now i know i am getting older or of the older generation.
i have had a very strange day with a lot of strange dealings with people with strange behavior today but this one incident was just over the top.
so i came out of a store in a busy shopping center.
One of my favourite commercials was The Levi 501 in the Laundrette (1985).
I don't think changing clothes in certain places is unacceptable, people do it all the time on the beach. As long as a person doesn't go totally nude. Maybe if you were somewhere in the Middle East it would be different.
i will start this o.p by a review of the mental conditioni i find many former or current witnesses at when they join the board :-.
1. broken relationships.. 2. lonliness/ depression.
3. guilt / shame .
I think from my username you can tell how I felt on 'waking up', I was angry, disillusioned. I'd given my whole life to something I now could see was fake. The rug had been well and truly pulled from under me. Although I don't feel so bad now I still feel on shaky ground. Not quite sure what to believe half the time. Now seeing what I can see behind the curtain, I feel like my family who are still in, are being held to ransom and I'm powerless to do anything about it.
The most I get from this community is a sense of having come from the same place, even though we are all on different paths and going in different directions. The most help I find is from those who are still going through the motions for sake of family and how to deal with the situations that crop up. It's invaluable for someone like me, I don't feel quite so alone with it all.
is there gods true worshipers on earth today as jesus said there would be?
if they are not jws then who are they?.
who else comes close to being gods true followers today?.
Christianity was started by Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago. JWs was started by Rutherford 85 years ago. All other 'christian' religions were started by men too. As Blondie said 'why does there have to be an organisation'?
Jesus said the wheat and the weeds would grow together. He said his followers would be recognised by their 'fruits', That of showing love towards others. A whole group cannot show love, only individuals can do that. There are as many hateful, bigoted, self-righteous, prejudiced, unforgiving, judgemental JWs as there are in any other groups, christian or otherwise and just as many, if not more, loving, kind, forgiving and compassionate people among other groups. The 'love' shown amongst JWs is conditional. Conditional in that you have to be or become 'one of them'. Outside the group you are considered 'wordly' (with all it's negative connotations), even if you are a christian from another sect. If you chose to leave the JWs you become and evil hated 'apostate', regardless of whether you stay christian or not. Is that the love Jesus spoke of?
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.
Cofty.. I've understood some of what you've said, Memphis and Landy too.. but that's it i'm afraid but everyone else.... no...
I'm interested in these type of threads and I want to understand the way different people see things but maybe my brain is just too simple (perhaps I'm not far enough away from those 'ape ancestors' LOL) the language and arguements used are just way over my head. Think I'd rather just stick to David Attenborourgh and Brian Cox....
I'm still a believer and it's going to take a lot more than this thread to convince me otherwise.
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.
Once again, I must be totally thick or something because I have NO IDEA of what anyone is talking about....
and I'm sure I'm not the only one.........................
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.
Tongue firmly in cheek Slim
It's just there's some good points in this thread but there's so much of a slanging match going on it's like watching Wimbledon... and I'm not pointing my finger at any one person. It's just hard work cutting all the dross out.
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.
LOL...... this is more what I was thinking of Cofty...
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.
Reading this thread is a bit like trying to pan for gold....
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.
I think they will be waiting a very long time! If it ever did happen who knows what the consequences could be.
Just picking up on a point Memphis made about test tube babies. Made me wonder a little bit. About life begetting life and whether cells are living or not. They say life really only begins when a sperm and egg cell meet... becoming a new life. The egg cell and sperms cells quickly die otherwise. But even using the term 'they die' seems to indicate that cells are already living. Our body cells are continually replicating, renewing, dying so that the body is a different body (so to speak) than the one we had 7 years ago, apart from brain cells. However we are still the same person. So it just makes me wonder what really is life? And what is 'spirit'? Can it be recreated in a cell or in the whole person/creature?
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.
So how exactly are scientists trying to demonstrate this then Cofty? (in simple terms that a dunce like me can understand). Surely if scientists are trying to make things happen then 'intelligence' is still behind it?
As for the implications on religious belief... who knows? I would think that it would turn some believers away from their faith in God but I'm sure just as many would stick with their beliefs.
