sometimes theists challenge atheists about what evidence would be required before they would believe.
various unlikely scenarios are offered in reply.
i have taken the bait myself in the past.. i think the correct answer is much more ordinary.
Interesting thoughts, cofty. I agree, any tweet today is by far more reliable than any bible verse. A god who claims that has such important messages and wants to save as many people from... whatever made up thing they claim we should be saved, wouldn't communicate and perform miracles at the time when humanity was the less developed and naive about everything.
Thanks for sharing.
one day, the biblical god decided all humanity, less 8 individuals and some animals, should die via mass drowning, including infants, children and physically and mentally disabled people.. he expected rational people to listen to a seemingly oddball old man and enter a giant box filled with wild animals.
"god told me to warn you.
enter this thing and you will live".
This is one of the many reasons why I could never align myself to God. Even if He did exist, I would have nothing in common with Him.
As I read your post, this came to mind:
which magazine is now the most widely circulated in the world?.
before responding, keep in mind that certain parameters (such as content and page count) ought to be met before any printed material intended for mass distribution can be categorized as a “magazine”.
for example, the absolute minimum range for any publication to be considered a magazine is typically around 32 to 48 pages while the highest page counts are usually around 128 to 160, with some popular women’s fashion magazines coming in quite a bit higher than that.. so with that said, which is now the world’s most widely circulated magazine?.
I'd say the Watchtower magazine. It's the only one that gets written, edited, translated, printed and distributed with absolutely free labor.
If the WT had to pay for all of that, I'm quite sure that they would be in the completely opposite position.
I share stuckinarut2's sentiment too. Just because that magazine is on your face all the time doesn't mean that it's good for you, or for anything for that matter.
i was thinking today about the descriptions of the future "paradise" presented by the watchtower, and i was struck by something about it.
most of us are aware that the watchtower promotes an interpretation of the apocalypse that would result in the immediate execution of 99.9% of the population with no hope for resurrection.
additionally, we have been told about the large group of people that are supposed to side with satan at the end of the thousand year reign of christ.
If I remember well...
Namely, any individual who has a difference of opinion with God after the thousand year reign of Christ was over.
Those are not supposed to be a separate class. The way the WT and many Christian religions work is by promoting this black and white mentality. The very second that anyone has/voices a doubt about Jehovah they become a member of Team Satan immediately. It's a for/against thing. There's no middle ground.
would you teach a heaven , hell, jesus , paradise.
what rule structure for discipline ect ,ect,.
Another if, fantasy, will never ever happen scenario. Ok, I'd let things exactly the way they are. In fact, the scenario doesn't make sense. First, today we do have the capacity of forming our own religion, second that fantasy scenario seems based on the premise that no other religion or way of thinking actually exist.
Anyway, since this is a never existed and never will scenario, I'd say I'd let thinks exactly the way they are since people are free to choose to believe whatever they choose, and because of the fact that anyone can come up with their own religion from scratch anyway.
my friend related to me that when he went for a check up at the doctors he was advised to get his prostate checked at first he baulked at that prospect thinking no man is going to put his finger up where the sun dont shine,.
his doctor reasoned with him that it is better for him to find out if something is wrong early because it can be dealt with a good chance of recovery however leave it too late and it can be fatal.. my friend being convinced agrees to the examination .. doctor : drop your dacks get up on the examination table and assume the position where i can examine you.. my friend : turns his head round to the doctor and asks doc why are you using two fingers ?.
the doctor replies ,i want to get a second opinion ..
I see it from the doctors perspective. People have that thing done once (or maybe once every so many years), whereas the doctor has to put his finger in who knows how many anuses before going back home to have dinner with his family in a given day.
in genesis ch.1&2 god warns adam that if he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and bad he would die .theire was nothing said about anything else.. you would expect humans would just die of old age like adam and eve did.. the wages of sin is death the bible tells us .so if he disobeyed jehovah god he knew he would die .. what he never knew and neither did any other human to come after him was just how many ways death would come to humans.. death by creatures that were created by god venomous creatures ,snakes spiders etc.,marine creatures sharks etc., bacteria /viruses etc.,insect carrying diseases such as the mosquito that causes thousands of deaths to children under 5 years old even today with malaria.,wild animals etc,.leprosy that even existed under theocratic rule in the nation of israel.. then their is the indignties humans go through in old age ,loss of bodily functions , mental capacity ,alzheimers ,neurological diseases that effect young and old.that reduce people to almost live not much better than a vegetable .
natural disasters not to be excluded because these are in the control of god to afflict mankind or not.. the list of afflictions that humans have to suffer through before they die , from a loving god just boggles my mind.. and i have only scratched the surface of indignities humans have faced before they die.. so i ask the question is god jehovah guilty of the sin of omission ?
or did he act out of vengeance for their disobedience and wanted to inflict greater punishment upon them.for disobeying him.. what are your thoughts ?.
So I ask the question is GOD Jehovah guilty of the sin of omission ? Or did he act out of vengeance for their disobedience and wanted to inflict greater punishment upon them.for disobeying him.
What are your thoughts ?
It's all based on faulty logic, simplistic interpretations and explanations, and in events that never happened. There was never a talking snake, never an Adam, never some tree, never some sin, never a Jehovah, hence, a Jehovah that never existed cannot be guilty of any sin, which BTW, that sin thing is also made up.
this line used by abusive spouses and governing bodies who mandate shunning:.
look what you made me do to you...".
it's got a bit of a history (according to the bible).
As I have shared before, when you look at the behavior of the Bible "Jehovah" you get a person with behavior typical of the most severe personality disorders that humans have to be treated for. We get Roger from American Dad
it was always a long shot anyway.
but, after a week of emotional pain for the mom, and extreme physical pain for a helpless infant, the baby's body finally succumbed.. all those prayers from the parents, from family, from friends, were absolutely worthless.
that is a deity for ya!
I don't know the background story, but I'm sorry for your loss. A lot of things don't make sense, and in times like this is when many ill-intended people and organizations try to entice you to buy into their false hopes and answers.
I hope you find comfort in whatever healthy way you find. The WT's Jehovah is not the only source of that nonsense, so please pay attention to all other sources of false comfort and caring.
from retraction watch:.
when you have 94 retractions, what's two more?.
attention joachim boldt: the 1990s are calling, and they want their papers back.the annals of thoracic surgery has retracted two papers from the early 1990s on which boldt was the first author – bringing the retraction tally for the disgraced german anesthesiologist to 96, by our count.
Thanks for sharing this. What I find interesting is that the WT in fact does have a point in terms of not using, replacing and/or minimizing the use of blood in medical treatment, but they do it for their own selfish purposes and reasons.
In medicine there are issues with using blood for certain purposes and now they are using other methods when possible, but not because of the WT. Their reasons are:
The WT wants to take credit for the medical field making advances in finding alternatives to blood transfusions, when the reality is that it's just a common interest that they have with the WT, only the WT uses that to their advantage and to claim that they are in fact influencing medicine (which is laughable).
