Ripping a person’s faith away, a heavy responsibility?

by Seraphim23 207 Replies latest jw friends

  • Witness My Fury
    Witness My Fury

    Jesus allegedly engaged in plenty of "rude" behavior himself or so I read.....

  • still thinking
    still thinking

    "Rude behavior is a violation of human diginity or of the respect due to others."

    In that case...this is what I consider rude. Treating women as second class citizens as most religions do. * Loz and Captain Blithering, wanna join my horseless, invisible posse? Oh what the hell...everyone welcome!

  • *lost*
    *lost*

    mrs jones - what have i presumed about you ?

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    Seraphim23:

    I am terribly, TERRIBLY ofended that you would right what you have here. I feel as though my rocks have been kicked.

    There is a saying you may have heard: "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof."

    For example, if I claim that I have the ability to levitate, are you just going to believe me, or are you going to ask for proof; ask me to show you that I can do what I claim to do?

    What if I told you I practice "soul-travel" and that I could observe you at great distances without leaving my house or using spy equipment. Are you just going to believe me? I had an experience like this with a person who was a follower of Eckankar. I asked the believer if they were willing to demonstrate their ability for me. They declined. Maybe I should have believed anyway, huh?

    You ask us, "What about a realising that any world view can be wrong?"

    Do you mean that ALL world views are wrong, or do you mean that ANY world view EXCEPT YOURS can be wrong?

    I believe there is an objective reality that is NOT wrong, regardless of whether it is accepted or not.

    You tell us, "...I think it is true, that spiritual people preach best when no words are used..." Yes, I would agree, and I believe this is true for "spiritual people" because much of what they believe is irrational. You would like to silence your opponents because your irrationality can not bear scrutiny.

    If you are day-dreaming and thoughtlessly walk out into traffic, should I grab you by the arm and rudely save you, or should I worry that you might take offense that I touched you before we were properly introduced? What if you were leading others who trustingly followed you out into traffic? Should I let them perish because they made the mistake of following you?

    I think you plead for special treatment because your beliefs are weak and undefendable. I will grant you no special treatment when we clash in the arena of ideas. That's life, kiddo! If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

  • mrsjones5
    mrsjones5

    mrs jones - what have i presumed about you ?

    That you and I are similar. I have not made that assumption. I'm not even close to knowing who you are and I'm sure you know even less about me. Also you assumed I ran with a group on this board. Another assumption. There are folks I like on ths board but I've never been one to run with a clique. Cliques have always rubbed me the wrong way especially when involvement requires agreement with anything and everything the clique currently believes. I was never a good born-in jw associate. I didn't like running with the jw crowd and more often than not just wanted to be left alone. You assumed that I'm not being nice to you. Disagreement has nothing to do with being nice or not. It seems to me that some folks believe that one is nice if one believes everything coming out of a person's mouth as truth without the benefit of one determining if it is really truth or at least plausible. That's not being nice, it's being lazy and gullible. I do not like being gullible.

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    Nathan Natas, full marks for satire and I agree with you that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence but you misunderstand my intent. In many ways I agree with atheists in much of what they say but there are nice one and not so nice ones. My dad I’m glad to say is a nice one.

  • cofty
    cofty
    there are nice one and not so nice ones.

    Name names....

  • talesin
    talesin

    Tal...you can join my posse too...*but obviously not if there is horse riding involved*

    Hey, ST, I can ride! Yeah, my body would feel it after all these years, but it would be easier than walking... :P

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    cofty im not playing that game.

  • return of parakeet
    return of parakeet

    "Ripping a person's faith away" -- is that even possible? A die-hard believer will shrug off even the most compelling proof, and those who aren't sure about it don't have their faith wrapped too tightly to begin with -- no ripping needed, not even nudging.

    This kind of believer comes looking for answers. When they show up on this site, they're already on a quest to find out the truth about their own religion (note I do not say "faith"). Their "faith" is already on the downslide, and this site tries to help them find another way.

    Those who do bear a heavy responsibility are those who try to impose their heavy-handed beliefs on others -- prayer in public schools, narrow definitions of "family," insistence that their way is the only way, disturbing people in their own homes with harsh doctrines and divine retribution. Those who are at this moment trying to influence legislation to force people of other faiths or of no faith to bend to their fundamentalist beliefs.

    These are people who have much to answer for.

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