Posts by anointed1

36

An interesting reasoning for the existence of God (from JW public talk)

by anointed1 in

i was on an official tour last week to another part of my country.

on my way to the hotel, i noticed sign-board of jw kingdom hall.

i thought i would attend sunday meeting as i knew no one would recognize me.. seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, public speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me.

anointed1

WhatshallIcallmyself said: consciousness develops as the child gains experience and memories ….

Things start even before it is child. Just like an employer instructs his employees for performing various tasks, DNA instructs the cell. And you know very well that DNA is a multi-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a very detailed way exactly how the person's body should develop! Interestingly neuroscientists unwittingly add another dimension to the above process because they say our brain simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information and performs amazing tasks. The human brain not only processes more than a million messages a second but also weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows us to focus and operate effectively in our world. Such a screening or discriminating function is characteristics of an immaterial reality behind brain. That is why when the life (the source of which is soul) leaves brain becomes a decaying, foul-smelling flesh/trash. That means brain is like the hardware of the computer and consciousness is like operating systems. Of course if hardware is faulty, operating system may or may not work. This explains why we find different degree of consciousness [which could also falsely be interpreted as evolution of consciousness]. This further explains why we see an intelligence behind the brain, which expresses itself as the ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action, relate to other people, seek a higher relationship …etc. This also explains why we have great thirsts, such as thirst for unconditional love and thirst for righteousness, which cannot be satisfied by any amount of wealth or fame!

36

An interesting reasoning for the existence of God (from JW public talk)

by anointed1 in

i was on an official tour last week to another part of my country.

on my way to the hotel, i noticed sign-board of jw kingdom hall.

i thought i would attend sunday meeting as i knew no one would recognize me.. seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, public speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me.

anointed1

never a jw & schnell

you said: “Science may have not learned yet everything about consciousness, but it's miles ahead of any sacred text ever written to explain everything else. Wishful thinking is what makes you embrace bad analogies.”

It’s good to note that you agree that science is at the start of its journey/probe which means it can use many ways and means. After putting all the available means only one can be assertive about the conclusion. But is that the situation? Classical science sees neuronal firings and synaptic connections as basic bits, or information states in the brain. And billions of dollars are going to mapping all these connections in the hope to capture the essential feature of brain function - consciousness. This brain mapping may be missing the point entirely. What if they start mapping deeper levels of scale, into the quantum vibrations in microtubules and other biomolecules? Then there is another scenario: Our thoughts, our will, our consciousness and our feelings show properties that could be referred to as spiritual properties. And we all know that no direct interaction with the known fundamental forces of natural science, such as gravitation, electromagnetic forces, etc. can be detected in the spiritual. On the other hand, however, these spiritual properties correspond exactly to the characteristics that distinguish the extremely puzzling and wondrous phenomena in the quantum world. Situation again becomes not only more complicated, but also goes out of our reach. We know the particles of which things are made but the real nature of objects continues to evade us. The universe is composed of waves and it is a modification of its original substance that remains hidden in the waves and modification. The sense organs that catch the waves and modifications are themselves modification of the substance or of its waves. Each one of them can catch only a single modification. Hence NO SENSE ORGAN IS CAPABLE OF COMPREHENDING WHAT LIES BEHIND the waves or modifications.

36

An interesting reasoning for the existence of God (from JW public talk)

by anointed1 in

i was on an official tour last week to another part of my country.

on my way to the hotel, i noticed sign-board of jw kingdom hall.

i thought i would attend sunday meeting as i knew no one would recognize me.. seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, public speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me.

anointed1

JeffT

Don’t just write him off because of his background [a lotus can grow in a dirty lake]. You don't have to seek proof because you are also a proof! Besides, there are buyers of him even from scientific community: This vast universe reportedly originated from a space much smaller than a speck of dust. On the other hand, Consciousness is the very window through which we perceive reality. So, we cannot push it aside as something unimportant. I remember reading Roger Penrose forcefully reasoning that a scientific world view that does not profoundly come to terms with the problem of conscious minds cannot claim the “pretension of completeness.” Consciousness stares at us when we deal with the underpinning of our world that is the quantum world.

36

An interesting reasoning for the existence of God (from JW public talk)

by anointed1 in

i was on an official tour last week to another part of my country.

on my way to the hotel, i noticed sign-board of jw kingdom hall.

i thought i would attend sunday meeting as i knew no one would recognize me.. seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, public speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me.

anointed1

I was on an official tour last week to another part of my country. On my way to the hotel, I noticed sign-board of JW Kingdom Hall. I thought I would attend Sunday meeting as I knew no one would recognize me.

Seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, Public Speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me. What I liked the most was the unconventional way he tried to reason on the existence of God. He said: ‘Universe is like a diary book with countless blank sheets. Yet only on one page [earth] is written something—something like a beautiful poem [life].’ What does this show? Owner decided to write on one page so that when others see blank sheets they should know that it takes a writer to do the writing. Whether he will do so with rest of the pages or not depends on the owner.

After hearing this illustration, I tried in the whole WT library to see its original version. But no where it is found which means it belonged to Public Speaker himself. Unbelievable! There are some thinking persons in an organization where thinking is banned.

10

Since everything about the origins of the Watchtower magazine were proved wrong, what legitimacy can its inheritors claim?

by Half banana in

the original aim of ct russell in starting the watchtower magazine in 1879 was to announce to the world his pet idea that jesus had come to rule in the heavens five years earlier back in 1874. for the young entrepreneur this new magazine looked like a commercial runner and it was!.

most of us know how profoundly false the prophecy was but if you don't mind i'll give a brief overview for newbies:.

1874 was the failed adventist prediction year for the return of christ in the heavenly glory, which russell was now saying was the right year after all.

anointed1

The best they can do is to renounce their seriousness. Seriousness is of the ego whereas laughter is egolessness. Religion cannot be anything other than a celebration of life. (Philippines 4:4) The serious person is handicapped: he creates barriers. He cannot do this or that …... A man burdened by theories becomes serious and will not admit mistake because he feels it will spoil his image.

But here is where they can be practical—they can think, ok, mistake is mistake, it happens with anyone. This will add to the image, and this thinking will unburden them. An unburdened man starts laughing. The play of existence is so beautiful that laughter can be the only response to it.

13

GRACE? GRACE? What the F*** is GRACE? Jehovah's Witnesses have no idea!

by TerryWalstrom in

i think all of us ex-j-dubs have had the --i'll call it a privilege--to exchange views with others who think differently than we do.

we encounter "christians" from mainstream churches.our dialogue is sort of...like speaking to martians.sooner or later, an ex-dub smacks into a wall.

that wall is a subject which is never spoken about or taught by the gb or watchtower with any candor.

anointed1

From the same Greek root we have both grace and charm; hence grace is something you deserve because you attract donors towards you because of your inherent good qualities. In this context, God says: 'If you love me I will show grace upto 1000 generations'--EX 20:6

Hence the term undeserved kindness may not be an ideal combination of words.

8

so let me get this straight, apostate christianity....

by nowwhat? in

put together the bible canon, came up with the name jehovah.

spread the basic christian message across the globe.

got rid of all the false gods of the roman empire and gods of other nations as well.

anointed1

Jesus got the future scenario perfectly when he said: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[b] of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Mathew 13:33)

Notice, in this parable nothing is said about restoration of truth--it moves from apostasy to apostasy and to apostasy

6

Isn’t teaching of grace (undeserved kindness) a great apostasy?

by anointed1 in

in the old testament the basic teaching is that no sin would go unpunished.

suddenly, it takes an opposite turn in the new testament where grace is shown as flowing through jesus to sinners who put faith in the sacrificial death of jesus.

interestingly, new testament writers admit that both the teachings are in opposition to each other.

anointed1

Fernando

You say ‘Google search - grace in the old testament’

The main thread in the Old Testament does not allow for Grace in the sense you take—committing sin and making use of His Grace, but it does make room for disproportionate degree of Grace if one acts in righteousness. Curse for 3-4 generations for those hating God, and blessings for “thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:5, 6)

6

Isn’t teaching of grace (undeserved kindness) a great apostasy?

by anointed1 in

in the old testament the basic teaching is that no sin would go unpunished.

suddenly, it takes an opposite turn in the new testament where grace is shown as flowing through jesus to sinners who put faith in the sacrificial death of jesus.

interestingly, new testament writers admit that both the teachings are in opposition to each other.

anointed1

Religious leaders obscured this simple truth:

When you change your thinking, your action is changed

when you repeat the action, habit is created

when habit is maintained, destiny is created

and anyone can have control over his thought. But degree of control varies from person to person, hence we find sin in varying degree among people. So is the case with righteousness. There were many even Bible itself refers as blameless like Job because they had control over thought.

There is nothing as easier as changing your thought—something you can do any time anywhere without the help of an external savior. Suppose, you are tempted. See what happens if you withdraw your thought from it—temptation stops.

6

Isn’t teaching of grace (undeserved kindness) a great apostasy?

by anointed1 in

in the old testament the basic teaching is that no sin would go unpunished.

suddenly, it takes an opposite turn in the new testament where grace is shown as flowing through jesus to sinners who put faith in the sacrificial death of jesus.

interestingly, new testament writers admit that both the teachings are in opposition to each other.

anointed1

slimboyfat,

What I provided was the internal evidence. Jesus came to reinforce the Law and urged more ‘violent’ or intense action. (Mathew 5:17; 11:12)

Yet much more striking is the external evidence. Teaching of Grace was very prominent in Mithraism, and Church Fathers feared that people might suspect later that Christianity borrowed from pagans, hence they blamed it on Satan (as though he is teaching truth well in advance through pagan leaders so that future generation would see no value to truth when it arrives through Jesus); hence Tertullian wrote:

"The Devil, too, baptizes some that is, his own believers and faithful followers; he promises the putting away of sins by a layer (of his own); and if my memory still serves me, Mithra there, (in the kingdom of Satan) sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers; celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown.

What also must we say to (Satan's) limiting his chief priest to a single marriage? He, too, has his virgins; he, too, has his proficients in continence. "

– Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics