Kate, nice to hear from you. Perhaps you are seeking something from the god you believe in that can only be found in people. You have your problems, I know. Good friends are the best tonic there is.
THE GLADIATOR
JoinedPosts by THE GLADIATOR
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday 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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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday 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
caliber Facts of faith or faith in facts which will you chose ?
This is the stumbling block. Faith does not have facts. In matters of belief in a god or gods, faith replaces facts. Quoting from ancient books is entertaining but it is not a substitute for proven facts. Then there is the matter of translation.
I am fond of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam born in 1809. As I can’t read Persian I read the translation by Edward Fitzgerald. The snag is there are 5 versions. The use of poets licence renders some verses almost unrecognisable. So, entertaining as his musings are, they are not proof of anything.
The bible is much the same, just older and far more tampered with. Quoting some of the nicer passages from it may be soothing but they offer no facts and therefore prove nothing.
You are no doubt sincere and yearn to find something firm to believe in and hope for. I have great empathy with that.
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Why Do Some Ex-JWs Get Their Feelings Hurt So Badly By Shunning?
by RottenRiley ini ran in to a ex-jw and had a good laugh once he realized i was not going to shun him.
i am a different soul when we are dealing with watchtower demonology, everything about the organization is fan boy based.
watchtower creates the illusion of a community that never existed, we were too blind to realize most of the people we invested time with was nothing more than a farce, once you can't offer up more sacrfices on the watchtower's alter, your going to get less attention and eventually if your kingdom hall is big enough, they won't come looking for you.. .
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THE GLADIATOR
Witness My Fury said "Unless it's your family, then it is your problem..."
I can concur with that. Almost my Entire family shun me. Some of them I loved and that hurt. It takes time to move on and those that complain are at the stage of learning to cope.
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Evolution? Or Was It Designed? What Do You Think?
by metatron inhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/manchineel.
you can't even stand under it in the rain and being tied to one will result in a slow, painful death.
so toxic it's freaky.. .
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THE GLADIATOR
Until I clicked on your link, I thought this was another tribute to the Roman torture stake.
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154
Who Made The Code?
by Perry ina 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
What are you on Perry?
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154
Who Made The Code?
by Perry ina 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
Perry, if the number of people that believe in something is your priority, it is only a matter of time before you convert to being a Muslim. You would then have to cut and paste in either Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Farsi, Pashtu, Dari, Bengali, Bosnian. Problem is, there are few Muslim scientists.
Listening to Snare & a racket makes more sense.
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday 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 no intention of repeating what others have spent many pages explaining. You don’t give the impression that you want to have a focused debate, but rather, you seem to be trying to make others metaphorically chase their tails for your own amusement.
I'm sure you are a clever man, but you are too evasive to be taken seriously. In this debate you have failed to move the indomitable Cofty away from his mission. Just my observation; no doubt your mileage will vary - considerably.
As you keep repeating the same words, allow me to do the same:
Most of your evasive posts appear to be an attempt to take the thread off-topic. Were you to explain why you personally believe in the God of the Bible and how you justify his lack of action regarding the tsunami in question, you would be spot on topic.
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday 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 “If I turn this thread into why I personally believe in the God of the Bible then I would (rightly) be accused of taking the thread off-topic.”
Most of your evasive posts appear to be an attempt to take the thread off-topic. Were you to explain why you personally believe in the God of the Bible and how you justify his lack of action regarding the tsunami in question, you would be spot on topic.
PS: Simon has pointed out the error in your view of how the bible portrays the Israelite/Christian god.
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38
Does Anyone Feel the Ministerial School Helped Them?
by Band on the Run inas a born-in, i was eager to join the ministry school.
my cousins were also born-in but lived in different states.
there was keen competition to see who could do mature things, such as baptism (my mom said when i was 35) and ministry school.
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THE GLADIATOR
I joined the Ministry school when I was 8. The training has been of great use over the years. Below is a Recollection from my notes, I was 12 at the time - names changed.
As part of his training, Terry had been enrolled in the theocratic ministry school. He was working on the correct use of notes. He finished giving the six-minute talk to an audience of around a hundred, using verses from the Bible. Picking up his Bible, he left the rostrum and returned to his seat. Ron, Terry's father, was the school overseer. He took the platform and swayed from side to side for a moment as he cleared his throat.
‘You have given an excellent talk. This is a fine example to other young brothers. It shows what can be achieved through training in the theocratic ministry school. You used your notes so well, I was unaware you had any. Could you hold up your notes, so we can see how few notes are needed, if they are used properly?’
Terry shook his head. ‘I don’t have any notes that I can hold up.’
Ron was exasperated. ‘No notes! How can I counsel you on use of notes if you don’t have any? You’re working on use of notes. You are supposed to have notes. You will have to work on use of notes again next time you give a talk. You have wasted our time today!’
Ron’s handkerchief was out, as he mopped his eyes and swayed from side to side with more vigour than before. For a moment Terry felt sorry for his father, until he became aware of the shocked look on faces in the audience. They were looking round to see how he had taken the counsel. The school overseer is not supposed to have a strop but counsel in a kind and tactful way. It seems that on this occasion Ron had lost his cool. After the meeting a number of people approached Terry, to commend him and see if he was upset. Brother Game approached, smiling.
‘That was a fine talk, Terry. It’s a shame about the lack of notes but you haven’t wasted anyone’s time. We always enjoy your talks. I hope this has not upset you. Next time you will have some notes,’ he added, nodding.
‘I did have notes,’ he replied.
Brother Game looked puzzled. ‘But you told your father that you didn’t have any notes.’
Terry raised an eyebrow. ‘No, I said I didn’t have any notes that I could hold up. I only had notes pencilled into the margin of my Bible, to cross-reference the next verse that I needed to go to.’
‘Oh dear, Terry, why didn’t you tell your father that and avoid being told off in front of everybody?’
Terry looked at brother Game with a twinkle in his eye and replied dryly, ‘That would have spoilt all the fun!’
Brother Game looked at him for a moment, as though he had misunderstood. Then the penny dropped. He started laughing. Chuckling to himself, he patted Terry on the back.
‘I have a feeling that you are going to be alright. Wait until my wife hears about this,’ he said, as he walked away still laughing.
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2596
The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday
by cofty inyesterday 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.