Posts by Island Man

510

What Music have you Been Listening to this Last Year ? Post You tubes if you Like !

by flipper in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktxjuyiat4.

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Island Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdD0kGABmAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-h_jNiSczw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFujSgJ9C-c

38

JWs destroy archaelogical artifacts

by John Doe in

jw
friends

thousands of years old.

this makes my blood boil.. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/jehovahs-witnesses-destroy-ancient-indigenous-temple-in-mexico-20160628-0009.html.

I don't think it the least bit implausible that a few recently converted rogue JWs could do something like that. Maybe the rogue JWs are members of the indigenous group and formerly worshiped at the shrine and now that they're learning from the JWs they feel the need to affirm their stance for pure worship and renounce their former course of false worship by engaging in this act. Maybe they were inspired by the actions of Gideon.

Whatever the case, I don't see how anyone can honestly say that JWs wouldn't or couldn't do something like this. JWs condemn all other religions as false and part of Babylon the Great; they often consider the example of faithful kings who destroyed altars and shrines used for false worship. It does't require any stretch of the imagination to see how/why a rogue JW could do something like this.

Yes, JWs are taught to not use violence and not take matters into their own hands by acting physically against false worshipers and apostates, etc. Yes, the vast majority of JWs would never do something like this and it would be unfair to give the impression that such conduct is typical of JW culture and condoned or encouraged by the organization. We can fairly say that the behavior is atypical for JWs but we cannot outright dismiss the possibility of it being done by a few rogue JWs.

21

100-million man hours

by Coded Logic in

the james webb telescope is set to launch in october of 2018 and will allow us to study the formation of first generation stars, the molecular clouds that became the first galaxies, and directly image exoplanets.

roughly one hundred times more powerful than the hubble space telescope the jwst is going to push back the current boundaries of science.. this is what 100-million man hours can accomplish.. .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8p0samsz7m.

Island Man

Science is the genuine pursuit of truth. Religion is the arrogant and ignorant assertion of ancient and ignorant myths, as truth.

48

Richmond, Virginia Convention Lowlights: 11-year-old Baptized / Porn Seen Accidentally

by Funchback in

http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/article_8dec9e79-b243-5265-80ee-fee138922f80.html.

at this rate, soon they'll let infants get dipped:.

lindsey jackson, 14, of king george county was among the 33 people who were baptized saturday during the first convention of jehovah’s witnesses of the summer at the richmond coliseum.

Island Man

the 'accidental' porn thing with JWs is so fucking hilarious.

I know right. Porn does not pop-up on your computer unless you visit porn sites. And today most browsers have built in pop-up blockers. Wholly innocent accidental porn pop-ups is a thing that happened over a decade ago, so recent JW experiences with accidental porn pop-ups mean that someone in the house has been deliberately viewing porn and don't know how to clear cookies and browsing history and/or use pop-up blocker. LOL.

48

Richmond, Virginia Convention Lowlights: 11-year-old Baptized / Porn Seen Accidentally

by Funchback in

http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/article_8dec9e79-b243-5265-80ee-fee138922f80.html.

at this rate, soon they'll let infants get dipped:.

lindsey jackson, 14, of king george county was among the 33 people who were baptized saturday during the first convention of jehovah’s witnesses of the summer at the richmond coliseum.

Island Man

This thread was such a bummer! I was hoping that they accidentally played porn on the big screen at the convention.

24

Why the Bible cannot be the work of an all-wise God that epitomizes love.

by Island Man in

there's simply no way to honestly deny that the ot condones genocide, slavery and misogyny.

there are too many passage showing yahweh commanding his people to wipe out this nation and that nation - women and innocent children included!

it leaves us with a god who wrote a book that very, very, very much seems like it condones genocide, but it doesn't, etc.. what kind of god does that?

Island Man

Wasanelder Once: Haven't you heard of "tough love"? Sheesh.

More like trolling. Yahweh is a cosmic troll. LOL.

24

Why the Bible cannot be the work of an all-wise God that epitomizes love.

by Island Man in

there's simply no way to honestly deny that the ot condones genocide, slavery and misogyny.

there are too many passage showing yahweh commanding his people to wipe out this nation and that nation - women and innocent children included!

it leaves us with a god who wrote a book that very, very, very much seems like it condones genocide, but it doesn't, etc.. what kind of god does that?

Island Man

problemaddict 2: Would you be willing to attach the scriptural refferences for the accounts you use to illustrate your point? You may have them handy. If not, i can research and grab em.

Feel free to do so. I don't remember the book, chapter and verse citations. I was working from my memory of the narratives.

24

Why the Bible cannot be the work of an all-wise God that epitomizes love.

by Island Man in

there's simply no way to honestly deny that the ot condones genocide, slavery and misogyny.

there are too many passage showing yahweh commanding his people to wipe out this nation and that nation - women and innocent children included!

it leaves us with a god who wrote a book that very, very, very much seems like it condones genocide, but it doesn't, etc.. what kind of god does that?

Island Man

There's simply no way to honestly deny that the OT condones genocide, slavery and misogyny. There are too many passage showing Yahweh commanding his people to wipe out this nation and that nation - women and innocent children included! The execution of innocent children is wholly inexcusable.

We also have passages showing Yahweh killing his own people - innocent people - for the sins of their king. There is an account of Yahweh killing Isaelites for David's sin. We also have the Achan account of Yahweh allowing his people to go off to battle the enemy without informing them that they lacked his divine protection and blessing because of the secret sin of someone in their midst - Achan. He only tells them of this after they go off to battle and some of them die! Such a god is not worthy of trust. Such a god allows the innocent to die for the sins of the guilty.

There is also an account in the OT where Yahweh kills some of his own people who were rejoicing at the returning of the Ark of the covenant from an enemy nation. Why did he kill them? Just because they happened to see the sacred chest on its route back to the tabernacle. And Jesus condemned the pharisees for being heartless sticklers for the law!

Apologists come up with all manner of mental gymnastics to ease their cognitive dissonance and defend the clear immorality of their god. They say we don't have all the details; that god's thoughts are higher than ours; that we have to look at the context; that he saw some other evil flaws in the hearts of those he killed and that aren't mentioned in the account - all manner of pitiable, stretched excuses are used to justify their continued worship of a clearly immoral being.

Well let's hypothetically grant the apologists some slack. Let's accept their BS excuses as being valid, just for the sake of argument. Where does that leave us? It leaves us with a god who wrote a book with instructions that seem very, very, very similar to misogyny, but actually aren't. It leaves with a god who who wrote a book that very, very, very much seems like it supports slavery, but it doesn't. It leaves us with a god who wrote a book that very, very, very much seems like it condones genocide, but it doesn't, etc.

What kind of god does that? What kind of god would write such a book that very strongly seems to be condoning immoral and cruel acts - but actually isn't? What kind of god will do that even while knowing that many immoral religionists will abuse such ambiguous texts to persuade their followers to be misogynists, genocidists and enslavers of their fellow man? You see because these texts are so ambiguous it makes it very easy for wicked men to abuse them to get large numbers of otherwise good people, to engage in wicked conduct. These men only have to cite these ambiguous texts together with other texts that say god's thoughts are higher than human thoughts; and trust in god and not your own understanding and boom! You have the perfect recipe to persuade many otherwise good people to commit evil acts while thinking its the right thing to do and suppressing the prodding of their conscience - their "imperfect", "sinful" conscience that must be ignored to obey the will of god as expressed through their evil religious leaders who can so easily and effortlessly cite these ambiguous texts that seem to condone evil acts.

Surely an all-wise and loving god would have foreseen that! Surely an all-wise and loving god would have been more responsible in his portrayal of himself and his standards of righteousness by making it unambiguously clear in both the OT and the NT that he detests slavery, misogyny and genocide. By doing so he would have made it far more difficult for wicked men to abuse the bible for evil ends, thus resulting in less suffering and needless deaths. There would still be wicked people doing wicked things. But clear unequivocal texts condemning such evils and an absence of ambiguous texts that seem to portray Yahweh as commanding and condoning such evils, would have made it extremely difficult for these wicked men to abuse the bible to get people to do evil deeds. The amount of suffering resulting from abuse of the bible would thus be drastically reduced.

In other words, even if we concede to the excuses of apologists, we are still not left with a good god. We are left with a god who has proven himself to be a grossly irresponsible author who has inspired ambiguous words ripe for abuse by wicked men for the oppression and enslavement of others. So apologists, if you're wrong, your god is an immoral god who commands and condones evil conduct. If you're right, your god is an unwise and grossly irresponsible author, whose irresponsibly ambiguous writings have inspired much suffering and injustice.

35

Born Twice - Die Once .... Born Once - Die Twice

by Perry in

jesus taught that we must die unto ourselves, and allow the holy spirit to take up residence within us.

some people get saved by simply inviting jesus into their hearts, to be the lord of their life.

this serves as a countering force within the born-again christian to counterbalance the will of the flesh, which is still unsaved in this life and destined for destruction in imitation of our lord himself.. attempting to live the christian life without having this spirit within you is a waste of time at the minimum, and dangerous on the downside.

Island Man

Perry, all of your links lead to the website of a christian apologist. I don't trust the claims and reasoning of christian apologists. They exaggerate, twist, and misrepresent the facts, all in an effort to support their preconceived religious ideology. They are not really interested in truth. They're only interested in confirming their preconceived religious biases and cherry pick and twist information to that end while ignoring and denying all evidence to the contrary. I've seen them do this with the subject of evolution vs creation. Look, the third link you posted highlights the utter folly and dishonesty of christian apologists for it reads:

"The Overwhelming Empirical Evidence for Jesus Death and Resurrection"

Overwhelming empirical evidence, Perry? Really? Bogus claims like these are why I know that christian apologists are dishonest people who don't deserve to have any of their claims and statements taken seriously.

24

If An Organization Really Believed It Had the Truth...

by xjwsrock in

....it would not be scared of critics.

actually they would naturally take an offensive stance, wouldn't they?

they would welcome debate... even encourage it.

Island Man

Watchtower cannot honestly refute the claims of apostates, so they desperately resort to attempting to suppress the truth about the truth from getting to JWs by demonizing apostates and coaching JWs to censor out apostate information.

If what the apostates were saying were false, then the best way to deal with it would be to publish a book listing the specific claims of apostates and refuting each one with irrefutable facts and evidence. That would be the best way to deal with apostates, if they were lying, because it would involve inoculating JWs against apostate lies.

But Watchtower cannot do this without engaging in further printed lies, because apostates are telling the truth and truth cannot be refuted. When fighting truth the most you can hope to do is attempt to hide it and hide from it. This is why deceitful and oppressive political regimes always resort to the use of censorship - because the truths that expose them cannot be refuted. Watchtower is no different.

Truth is like an invincible warrior while the lie is like an evil, scheming weakling. A weakling cannot defeat an invincible warrior so his only option is to hide from him. And this is essentially what deceitful manipulative organizations like Watchtower do - they hide from the truth and attempt to hide the truth through the use of censorship.