Christians Please Explain

by AK - Jeff 134 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  N.drew

  I am getting the message from some posters that believers believe because we need to. There is something about us that is lacking so we need to fill the empty space with believing. But I believe because I wish to return the love that was and is shown, given. God is my friend, a better friend than all the friends I ever had, all the best of them put together. Do you know when I'm sad, my friends and family do not know? God knows. And there have been many, many times that I have been helped by the spirit. Maybe some people are too dull, selfish or whatever to notice when heaven helps. Jesus makes my life full, interesting, a whole lot safer, and always worth living and loving.

  I do not need anyone to respond to the love I show because I believe God is pleased when I reflect it. It is a nice surprise and makes it doubly special when people notice me but what is important and never a waste of time to be storing up treasure in heaven.

  I can not preach 'believe" because I do not know what a person has, or doesn't have and I do not know what they suffer for now. There were times when I doubted God loved me. You might be at the place now. But i never gave up because doing so is rude. I try not to be rude. (although I think it is sometimes very funny when they are rude). Sorry!
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  A hardworking Christian plows fields all day. His wife chopped and baked and cooked all day. They thanked God for the meal that they worked for. Later, their daughter becomes sick and needs an operation. They consult with their doctor and examine the qualifications of the surgeon and learn all about what that surgeon will do. When she comes out of the operating room and says their daughter's surgery went well, they say they knew it would because they prayed for the surgeon, who happened to be an atheist.

  Sometimes, when people "switch sides," they see where they came from. Most everyone here sees how wrong it was to be a JW and has "switched sides." We understand their outspokenness when it comes to that (unless they pepperspray old JW's on their porch). If someone goes a bit further in their examination of their former beliefs and sees the reasons they should abandon the Bible and the made-up God of Christianity, we should also be able to see why they are outspoken on that.
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  N.drew

  It makes for good conversation
• 

  MrDarkKnight

  Interesting thread. I want to believe in a higher power. But I still see no evidence of one outside of my belief (I have no real evidence as per the scientific method) in intelligent design. Why does he not show himself? Why give us cryptic books that only self-appointed, selected humans can understand? Why point us to charismatic individuals who are now dead? Why? Why? Why? Why?

  Very, Very frustrating. Can you tell?
• 

  N.drew

  Please explain how the parts of an eye to see came together. Should I not use that illustration? (it was in Awake). When a machine is designed and put together the parts work only because of the design. The parts themselves do nothing to accomplish what the machine can do. The eye is a good example because it has so many parts. Think of any biological function, it can function with it's parts. How do the right parts know the other right parts without a design?

  You say it evolved, but then evoluton can only work backwards.

  Does anyone else wonder if time goes backward? We believe it is going forward. But is it going backward?
• 

  still thinking

  ooohhh....interesting thought n.drew
• 

  sizemik

  sizemik....you may have a point....maybe we do need to choose our god wisely...just a thought

  I'm glad you saw it as a serious point still thinking . . .

  I mean it seriously. I don't see any evidence for any of the currently held concepts of God . . . does that make me an Atheist? I also don't discount the possibility that a superior first cause might exist . . . what am I now? . . . Agnostic? I don't like labels and none really describes my "beliefs" because I don't really have one on God.

  What I don't believe defines me I guess . . . which is strangely opposite to those with a firmly held religious belief.

  What I don't believe . . . is that there is a higher power responsible for the way things are . . . with malevolence, benevolence, all knowing, all powerful. I don't believe in a God that rewards and punishes while presiding over this randomness. It can no longer make the slightest bit of sense to me on the most basic level. It has all the hallmarks of a human concept . . . inspired by human needs. Maybe it's fear of the unknown, fear of death, survival, the need to dominate, personal comfort, whatever.

  What I do know . . . if a God reveals himself in some way . . . through physical evidence or miraculous revelation (even a voice from within would do it if I was confident of my sanity) . . . and that God made sense to me in the context of the world around me . . . I would gladly choose him.

  poopsie's post resonates with me . . . and OTWO makes sense in his second paragraph in particular.

  But from my present standpoint . . . AK Jeffs OP is something I feel commonality with. Religious belief today in all it's forms is retardant . . . not specifically mentally . . . but progressively. A large majority of the human race has given up on the search for spiritual truth because they feel they've found it . . . and I would rather we all collectively reserved belief for something better . . . and kept looking and testing.

  I certainly don't need to imagine that God is pleased or displeased with how I live my life in order to live, love and do as much good as I can . . . I find that reward personally within, and find morality a very simple concept . . . a human one.
• 

  MrDarkKnight

  @N. Drew...I feel you. As a an engineer I just can't believe that there is a not a designer responsible for our existence! I just struggle with why he does not communicate with us is a direct way.
• 

  NewChapter

  There were times when I doubted God loved me. You might be at the place now. But i never gave up because doing so is rude. I try not to be rude. (although I think it is sometimes very funny when they are rude). Sorry!

  N Drew, I wish you wouldn't make the mistake of saying that nonbelievers maybe believe that God does not love them. They (we) don't believe in a god, so feeling unloved doesn't even come up in our thinking. Rude? That's an odd sentiment. Do you fnd us rude? Perhaps children think you are rude for no longer believing in Santa (you don't, right?). That's a strange accusation.

  What do you mean helped in the spirit? Do you mean you suffered sadness, despair or fear, and then you felt better and comforted? Then how do you explain that nonbelievers also go through phases of despair and well-being? Could there be another explanation for the comfort you feel? And how do you distinguish between a god healing you and a person simply coming to grips with their emotions and feeling better? Because you say so--or feel it---or just "know" it? Does that invalidate the emotional healing of nonbelievers?

  The fact is, the outcome is the same. You felt bad, you feel better, you credit a god. I felt bad, I felt better, I credit cognitive adjustment.

  NC
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  N.drew

  I love you for wanting to understand. OK! No, I tend to wander when I communicate. The rudeness I speak of has to do with communicating rudeness, not belief. I think giving up for me is rude. I don't know what is rude for you, but it has to be obvious that forum breeds rude stuff, that's what I was saying. Have you been to the "last word" thread? Some threads I don't view either. So... anyway.

  The relief that I have experienced many times came from external phenomenon which I attribute, not to my own power, of course, but to a benovolence that I shall call Jehovah (because I want to) so I might say "thank you". Can't thank myself. Can't thank you. Some people think I can thank the doctor, and some I have liked, but most . So I love to thank Jesus and worship Jehovah, maybe HE has some more goodies for me. So I choose to pay attention, just in case...

  Was there another question?