The answer he will come up with is, God is eternal, no begining or end.
But that just doesn´t give you a lead? remember Big Bang?
Bugbear
i asked this question of a jw that called on me yesterday: "if the universe requires a creator, why doesn't god?
if the universe must have a beginning, why doesn't god?
he claims to have an answer, but it must wait for next time he calls.. i'm hoping you guys can give me a heads-up as to what he will say.
The answer he will come up with is, God is eternal, no begining or end.
But that just doesn´t give you a lead? remember Big Bang?
Bugbear
i was twenty years old.. as a jehovah's witness, i had no career path ahead of me, no college to attend, and no prospect for my future other than.
knocking on people's doors and scanning the horizon for signs of armageddon:).
i was engaged to a 17-year-old witness girl i had met at the mineral wells assembly.. what was our future together?
Terry!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, and for your beautiful language. I am a foreigner and I don´t know English that much, but still tears came from my eyes, when I read your Shakespeare like sentences. My experiences are very similar to yours, but my bitterness and angriness, spending over 40 years of my time with impostors, are probably exceeding yours. What a waste of time.
Bugbear
how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.
how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.
how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.
The total and inconsequent teachings and the logical fallacy, of the WTBS bible teachings, rumbled in my stomach for over 20 years. But being an elder and having my whole family “in” (wife 6 children) it was not easy to draw the whole family back….But I did insist on the matter that all my children should get the highest education that was possible and suitable for their capacity…. They all got their education and not one of them is in. Finally my stomach reached my head and I started fading, using the time to continue my own education, (my children insisted that it was my turn now) I also took my university degree. Today only my wife is still in and I feel that she is quite lonely and sad. Bu I am also Shure, that she knows all about inconsequent teachings and logical fallacy.
Bugbear
i remember that every time when my father and i came home from the meeting, my mother (who stayed at home for my disabled brother) asked us "who was attending and who wasn't attending".. and then, we took some time to drink coffee and went through the list who was there and who wasn't.
there after there was an opinion made why someone was absent and what this meant in relation with his strength of believe.. just curious, do you recognize this?
gorby.
Hello Gorby!
I am quite familiar with your description. When I faded (10-15) years ago, and didn’t attend, to a meeting. I had always a call from one or two of the elders, asking if I were sick. Of course I told them on the phone that I didn’t, had the time to sit down and listened to this meeting. Of course they knew that spend my time with “higher” studies. And that made them nervous. Every half year the CO came to visit me, and there was a big dispute if I could proof all the things I actually had learned. Finally they decided, that I were I hopeless fader, and wasn´t anything wort spending their “hours” on. I still don’t know if I am dft or a member of the congs. I think that the members of elders are afraid of, publishing the actual attendees on the meetings. They are afraid of that the Soc. will close their Kingdom Hall . Anyway obviously the members are voting with their wallets.
Bugbear
i haven't been to a meeting in 15 years but my mother and sister are hard as j.w's.
the brothers they are appointing elders are at best suspect like one guy from my old hall made elder,big time drug used before becoming a j.w his talks are all over the place and would have struggled to make m,s years ago but with at least 60 to 70 % of young ones leaving the pool to pick from is at best reduced.. 2 other recent elders both young and zero life experience both on benefits one not well at all falls asleep all the time.. the decent,kind elders mostly older and are decent people with alot of life experience are burning out fast as there are so few of them left like 3 per congro of 100 publishers.. then you have the rich elders who wouldn't ever think of inviting some poor older or mis-fit person out to the expensive placers they go to as they couldn't afford to go so they are above the r&f and the r&f get pissed off with them.
then we have the ones who have "put the kingdom 1st" who are now old worn out and barely getting by from welfare cheque to welfare cheque that are saying "the system should have been over many years ago" it's still here and they are struggling everyday.. then there are the pioneers who have a low payed reduced hour job that seem to think anyone who has anything is totally materialistic and looks down on anyone getting a new car buying a house ect.. along with the child abuse issues,the generation change,access to information the the g.b don't want anyone to know ,not to mention the issues around blood.. is there a tipping point coming????
I believe that over 50% of the members of the cong. are aware of TTATT. They stay quite and vote with their wallets. This just to keep their only friends. They have nowere else to go to and doest dare to speak about it.
Bugbear
humanity is like a ship, and holes are our hobbies (lust, greed etc.
which are fondly renamed as each one likes) which always have been outperforming what science could accomplish!
most of the greater or significant scientific achievements started from 19th centurymay be with the commercial transmission of electricity!
Sorry Icon!
But to mee it looks like your head is stuffed with hay. I think that you must find some more enligthenment. You need to study a little bit more, to get your "life examin".
Bugbear
i do - actually, it's become close to unbearable.. and herein lies the paradox: i tried to fade in the illusion that i might keep contact with family and friends still "in".
was it worth it?
because not only most of them shun me anyways, but i find it almost unbearable to be around them, especially when the cult chit chat kicks in: every cute animal video clip triggers endless comments about glimpses of the future paradise and how "god did it"; those greasy praises to the organization and the governing body; the dumb awe about every jw broadcast and those cheesy music videos; the endless drivel against other religions when one knows perfectly well that we're no better than them; the endless flow of "experiences" of field service or spectacular conversions into "the truth"; the relentless congregation gossip; and so on .... i ask myself: is this why i am fading for ...?
JWfacts
Yes you are alright. JW,s don’t want to take a discussion. They simply want to recite what they have learned, then counting the hours, and go home to their congs. Saying that they might have found a interested person a person they believe could be a future biblestudy…..blah blah blah
i do - actually, it's become close to unbearable.. and herein lies the paradox: i tried to fade in the illusion that i might keep contact with family and friends still "in".
was it worth it?
because not only most of them shun me anyways, but i find it almost unbearable to be around them, especially when the cult chit chat kicks in: every cute animal video clip triggers endless comments about glimpses of the future paradise and how "god did it"; those greasy praises to the organization and the governing body; the dumb awe about every jw broadcast and those cheesy music videos; the endless drivel against other religions when one knows perfectly well that we're no better than them; the endless flow of "experiences" of field service or spectacular conversions into "the truth"; the relentless congregation gossip; and so on .... i ask myself: is this why i am fading for ...?
Yes actually. This because my wife is “still in” and once and a while “old friends” is “visiting us” to my encouragement, telling me how wonderful their organization is and how near the end is…… blah,,,,blah ,,, blah …. The sad thing is that I don’t want to embarrass my wife in front of her friends so I just keep quite, trying to pretend been smiling but sometimes, I feel the pressure to start an argument, then I rise from the chair and get out take a breath and start laughing. They look astonished and my wife is trying to explain my strange behavior. Sorry to say that the witness still don’t understand what was happening, they just keep on blah, blah, blah , blood doctrine wonderful, the angels will protect us, the last assembly explained so many new things, blah, blah, then I feel like vomiting.
Bugbear
atheists, deists, or believer.....basic philosophic ground .
either good exist, or has never been, or is dead.
those are he the three basic premises that we all humans must take a stand to.
Stillin!
I am sorry to say that english is not my mother toungue. I mean God, but is God good?
Bugbear.
atheists, deists, or believer.....basic philosophic ground .
either good exist, or has never been, or is dead.
those are he the three basic premises that we all humans must take a stand to.
Atheists, deists, or believer…..basic philosophic ground
Either good exist, or has never been, or is dead. Those are he the three basic premises that we all humans must take a stand to. Reasoning about these three premises will help us understand all the problems that life brings to us humans and all the rest of “the creation” that exists.
That life is for most of us living creatures quite dreadful and scaring is quite obvious for most of us Homo sapiens. It was obvious for Gautama Siddhartha, and most of all other religions are trying to explain these our difficulties with the anger of Good or that Good is punish us so that learn how to obey his laws and commandment. In fact, life is a sexual transmitted disease, with 100% mortality.
And when life is passing by, almost every one of us will suffer from diseases, losses of friends and family. Not to mention volcano eruptions, tsunamis, war, and other small anxieties that this good sent to us in order to correct our behavior.
Back to our basic premises, premises no 1. Good exist, but doesn’t interfere.
This makes Good evil. He/she don´t care about his creation. He/she lets us suffer from cancer, viruses, bacteria, war lords, and everything that causes depression, suicidal behavior, mental diseases. He (Good) just sit there in his heaven looking at us (his children) generations by generations, saying:, what did I told you….what did I told you.
Premises no 2. Good is dead. Therefore, he cannot interfere.
Nietzsche declared: Good is dead. This because he had no other explanation to all life’s evilness.
Darwins theory of “the survival of the fittest” was not a commonly accepted idea. Nor could Darwin explain the “evolution” with plain scientific proofs. And the very sentence “Good is dead” contend, the very essence about the concept of God … immortality. Nietzsche’s declaration “Good is dead” means in fact there is no Good, if he is mortal. The very definition of a Good is that he/she is immortal, an everlasting spirit, whit endless power.
Premises No 3. God has never existed. There is no creator, no spirits, daemons, no “power” that is unseeingly from us, and that life is a spontaneous, randomness result of “atomic energies” that can occur in any carbon/oxygen/hydrogen atmosphere.
From a philosophical point of view, this premises, this is the only alternative, that helps us get rid of the “theodice-problem”. God is not responsible , for not intervene….because, he doesn´t exist.
How do you reason on these philosophical questions?
Bugbear