Moral responsibility.

by nicolaou 168 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  lriddle80

  I used to wonder, as a jw child, why the bible said "seek me and you may find." I would open the bible and say "here he is, what's with the cryptic message of seeking when I can open the bible and go right to him?"

  I think things in the bible are purposefully ambiguous.

  We are still discussing these things after thousands of years. That says something.

  I had a thought about slavery. If slavery had not been established then Jesus "setting the captives free" wouldn't be a big deal. You have to know slavery to know freedom. You have to know suffering to appreciate "all tears being wiped away"

  He has torn us that he may heal us.

  I can appreciate this coming from a God. If he wants us to come to him no matter what and understands our thoughts he knows we won't stop seeking we won't stop questioning we won't stop searching for the truth. Some will figure it out, some will fall away. I find that hard to accept, but am coming to that realization. I won't give up, though.
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  Fisherman

  but allows children to die or commands followers to kill “innocent” children that just happen to be born in another tribe isn’t all-loving…

  You got to look at the whole picture. For example, You love and protect your daughter but you also let people live and do whatever they want. But if they cross over your fence, you are going to pray to God to stop them. And he means business.
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  DATA-DOG

  If someone came into my yard with the intent to harm my child, I may be forced to act. That is a far cry from me, as a parent ( God ) telling my children ( Israel ) to go into other people’s yards and kill them, and their children, and their servants, and their animals, just because maybe someday they could be a bad influence on my children…

  DD
• 

  Fisherman

  DD,

  They will take your land and your living from you and your children and legally give it to your enemies and their children and throw you in prison with vermin and make you a mockery and a slave So you you pray to God and he takes action. “ Be gentle with the baby bed bugs, God because my blood legally belongs to them.”

  God will wipe out everything that is oppressing you and bless you and your children because he loves you. Or you can have it your way. Don’t pray for relief.
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  smiddy3

  If the world is in this condition, it is entirely god's fault. Or, it is exactly as he wishes for it to be.

  Then again , maybe it`s because GOD does not exist .
  
  
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  smiddy3

  What if you knew the child was going to grow into an incredibly evil person such as Hitler who would go on to kill millions of people? Would it be better to let one child die in order to save millions from death?

  So why did GOD allow this child who did became Hitler survive child birth ?
  
  
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  cofty

  what does anything amount to in the end if there’s no afterlife - DD

  If there is no after life then this life is very precious. It is myth of life after death that allows christians to justify their god's infanticide and Muslims to fly planes into buildings.
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  cofty

  Iriddle - the accusation against you god isn't that he permitted humans to take slaves but that he specifically taught his own people to take slaves; to treat other humans as cahttel.

  Curiously the god and father of Jesus has the morals of an Iron Age goat herder.
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  smiddy3

  Curiously the god and father of Jesus has the morals of an Iron Age goat herder

  And isn`t that about the Time / Age / period when the Bible was written ?
  
  
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  TonusOH

  Sea Breeze: Because of this, we are under a sentence of death. We are not God's children. He has absolutly zero obligation to any of us for anything good at all. Your next breath is a kindness from the Lord.

  This is the part that worries me. Even if I was loyal and obedient and dedicated to god and his will, I am still in this position. It is, as you note, only due to god's willingness to overlook this that I have any hope of an eternal future. But not a happy one, because even at that point, I am still in that position of deserving nothing from god but death. God's position is absolute. Nothing he or I do can change that.

  And we know, from his actions in the book that he inspired, that he is given to abrupt action taken in anger, or 'justice' delivered in a thoroughly brutal fashion. I cannot expect that this would change, as he has lived an eternity and this is who he is. I don't want to spend an eternity wondering when the other shoe will drop, when I live within reach of such a dangerous person.

  Sea Breeze: Atheists just can't come up with a plausible explanation of how they got it.

  I mentioned this in another discussion. If we can reason out why actions are moral or immoral, no god is necessary. For example, if you were asked to explain why murder is wrong, would your only explanation be "because god says it is"? You wouldn't have any other way to explain why murder is wrong? Or theft? Or deception? Do you view these actions as neutral in the absence of god's moral pronouncement?