Happy...Just because noone has a complete understanding of life it does not follow that know one knows more completely and correctly than another. Some approaches to learning are manifestly more efficient and produce more reliable results. If for instance you wish to know what is in a closed box you likely would try to open it rather than wait for a dream in the night to inform you of it's contents. So the choice is really not WHAT to believe as if life was made of disconnected facts arrived at though private revelation, but the question is what method and approach to learning about life do I recognize as efficient and producing the most reliable results. For me I have come to agree with Einstein who said that dispite it's seeming inadaqucy science is the most precious thing we possess. It is not the facts of science that are the most precious thing but rather the scientific METHOD of discovery through testing and observation followed by peer review. If a person shares this conviction choosing what to believe is rarely a question.
peacefulpete
JoinedPosts by peacefulpete
-
7
Your religion = Do what feels good?
by happysunshine inso... what is an acceptable reason to join a religion or live by a certain philosophy?
does it essentialy come down to "if it makes you generaly 'feel good', its ok"?
by 'feel good' i mean satisfy current needs, physical, cognitive, whatever.
-
-
-
20
Does the president believe he has a divine mandate
by Ravyn inan evolving faith .
does the president believe he has a divine mandate?
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/121/story_12112.html
-
-
peacefulpete
Ravyn... why as the U.S. not already attacked Iraq? Some say it was simply to give time to enable him to mobilize the militery build up in the region. Others prefer to believe that the public opinion needed to be rallied in support first, not because they cared what the people think but so that at reelection time people remember them as good guys and not despots. So then this is the one thing we can do. By keeping the public informed about other options and the hidden agendas of politicians they can make better judgements about who to elect and who to reject. That the world is largely opposed to a hasty militery slaughter on grounds of suspected "breaking of the rules" by Iraqi leaders is evidence that humans are making progress. Some not all.
-
172
Evolution or Creation??
by dottie inwell i know i may be opening a can of worms here.... but after what we were taught in the wts about creation...and now that you may know more about evolution... which do you think you'd choose to believe more??.
myself...i am leaning towards evolution...but then i read things that make me think otherwise.
so i do find it confusing sometimes .
-
-
peacefulpete
If a person wants peace they have to deal with this issue head on. The very ones whom we recognized when JWs as deceiptful and blinded by fanaticism, that is the Baptist born againers, are the ONLY voice decrying evolution as a Satanic conspiracy. The JWs selectively extracted quotes from the trash "science" writings of these enemies of theirs, ignoring that these writers condemn the JWs for having aposatasized and compromised in not insisting the earth is 6,000 years old. They routinely grossly misrepresent the facts pull quotes out of context and insult the sciences by their warped vision of history and geology. Their worst enemies are Richard Dawkins and the late Stepen Gould. Read their books and find out why.
"Climbing Mount Improbable" by Dawkins effectively and honestly discusses why science is unified in it's acceptance of this fundemental truth of life. Very good read and it will answer the question forever for anyone who has question. It is a best seller and available in most book stores.
-
7
Who was Mark?
by Sargon inthis happens every year in february, i find myself doing really silly things because i've got way too much time on my hands.
today i actually found myself tracing biblical stories with my atlas.
when i got to mark 7:31 i had to scratch my head, either my atlas was wrong, my bible had a misprint, or the gospel writer mark was absolutely clueless when it came to mid-east geography.
-
-
peacefulpete
Why was the detail of this young man being naked and not wearing undergarments included in the story? Somethings missing. It has been connected to other texts to complete the narrative. Two views prevail, this was a baptism scene lifted from context and reworked or it was an excerpt from the Secret Gospel of Mark (look it up on web) wherein Jesus and his Apostles gave their "love" to young men "laying naked body to naked body". Do not think this impossible. It is possible that the historical figure at the center of the Jesus legend like many of his time saw no vice in homosexual acts done with tenderness. It is also possible that this did not happen but was only said to have happened by the writer of the earliest gospel versions. It then was clumsily edited by the final redactor of the Gospel of Mark.
Edited by - peacefulpete on 13 February 2003 9:20:55
-
12
Did I find the right Church?
by Sherwood infound this on usenet and just had to pass it along.
sherwood.
investigating.
-
-
peacefulpete
Sherwood...for once I agree.
Edited by - peacefulpete on 12 February 2003 11:5:12
-
19
Listening To The Answer To Your Prayers
by MaudeW ini've always been curious about this.
i'm an ex-jw with serious god issues but enough about me.
in all the years i was a witness, i was always taught the proper way to pray.
-
-
peacefulpete
There theraputic value of prayer lies in it's requiring the praying person to organize his thoughts nd put them into words. It is much the same as the avice to write down in a letter your feelings without ever meaning to send them. Or talking your problem out with a friend or health care professional. The "seeing" answers to prayers is a matter of selective perception. It has been studied and found that a devout persdon convinced of God's blessing will "reognise" God's hand in everyay matters that appear at the moment to be good. This, while ignoring the equal number of events or situations that affect them negatively On occassion when the negatives pile up it is not seen as proof of God's failing but as test of faith. Perhaps the person attributes the negative to the Devil. I was once camping with a Lutheran relative whose selective perception struck me even when I was yet practicing prayer. The camp grounds were full and we did not plan ahead and make a reservation. After 3 or 4 camprounds turned us away, we found a spot late into the night. My aunt declared that she was praying for a spot and God had answered her prayer! Well ok I thought, I know God did not answer her prayer because she was Lutheran and not a JW but why was her certainty that He had any different than my certainty God had answered my prayers in the past. When the people began having a drinking party and young ladies squatted and took a pee out in the open in the camp site next to ours as we were unpacking, I wondered did Auntie change her mind about the availablity of our site being the answer to her prayers? Nope. A couple of years later when the family remembered the trip she recalled how God had taken care of us when we needed a place to stop for the night. Selective perception: see and remember only that which affirms our conception of the world. Ignore or forget (filter out) that which threatens that conception. This normal tendency is illustrated when we loose at a game of card. Since a normal healthy person feels a measure of pride in their abilities, when we loose we quite naturally attribute that loss to poor cards. When we win it is attributed to our skill. When after playing a dozen hands of cards and loosing 6 we tend to when asked how we did remember loosing only 3-4. Some reading this may feel they do not do this. They do, uness aware of the tendency and consciously fight it.
It is only when a person's faith is dealt a blow by tragic or impactful events emotionally equal to that faith that a person begins to doubt. Suddenly we feel God is no longer "answering" our prayers. In fact we are just now seeing the world with the rose colored glasses off. We no longer interpret good things as blessings and the bad as tests. These things are just life's ups and downs. Knowing this makes me more inclined to make camp site reservations.
Edited by - peacefulpete on 12 February 2003 10:55:18
-
48
If Time were running in reverse would we know it?
by D wiltshire inif "time" is running backwards i dont see how that we would ever know, perhaps some clever physicist could devise an experiment to find out for sure.. some theoreticians have suggested the reason the arrow of time runs from past to future is tied intimately to the expansion of space.
since einstein special theory of relativity we have come to see that "time", space and speed are all relative.
we now more correctly speak of "space-time" instead of just space.
-
-
peacefulpete
The findings released today from the W-map satellite survey have confirmed "incontrovertibly" the existance of dark matter and energy (anti-gravity)and the fate of the universe to be expansion without crunch. It is no longer in question. What timing, just when I needed proof I got it.
-
54
I'm astounded by the UNDER-PATRIOTISM Displayed
by Yerusalyim inyep,.
it boggles my mind, so many here would rather believe saddam hussein than their own government.
so many here seem certain the bush administration is lying, but trust hussein to tell the truth.
-
-
peacefulpete
berten...It's good for Americans to hear from time to time that the world (including allies) do not always think like Americans. It is good for you Europeans to know that 50-60% of Americans don't think like "Americans" either. The people's wishes here are not always reflected in the government any more than in any other country. Please let others there know this.
-
54
I'm astounded by the UNDER-PATRIOTISM Displayed
by Yerusalyim inyep,.
it boggles my mind, so many here would rather believe saddam hussein than their own government.
so many here seem certain the bush administration is lying, but trust hussein to tell the truth.
-
-
peacefulpete
But I thought I was the most balanced poster. It is an interesting bit of research if anyone wishes to learn about the PNAC a radical right wing group whose founding members and supporters happen to be in the White House as we speak. They have actually publically said that the best thing for the world is U.S. supremecy through "total war", none of this one country at a time business! I am not a conspiracy theorist this is for real the views of our Vice president Cheney, Rumsfeld,and 10 others who head up U.S. policy making. It is an easy web search to learn more: anything like "PNAC Cheney" will produce results. It is the responsibility of those who disagree with this type of politics to voice that opposition. This unites people who otherwise have little in comon. Too often peace initiatives are charactorized by the extreme views of a minority of those supporting the cause. Even in my local peace group there are people whose views on drugs I adamantly disagree with. The communist groups get publicity. The hippies the gays the neoNazis the Republicans etc. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I am not associating myself with any views these people endorse accept 1, that being civilized means exhausting all options before resorting to war!
Edited by - peacefulpete on 12 February 2003 2:45:47
-
108
Why is the Bible wrong?
by StinkyPantz inthis primarily goes out to other agnostics and athiests.
this week i got into two interesting conversations that i will admit that i was ill prepared for.
one was with a jw friend of mine who wanted to know why i thought jw's were wrong.
-
-
peacefulpete
hooberus...baby steps. your programming has made you as resistant to change as my programing was. Your contention that the Christian theology was a continuation of Judaism is of course partly true. It is however true that Judaism was not one religion. Various sects had adopted great amounts of the wisdom of the Babylonians, persians, and Greeks. It is possible that the Christian sect saw itself as more of a continuation of these more enlightened forms of Juaism. It is near impossible to determine whether the Christians independently syncretized Jewish and Pagan concepts or simply learned this approach from the Jewish sects that comonly did so. The Jewish books that became the OT were still a work in process during this period of Hellenizing. It is also the very theme of this thread that the OT theology was in fact also a product of the more ancient and influential cultures they were in contact with. So that you see commonalities between the NT and OT is not at all surprising.