Although it's not certain, it very well might be that Time started with the Big Bang. So possibly not even that 'God' existed before our universe existed.
Yeah. It's dizzying :-p
Anders Andersen
JoinedPosts by Anders Andersen
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19
Today's Text - Draw Close To God... (BUT HOW???)
by Divergent inhere's where i stand at the moment: i neither categorize myself as a theist, atheist, or agnostic.
i'm a freethinker and do not have a specific belief at the moment, unless something comes along which is 100% conclusive & convincing.
which brings us to tackling the elephant in the room, something that today's text has failed to do:.
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63
You know, I've yet to meet a JW who can explain this
by Lady Zombie ini know that has probably been covered ad infinitum on jwd.
so...... if jehovah is omnipotent, then there is nothing he can't do and nothing he doesn't know.. and, according to jws (as well as most other religions), god is love.
therefore he had to have known, even before creating all of creation, what would happen.
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Anders Andersen
A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
Proverbs 22:3A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them.
The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences.
Proverbs 27:12Compare God’s use of foreordination with the way he uses his power. As the Almighty, God has absolute power. (Psalm 91:1; Isaiah 40:26, 28) But does he use his power in an uncontrolled manner? No. For instance, he held back from acting against Babylon, an enemy of ancient Israel, until the time was right. “I kept exercising self-control,” God said. (Isaiah 42:14) The same principle applies to his use of foreknowledge and foreordination. Jehovah exercises self-control in order to respect the free will that he gave us.
Awakazine!Selective foreknowledge means that God could choose not to foreknow indiscriminately all the future acts of his creatures. This would mean that, rather than all history from creation onward being a mere rerun of what had already been foreseen and foreordained, God could with all sincerity set before the first human pair the prospect of everlasting life in an earth free from wickedness.
Insight - ForeknowledgeAccording to Jehovah's Witnesses theology Jehovah is not prudent, shrewd or sensible, but a simpleton and inexperienced.
He deliberately chose to not know what he could have known - the consequences of his own actions. Result: billions suffered badly. This is the worst f#ckup in all history of design and decision making. Ever.
In this theology God is like a pedestrian who chooses to close his eyes when crossing a highway, in order to not influence the drivers' free will to brake, swerve or just overrun him. It doesn't make sense at all.On the bright side: all this is like discussing whether Superman's feces are orange or blue.
(We all know he doesn't go #2 ever ;-)) -
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What should I visit while in New York
by wannaexit ini am planning a trip to new york and trying to develop an itinerary.
t will be my first time.
what do you suggest i see?
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Anders Andersen
I've been in NYC for 5 days while traveling home from Panama. Wasted 2 days on cult buildings. What a shame.
On the bright side, I really loved the trip to Wallkill/Patterson as the city was a bit too busy for me, coming back from a tiny 2nd-world village in the middle of nowhere. Loved the scenery as well.
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19
Today's Text - Draw Close To God... (BUT HOW???)
by Divergent inhere's where i stand at the moment: i neither categorize myself as a theist, atheist, or agnostic.
i'm a freethinker and do not have a specific belief at the moment, unless something comes along which is 100% conclusive & convincing.
which brings us to tackling the elephant in the room, something that today's text has failed to do:.
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Anders Andersen
God does interact with you. You just have to listen! You're not trying hard enough!
And you got it all backwards: "for whoever approaches God must believe that he is"
So first you should start believing, then you can approach God, and then the voices in your head will take overOn a more serious note: yeah, normally friends communicate with each other. One person just talking to an invisible, unheard imaginary friend can not be called communication.
And a collection of ancient letters from that 'friend', written by 40 guys I don't know either, that doesn't help either. Just because there are books in the library doesn't mean I'm friends with all those writers... -
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Flying Scotsman Visits My Town
by cofty inthe iconic steam engine the flying scotsman has been restored and is back on tour along the east coast main line between london and edinburgh.
this evening it crossed the royal border bridge in berwick-on-tweed for the first time since it was put out of service in january 1963.. here are few shots.. .
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Anders Andersen
@Stan,
Thanks a lot for mentioning that.
Now I felt compelled to look up what "blinkers" are on steam engine, and what the difference is between German style and others, and invenstigated the biography of Richard Paul Wagner who designed the blinkers you like.
What a waste of time, I could have researched other useless factoids instead!
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It is now official: Another falsified Watchtower prophecy
by ILoveTTATT2 in"jesus was obviously speaking about those who were old enough to witness with understanding what took place when the 'last days' began.
... even if we presume that youngsters 15 years of age would be perceptive enough to realize the import of what happened in 1914, it would still make the youngest of 'this generation' nearly 70 years old today.
" awake!
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Anders Andersen
Nice find.
Some more will follow as the age requirement to be included in the 1914 generation was lowered a couple of times afaik.
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Beliefs About What Caused the Universe
by Perry inthe 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.
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Anders Andersen
Lastly, no one has ever seen something from nothing appear.
As opposed to: we have seen God. Your God no less.
And you still haven't answered the question how we get from 'there must be a Cause' to 'worship Jehovah for he is God'. Lacking any evidence of your God's existence, you have to resort to juggling flawed arguments even if it's just to convince yourself.
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Hi everyone!
by cognac inwas 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.
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Anders Andersen
Lol,
I showed my still-in wife the song, knowing that she would love it.
'Wow, it's awesome! Where'd you find that?'
Ehhh....just stumbled upon it ;-)
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150
I'm getting baptized
by BlackWolf ini 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.
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Anders Andersen
Again wow! Well done taking a stand! -
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Type / Antitype article discredits many JW teachings
by Sanchy ini was going over the type / antitype articles that were released in last year's watchtower articles and i've just realized how ironic it is those very articles can serve to demolish some of the most fundamental jw teachings.. take for instance the "questions from readers" section of the march 15, 2015 magazine.
after mentioning some "far-fetched" interpretations that others have applied to bible events, they go on to say:.
if such interpretations seem far-fetched, you can understand the dilemma.
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Anders Andersen
How about the question about a "faithful and discreet slave" in a parable?
As opposed to a statement about a future reality...Far-fetched much?