Posts by willmarite

7

God has no plan for anyone ever lived?!

by Mr Fool in

jw
friends

according to jw all people are born by chance and death also come by chance, a lottery.

therefore no one is meant to be.

if god has a plan for certain volume of people (kind of 144 000), how can that be if he has no idea which kind of souls being created (by accident)?.

willmarite

If the materialism paradigm were correct then our consciousness would be created by the physical brain. Our sense of identity and all our thoughts which translate into emotions which lead to actions would be dictated by the firings of synapses in the brain. A pedophile couldn't help but molest children. The only thing Hitler could have done was kill millions of Jews. An alcoholic who stops drinking only does so because of chemicals in his brain make him stop.

This rebels against common sense. My personal opinion is if you start with a mistaken belief especially if its viewed as being infallible even if you use logical thought you will come up with answers that rebel against common sense and intuition.

This is one of the reasons I do not believe in materialism. It is a good exercise to follow thru with logical thought what the ramifications of materialism are. This is not to say it can not be true but I do not believe it to be the most likely answer.

13

Do God and Jesus have free will? No they do not. Proven in this thread.

by Comatose in

does god have free will?

why couldn't they be like him in that they had free will but just wouldn't or couldn't be bad?.

willmarite

Hi comatose. I wouldn't say evil is a tangible thing. It is simply the absense of enlightenment. The increase of enlightenment goes hand in hand with the decrease of evil acts.

Free will by it's very nature must include unenlightened acts.

What if a well-to-do father made it the mission of his life to never allow his son to fail at something. At school if the son was doing poorly the father paid off teachers to make sure they gave his son an A in every subject. When the son graduated the father pulled strings not only to get him a good job but made sure by payoffs or threats everyone treated his son like he was the smartest person in the company. Would the son have learned much in his life? Would not the "love" of the father actually be selfishness in not wanting any son of his to be seen as failing at something?

Failing at something is a fairly big way how we as humans learn lessons. We can do anything we decide to do. This is the universal law of free will. Another universal law is the law of karma, reaping what we sow, or whatever you want to call it.

It is not unfair of the creator to make it so that if a human is selfish, close-minded, jealous etc. that human will be unhappy. Likewise if a human becomes enlightened and realizes his oneness with every other human and correspondingly loves all like he loves himself he will be happy and feel fulfillled.

These are lessons we learn in the schoolroom called Earth.

188

A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian

by cofty in

a manual for creating atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith--but for talking them out of it.

peter boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than twenty years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.

- amazon.... "boghossian has provided an indispensible chart book for all of us who must navigate the rising sea of magical thinking that is inundating america today.

willmarite

Cofty, I'm simply saying I'm an amaterialist. I'm not here to convince you of anything. I'm only promoting an open mind along with the realization that there is much that humans do not know.

There are many people who have expericenced god, to try to convince them using the philosophy of materialism that they're expericences are just hallucinations or indications of a deranged mind will not bear fruit. They know that something higher than them exists.

However they should not use their experiences as a means to convince anybody of a higher powers existence. This must be done by each individual.

You have the right to believe in materialism and I have no desire to try to convince you otherwise. There are no infallible beliefs in this world including materialism.

I have no affiliation with The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University.

188

A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian

by cofty in

a manual for creating atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith--but for talking them out of it.

peter boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than twenty years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.

- amazon.... "boghossian has provided an indispensible chart book for all of us who must navigate the rising sea of magical thinking that is inundating america today.

willmarite

Hi cofty. You said "Only believers have the burden of proof. Atheists simply find the case for god to be unconvincing."

Technically this is true. However, usually atheism comes with a world view namely materialism. This is not a non-belief and must be proven.

I could classify myself as an amaterialist that is to say a non-believer in the philosophy of materialism. Now the burden of proof is on you.

13

Do God and Jesus have free will? No they do not. Proven in this thread.

by Comatose in

does god have free will?

why couldn't they be like him in that they had free will but just wouldn't or couldn't be bad?.

willmarite

Hi comatose. I don't think I'm understanding your reasonings.

Does god have free will? Yes. If we are made in his image then we are gods in training and also have free will.

Could god do something evil? Of course. If it decided to step down in consciousness and be less.

I don't think it is possible to instill a new creation with god-like knowledge, god-like experience, and god-like qualities such as divine love, forgiveness etc. These things must be learned by experience and personal discovery.

If we didn't have the capability of doing heinous crimes we would never discover that we only hurt ourselves when we hurt others. Without the capability of making wrong choices there is no growth.

47

"you're pretty compassionate for an atheist"

by Hortensia in

jw
friends

my favorite compliment of the day.

what a lot of assumptions people have about what makes an atheist tick..

willmarite

Hi cofty, yes I'm an ex-JW. I haven't figured out yet how to start a new thread since there appears there isn't any way for me to do so. Perhaps you have to make a few posts before being allowed to start a thread.

I haven't attended any meetings for a couple years but my wife is still an active JW.

Haven't heard of RoseMary, who's she?

47

"you're pretty compassionate for an atheist"

by Hortensia in

jw
friends

my favorite compliment of the day.

what a lot of assumptions people have about what makes an atheist tick..

willmarite

It's easy to be controlled by the human ego where we need to feel superior over other people. The ego needs to feel special whether it be found in a Christian who thinks he is morally superior to an atheist, an atheist who thinks he is intellectually superior over a believer in god, or because someone believes that their political beliefs are superior.

We are not our beliefs or non-beliefs we are so much more. We need to stop judging.

41

Did you ever REALLY believe anything special happened at Cedar Point Ohio in 1922?

by Sapphy in

but the understanding is affirmed in the revelation climax book, albeit with less detail.

the events are as follows (& i'm keeping the quotes really short) :.

1st angel - "it all began during the bible students cedar point convention in september 1922. there gods people enthusiastically adopted a resolution entitled "a challenge.

willmarite

All the Cedar Point nonsense is quite silly. But hardly any JW pays that stuff much attention nowadays. The rare occasions when it comes up in an article most probably shrug as if to say "whatever" and never give it a second thought.

I didn't believe it when I was a JW but I thought "new light" would be right around the corner.

My brother told me that one of the things that strengthens his belief that the JWs are God's org. is how perfect the organization's history matches up with Revelation. Man, did I roll my eyes!

35

Why doesn't the GB come out with specific rules on counting time

by trujw in

i think we all know the reason millions of less hours.

when i was in we went to a rv by the kingdom hall then drove 30 minutes out to the country to knock on a door then back to the city for one more door.

god must be so proud!

willmarite

Whenever I aux. pioneered I was as inefficient as possible. I'd take one RV on one side of territory then go do some chronic not-at-homes on the other side of the territory then go take a break. Hopefully there'd be an unbaptized pub. in the car who I could talk with for a little bit to keep the time going during break.

94

If there is a god..

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

now we have to answer...... 1) is there more than one god?

how do you choose the most senior god?.

2) if you chose religious texts to make this desicion, how do you know they are not purposfully misleading by an ill willed god?.

willmarite

Hi tec, I appreciate your latest answer and there is matters that we agree on as well as disagree on. I have some questions for you. You mention following the Christ, do you view the Christ as confined to the person of Jesus? Or is the Christ something greater than the person of Jesus which Jesus came to be united with? Did Jesus by raising his consciousness come to be the personification of the Christ on earth at that time?

If Jesus came to be one with the Christ consciousness this would make it easier to understand Jesus' many statements such as "I am the way, the resurrection, and the life." "I am the light of the world" "I am come that all might have life and that they might have it more abundantly"

I believe that Jesus exemplified the Christ consciousness when he was on earth. Others such as the Buddha and Krishna and others had exemplified Christ consciousness earlier. I believe these individuals were the same as us and therefore every human alive today has the ability to exemplify the Christ consciousness. This of course is not easy and requires possibly many reincarnations to accomplish.

I respect the bible for it's teachings but as you mentioned one has to use discernment in accepting it's veracity exactly the same with any other book or teacher. Teachings such as Christianity is the only way to God or the ransom sacrifice as understood by mainstream christianity simply can not be made to make sense.