I am a Christian but I don’t believe the Devil is a real person. Even good and bad/wickedness are probably badly thought out concepts. Most people who do bad think they are doing good, and many who think they are doing good are in reality trapped in a physical reality where good and bad are dependent on each other. So when one does a seemingly good act, it will result in a bad occurrence in time. Thus even someone who purposely does a bad thing for the purpose of bad, will also in time create something good as a result. In a way I guess that good and bad cancel each other out through time as both need each other to exist. Take one away if that were possible and the other would cease to be. I would say then that wickedness comes from whatever the difference is between the objective and subjective worlds, because without brains there is no good or bad, although there is entropy and order creation or more commonly called creation and destruction. When those two basic forces happen with people in the way, we say good or bad but only with people there. The difference between brains/people and the universe without brains is the same difference as there is between the objective and subjective worlds.
Seraphim23
JoinedPosts by Seraphim23
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Where Do You NOW Think Wickedness Comes From? The Devil or... ?
by LoisLane looking for Superman ini think wickedness comes from evil people.. there are many people in between the two extremes of, overly good people and overly evil persons.. i do not believe in a devil.. i think he is a concept dreampt up by evil ones to blame bad behavior, as a red herring, on anyone but themselves.. the watchtower makes up attrocious lies, brow beats good people not to better themselves,.
all the while, they are building their own empire.. they say, do not isiolate yourself.
it is not good for you.. but if you don't agree with them and their current teachings, you will be shunned, disfellowshipped.. that can and does, have earth shattering results.. so many things, i was taught as a born in, are now considered apostate teachings.
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Life advice to pass on ...
by free2beme ini was thinking.
if i died today, what advice would i want my children to know after i am gone.
ever think about that, if so, then add on.... 1. know in life that people will always tell you their side of the story, and when they do they will always be the hero and everyone else the villian.
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Seraphim23
Very good stuff. One I might add is that love never dies.
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Did Jesus really exist?
by slimboyfat ini had been wondering over the past few years whether there really was a historical jesus at all, until a few months ago when i read bart ehrman's latest book "did jesus exist?
" initially i was persuaded by his argument that the nt contains multiple sources that testify to jesus' existence.
but more recently i have been reading the christ myth position of richard carrier and his responses to ehrman.
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Seraphim23
I think Jesus existed because most scholars of antiquity think he did and because of the Turin shroud, which has been shown to be older than the carbon dating tests suggested.
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is Superman an angel ?
by bigmac inis superman really an angel--?.
he is from outer space.. he can fly.
he has superhuman powers-------what do you think bros?.
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Seraphim23
Not all of it.
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is Superman an angel ?
by bigmac inis superman really an angel--?.
he is from outer space.. he can fly.
he has superhuman powers-------what do you think bros?.
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Seraphim23
More like the service desk.
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is Superman an angel ?
by bigmac inis superman really an angel--?.
he is from outer space.. he can fly.
he has superhuman powers-------what do you think bros?.
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Seraphim23
To me the basic story of superman is a retelling of Jesus` story. A special man gets sent by his Father to earth. He reaches a certain age and gets told who he really is. Then he discovers his powers and mission and so on. He always tells the truth and so on.
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UNDESERVED kindness or DESERVED kindness?
by scotoma ini'm tired of hearing people grovel before their "benevolent" creator.. recently i was listening to a jw relative express regrets over their rebellious life-style when they were young.
then came that phrase:.
"i'm so greatful for jehovah's undeserved kindness and that he can accept me with my sinful past.".
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Seraphim23
As a Christian I don’t like this spin either that one hears a lot in Christianity and other faiths. However I think it would also be a problem if the message was God owes us as individuals, or that we are created exactly the way God wants, even if that is in reality the case due to evolution being how we got here. There is a place for shame in the world. All of us have impulses that are bad and need regulation that would not be regulated if we didn’t have personal shame and guilt and reason to think that second chances were possible. Wearing shame and guilt as a security blanket is unfortunately a problem also. If we believe in God, as I do, and the message was there is nothing wrong with us then what place for personal growth and learning or guilt?
Frankly this all boils down to the idea that the concepts of good and bad are both needed for freedom of choice to exist along with morality. If this is true and such concepts are real, as opposed to mere human invention, then shame and guilt has a real place also. Of course they can be explained in part by evolutionary principles too, but then the reality is genes trying to be dominant over one another through the illusion of morality, kindness, and so on with the truth being they don’t actually matter at all. After all the process of evolution doesn’t care about anything being it is not a person.
In my mind the cross is far deeper than the mere legalistic idea that it pays for mankind’s sins through some kind of blood sacrifice as though real guilt and shame could or should be transferred away from someone. Or the idea that man was cursed by the sins of parents is far deeper than first it appears! It’s not literally true, but then nor is the idea of perfect man because that does away with learning by experience. A perfect man cannot learn from experience but one cannot become perfect as it were, without making mistakes to learn from. One could say the bible provides a starting point to wrestle with these questions without resorting to ideas that God doesn’t exist and that existence means nothing or that morality, good and bad, and purpose are unreal concepts created by non-living processes like evolution to help selfish genes. Even humanism doesn’t address these issues other than to effectively ignore them. `We make our own purpose` sounds good but is ultimately rather meaningless because it is meaningless.
One could say that it is both undeserved and dissevered kindness that are true at the same time, just as good and bad need each other or neither can exist and choice is a mere illusion. Enter in quantum theory here? Perhaps not!
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Are YOU a Believer, Atheist, Agnostic, Active JW or WHAT?
by Greybeard insorry if this has been asked before but i would love to know the current ratio on this forum.. i'm a believer/christian former jw for 45 years... born in .
what are you now and what were you?.
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Seraphim23
I wonder why!
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Are YOU a Believer, Atheist, Agnostic, Active JW or WHAT?
by Greybeard insorry if this has been asked before but i would love to know the current ratio on this forum.. i'm a believer/christian former jw for 45 years... born in .
what are you now and what were you?.
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Seraphim23
I believe it was you who did that Cofty.
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Are YOU a Believer, Atheist, Agnostic, Active JW or WHAT?
by Greybeard insorry if this has been asked before but i would love to know the current ratio on this forum.. i'm a believer/christian former jw for 45 years... born in .
what are you now and what were you?.
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Seraphim23
Yes it was a valid point as SBF has just reiterated.