed up with its own internal consistency.

  So resurrection of a clinical dead body will be the equivalent to someone take something directly from the inside of Jehovah.

  Such thing would not just challenge JW theology but every theology existent today.
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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• 

  John_Mann

  We discussed a lot about the problem of evil and here are some interesting links about the problem of consciousness :

  https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer

  
  
  http://www.iep.utm.edu/hard-con/

  
  
  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/world-s-smartest-physicist-thinks-science-can-t-crack-consciousness/
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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• 

  John_Mann

  Some say looter is an old man.

  But I think he and Viviane are two spoiled brats fighting like that.

  Just kiddin'

  :D
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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• 

  John_Mann

  Then you need to be more Zen about life and stop inventing hellfire/purgatory/angels/demons etc to explain things that don't need an explanation beyond "shit happens".
  Good night

  Yes Zen says that if you really want to know if you needs something you must throw it away. If you have to pick it up again this thing is needed for you.

  I need my " why". :D

  Good night
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  John_Mann

  This reduces the "why" question to the more rational and mundane question of "how"?

  
  Indeed. But I don't think the " how" is more rational than "why". Is more practical.
  
  I tried to live with this mentality but at some point when you achieve a lot of " how" you finally starts to see the limits of this view and the "why" starts to grow in your mind.
  
  But that's me. I for one cannot live ignoring my mind searching for "why". Is hard for me to accept there's people who doesn't care for "why".
  
  Like a neutrino born in the heart of the Sun and takes millions of years to reach the surface and goes in a crazy angle towards the Earth and hits a DNA strand in the left testicle of a Drone Bee and it gives him a hereditary mutation and so on...
  
  What we call random is a lot of frugal causes that we don't care to think about.
  
  But the theory of information (related to Shannon's law I think) says that a very compressed information is indistinguishable from noise.
  
  Things like this "how" makes me think about "why".
  
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  John_Mann

  Buddhism and Catholicism are very concerned with the experience of suffering specially the suffering next to death. That's why we pray "Nunc et in hora Mortis nostrae".

  Objectively speaking I think this view in face of unjustified suffering and death is better than " shit happens".
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  John_Mann

  Mercy is achieved by expense of Justice. In Christianity God's Mercy is achieved through justice. Justice is not put aside to achieve Mercy.
  
  That's the point of the Ransom view about the Crucifixion. Crucifixion of Christ payed the expense provoked by Mercy.
  
  Suffering plays a kind of monetary value in Christianity. In Buddhism suffering (dukkha) is a central key too. In Buddhism suffering is partly explained by Karma (in cause and effect sense). Catholicism have a similar view in the doctrine of Temporal Penalties. Temporal Penalties can be paid on Earth or Purgatory. The payment on Earth is more valuable than Purgatory. That's why the Good Thief after his death at the cross went directly to a blissful sphere on Purgatory called Paradise (also called Abraham's Bosom and is the last sphere before Heaven. This Paradise in Purgatory is the JWism interpretation of "millennial earthly paradise" ) because after his Repentance on cross he suffered in same way Christ did.
  
  The problem of evil is not about suffering itself but unjustified suffering or mysterious suffering of innocents.
  
  Suffering can be meaningful as Nietzsche said that you cannot be a hero if you not suffer. Nietzsche viewed suffering (in an atheistic sense) as an opportunity to become stronger.
  
  Suffering is meaningful in the bodybuilding world where the basic premise is "no pain no gain". When they show their muscles (and a lot of smiles) they're literally showing the result of pain.
  
  Christianity gives meaning to suffering because a Christian believes in an immortal soul that gains eternal Glory through suffering (specially unjustified suffering in innocents).
  
  To an Atheist there's no possibility of any metaphysical reason for suffering so it's pointless.
  
  Buddhism says a person in this situation suffers twice. First because it's not possible to avoid suffering itself (with or without a metaphysical explanation) and second this person is doomed to only accept suffering as totally pointless, just "shit happens". Even though its mind will not accept the "shit happens" and will keep trying to make sense out of the situation and this causes an extra huge psychological suffering.