Shanagirl

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Posts by Shanagirl

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  7

  One of the oldest INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS on the Gospels

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  [reference: introduction to the literature of the old testament by g. r. driver and the introduction to the literature of the new testament by james moffatt.

  these books are over a hundred years old but they should be required reading for anyone interested in this subject.].

  meet papias.

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  Shanagirl

  I've done some reading on Papias and the early Christian apocrypha. It was just so much reading and I never did quite get into it.

  Shana
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  8

  Extraterrestrial Life Claim

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-truth-is-out-there-british-scientists-claim-to-have-found-proof-of-alien-life-8826690.html.

  not absolute proof but the details are suggestive.

  i think it's interesting to observe some astrobiologists are willing to consider panspermia ideas.. .

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  Shanagirl

  NASA found evidence of a vast ocean on Mars.

  Shana
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  22

  Abrahamism vs Gnosticism in a Nutshell :)

  by ProdigalSon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.armageddonconspiracy.co.uk/sex-for-salvation-ii%282395055%29.htm.

  judaism claims that the way to god is through obeying endless rules allegedly imposed by god.

  the great philosopher immanuel kant claimed that judaism wasn't a religion at all, but a mere body of laws.

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  Shanagirl

  Understanding Gnosticism helped me see alternatives to the canonical gospels. I find it attractive. It amazes me how Jesus sayings very close to those recorded in the canonical gospels are used for such different theology.

  Band OTR - I agree. I was amazed when I read them.

  Shana
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  22

  Abrahamism vs Gnosticism in a Nutshell :)

  by ProdigalSon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.armageddonconspiracy.co.uk/sex-for-salvation-ii%282395055%29.htm.

  judaism claims that the way to god is through obeying endless rules allegedly imposed by god.

  the great philosopher immanuel kant claimed that judaism wasn't a religion at all, but a mere body of laws.

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  Shanagirl

  I find that the teaching of Gnositcsm explains so many issues that I had when I left Watchtower. It explains an evil god like Jehovah creating man and animals to suffer. I love to read Elaine Pagels writings, and also the books listed in the Nag Hammadi Library.

  Shana
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  63

  Why did God/Jehovah/Jesus create Viruses and bacteria that can kill humans and animals?

  by Jon Preston in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know this topic has been spoken about but i havent seen an official thead about it.

  so theists why did god create these and why does he co tinue to allow them?

  are they from the talking snake, satan?.

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  Shanagirl

  Maybe because the god that created with organic matter is a flawed stupid evil god.

  Shana
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  28

  The Creation of Eve

  by jws in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who believe in the bible, have you ever seriously thought about the events that led up to the creation of eve?.

  genesis 2 - 18 the lord god said, it is not good for the man to be alone.

  i will make a helper suitable for him.. .

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  Shanagirl

  Just as Adam and Eve are regarded as central characters in the Christian creation myth, they are equally as important in that of the Gnostics. The creation of the world according to Gnostic tradition is an account of the world created not by the True God, but by a false god. As Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden of Eden in Genesis, the same has been done in Gnostic scripture. However, the false god, known as the "demiurge" is responsible for the placement of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The demiurge has created the material fleshly bodies to entrap the divine sparks of Adam and Eve. Adam is placed under a spell of ignorance and put to sleep by the false god. Eve is placed next to him, and she commands Adam to awaken. When Adam sees Eve, he believes that she is his creator. The demiurge wanted to keep Adam and Eve ignorant; forever worshipping him. The Gnostics believe that the demiurge was posing as the only true god, thus keeping Adam and Eve under his spell of ignorance. As long as Adam and Eve believed that he was the only god, they would worship him forever.
  
  The serpent is regarded as an evil figure in traditional Christian stories, but to the Gnostics, the serpent is the hero! The Gnostic text teaches that as the demiurge tells Adam and Eve that they may help themselves to anything in the Garden, they are to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge. As Adam and Eve listen to the serpent, their eyes are opened, and the spell of ignorance is broken forever. Because they chose to listen to the serpent, who enlightened them with true knowledge of who they were and who this false god was, Adam and Eve no longer worship the demiurge, but recognize that there is the True God, and he was not the creator of the evil, imperfect, material world which the demiurge and other deities with him formed Adam and Eve out of the organic material matter from which these lower dieties created.

  Shana
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  23

  The Fossil Record: vs God Allowing Pain & Suffering

  by Shanagirl in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  what a man does with the fossil record tells a lot about his worldview.

  is it the result of a world-covering deluge?

  or did this sorry chronicle of pain, suffering, and death precede humans (and the reign of death) by millions of years?

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  Shanagirl

  rocketman, that's right. I meant this to be a thread about a god who would allow the pain and suffering of his own creation. Man and animal. The fossil record shows this to be true. Even in the animal world of predators and prey. It's so cruel to each one. The predator trying to survive and the prey trying to escape and the pain and blood that involves the survival of each. I'm just throwing it out there that the gnostics have a more balanced view of what kind of creator god this was and how I feel the genesis story is nothing more than a fairy tail of lies by this creator god to mislead man away from knowledge. That's all!

  Shana
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  4

  Much ado about what Satan said!

  by exWTslave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  satan said:.

  you will become like god, if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

  (genesis 3:1-5).

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  Shanagirl

  The Serpent in the genesis story is a Messenger of the True God who came into this imperfect, inadequate and material world to wake up and liberate man, to show him his true situation and what his great destiny could be like. For this reason, those who follow the orders of the false creator god consider the serpent to be something malicious and satanic and in all this confusion liken it with satan.

  The creator god wanted to create man like the other living beings, incapable of distinguishing between good and evil but the Serpent's actions woke them up and liberated them. According to Gnostics, this knowledge, this Gnosis which the Serpent Lucifer brought to man, undoubtedly caused a great cosmic disturbance in the creation. This is how powerful this knowledge is. Gnosis causes changes in those who receive it, in those who listen to it because it is not common or current knowledge, it is liberating knowledge.

  Gnostics of later times, at the beginning of Christianity, who came to be known as Christian Gnostics or Gnostic Christians, regarded Christ as the Serpent of Genesis. This was because Christ, much later than the events in the earthly paradise, came carrying a liberating message, just like the Serpent. A message which frees man from this impure world. These Christian Gnostics believe that it was this knowledge which allowed man to make contact with the other world, the one opposed to the demiurge: the unknowable world of the True God.

  Shana
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  23

  The Fossil Record: vs God Allowing Pain & Suffering

  by Shanagirl in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  what a man does with the fossil record tells a lot about his worldview.

  is it the result of a world-covering deluge?

  or did this sorry chronicle of pain, suffering, and death precede humans (and the reign of death) by millions of years?

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  Shanagirl

  I didn't mean for this topic to be a debate on creation vs evolution. Sorry about that. The article below caught my eye in describing Try to imagine God standing on His newly created Earth and calling it "very good" when under his feet lay the ruined remains of former life forms buried in various positions of agony and stages of decay.

  http://www.icr.org/article/fossil-record-commending-gnostics/

  The Fossil Record: Commending the Gnostics

  by William A. Hoesch, M.S.
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  23

  The Fossil Record: vs God Allowing Pain & Suffering

  by Shanagirl in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  what a man does with the fossil record tells a lot about his worldview.

  is it the result of a world-covering deluge?

  or did this sorry chronicle of pain, suffering, and death precede humans (and the reign of death) by millions of years?

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  2. 
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  Shanagirl

  What a man does with the fossil record tells a lot about his worldview. Is it the result of a world-covering deluge? Or did this sorry chronicle of pain, suffering, and death precede humans (and the reign of death) by millions of years? A lot hangs on this question. Defending the goodness of God in a world full of suffering is a difficult job. The job is made nigh unto impossible if we place at God's feet the carnage of the fossil record.

  Try to imagine God standing on His newly created Earth and calling it "very good" when under his feet lay the ruined remains of former life forms buried in various positions of agony and stages of decay. Yet all Christians who believe in an old Earth must embrace this picture. Some defend it by claiming we Americans get too sentimental over animals; only human suffering matters. Others say human suffering is, in itself, a "good" thing. Most ignore it. With the growing rise of Gnosticism, however, the question will surely not be going away soon.

  Gnostics, like most religious people, have well-developed ideas on creation, "fall," and redemption. Creation to a Gnostic begins with an impersonal and vague primal god that "emanates" a few dozen deities of whom Sophia ("wisdom"), the earth goddess, is foremost. She gives birth to Jehovah and things begin to go wrong. Jehovah creates a corrupt Earth that from the start was full of suffering, pain, and death yet who attempted to pass it off as "good." Adam and Eve, having developed through Jehovah's cruel method of evolution, are also corrupt, yet they and their offspring retain a "divine spark." Only by accepting the Serpent's offer of knowledge (Gnosis) can man escape the cruel designs of Jehovah and evolve according to the promise, "ye shall be as gods." The Serpent becomes the hero. A rite of initiation among some modern Gnostics is to ritualistically eat an apple in open rebellion against their Creator.

  The point is this. The Gnostic's point of departure, which is evident on any of their websites, is that only an evil god would deliberately create a world in which physical suffering is so central to his program. They feel the brunt of this more acutely than most Christians.

  For three reasons I commend the Gnostics. First, they are to be commended for understanding evolution better than the Darwinists do. For man to advance to his next evolutionary stage, Gnostics see the need for information. Darwinists are utterly blind to this. Second, I commend Gnostics for their consistency. Today's animal economy, based upon "survival of the fittest," rewards cunning brutality, and predation. Young Charles Darwin felt that a god who ordained such an economy from the start is not the kind of god he was inclined to worship (and I agree). Third, I commend the Gnostics for bringing to light an issue that we ignore at our peril—the origin of physical suffering and death (human and animal).

  Theistic evolutionists, progressive creationists, and all Christians who believe in an old Earth have this in common: they see in the fossil record a saga of millions of years of death, physical suffering, and bloodshed of animals that preceded Adam. In embracing this, they have no credible answer for human suffering and give fuel to the Gnostics. God's goodness must be defended. An event after the Fall sufficiently accounts for the fossil

  Shana