news article in today's paper is entitled "credit catholics for cleaning house" by stanley crouch (new york daily news).
"somehow in our nation we are almost always called upon to lead the way when it comes to things of human concern.. "that is why, after all these years of the catholic church's hiding behind cathedral doors, miters and robes, we should be glad that boston's cardinal bernard law has ignored the dictates of rome and called on his clergy to report to the police all the charges of sexual abuse of children by priests..............."
The Catholic church is far different from JWs.
1. The Catholic church believes in the Trinity.
2. The Catholic Church believes that Jesus is God, not a God, not a created being.
3. The Catholic Church traces its history to Peter as the first pope and the Apostles.
4. The Catholic Church, though believing that it is the true church of God does teach tolerance of other religions.
It is clearly not a cult by any reasonable definition.
does anyone here take the creation story literally?
if yes, did u do ample research and think carefully but still believe in it?
if u don't think that the story should be taken as literal, what is your reading of it and do u still believe in the bible as the inspired word of god?...thanks in advance..
Joe,
You took both my statement and Matthews out of context. Jesus was talking to the Pharisees who had called him Satan. He was not rejecting them when he made the viper statement. He was exposing their evil hearts for their rejection of him. He had cast out demons which they should have praised, but they had rejected him and claimed he was the devil.
That was consistent with what I said. Jesus is ready to accept anyone who in the past had rejected him. All they have to do is believe. Even you Joe. Despite all of your efforts to turn people away from Jesus, if you accepted him as your savior you would not be rejected and your past would be forgiven. That is what I was saying. No one is rejected for all time by Jesus. It is up to the person. The door is always open.
God Bless
does anyone here take the creation story literally?
if yes, did u do ample research and think carefully but still believe in it?
if u don't think that the story should be taken as literal, what is your reading of it and do u still believe in the bible as the inspired word of god?...thanks in advance..
Joe the only thing that doesn't make sense is your attempt to make a contradiction where one doesn't exist. The Mary in Luke is the same Mary in Mark and there is no evidence otherwise.
Also, Jesus did not reject his natural family as you interpret the scripture you cited. Jesus' statement was a way to teach the idea that he had a larger spiritual family of those who believed in him and if you believe you belong to that family. However, no where in the passage does it say that he was rejecting Mary for not believing in him. In fact, the Bible teaches that Jesus will not reject anyone, the rejecting comes from the people, not from Jesus. He is always ready to accept a person even if that person earlier rejected him.
does anyone here take the creation story literally?
if yes, did u do ample research and think carefully but still believe in it?
if u don't think that the story should be taken as literal, what is your reading of it and do u still believe in the bible as the inspired word of god?...thanks in advance..
Joe, here you are again. You throw out what you state to be a contradiction and after you are refuted you stay away. We have done this before and I thank ACHRISTIAN's and POM's input.
I think that it is unbelievable that Mary knowing that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit while she was a virgin, seeing wise men come and worship him, having him leave her for a couple of days to teach among the elders and say he is in his father's house, see him turn water into wine at her request and then heal other people, to all of a sudden then believe that he is out of his mind. It makes no sense and is not an accurate reading of the passages.
Try again. God Bless
when in the "truth" most of us used to pray.. i used to pray for help in doing things , say give a talk , and would ask for holy spirit .i felt i needed it to give a talk well.. but was it all just a placebo effect.. did the belief that i was getting help cause me to become more confident because i though god was helping me?.
as time went on in the truth i felt as if prayer was just talking to your self.in fact i found it embarissing to give prayers in public as i felt silly talking to an invisible creature.. but in the night i would prayer and maybe go over the days events , think about new things coming up , other people and life in general.. is this benifical to a person?.
in doing this we are meditating on events we would not otherwise think deaply about , this can help us think of solutions to problems or put things in perspective.. how often would we review events if we didnt pray.. now i doubt that we are conversing with god , but i think to "pray" or go over events in your mind maybe once a day or whatever, is good for your well being and can help you with lifes problems.. although not getting help from another creature we as humans need to meditate in order to make good decisions.. the placebo effect doesn't seem to work anymore and i rely on myself and my experience to help me do difficult tasks.. but when something really big comes up i admit i still say a little prayer.
If you don't believe in God there is no sense in praying. But if you do, it can do wonderous things. The answer to the prayer may not be what you asked for but it is what God knows is right for you. I have prayed alot over the years and I believe it has done me alot of good.
you can't have purpose without intelligence,and.. you can't have intelligence without intelligence.. .
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if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.
I would agree with you Seeker if intelligence is defined as the ability to understand why something is engaging in certain behavior. A single cell organism doesn't understand why it is doing what it is doing and doesn't even understand that it is for survival. The fact that we interpret that behavior as a survival instinct is because we have the ability to think rationally and can assign that purpose to it. The cell doesn't even know that its behavior is for survival or for the protection of its species. It just acts and if that action enhances its chances for survival that is either an accident or the result of instinct that was placed there by someone else (God).
I do not believe that the idea of an intelligent designer dodges the question. On the contrary it is the answer to the question. Only a being with rational thought could contemplate a God. The animals without this ability do not. And when we believe that we have come so far that we no longer have to believe in a God as the designer of our universe, we don't lose the ability to think rationally, we just believe that we have become too smart to give him credit. But, we can't explain everything and even those who try and determine the origin of life know we are far from doing so. The popular theories of today will be debunked in the future just as the ones in the past were.
you can't have purpose without intelligence,and.. you can't have intelligence without intelligence.. .
.
if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.
Seeker,
I believe you are making the distinction between rational thought versuses non rational thought. To understand that they are building a bridge, the ants would need to have rational thought which we know they do not have. However, they clearly know that they are doinging a task to get to the point that they need or want to go.
Intelligence can and does exist without rational thought, but the lack of rational thought does not mean that intelligence doesn't exist at a lesser level.
You were correct when you said that natural selection does not explain the origins of life. I hold to the believe of an intelligent designer. Because without it, how can you explain the development of rational thought?
you can't have purpose without intelligence,and.. you can't have intelligence without intelligence.. .
.
if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.
The interesting portion of this thought is how it may apply to the origins of life. For example, did the sea of ooze ( if it existed) not have a purpose until outside intelligence ( God) give it one by putting it together to form life? Or Does a sea of ooze have no purpose, like other inanimate objects without the input of outside intelligence?
you can't have purpose without intelligence,and.. you can't have intelligence without intelligence.. .
.
if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.
But there has to be intelligence to both design the luggage for its purposes and to have intelligence to determine that something is needed to carry the stuff.
i am shocked at the many accusations against jehovah's witnesses in this forum.. i know that i am young, but most of my family are jws and they are good people and i love them.
even my worldly family is very nice and i do not shun them.
the friends in the hall are very nice also.
Sexy Teen,
Welcome. I too am new to the forum and I can tell you that it very thought provoking. You will find atheists to bible thumpers to even one who claims to be Jesus Christ. Most post ideas and thoughts that appear sincere and are not too personal.
I myself have never been a JW but I came here after a dear friend joined this year. I am Catholic and when she joined we started having alot of discussions about the differences in our religions, like the Trinity for example. For months myself and another co-worker talked to her about JW and the problems with their beliefs. She was willing to talk to us as long as it looked as if she was trying to convert us and not us trying to convert her. Even when she was shown the obvious changes the JW made in their Bible to fit their believes she refused to look at them. Ultimately she stated that the elders had warned her not to talk to us anymore. We stopped out of love and respect for her. Also, she now has the attitude that only the JWs are right and that every other religion is apostate. The transformation has been sad to see.
You are on the verge of a great part of your life. you will be exposed to things you were not exposed to before and to thoughts and ideas that will be new to you. I encourage you to take that time to examine your beliefs and those of the JW. If they stand up for you that is great. If they don't that will be your choice. The problem is that the org. seems to prevent that type of thought out of fear that someone will discover a different way of thinking. From what I see here, the price for that is shunning and that is horrible. I can tell you that my decision to become a Catholic was made recently after I became an adult, but it went against my families southern Baptist background. They respected the decision and have treated me and my family no different. Ask yourself if yours would do the same and see how much control the org. really has over your life.
Good luck and God Bless
