If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will
scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will
refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something
which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he
will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is
explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Oubliette
JoinedPosts by Oubliette
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94
Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option
by cofty init's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
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94
Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option
by cofty init's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
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Oubliette
CIF: Why should I have any problem with them or either of you?
You shouldn't. Who said you did?
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94
Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option
by cofty init's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
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Oubliette
Here's a link to the interview:
Why are you not a Christian?
My favorite part @ 0:18 - 3:25
Q: Do you think there's a practical reason for having a religious belief ?
A: Well there can't be a practical reason for believing what isn't true! … Either a thing is true or it isn't. If it is true you should believe it, and if it isn't you shouldn't. And if you can't find out whether it's true or whether isn't you should suspend judgment.
It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true. -
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How the human mind processes facts and faith differently
by EdenOne ini found this very interesting article by t. m. luhrmann in todays edition of the new york times (i've highlighted a few parts i 've found most interesting):.
it seems weird to deny them.. and yet a broad group of scholars is beginning to demonstrate that religious belief and factual belief are indeed different kinds of mental creatures.
people process evidence differently when they think with a factual mind-set rather than with a religious mind-set.
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Oubliette
cofty: I have found the opposite to be true in my case.
Agreed.
What evidence is there for the statement "people’s reliance on supernatural explanations increases as they age"?
Or do we simply need to take it on faith?
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94
Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option
by cofty init's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
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-
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94
Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option
by cofty init's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
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Oubliette
CIF: So Obliette, it's up to the reader to decide what the data means.
Well that's not a particularly critical or scientific approach.
But since you feel that way, you'll have no trouble understanding that I've examined "the data" (the Bible) and concluded it is an internally incoherent document filled with delusions and misperceptions.
It would be of some value as a historical document for anthropological study were it not for the fact that it has been and continues to be used to justify horrible atrocities all over the world.
Bertrand Russell once said, "Well, there can't be a practical reason for believing what isn't true. ... Either the thing is true, or it isn't. If it is true, you should believe it, and if it isn't, you shouldn't. And if you can't find out whether it's true or whether it isn't, you should suspend judgment."
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19
Mummy Dear Lies at Assemblies
by Tempest in a Teacup inmy zealously fanatic jw mum is aware of my current "tourist-jw" life.
what she doesn't know for sure is that she's part of the ones who brought me to this.. my mum was a quite moderate jw, she even got publically reproved once.
in our house, there was no daily text, no family study, no eating together, no preaching together, no watchtower study...even though she regularly checked my wt to see if i studied it.. being a single mother, she had a quite busy work schedule, so from the moment she woke up to the moment she went to bed, you'd better not waste a single minute of her time needlessly.
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Oubliette
The whole belief system is a delusional fantasy. Why did you expect it to have limits?
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37
Apostasy Trial - Part 2 - Satan is Using Google
by berrygerry inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=373zbncuuoq
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Oubliette
Steve: I should imagine if the elders dared to secretly video our friend's "trial", we'd be declaring them to be very deceptive and dishonest.
Yeah, it's all fucked up.
What do we expect: someone with some thinking abilities ask a few hard questions and the elders fall back on the stock answers. The end result is always the same: The elders find the questioner to be an apostate.
Pretty predictable. Tragic for the people whose lives get messed up, but sadly unsurprising.
Let's review: It's a cult!
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At the Kingdom Hall
by paradisebeauty ini was thinking of starting a topic on thoughts that go through your mind while attending meetings.... right now i am at the meeting and thinking ... we study about jesus's courage to stand by rightness and truth, about him getting in conflict with religious leaders who thought of themselves as experts of the law, jesus understood truth and god differently of them and he had the courage to speak out!.
so we study this, but after that we draw the concluzion that courage is to go preaching and identify yourself as a witness .... well, this in not what i understand from jesus's courage!.
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Oubliette
The Org is nothing less than demon-inspired, and demonic in practice.
That would require demons to be real. They are not.
What "inspires" these beliefs are false understandings of the nature of reality and simplistic philosophies ascribing those understandings to "God."
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37
Apostasy Trial - Part 2 - Satan is Using Google
by berrygerry inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=373zbncuuoq
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Oubliette
... their delusion is really a sickness ...
That would be the definition of a delusion:
/dəˈlo͞oZHən/noun: delusion; plural noun: delusions
an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder.-
