If he existed and really cared about mankind, how could he let so much hurt exist?
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DON'T YOU ASK THAT QUESTION NOW
As Big Mama used to say :"Now baby, don't you "BE" questioning the ways of the "LARD"
Does God still exist for you?
by nakedmvistar 47 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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JT
one poster states:
I see so many young men who seem to have no concept of spirituality or God, they are so imprisoned by ego and self-concern and materialism, they are truly pitiful.
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but let's change this a tab:
I see so many young men who ARE EXECUTIVES AT PLACES LIKE ENRON, AURTHUR ANDERSEN, ETC seem to have "A" concept of spirituality or God, they are so imprisoned by ego and self-concern and materialism, they are truly pitiful.
SEE IT ACTUALLY WORKS BOTH WAYS-
SOME of the biggest FRAUD CASES were done by persons who are suppose to be believers- Saving and Loans, Insider traders on Wall street-
so lots of sunday going the church folks are like anyone else- no one group has a market on foolishness
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JT
The way I figure it, if Jesus could feed 5,000 from some loaves and fishes, his pops must be able to do a lot more, eh?
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I'm with you on this one- as someone pointed out - where we are born - usa , africa, Iran,
will have a direct impact on our veiws of god and religion
i see this "Belief System" thing so clearly where i work-
I work with a Buddist, Muslium, Born Again, Catholic, Hindu and a "Brotha from the Nation of Islam"
and i laugh my A$$ off many days when they get into it over whose "Daddy can kick whose daddy's A$$"
it is so sad- FOR THEY ALL BELIEVE THEY GOT THE RIGHT INSIDE TRACK TO THE DIVINE ONE-
but they all Hate JW's
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NeonMadman
now this is exactly what JW say after you show them 500 examples of wt errors, flip-flops, screwup , etc- yes i know the org is wrong and these things are not supported in the bible, but THIS IS STILL THE TRUTH
and when a jw says that after being shown facts and proof we just shake our heads
yet this poster has in effect said: "Even if you show me that my belief system is wrong i will still hold on to it"
No, not at all. As I said before, you are thinking like a JW. I'm not sure that I even have a "belief system" in the sense that you are using the word. You are assuming that, as with the JW's, everything I believe rises and falls together. If one part is proven false, then the whole thing collapses like a house of cards. That's not the case.
Notice, please, that I did not say that if evolution were proven to me to be 100% true, that I would still believe in direct creation (as in a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2). When I said "that my faith would not be affected at all even if evolution were absolutely proven," I was talking about my overall faith in Christ, not specifically in a literal interpretation of the creation account.
I do believe that the Bible is God's inspired Word. I do not believe that every part of it is necessarily to be taken literally. I certainly don't believe that, someday, a wild beast with seven heads and ten horns is going to rise up out of the sea to rule the world. But that prophecy may provide a useful picture of something that is to occur in the future, not necessarily involving any literal animals.
If you could prove to me, absolutely and completely, that everything that science says about evolution is 100% true, my overall belief that the Bible is God's Word would not need to be shaken by that. It would simply mean that the first several chapters of Genesis would need to be understood, not in a lliteral, but in a figurative way, as an allegory pointing to mankind's sinful state and condition of separation from God. It would not negate the rest of the scriptures. If you could prove that Genesis was completely invalid, would that mean that the book of John also had no value? Isn't that somewhat the same as saying that if a scientific theory is found to be false, all of science falls by the wayside along with it?
Most of us learn stuff all the time; we are constantly adding new information, and, sometimes, falsifying what we thought we knew before. And that's the way it should be. But if one thing you believe is falsified, that does not mean that everything else you believe about everything else needs to be re-examined. Otherwise, you'd never be able to believe in anything, you'd always be starting over. And that's why I don't care for the term "belief system" as you use it. It smacks too much in my mind as the all-or-nothing mentality characteristic of the JW's and other cults.
Edited by - NeonMadman on 19 September 2002 9:43:29
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Liberty
Hello again Neon,
I was very happy to hear that you are in college and on your way to a good job. Living well is the best revenge against the Watch Tower Cult so I'm glad that you didn't let them stop you from getting a "worldly" education. I appreciate the reasonable tone in the responses you have given and I hope I haven't come off sounding like too much of a know-it-all. I've been out (of the WTS) for a long time now so I forget how hard it is to let go of all our beliefs at once. I held on to many Christian concepts for years so your points are perfectly understandable.
I had many questions that bothered me about my beliefs so I studied the Bible and science looking for answers and my only point in posting is to let others benifit from what I've found so you won't waste as much of your life (or money in college) as I did. My questions prompted me to take many hours of science classes not required for my degree. I really enjoyed taking these classes even though it put me way behind in getting my degree and cost me lots of money but I wouldn't recommend this path unless you are obsessesd with knowing the real truth about the Bible and science and are bull-headed about seeing the evidence for yourself and not trusting what others tell you.
Noah's Flood is one of the more disturbing stories in the Bible for me even as a child growing up as a JW. I kept aquariums, both fresh and salt water, so I knew the biological implications of flooding the planet as described in the Bible. I could not reconcile for myself how there could still be delicate coral reef communities left throughout the world if they had been covered by billions of gallons of fresh water and silt just a few thousand years ago. I knew from experiance that nearly all sea life would have been driven into extinction by the Flood so how could the oceans be so full of this life today? If the Flood's waters were salty then the same problem would exist for all the fresh water communities still alive today? These problems are really unsolvable, especially if there was no evolution as is taught by the Watch Tower Society. It is clear that the reef, lake, and river communities have been stable for tens of thousands of years leaving no room for a Noah and his Flood. This Flood also creates numerous problems for the distribution of land plants and animals throughout the isolated far corners of the Earth which are now seperated by vast oceans in the post Flood era. How did plants and animals get from a central distribution area (the Ark) across the oceans to repopulate the earth in just a few thousand years? Why did Australia have such unique life forms found nowhere else if it was populated from the same Ark survivor's as everywhere else? The questions go on and on and the Bible does not answer them. All the physical evidence clearly says that a Global Flood never happened even in the distant past, let alone, just a few thousand years ago as the Bibles own internal chronology demands.
This is just one of many nonsensical Bible stories which makes me seriously wonder about the truthfulness of the whole book. How can Christ and his sacrifice be real if the surrounding stories have proven to be untrue? If there was no original sin why is Christ even necessary? If God is real why does only a fraction of the World's population have His favor through being Choosen people or in a culture where a Holy inspiration is given? Why not give everyone the same holy book at the same time? The Bible presents a God who is racist, unfair, violent, illogical, inconsistant, wasteful, and in short, has every human flaw. So much of it makes so little sense and I haven't even gotten into the Creation, Cain and Able, the Tower of Babel, Job, etc. You say you're taking a logic class so stop and apply what you've learned to the Bible. Is it logical? Does its claims fit reality and the evidence we can see all around us? Look objectively at the Bible just as you would the Koran or the Book Of Mormon. Why is the Bible true and the others false? Does the Bible really make more sense than the Book Of Morman when seen without your cultural bias? You must answer these questions yourself. Good luck in your own search for truth.
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Crazy151drinker
Yes
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IronGland
no
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bigfloppydog
I no longer believe in organized religion, but God to me is within my heart. I will most likely never belong to any organized religion, because of the JW Org.