THE GLADIATOR

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Posts by THE GLADIATOR

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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  flamegrilled I have read all your posts on this thread. Your argument seems to revolve around the idea that we cannot know the mind of the Christian god, so therefore we can’t make a moral judgement about his action or lack of action. In other words it is a mystery. We have to decide for ourselves what love is and how it motivates us to act as individuals.

  An atheist is free to draw his own moral map, but my understanding is that Christians are told to follow the example of their god who demonstrates love. The snag is that the bible portrays this god as unloving and vengeful. If we discard the bible as a collection of fables and learn through observation, what do we see the Christian god doing? Nothing; that’s it, nothing. A blessed few claim that the Christian god talks to them, but they have nothing of value to report.

  So, the rest of us struggle on alone drawing our own moral map. Understandably, some eventually come to the conclusion that the Christian god is not absent but does not in fact exist. You have not offered a single pointer that might help someone weak in faith to come to know ‘god’s love.’

  The Watchtower Society's, with all its faults, does at least have answers as to why the Christian god acts as it does, why it does not intervene in disasters, and what it wants from humans. You have typed so many words, yet arrived nowhere.
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  21

  So Who Would Win In A Fight, and Why?

  by Apognophos in

  1. social
  2. humour

  .

  .

  : apologies if this has been done before.. (if the link ever breaks, i'll try to post a new one in a future post, but it's a pic of the current governing body.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  My money is on the rennagade-outsider in the grey/gray suit. He's not in uniform.
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  122

  Why doesn't god do anything tangible now?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was always told that god did loads of stuff that was evidence of his existance.

  ususally very brutal things too (b#st@rd).. jesus walked on water and raised the dead we are told.. it seems to me also that the older the story, the more exaggerated it is...y'know...talking snake......global flood.. there are those that claim god speaks to them now and they alone 'know' it.

  (cuckoo!!!).

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  THE GLADIATOR

  We will try to behave, FlyingHighNow, but we need to let off steam to relieve the pressure on our complicated, high octane minds.
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

  1. 
  2. 
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  THE GLADIATOR

  What I don’t get, is why believers have to devote their lives to defending their god and his lack of action. Is he unaware of the consternation and anguish they suffer down here on this muddy little planet at the hands of Athiests?

  This limp-wristed god wouldn’t last a minute in the Roman arena. He stood by and watched an estimated 17,000 Christians, including women and children, tortured to death in the most agonising way the Romans could think up. This is justified because Christ allegedly prophesied it would happen for the sake of his name.

  God couldn’t help Christians then and he can’t now. If I was a Christian I would want a refund.
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  122

  Why doesn't god do anything tangible now?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was always told that god did loads of stuff that was evidence of his existance.

  ususally very brutal things too (b#st@rd).. jesus walked on water and raised the dead we are told.. it seems to me also that the older the story, the more exaggerated it is...y'know...talking snake......global flood.. there are those that claim god speaks to them now and they alone 'know' it.

  (cuckoo!!!).

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  THE GLADIATOR

  The lazy layabout is preoccupied stuffing himself on ambrosia and making sure the virgins that went to heaven keep their lamps well oiled. When he does take a break, he argues with Satan about how well he will run the world when the devil’s term in office is over - any day now!
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  THE GLADIATOR

  flamegrilled

  I once had a friend who was a devout Mormon. He told me that was given a book that showed Mormonism to be false. He read the book and was shocked, his faith damaged. He then slowly went through the book again, one sentence at a time, disproving to himself every comment. He told me that his faith was restored. Job duly completed, he burnt the book.

  What you appear to be doing, is breaking the big issue in to small pieces which you can then examine one by one. Once you have tackled each small piece you put them together again and declare that you have answered the big question. The difficulty is that whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
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  37

  Why would Adam or Eve choose the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of life.

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  please help me out here .. in genesis 2:16 it says " and jehovah god also laid this command upon the man: from every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction.

  17 but as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it , for in the day you eat from it ,you will positively die.. ok we get that , but what about this ?.

  wouldnt it make more sense to forbid the eating of the tree of life first ?

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  THE GLADIATOR

  God told Eve not to eat from the tree of Knowledge of good or bad because he wanted her to eat from it. He understood women. Well he should; he made the first one.
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  THE GLADIATOR

  flamegrilled "I will create a couple more analogies that you can have fun misapplying and pretending not to understand."

  I don't have to pretend.
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  154

  Who Made The Code?

  by Perry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few weeks ago, discoveries were made that show that there is another dna code language that rides on top of the already incredibly complex 4-letter code previously discovered.

  this newly discovered code apparently regulates how genes work.

  as i noted in a previous thread, the amount of data storage available in the dna storage system just the size of a pin-head would filll a stack of books stacked from your driveway to the moon .... 500 times!

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  THE GLADIATOR

  After cutting and pasting the work of clever scientific men, Perry’s cunning plan was to declare that such complexity must have come from his god. Proof that his god exists and created the universe. Due to the clever men on this thread, the plan has failed.

  I have contributed nothing, preferring to follow the bible’s advice:

  "Even a fool, if he stays silent, is thought wise; he who keeps his mouth shut can pass for smart."

  Proverbs 17:28 (CJB)
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  2596

  The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

  by cofty in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

  we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

  they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  THE GLADIATOR

  In my experience someone on the journey, from believing in the god of the bible, to atheism, passes through a number of gates. Initially the person accepts the god of the bible as good and loving. As the person matures they begin to question the morality of the god of the bible.

  Next, comes the attempt to justify the conduct of this god. Honesty eventually leads to disenchantment with their god’s morality. When their god becomes untenable to them, the person rejects much of the bible and begins to invent a god that matches up to their standards. They will often explore eastern religion and opt for a different religion that is closer to their ideals.

  Many return and try to build a belief system around a gentle Jesus persona. This leads to an elaborate jigsaw of ill fitting pieces gleaned from various sources. Such as personal revelation, selected passages taken from the New Testament, while ignoring the rest of the bible, and guesswork.

  Just as the jig-saw appears to be almost complete, it becomes evident that pieces are missing, ill fitting, or entirely wrong. After many years of trying to complete the jigsaw they realize that the whole exercise has been futile, because despite their best efforts it becomes clear that the god of the bible does not exist and never did. They no longer have a god to love, serve, be angry with, ask for help, special treats, or everlasting life. Game over, set and match.