Posts by GrreatTeacher

conversation was calmed and pleasant and while i know she is not the most educated person (she can hardly read), its hard to justify it by saying is a matter of ignorance.

it is definitely something inside her that triggers on that very moment.. me: i don't know where all the money is going.

GrreatTeacher

It's like you were having two separate conversations!

Sometimes people with trouble in logical/mathematical thinking truly can't follow a line of thought in an argument. They get stuck on extraneous details.

She just couldn't focus on the per diem cost and then compare it in a rent vs. own scenario.

But, she sure did home in on the Society's message: donate, donate, donate!

45

How to Choose a Wife!

by snugglebunny in

jw
friends

back in the day, when my family moved to a new congregation, i fell head over heels with a young sister who was an elder's daughter.

it wasn't long before we were talking about marriage and i was contemplating buying her an engagement ring.

my parents were not happy at all.

GrreatTeacher

Me too, truthseeker, me too. And I think the "not a witness" part is key.

94

Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option

by cofty in

it'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.

I can't tell whether you believe that the god of the OT is the same as the god of the NT or not? Is Jesus a part of that godhead or is he just the son of the OT god Yahweh? When Jesus speaks of his father, is this the same as Yahweh, the OT god? I'm just not clear on your position.

94

Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option

by cofty in

it'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.

GrreatTeacher

My coment was meant for Hold Me. He's going off on a tangeant equating the nature of god with the morality of society. Not the same thing at all.

94

Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option

by cofty in

it'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.

GrreatTeacher

Strawman. Nobody was talking about society. The discussion is about the nature of God.

59

How the human mind processes facts and faith differently

by EdenOne in

i 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.

GrreatTeacher

Eden, I looked at the study regarding supernatual reasoning increasing with age.

I wonder, though, if this might be a cohort effect wherein these beliefs are more common among those of an earlier generation?

In that case, it might represent a way of thinking that has since become "modernized," which would explain why younger people were less likely to ascribe supernatual explanations to natural phenomena.

This, in contrast to the idea that age represents longer and thus more mature reasoning.

94

Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option

by cofty in

it'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.

GrreatTeacher

Cofty, sorry. I didn't mean to derail your thread. I definitely understand what you are saying.

I tend to get in trouble when I start thinking about others' thought processes on a subject, metacognition, if you will.

Christians, including JWs, seem to not see Jesus so much as a Jew who can be best understood through Jewish thought and more as the founder of the religion of Christianity and then retroactively apply their Christian understanding of him to the god Yahweh of the old testament. This seems especially easy to do with trinitarian thought that equates Jesus with the OT god.

I totally agree with you, Cofty, I'm just indulging in some attempts to understand what and how others understand the same subject. However, this usually is unproductive, at the least off topic, and so I apologize if I derailed the thread.

94

Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option

by cofty in

it'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.

GrreatTeacher

I have incomplete thoughts on this subject, but I find Caleb's entry into the discussion interesting.

I feel like I need to ask, "Is the bible a fundamentally Jewish or Christian document? Does the answer to that question affect our understanding, not only of individual events in bible, but the larger "message," for lack of a better word?