Posts by venus

13

Philosophical implications of Genetic 1:26 and the personality of the Judeo-Christian God.

by doubtfull1799 in

while visiting a still in friend last week we had an interesting discussion on narcissism.

he made a very interesting comment that got me thinking about the above.

we were discussing the nature of celebrity and fame and he mentioned that he would find it very difficult to cope with constant adulation and praise.

venus

Stuckinarut2,

In the past I too used to feel the way you do—why does God require/force us to praise Him? Then I understood such verses found in the Bible are of human origin. All the scriptures are like forest—you will find most of the things wild, yet you will also find stream of pure water, fragrant flowers, and succulent fruits in limited measure. If any verses are true they came by chance, not by inspiration. That means scriptures are of human origin (if it were of divine origin, God would naturally have ensured it contains no error) because they all contain errors also.

Why does God not use scriptures to guide us? Because

1) Scriptures can be manipulated—as has happened to all available scriptures.

2) Guidance is already available in the form of experience (yours and of others). Everything that happens has a lesson. For example, Good and bad people come into your life and leave some experience to you. Thus good people teach you how to behave whereas bad people teach you how not to behave. When something gives you happiness, it teaches you to repeat that action, and when something gives you sorrow, it teaches you not to repeat that action. Even tragedies teach us a great lesson. It is true that tragedies can destroy families; and life for some is never the same. Suffering happens to both good people and bad people. Jonah suffered; Jeremiah suffered; Jesus was crucified, Prophet Muhammed was an orphan. Within 150 years from now, everything in our life will perish because 100% of the current population will be dead by then which makes you realize that everything in life is temporary. Everything we have been given in life —family, wealth, health, respect — are all given to us in trust for a given time. Once that time is up, they are all gone, and that includes our own life. Thus tragedies teach us a great lesson: what you lost was really never yours. Suppose someone informed you at night when you are sleeping in your home that your factory is on fire, and you would say to yourself: “So what? I sold it yesterday.”If it had not been sold, news of fire would have made you jump and run in maximum stress, tension, shock, sorrow... etc. It means sense of mine is at the root of suffering. Everything what we think we own is really just given to us in trust for a certain period of our life. Sense of mine [which is a temporary truth] makes it hard to digest when you have lost someone/something. But those who are aware of the big picture that everything comes and goes after remaining for a while tragedies are not viewed as tragedies, but as lessons. All we really have is this moment to cherish and savor, everything else is uncertain.

That means our experiences (not God) should guide us. God has given us a planet home and made provisions in this home to enjoy life, and experiences to guide us [it is left to us to maintain it or to spoil it]. God does not require praise from us (Mathew 5:44-48)

11

Isn’t concept of sinner itself faulty?

by venus in

a person may sometimes get swelling on his leg and may have limped a few times—but he is never called lame.

similarly, sometimes a person may slip into selfishness and use his free-will to his own harm or to the harm of others—but this does not make him a sinner because the ability to do the contrary (ability choose to commit virtuous act to any extent) too exists in him.

if one’s occasional sinning does not make him a sinner, sin of another person (such as first human couple) can never make others sinners.

venus

Drearyweather,

Psalm 51:5 is known to any average Bible reader. But this particular thought is not shared by other OT writers, hence it is like an isolated thought. In OT we find many references to sinless persons (Gen 5:24; Ezekiel 14:14 and compare Habakkuk 2:4) Interestingly, even God does not think humans are sinful from birth. (Job 1:8) What was an isolated thought was launched as main subject by Paul, thus Paul became the Father of this school of thought that says we are all sinners by birth. Because people like the idea that we are sinners by birth because of which we are not responsible for the sins we commit, nobody bothered to think that this is actually Paul’s experience not of mine, and experiment to the contrary.

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

interestingly, there is something that happened more than what it predicted: appearance of christian sects. It simple predicted many sects would come, but it may not have thought it would be more than 40,000

14

How Long it will take to the GB change the interpretation of the Beast as the UN?

by Ray Frankz in

i just realized now, (ironically by checking on jw.org) that the echr (european court of human rights), the government agency that has been literally saving the jws to be banned in so many countries - and they are very thankful for that, as they say in their recent purple history book - is an agency of the un!.

as it is well known, the gb consider the un as a high-class enemy of god's kingdom, believing it is the beast mentioned in revelation.

this interpretation was totally from f. franz and n. knorr, this last one still being reagarded every now and then as the one who gave the speech with this "new light".

venus

At the end of the day, its all a matter of convenience

8

The New System... really... An expanding universe

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

well jesus has handed the kingdom back to jehovah and satan and his demons are dead forever... peace on earth.. great... a million years go by...the human brain would not hold even 1000 years of memories accurately... indeed the former things would not be called to mind but... 2 billion years... oh i's damn hot the sun is running out of hydrogen.... 5 billion years jehovah sit back laughing... we are all dead... unless we move away from earth... not only is the sun a red giant but andromeda has collided with the milky way and rendered our galaxy no longer a spiral galaxy.. navigation is impossible out there.. 2 trillion years.

oh ... if we existed.. we would have no idea theven is a universe.. the expansion is so far that we can't see beyond our own galaxy ... the heaven declare jehovah diminising glory.. 100 trillion years... the galaxy is gone... stars are burning out... in fact atoms are destabilizing... jehovah will need to remake us... likely in to positronium.... dark energy is so powerful we can feel it... assuming we have bodies anymore.... 100 to the 100 power years.... black holes evaporate away,...we have an almost 0 energy universe .. well except for dark energy which is now so powerful matter cannot exists.. 100 to the 200 power years... well there is no mater or energy except for the energy of the vacuum (quantum fluctuations) dark energy had literally torn this universe apart and assuming m theory... that it... jehovah and jesus laugh hysterically..

venus

Not having answers for everything is the charm of life. I admire God for the situation that both the group feel comfortable--atheists and theists have got proofs to their satisfaction--which means there is harmony in disharmony.

If I were to know answers to all the questions, I will have no interest to live--it would be like watching an old recorded cricket match the result of which you already knew.

13

Philosophical implications of Genetic 1:26 and the personality of the Judeo-Christian God.

by doubtfull1799 in

while visiting a still in friend last week we had an interesting discussion on narcissism.

he made a very interesting comment that got me thinking about the above.

we were discussing the nature of celebrity and fame and he mentioned that he would find it very difficult to cope with constant adulation and praise.

venus

I disagree with you doubtfull1799

The idea that “He deserves constant praise and worship because he is the creator” is of human imagination, and such human thinking crept into the Bible writing because writers were inducting their own thinking (1Cor 7:10, 40).

However, God’s attitude must be discerned from the action and inaction of God. For example, He knows the existence of conflicted religions and their scriptures, also knows existence of order and disorder in the world—and HE does nothing to straighten it out. This shows He doesn’t want our praise. This has been hinted at in the famous comparison Jesus made God with sun in Mathew 5:44-48. Sun is a giver (of light and energy), it never receives anything from us. This is a repeat of what has already been declared in the Old Testament. (Psalm 84:11)

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

confusedalot,

I admire your deep sense of humor. Looking forward to more of it.

7

judgement and resurrection

by inbetween09 in

another inconsistency in wt theology:.

jw believe, when armegeddon comes, only jw will survive.

good news was preached in most areas and people could decide for or against god.

venus

inbetween09,

Yes, it is really an inconsistency which I never thought of.

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

Though Bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “Last Days” (Mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g. TV, Internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours. [Bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—Mathew 24:14]

Even though global warming and subsequent sea-level rise are extremely favorable to eschatology which is one of the key subjects of Bible, still they find no mention in the Bible. Interestingly, more details are coming up with regard to this subject such as danger to the fishes in the sea: “Warmer waters increase fish's need for oxygen but climate change will result in less oxygen in the oceans. This means that gills have less oxygen to supply to a body that already grows faster than them. The researchers say this forces fish to stop growing at a smaller size to be able to fulfill their needs with the little oxygen available to them. Some species may be more affected by this combination of factors. Tuna, which are fast moving and require more energy and oxygen, may shrink even more when temperatures increase.”

http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2017082117580076.html

7

Miracles and responses—both are not explicable

by venus in

a miracle is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws.

bible reports many such miracles.

interestingly, responses to these reported miracles could be even labeled as a greater miracle which cannot be explained by any known law, logic or experience.

venus

Drearyweather,

People who were really witnesses of miracles such as resurrection cannot be influenced against the performer of those miracles by things such as indoctrination, money, or threat ...

If people were indoctrinated against Jesus, then it would mean such great miracles have never taken place.