never a jw

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Posts by never a jw

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  210

  Morality Without Deity

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one of the most persistent arguments for belief in god centres on the necessity of an ultimate law-giver and epitome of goodness.. a softer version is seen in the genuine concern that a loss of faith will result in a corresponding loss of a moral compass - a more strident argument links the existence of good and evil with proof of the reality of god.

  it is often asserted that without god, moral decisions degenerate to nothing more than personal preferences and the victory of "might is right".. i want to succinctly lay out my response as an atheist, and show that a supreme being is not required for objective morality.. it is helpful to distinguish between absolute morality, objective morality and subjective morality.

  christian apologists frequently conflate the first two, and secular debaters often fail to point out the difference.. theists who disagree on everything else, are unanimous that god is perfectly good.

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  never a jw

  John Mann
  

  Evil is a human construct. We invented the term and have provided various definitions time and time again. As I said before, these concepts and definitions are created to try to improve the collaboration efforts of humans, which ultimately advance our survival rate. Bad "morality" is that which reduces our survival, and good "morality" is that which improves our survival. Staying alive is the purpose.

  Consciousness? we will get there, if we live long enough. The "help" from the Bible turned so useless in many simple cases that it would be pointless to try to use it in this complex quest.
  
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  210

  Morality Without Deity

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one of the most persistent arguments for belief in god centres on the necessity of an ultimate law-giver and epitome of goodness.. a softer version is seen in the genuine concern that a loss of faith will result in a corresponding loss of a moral compass - a more strident argument links the existence of good and evil with proof of the reality of god.

  it is often asserted that without god, moral decisions degenerate to nothing more than personal preferences and the victory of "might is right".. i want to succinctly lay out my response as an atheist, and show that a supreme being is not required for objective morality.. it is helpful to distinguish between absolute morality, objective morality and subjective morality.

  christian apologists frequently conflate the first two, and secular debaters often fail to point out the difference.. theists who disagree on everything else, are unanimous that god is perfectly good.

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  never a jw

  Without having read any book or opinion on the issue, I have to say that morality is a subjective concept that when you strip it of all its subjectivity what you have left is guidelines for collaboration among humans to improve our survival rate. Human evolution at its best... or worst. Time will tell

  Morality from God???

  We humans created God... and He created morality... Therefore we, humans, are the source of morality. Problem solved. Fear not my child.

  EDIT
  

  Simon, you stole my thunder, and I am glad:

  we create him in our image rather than the other way around. Which is probably why he's usually such a jerk.

  Truer words had never been spoken before
  
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  58

  Women's March on Washington

  by azor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my support is with the marchers in washington and around the country today.

  i was raised through my formative years by my mother and sister while my father was out of the picture.

  they gave me the compassion i have today.

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  never a jw

  "Entitled to go out there and earn less than 80% of what they would get if they had been born with a penis."

  Maybe men and women are not the same after all. Can we say child bearing time off for example?
  

  If a CEO can get exactly the same productivity from an all female force, but pay only eighty percent of what he pay males, then he should be hiring as many women as possible.

  Why CEO's are not doing it? I guess they are idiots, or perhaps men and women are not created equal. You already mentioned a difference that is not irrelevant to the issue. I mentioned another one that is very relevant. I am sure we can come up with some more. Those differences, whether we like them or not, affect productivity, and businesses' main goal is productivity and ultimately, profit.

  By the way, I do firmly believe that men have oppressed women for millennia and continue to do so, unfairly. But in a truly free market economy the only thing that matters is profit, not gender or race.
  

  
  
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  144

  2.16.2017 NJ Star-Ledger Ad: "Were you sexually abused by the Jehovahs Witnesses?"

  by breakfast of champions in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  my wife found this 1/4 page ad on page 2 of yesterday's nj star-ledger, probably the biggest newspaper in nj.

  pretty telling.. .

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  never a jw

  Richard makes a propaganda type of argument, but it has merits. He claims that the victims and their lawyers have a hill to climb, but quite conveniently ignores that the Watchtower has an abyss to get out of. The Watchtower has to spent its limited resources to defend itself in many fronts while membership and donations are going down. The Watchtower can't liquidate more "Brooklyns", and the remaining assets can't be sold all at once without destroying itself.
  
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  75

  The Trump Era commences

  by ZAPPA-ESQUE in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  never a jw

  His presidency will be better than left wingers anticipate, but not as good as right wingers predict. Most of his controversial promises were pure demagoguery, not much to worry about.

  He is unprepared to be president??, so were most presidents, and somehow we made it through. We will be fine. Pendulums always come back from their highest positions.
  
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  39

  Why the resurrection must be true

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  okay i was thinking about it.

  and it is a transhumanist argument and nothing new, i do realise that before anyone points it out.

  but it struck me afresh today that the resurrection must happen.. firstly, to state the obvious, a rational materialist conception of reality seems to exclude resurrection.

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  never a jw

  Threads like these make me appreciate my mundane existence even more. Bring me coffee and bread. Pure joy! ...without the mental effort
  
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  144

  2.16.2017 NJ Star-Ledger Ad: "Were you sexually abused by the Jehovahs Witnesses?"

  by breakfast of champions in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  my wife found this 1/4 page ad on page 2 of yesterday's nj star-ledger, probably the biggest newspaper in nj.

  pretty telling.. .

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  never a jw

  Richard Oliver,

  Are you in the Watchtower's payroll? or you just like having fun by being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian?
  
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  "Punishing Doubt". The need to be "loyal" to the society. GREAT video

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is another great video from theramin trees called "punishing doubt".

  fantastic reasoning, and very well presented!.

  really worth watching!!.

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  never a jw

  Rainbow Troll "...if Jehovah existed he would disapprove of child molestation and should therefore do something to stop it"

  Where did you get that idea about the producer

  I noticed that he mentions Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of child abuse towards the end. The scandal is spreading. Good!
  
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  20

  Paul did not belittle women

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i note the recent post that quoted 1 timothy 2:11-12 and colossians 1:23 which place women at a level that is lower to men.

  the poster accused paul of this mysoginy, but that is not correct.. 1 timothy, 2 timothy, titus, colossians, ephesians and hebrews were written after paul's death.. paul was not a mysoginist; he made full use of women in leadership roles.

  he wrote that in god's sight there is neither male nor female, for all are one in god's sight.. doug.

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  never a jw

  Cor 14:34-35 is likely an insertion to a much later copy of the original letter of Paul. Those two verses seem to break the flow of the text around them.
  
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  47

  I am a Living Time Machine

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  which world is this?_________________when the doctor pulled my screaming body out of mom all those 7 decades ago, i landed in a post-wwii world.it was--compared to today's world--an alien planet.. the world i live in today has nothing in common with the world in which i grew up.. there were no cell phones back then--there were black telephones with a dial-tone and an operator who placed your call.

  everywhere you found telephone booths!

  a call was a nickle.where did all those telephone booths go?i dunno.where did my whole world go?i dunno.. tv sets were huge boxes with tubes and small screens.

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  never a jw

  7 children? No wonder you are broke.

  Things change rapidly. And the best we can do is to keep up with the fast moving, quick turning Jehovah's chariot.