by jwfacts 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
:my bible study conductor definitely told me that elders were appointed by qualifications set forth in the bible (which were inspired by holy spirit). Not directly by holy spirit. So mistakes could be made.
"Inspired" by holy spirit but not "directly" [inspired] by holy spirit.
Does anyone see the bullshit in that one?
Farkel
Thank you so much for this post Paul,
Well written ,and succinct enough to print off and hand to a Dub, saying "a friend of mine wrote that, what do you think ?"
Now I know asking a Dub to think is asking the impossible, but I think they may read and assimilate, I do hope so.
Thanks again, for the post and links, and for your excellent site.
love
Wobble
tag.......and jwfacts i love that 1990 wt quote using "holy spirit AND the inspired scriptures"...............that spirit is doin a pitiful job of directing and appointing.......and guiding.......and leading..........buy it a GPS somebody.............oompa
Facts and faith (or, more exactly perhaps: facts-based and faith-based types of "knowledge") are "safe" as long as they don't encroach on, or overlap each other. As long as (1) science doesn't try to provide moral or metaphysical meaning and (2) religious doctrine strictly limits itself to the "unfalsifiable" (gods, afterlife, and so on). But this safety border is also terribly frustrating. Each "side" dreams of playing on the other side: science desires meaning and faith desires truth, actually they live by this desire of transgression no matter how hard they may repress it. Science and religion would become dull and uninteresting if they finally gave up the ambition of a "worldview" (which is necessarily a mix of both sides). Nobody would commit to either without actually aiming at both and taking risks. Some know how far is too far. Others don't and end up in the swamps of pseudoscience and pseudoreligion.
Nark
I agree with much of what you said. Science needs faith as much as faith needs science. Philosophy's job is to be referee.
Nicely written. But I think you need to reconsider this one line
There is no disagreement over the speed of gravity; it is universally accepted as 9.81 m/s 2 .
The problem is with "speed of gravity" there. The "speed of gravity" is either infinite or the speed of light (depending on if you believe Newton or Einstein). And the universal gravitational constant is a whole other kettle of fish. But that's not really what you meant. I know you meant "the downward acceleration of an object due to Earth's gravity" (it obviously isn't universal since other planets will have different masses). Don't take this the wrong way - I'm just trying to be helpful. That little thing just really distracted me from the point of article.
The bible defines faith as "the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities, though not beheld."
In other words, it is the belief that what one wants to have as reality is reality, even if you can't see it. For example, JWs refer to Jesus' parousia beginning in 1914, when Jehovah made him the King of his invisible heavenly government. The WTS says this is true, and JWs believe it to be true, because that's what they have been told is The Truth™. All this without a single shred of evidence.
My medical dictionary defines delusions as "fixed false beliefs that persist despite evidence to the contrary".
Basically "faith" can exist in the complete lack of evidence, just like delusions do. The only difference is that when someone claims that their fixed false beliefs that persist despite evidence to the contrary are the result of religious faith, we have been conditioned to accept this as a valid rationale for holding irrational, non-evidence based beliefs. Anyone else gets referred to a psychiatrist.
I think its about time to seperate "faith" from the agendas of organized religions that have hijacked it to their own ends.
Needless to say, Jehovah's Witnesses leave a trail of parched lives thanks to their idiot ideas.
For me, this is still something I am working out.....
