Are you rejecting the personal testimony of many atheists?
Who is the atheist you know who had a genuine experience with God and then rejected him?
Posts by fjtoth
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129Why I am an atheist
by Awakened at Gilead insomeone (a born-again exjw) on youtube asked me why i was an atheist... i crafted a brief response... it follows:.
1. religious reason: there is no proof for god outside of the bible.
once i dropped my belief in the bible, the judeo-christian concept of god fell apart like a house of cards.
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fjtoth
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129
Why I am an atheist
by Awakened at Gilead insomeone (a born-again exjw) on youtube asked me why i was an atheist... i crafted a brief response... it follows:.
1. religious reason: there is no proof for god outside of the bible.
once i dropped my belief in the bible, the judeo-christian concept of god fell apart like a house of cards.
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fjtoth
I've been away from the web for several hours. What has been written here while I was away confirms what I wrote:
God won't allow atheists to ever find him as long as they ridcule his existence or deliberately close their minds about him. We can't know him unless we really want to.
Atheists comfort themselves by accusing believers of being "ignorant" and of not fully understanding evolution. The real problem for atheists is that they have no desire at all to get acquainted with the creator, and sadly for them they will never get to know what is experienced by those who have an intimate relationship with him.
Believers have an advantage that atheists don't. We can read and study and take courses on atheistic evolution and be free to reject it. But atheists can never gain the insights that are available to those who have a person-to-person relationship with the God who resides beyond-this-natural-world, the God who reveals himself only to those who are looking for him.
Atheists can scoff, but they are extremely limited in what they can know for sure.
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129
Why I am an atheist
by Awakened at Gilead insomeone (a born-again exjw) on youtube asked me why i was an atheist... i crafted a brief response... it follows:.
1. religious reason: there is no proof for god outside of the bible.
once i dropped my belief in the bible, the judeo-christian concept of god fell apart like a house of cards.
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fjtoth
A man whose mind is closed can easily explain away any and all evidence that God exists. An atheist can't find God for the same reason that a thief can't find a policeman. Think of the people who refuse to believe that men have walked on the moon. Show them photos of astronauts walking on the moon and hand them moon rocks brought here by such men, and you won't be able to convince them. Their minds are made up.
In the Bible, Romans 1:19-21 says people will similarly suppress evidence about God. But the Bible also says God can be found by those who seek him. (Jeremiah 29:13, 14) In effect, God won't allow atheists to ever find him as long as they ridcule his existence or deliberately close their minds about him. We can't know him unless we really want to.
Earth's great age and complexity point to a designer. The planet is perfect in size, and it's gravity is in perfect balance for holding a thin layer of life-sustaining gases immediately above its surface. The right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life would be impossible on a smaller or larger planet.
The planet's temperatures vary from the intense heat of the tropics to the frigid cold at the poles. If earth was closer to the sun, we'd burn to a crisp. If it was further away, the whole planet would be like the Antarctic. Life as we know it would be impossible, if life existed at all.
The moon is precisely where it ought to be and of the right size to keep the oceans from stagnating and from inundating the continents.
Water is abundant on earth though it seems difficult to find evidence of it elsewhere in the universe. No life could exist without the characteristics of water. Our 98.6 degrees average body temperature could not be maintained without it. It would be useless to us if its boiling point was lower or its freezing point was higher. And without water there would be no food.
Most of earth's water is too salty. But a system of evaporation, clouds and rivers has been designed to remove salt from sea water and distribute throughout the globe the kind of water needed by living plants, animals and people.
Scientists have been trying for decades to invent a computer comparable to the human brain that simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information. More amazing still is the fact that atheists believe the human brain, far superior to any mechanical computer, is the result of a series of blind non-directed accidents in nature over a long period of time.
I can't be an atheist. To do so, I'd have to close my mind to everything that exists around me. Everywhere I look, I see God's masterful handiwork. Long after I'm gone, he will still be here, performing marvelous wonders that will instill awe in the minds and hearts of millions of people. And he will continue to dramatically answer the prayers of those who daily walk with him and talk to him day after day.
To say there is no scientific reason to believe in God is silly. Many of the greatest scientists have been and are believers. And not all scientists accept the theory that humans have been on earth for billions of years.
No one knows for sure how long humans have been here. But I think it's enlightening to know that human writing goes back only about 6,000 years. Generally speaking, the oldest languages of man are the most complex. They are far from being the grunts and growls of supposed cavemen. If humans and their languages have been around for eons, why is there no evidence of writing or speaking beyond 6,000 years ago?
All around us, the evidence is that nature is dying, not evolving upward. A tiny insect begins to die when it reaches a certain age. It has life within it but that life does not surge upward and advance. No, its life ebbs and eventually leaves its body. Anywhere we look in all of nature, where is the evidence of an evolutionary movement upward?
Perhaps another piece of evidence for God's existence is in the way atheists try so hard to refute something that they don't believe even exists. I wonder if it's because they're not sure of their position, if it's because they are curious to see if they can be convinced otherwise. At any rate, it seems to me that atheists are on a quest to become free from the question of God. If they could prove conclusively to believers that they are wrong, then and only then would the issue be off the table. But believers continue to hang in there, and as long as that holds true atheists don't seem free to go about their lives.
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34
EXOTIC WATCHTOWERS
by cameo-d ini am inspired to start this topic because of something i stumbled across in an answer to parakeet on another thread.. he has some deruta majolica.
this is the heraldy crest for the deruta family.
it has a very exotic looking watchtower as its central theme.. i believe i have seen in a photograph somewhere, a similar one that actually exists.. i wonder what sinister meanings lurk behind the concept of watchtowers.. there has to be something very evil here since one of the most vile religions i know of has named its foundation after this structure.. let's see what we come up with.. .
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fjtoth
unclebruce:
the brand Watchtower is an interesting metaphor to explore in understanding the organization's true nature.
In what way?
A watchtower has been in use by religious organizations since early times. Many churches today have either a steeple or a watchtower. Today's steeples descended from the belltower and the belltower descended from Medieval watchtowers. My only reason for taking issue with the tenor of this thread is that the thread seeks to find evil where there is none. Little wonder JWs give no credence to attacks on their religion when they can point to threads like this one and say, "There, you see, our enemies are merely trying to find fault. If they're wrong on this topic, how can you trust other things they say against us."
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EXOTIC WATCHTOWERS
by cameo-d ini am inspired to start this topic because of something i stumbled across in an answer to parakeet on another thread.. he has some deruta majolica.
this is the heraldy crest for the deruta family.
it has a very exotic looking watchtower as its central theme.. i believe i have seen in a photograph somewhere, a similar one that actually exists.. i wonder what sinister meanings lurk behind the concept of watchtowers.. there has to be something very evil here since one of the most vile religions i know of has named its foundation after this structure.. let's see what we come up with.. .
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fjtoth
There's plenty wrong with the Watchtower Society, but seeing evil in the name "Watchtower" is seeing evil where I doubt there is any. The word "watchtower" appears 36 times in the Bible, and related words like "fortress," "guard post," "rampart" and "watchmen" appear hundreds of times. Because of the danger from attacks by enemies, nearly all ancient and even more recent nations and tribes had their watchtowers.
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Closet apostate on the writing committee?
by sir82 ini haven't seen any comments on this yet.... in the december 15, 2008 "study" version of the watchtower, in the last study article (the one to be covered march 1), paragraph 14 reads thusly in part:.
"...one january evening, the man asked his wife, jodi, what she knew of jehovah's witnesses.
she was a catholic, and she said that the only thing she linked to the witnesses to was "door-to-door preaching".
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fjtoth
No, I think you are reading more into this than there actually is.
I agree. I'm amazed at how much wishful thinking there is in this thread. Having been at Bethel for many years and having had friends in the Writing Dept., I can vouch for it that each and every article goes under intense scrutiny before reaching the presses. Not infrequently writers are asked to redo their articles because the higher-ups in the Writing Dept. or on the Governing Body think that a statement -- or more -- is a bit risky or contradicts the Governing Body's trend of thinking. Thoroughly-trained proofreaders also catch statements that might be misunderstood by the rank and file. And every writer knows he risks being bounced from the writing staff and even from Bethel if he dares to insert an idea that might suggest he has a tendency towards what the Society considers to be apostasy.
The article in question doesn't recommend in any sense that JWs go to the internet. It merely reports what someone on the outside of the organization did. If the intention was to suggest that JWs go to the internet, it gave "direction" as to where they should focus. Most JWs have been duped into thinking that God himself would be offended if they dared to venture elsewhere on the internet. That mindset alone guarantees that the majority are not going to misconstrue the article to mean that the Society is changing its view concerning the worldwide web.
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42
I've got pneumonia
by sacolton inafter a week-long battle of what i thought was a bad case of upper respiratory infection, i decided to get checked out by my doctor.
after a chest x-ray, it's confirmed that i have pneumonia.
i feel horrible.
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fjtoth
For what it's worth, here's my experience:
Because of burning the candle at both ends about 30 years ago, I developed pneumonia, bronchitis and pleurisy, all at once. Doctors didn't know what to do for me. At the hospital, they gave me antibiotics, but I didn't improve. An ambulance brought me home, and a nurse looked in on me twice a day. I just knew I was about to die. But one morning while lying listlessly in bed, I turned on the radio and heard a nutritionist guarantee that following her recipe would immediately cure the flu and any related symptoms, even the common cold. I felt the lady was a nut, but several people phoned in and related how her recipe had cured them, as if a miracle had occurred. When my wife came home, I told her about the recipe and she went out to buy the ingredients. The recipe cured me of all aches, pains and symptoms in three days - after I had been lying helplessly in bed for three months! I've never had a cold or the flu since, and that was three decades ago.
Today we don't actually need the recipe since the mixture is available in tablets, powders and liquids that can be purchased from a health food store. I highly recommend products with high doses of nutritional yeast, amino acids and vitamins. Hardly anything is worth more than possessing good health and a feeling of exceptional well-being..
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145
How Old are You ?
by flipper ini know- you aren't used to seeing me ask a simple question like this.
so- i'll start .
i am 49 years old, will be 50 in october .
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fjtoth
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My favourite mayor, Hazel McCallion of Mississauga, Ontario, turned 88 today.
She's been mayor for 3 decades and is still going strong. In our big city, you're likely to meet her anywhere. The story about her is inspiring:
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145
How Old are You ?
by flipper ini know- you aren't used to seeing me ask a simple question like this.
so- i'll start .
i am 49 years old, will be 50 in october .
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fjtoth
. . . and so many new and wonderful people to meet -- here and everywhere!!!
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145
How Old are You ?
by flipper ini know- you aren't used to seeing me ask a simple question like this.
so- i'll start .
i am 49 years old, will be 50 in october .
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fjtoth
Next month I'll be 73. Sometimes I feel like 15 since I came alive that many years ago when I left JWs. So much to do -- so much to learn -- and I'm lovin' every bit of it!