Hi Cognac,
Happy to hear you're ok :-D
Hug from the dark side :-p
was just listening to a song that made me think of the jws so thought i'd say hi and see how everyone is.
i'm doing ok. kids are fine.
i'm good, making tons of friends, very successful in my career, bla bla bla.
Hi Cognac,
Happy to hear you're ok :-D
Hug from the dark side :-p
i know i've started similar topics before but this time i'm serious.
my parents have been constantly pressuring me and after yesterday's watchtower study they asked me if i was going to be baptized this summer... and i said yes.
i probably should have thought about it more before making a final decision, but they're pretty much forcing me to do it anyway.
i know i've started similar topics before but this time i'm serious.
my parents have been constantly pressuring me and after yesterday's watchtower study they asked me if i was going to be baptized this summer... and i said yes.
i probably should have thought about it more before making a final decision, but they're pretty much forcing me to do it anyway.
Wow, it sucks to be in that position :-( It breaks my heart a bit...
However, big kudos to you for talking to your mom and standing up for yourself! Well done! Learning to make your own decisions, and learning to say no are most important when growing up. You took some steps there!
I know you probably just need a hearing ear on here, but hey, I am guy so I only try to offer solutions ;-)
Is there a nice older and wiser sister you're a bit close with, whom you can tell the 'I feel pressured' part of the story?
And I'm wondering where the whole dedication to Jehovah in prayer is in this story. Do your parents think you've already dedicated your life to Jehovah? If not, you can try to reason with them:"Baptism comes after dedication. It's a very personal decision. Right now I feel pressured into hurrying to make the most important decision of my life because convention is in 6 weeks and grandma is coming. I don't feel that's fair. I want my dedication to Jehovah to be something special, and right now it feels like its just another appointment on your schedule to keep. I don't want it to be like that. I will get baptised, but when I am ready."
the universe can be observed to be expanding.. an expanding universe must have had a beginning.
whatever begins to exist had a cause.
therefore the universe had a cause.
Pulling a cosmic rabbit out of a non-existing hat is pure magic.
Whoever can do this has a regular show in Vegas for eternity :-D
the universe can be observed to be expanding.. an expanding universe must have had a beginning.
whatever begins to exist had a cause.
therefore the universe had a cause.
Then you are left with only magic - a God beginning from nothing, or with no beginning at all.
And if true, Why don't we see cereal boxes appearing from nothing? Or maybe vanilla ice cream? Since, God or anything else without beginning has never been observed, why would you adopt this as something logical?
Believing in God is ultimately belief in nothing more than make-believe.
the universe can be observed to be expanding.. an expanding universe must have had a beginning.
whatever begins to exist had a cause.
therefore the universe had a cause.
Perry, even for those who follow you in your logic that the universe must be caused by some Cause, or Agent even....there is no reason to go from there to Bible God. Or Wodan. Or Zeus. Or any of the other mythical Gods that are imagined to be this Agent that caused the universe in some way.
I could write a book claiming that I am that Agent. And then refuse to prove it like your God does. Would anyone believe me? Why? Why not?
Do you believe the claim that Joseph Smith received a Holy Text from an angel? Why, or why not?
Is there any difference between his claims and the Bronze Age tribal guys' claims? Why, or why not?
i just got back from the bookstore and i can't wait to sink into it based on all the reviews and press it has been getting.
it's called the big picture - on the origin of life, meaning, and the universe itself by sean carroll.. “weaving the threads of astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and philosophy into a seamless narrative tapestry, sean carroll enthralls us with what we’ve figured out in the universe and humbles us with what we don’t yet understand.
yet in the end, it’s the meaning of it all that feeds your soul of curiosity.” —neil degrasse tyson, host of cosmos: a spacetime odyssey*publishers weekly #1 most anticipated science book of spring 2016*"already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, sean carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on higgs bosons and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions.
i found out this morning that my brother died last night, he was also an ex jw, 73 years old and died of heart disease and kidney failure.
it was not totally unexpected, as he had been in poor health, but it's a blow, especially as i just lost another brother two years ago.
there were six of us, now only four.
i've decided to go full public with a new username on this forum.
it's been almost a decade since i've been out and i don't care at this point who knows.
that being said, here's a letter that i'm mailing to bethel.
@Bohm:
BoC is explaining how ridiculous it is to think these ice cores are not as old as scientists say. It would really mean Jehovah is a trickster God who deceives humanity on purpose by planting false evidence. Makes no sense.
i've decided to go full public with a new username on this forum.
it's been almost a decade since i've been out and i don't care at this point who knows.
that being said, here's a letter that i'm mailing to bethel.
Another dating methods that disproves a worldwide flood: dendrochronology. Matching patterns in tree rings have made it possible to construct a tree ring database up to 11.000 years back for some regions.
Guess those tree just kept growing while under water for a year.
Or varve dating...the layers deposited in lakes. Lake Suigetsu shows no signs of a global deluge in the last 52000 years, or we would have heard about it.