Posts by venus

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

deegee

If God is non-interventionist, this can be interpreted as proof for his non-existence. But it can also be interpreted as His firm confidence in humans who are like Him in qualities. We have shown our abilities many times—for example, when we found that separation is no longer working, Germany went for re-union. This can be tried with regard to countries such as Pakistan & India, South Korean & North Korean … so on, and finally with the whole world. But ego (individual and collective) is the only obstacle. Yet ego is the easiest thing in the world to destroy because ego is just a thought which dies when you no more foster it (which justifies God’s policy of non-intervention). In some language, word for egolessness is construction. This carries the thought that ego means path to destruction/wastefulness, and history has numerous proofs to this effect. It means when one chooses to be egoistic, he knows he has set himself on a path to wastefulness. In other word, man is able to make or mar and free to choose between them—hence God doesn’t have to intervene.

Everyone experiences the truthfulness of what we all say “I” exist. This “I” exist behind all the details we know. And this “I” is something that feels the full force of my personality and even the voice of “I” within me. Specialty of this “I” is that it can feel self-contented in any situation or greedy if it wants to. This fact too makes God a non-interventionist. If He intervenes we will again accuse Him of reducing us to be mere robots.

There is great beauty in allowing man to run his affairs unhindered. Let him learn from each experience. If he refuses to learn, let him continue to do so till he feels saturated with his refusal.

28

What is sin?

by sinboi in

what do you consider sinful?

okay, i know many of you no longer believe that there is a god.

just bear with me a little, just assumed that there is a creator or god.

venus

There is an indirect way of knowing what sin is—take the opposite of virtue. In some ancient language, virtue means acting agreeable to or in accordance with one’s original nature and to the society. It is like a flower—it is virtue on its part so to say when it gives fragrance and delights you with its beauty, and sin so to say when it gives you bad odor and looks ugly. Bible too alludes to this when it says: “Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” (Ephesians 4:24) In contrast, when one thinks that his interest comes above all others, it is against his very nature sending bad odor in all directions, hence it is sin. Problem with sin is that it cannot make anyone feel good.

A recent study published in the Journal of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience supports the above. It was found that people who are in love with themselves have poor connectivity between both regions of the brain—medial prefrontal cortex (which is associated with self-referential thinking) and ventral striatum (which is associated with feeling good). That means the more a person feels more important than others and thus deviates into sin, the less he feels good, because of which he will try harder to deviate further creating a vicious cycle. In contrast, real spirituality primarily benefits one’s self and others secondarily.

28

What is sin?

by sinboi in

what do you consider sinful?

okay, i know many of you no longer believe that there is a god.

just bear with me a little, just assumed that there is a creator or god.

venus

Many have read in various scriptures that we are sinners from birth and heard scriptural characters saying: “The good I wish to do I do not do, but the bad I do not wish to do is what I do. What a wretched person I am!” or “This is the way God has made me” …etc. Reading such things people feel that sin is an inherited tendency—something normal.

But an analytical mind would not agree because he finds an avalanche of proofs against this. We find variety of people acting/reacting differently in same situation: Some do more righteous acts, some do more sinful acts, and others mix them in varying degrees, one-time sinners changing into saints, one-time saints changing into sinners, some very poor people who refuse to steal, and some very wealthy people who steal in various ways… etc. This shows people choose to act the way they like which means they are not sinners from birth—resulting in all sorts of people from sinless to the sinful ones. Interestingly, even Bible makes many references to some sinless persons who lived in the ancient times (Genesis 5:24; Job 1:8; Psalm 18:23; Ezekiel 14:14; Luke 1:6 …etc.) and human capacity to perform righteousness. (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 10:38)

Doing good to the self/others is virtue; doing harm to the self/others is sin, hence it is within the power of any human to do good which they have done many times in their lives which means they can repeat it any number of time if they want.

Everything apostle Paul wrote about sin was his view.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

smiddy3,

I do not know about ETs. I believe God exists and also believe that He has not revealed any details about Him. Philosophers spent lifetimes to decipher nature and the mystery of life. Religious practitioners had focused on life and pronounced prescriptions for happy life. It appears as an unending quest. However, there is excitement in the quest. Methods are different; but the goal is same: happiness. I feel God as Father would enjoy seeing His children becoming worship-worthy by doing selfless service for common good.

16

Bible contradictions.

by pleaseresearch in

what are your biggest, funniest, scariest, etc.... wait wt says there are non hahahah.

venus

In Genesis 3:5, when Serpent exhorted humans to "become like God" it was treated like a rebellion.

Yet, in Mathew 5:48 Jesus too exhorts us to "become like God" and it is treated like height of spirituality.

The practical way of handling such situations is to reject what obviously is wrong and stick to what obviously is right. Here in this situation, Genesis account seems to be of human origin.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

confusedalot,

It is Luke 17:21, not 7:21.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

confusedalot

There is no first step because situation is like this: You are already on a road. There is no point in finding out from where the road started because you will never find it as something always precedes something into eternity.

Now refresh your mind with what I wrote in 4th point: “In some ancient languages, worship literally means egolessness, living in the now … etc. which means worshipfully engaging in whatever you do with 100% involvement. Those who have done this do not feel time passing as though living in heaven (compare Luke 7:21)”

When I practiced this, I found it better than my life in a religious world. That means this suits me.

What suits you may be something else which obviously you need to find out.

4

Freedom from Abuse

by Faith after Deception in

i hope you don't mind if i share my latest blog post here: .

one of the most common ways in which people are psychologically traumatized whilst in a cult or religious high control group, is the extreme pressure to “forgive” people who have abused them.

i use the word “forgive” in quotes, because the concept often goes way beyond the biblical mandate.

venus

Faith after Deception

Excellent thread.

1. Forgiveness is not something that God would require us to practice because He Himself does not practice it (He simply expelled first human couple from Eden + Jesus used whip against the temple thieves…etc.)

2. Forgiveness encourages the sinner to do more sins.

3. Each one should act taking into consideration all the available information and special circumstances, and what one does may not fit another. That means we cannot have a blanket principle such as anger is bad because its consequences are more grievous than the causes of it. This is a tunnel view because there are situations where you will find more grievous consequences of not getting angry, as well

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

Confusedalot,

You are asking me to prove the existence of God, but it is UNNECESSARY for the following reasons:

1) God Himself wants to remain unidentified—a fact we can discern from His refusal to rectify all the conflicted scriptures.

2) God has not told anybody to worship Him; it is in the scriptures (obviously written by mere humans) that we see things such as worship.

3) Just like scriptures contain both right and wrong answers, they have got something right with regard to God in Mathew 5:44-48. A careful and impartial reading of those verses show that God, like sun, does not receive anything, but only gives; and He neither want nor receive worship, but want us to become worship-worthy by being a giver with no expectation from others.

4) In some ancient languages, worship literally means egolessness, living in the now … etc. which means worshipfully engaging in whatever you do with 100% involvement. Those who have done this do not feel time passing as though living in heaven (compare Luke 7:21)

12

J.W. dogma refuted by their own RNWT Bible

by The Fall Guy in

perhaps potential j.w.

recruits can use this example on their study conductors - and then witness the cognitive dissonance at first hand.. w98 2/1 p. 11 par.

13 – “when jehovah made his covenant, it was only with israel; those of the “vast mixed company,” although present, were not named as participants.”.

venus

The Fall guy,

Deuteronomy 29:10-15 really undercut JW teaching.

Excellent observation.