"theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.
" ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.
atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.
Cofty and outlaw, I like you both.
Cofty, incredibly intelligent, but also respectful. Very warm and compassionate. A classy guy. I've grown to like you a lot, even tho I differ from you with the theist/atheist thing.
Outlaw, a very funny, emphatic sharpshooter. Loves satire and wit. Doesn't pull any punches but is not mean.
However, omg! Too much bickering here over agnostic/atheist Dawkins. You're both right, ok?
i am initially thinking of the major religious institutions of christianity , catholic ,many branches , church of england , and the major protestant religions , too numerous to mention here.. after all their is 40,000 plus christian religions in the world today ?so obviously j.w.`s are not the only false religion .. so my real question is really , to do with the mainstream christian religions , why are`nt they more aggressive in their condemnation of the jehovah witness religion for their obvious failings ,flip backs ,contradictions ,prophecy`s that never eventuated , end of the world predictions ,re-inventing their past history , even distancing themselves from their past history , and their founding members , such as c.t.russell and j.f.rutherford whose policies they now reject... they need to get on board and bleed it for all it`s worth .. smiddy .
if you had to pinpoint the time or experience that finally made you open your eyes, what would it be?.
i think for me it was the time i saw my dad shun his brother who he had not seen in decades just because he was a da'ed jw.
i thought to my self "no way jesus would do that.
i'm not naming names, but i just want to encourage people on here or on reddit or twitter, and tell you that you do not have to tolerate people who act like schoolyard bullies in the way they speak to you online.
i think anonymity is a big part of it.
they feel like there is zero accountability so they can be a bully all they want.. i recommend just ignoring or blocking anyone who is verbally abusive or treats you like schoolyard bullies treated you.. life is way too short to spend any time dealing with those kinds of people..
I don't like getting involved in bickering here, but I agree with Millie. This place is best when it is a place of comfort for people who have been through hell or are very confused and hurting...ok, and also when making fun of or discussing the religion we know so well.
Havent we been attacked enough, all of us? Why when someone offers the way they feel about a certain belief are they lambasted, belittled, called names. We had no freedom of speech in our past. Well we haven't gotten too far away from that have we. honestly I've often not expressed how I feel here because of the judgmentalism. It's unfortunately a familiar feeling, I grew up with it.
i am on here as another member, but even with a username and not revealing my identity, i am still too embarrassed to use it.
had to make up a new one.
that being said.... my boyfriend is watching pornography, and it seriously hurts my feelings.
so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.
always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".
after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.
Cappy I remember your first post. I was pretty new here myself, but had been out of the org for some years. I remember you being so overwhelmed with what you were learning, barely functional at work, and also worried about your wife, tho she was showing some progress towards agreeing with you.
I am happy for you that you are leaning secular Buddhist and have found a lot more peace since those days. I know stuff with family and in-laws might still be messy but your wife has come along with you, holy cow how awesome is that?!?
i was thinking that maybe the monthly broadcasts are a occasion for some jw's to wake up.
before those broadcasts they probably imagined that the gobgoverning y members are some very special peopleand that you see in their behavior and words that they are "chosen".
but now all jw's can see them for who they really are: average men, some full of themselves, some ridiculous, some just normal men with nothing special.
i am initially thinking of the major religious institutions of christianity , catholic ,many branches , church of england , and the major protestant religions , too numerous to mention here.. after all their is 40,000 plus christian religions in the world today ?so obviously j.w.`s are not the only false religion .. so my real question is really , to do with the mainstream christian religions , why are`nt they more aggressive in their condemnation of the jehovah witness religion for their obvious failings ,flip backs ,contradictions ,prophecy`s that never eventuated , end of the world predictions ,re-inventing their past history , even distancing themselves from their past history , and their founding members , such as c.t.russell and j.f.rutherford whose policies they now reject... they need to get on board and bleed it for all it`s worth .. smiddy .
Jeremy look up the definition of 'mainline Protestant church,' you are misinterpreting what that means.
I am in a mainline Protestant church and have scores of friends from other mainline protestant churches and I can tell you you are wrong about this.
I do agree there are other even more harmful cults than jw's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eueuwshs1cg&feature=youtu.be
i am initially thinking of the major religious institutions of christianity , catholic ,many branches , church of england , and the major protestant religions , too numerous to mention here.. after all their is 40,000 plus christian religions in the world today ?so obviously j.w.`s are not the only false religion .. so my real question is really , to do with the mainstream christian religions , why are`nt they more aggressive in their condemnation of the jehovah witness religion for their obvious failings ,flip backs ,contradictions ,prophecy`s that never eventuated , end of the world predictions ,re-inventing their past history , even distancing themselves from their past history , and their founding members , such as c.t.russell and j.f.rutherford whose policies they now reject... they need to get on board and bleed it for all it`s worth .. smiddy .
I'm with punk on this one. The jw's are a mere fringe religion, only important in their own minds, barely thought about in everyone else's minds. Maybe if one of them ran for president, they would finally get attention, as the Mormons did recently. But it's unlikely that will happen isn't it :P.
These days only radical evangelicals are interested in arguing with witnesses. They're the last ones fighting gays too, and any diversity they consider unbiblical.
My church, when I tell someone I used to be a witness, they will say 'that was quite a change, wasn't it?' But as Carla said, they don't understand the trauma of having been a witness. Most churches these days like to accept diversity and not judge other people for being different. Heck, we almost hired a Mormon choir director at my church!! Which I was not happy about and got them to reconsider! At a women's retreat I was asked to speak about my experience growing up as a witness. It was the first time people understood. Many years later they still tell me they were so surprised what it was like, and they are very happy for me that I got out of it.
