Posts by unsure

48

God of the Old Testament

by unsure in

to those on these forums who are christian and or to those who believe in the god of the old testament; how does one overcome many of the questionable actions god took or allowed to happen in the old testament?.

many if not most of us have heard of criticisms of the god of the old testament.

you can find these criticisms on many websites.. how do you explain to an honest hearted person why god acted the way they did?.

unsure

To those on these forums who are Christian AND OR to those who believe in the God of the Old Testament; how does one overcome many of the questionable actions God took or allowed to happen in the Old Testament?

Many if not most of us have heard of criticisms of the God of the Old Testament. You can find these criticisms on many websites.

How do you explain to an honest hearted person why God acted the way they did?

The Old Testament and New Testament are almost polar opposites.

This is not a challenge but an honest question. I'm looking for a different viewpoint; please do not copy and paste from other sites.

Those who may know my short posting history know that I want to believe, but there are many things that cannot be overlooked.

12

Suffering And The Meaning Of Life

by Brokeback Watchtower in

what is the meaning of life?

we all die, so what is the meaning.

religion tries to bridge the gap with absolutist answers to this problem of existence by giving immortality to it's members in good standing(so join us or parish).helps to pay the bills using fear of annihilation to keep members as a source of material $$uport.

unsure

@David_Jay

I've expressed in another post how what I've learned from you regarding Judaism is very refreshing.

I have some other questions regarding your beleifs. Please do not take them as a challenge of any sort as I'm just curious to learn more about the Jewish faith.

Many have heard of Jehovah's Witnesses explanation of why God permits suffering. I've also googled this question to read about other religions beleifs; Christian sources are always the ones on the first page. I have not been able to personally find a satisfactory answer.

I'm curious as to what the Jewish beleif is on this. Why did God have to create Satan and allow him to continue testing us? Does Satan operate independently? Why could God not have created a universe with free will but without all these tests or the requirement to worship him to live past our earthly bodies expiry date? I would imagine that an omnipotent Creator could have figured out a way to do this. If I were to meet someone on the street and they were polite but didn't want anything to do with me, I would still wish them an eternity of happiness and if I had the power, would still want to bestow eternal life to them. Many answers I've heard in the past say that God doesn't force us to worship him but basically saying "worship me and be my friend; if you do not you will have 80 years of earthly free will if you are lucky but don't count on living forever" is basically forcing worship.

49

Do religious people fear that their religion may be wrong???

by James Mixon in

because there are so many religions in the world and it is obvious that no matter what the truth is, a large population of people will be wrong about it.

we at one time believe we had the truth and 99% of the world population were in darkness, but i wonder about folks in other religions today.

speaking with a christian friend about this and he told me," that's for god to decide, i hope i'am serving god"...the sad thing about all of this if one die and still believe in his religion, he will never know he was in the wrong religion.

unsure

@David_Jay

Thank you for the great response; certainly a refreshing viewpoint.

49

Do religious people fear that their religion may be wrong???

by James Mixon in

because there are so many religions in the world and it is obvious that no matter what the truth is, a large population of people will be wrong about it.

we at one time believe we had the truth and 99% of the world population were in darkness, but i wonder about folks in other religions today.

speaking with a christian friend about this and he told me," that's for god to decide, i hope i'am serving god"...the sad thing about all of this if one die and still believe in his religion, he will never know he was in the wrong religion.

unsure

I have to say, what I've learned about the Jewish faith from David_Jay is refreshing. It seems that if you are a good person, you can have a hope in whatever God may hold for us even if you can't fully believe in every detail of a certain faith. I also like the fact that the faith admits to the fact that you can never fully understand everything or truly know, this ties into my frustration expressed in this thread I created "There is evidence of a Creator if you just look for it". Is that a correct summation @David_Jay?

Is it believed that there may be some eternal hope after death but we just have not had it revealed to us yet?

4

"A new species combining wolves, coyotes and dogs is evolving before scientists’ eyes in the eastern United States."

by unsure in

"a new species combining wolves, coyotes and dogs is evolving before scientists’ eyes in the eastern united states.".

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/a-new-species-is-evolving-right-before-our-eyes-an-ultra-successful-mix-of-wolves-coyotes-and-dogs/.

.

unsure

"A new species combining wolves, coyotes and dogs is evolving before scientists’ eyes in the eastern United States."

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/a-new-species-is-evolving-right-before-our-eyes-an-ultra-successful-mix-of-wolves-coyotes-and-dogs/

31

22,000 years of arctic ice cores melt, and wash the YHWH/JESUS concept down the sewer

by fulltimestudent in

the full story, as told in the uk guardian can be found at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/16/arctic-ice-cores-melt-university-alberta-canada.

and briefly it tells of an equipment failure at a storage facility for ice cores that had been extracted from the polar ice cap in various locations.. but note, that the layers of ice evident in the cores covered a period of 22,000 years.

and from the christian/jw perspective, that's impossible, for the bible story of the flood (verified by jesus and sundry other biblical writers) maintains that 4000+ years ago, the ice caps would have melted during the period when the earth was covered by the divinely caused deluge.

unsure

I'm not religious but the OP and the link doesn't wash anything away.

Many religious people don't believe every passage, timeframe, date in the Bible is literal.

8

"Has the Large Hadron Collider Disproved the Existence of Ghosts?"

by unsure in

"if i understand what you just declared, you just asserted that cern, the european center for nuclear research, disproved the existence of ghosts.".

"yes," cox replied.. http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2017/02/16/has_the_large_hadron_collider_disproved_the_existence_of_ghosts.html.

what do you think about this relating to.

unsure

@Nathan Natas

I made no statements in my OP.

I merely quoted and linked an article and asked what forum members thought of it.

6

Octopuses Are Even More Amazing Than We Thought

by unsure in

"published in the journal cell, scientists have found that cephalopods are able to edit their rna, at the expense of evolution in their genomic dna.

in other words, they are able to rapidly change on the cellular level to suit their environment, rather than relying on the slow evolution of dna to make changes.".

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/octopuses-are-even-more-amazing-than-we-thought/.

unsure

Octopuses and all Cephalopods are amazing.

If you YouTube "octopus jar" you will find videos of octopuses opening jars with threaded lids to escape from them or to get food that is inside.

I for one, welcome our Cephalopod overlords.

8

"Has the Large Hadron Collider Disproved the Existence of Ghosts?"

by unsure in

"if i understand what you just declared, you just asserted that cern, the european center for nuclear research, disproved the existence of ghosts.".

"yes," cox replied.. http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2017/02/16/has_the_large_hadron_collider_disproved_the_existence_of_ghosts.html.

what do you think about this relating to.

unsure

@jp1692

I agree with what you've said.

Cox's absolutist comments seem misguided.

I don't know what I believe but I do know there is currently no objective, verifiable proof of the paranormal.

16

"The James Randi 1 Million Dollar Challenge Finally Terminated"

by unsure in

the one million dollar paranormal challenge was an offer by the james randi educational foundation (jref) to pay out one million u.s. dollars to anyone who can demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scientific testing criteria.. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/one_million_dollar_paranormal_challenge.

aaaaand discuss!.

unsure

But then... how would his activity be supernatural or paranormal if simple nature (namely static electricity) could interrupt that?

The metaphysical is said to somehow interact with our physical world. Not sure how but that is what I've read.

Ie. Ghosts using electricity to manifest themselves.