Video: Dear Believer, Why Do You Believe?

by Believer 63 Replies latest jw experiences

  • MarkofCane
    MarkofCane

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kZRAOXEFPI

    "The God Debate"...another great video.

  • startingover
    startingover

    Believer, thanks for responding to my request. Seems to me that by your comments, you didn't get the point of the video. When you talk about god it seems you are still speaking about the bible god as if that's the only one that exists.

  • Greybeard
    Greybeard

    Spirituality and religion are two different things. I no longer believe in religion but I still do believe in a spiritual world. Here is a Harvard trained brain surgeon who was a atheist. He is now convinced there is more to reality then we are aware of.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpJoM1Yvm-Y

  • rebelfighter
    rebelfighter

    Thank you, thank you, thank you Greybeard!!!

    Hugs, Hugs, Hugs

    You are now my most favorite poster on this forum! Hugs!!

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow
    believer: ..........So that’s my take on the video.

    Wow.

    You missed the whole point of the video. You watched the same thing I did and came away with ways to justify your position rather than question it.

    The video was designed for the viewer to question belief, not to justify belief.

    And, I was disappointed. The video never did address the basic fundamental question:

    "Why do you believe?"

    Why is belief necessary? What is belief?

    Belief is only necessary when there is no proof of something. Proof transforms the unknown into knowledge.

    I value knowledge over belief. Belief requires a person to suspend their disbelief - to exist within a fantastical world. That is okay if I want to read or do something else for entertainment. Fiction books, movies, stories, etc. Sure...I will suspend my disbelief in order to engage with the experience. But, when the book closes or the movie is over, I am still here in the real world. I don't require belief to exist. I know I am here.

  • startingover
    startingover

    Some have a need to believe in god and others don't. Some will take the above video as absolute proof, others won't. After reading this, I don't believe any of it.

    http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a23248/the-prophet/

  • Greybeard
    Greybeard

    The experience he had is not uncommon. Regardless of his past, I have my own reasons to "believe" this is possible. It is not about a "need to believe in God" it is about seeking truth even if that truth leads you to believe there is no God. Thats my opinion and you know what they say...

  • John_Mann
    John_Mann

    You fools! Everyone is a believer.

    The believers just don't believe in the same thing.

    The first choice you have to take is:

    The mind is independent of the matter. Or not.

    Both positions are believes.

  • DJS
    DJS

    What is it with x-tian apologists and confirmation bias. Or "I need $ quick, lots of it. What can I do to get me some."

    Dr. Alexander was quoted in a Newsweek article stating the following regarding his beliefs before his coma:

    "Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief."

    At the time of his coma, Dr. Alexander was facing over $3M in a malpractice lawsuit. His history of malpractice was considerable, as was his history of being terminated, 'fired', from jobs. He also had a history of altering medical records to cover his malpractice.

    Dr. Alexander was terminated from Brigham hospital in 2001, had his surgical privileges terminated by UMass a couple of years after that, and after that he finally got a job at Lynchburg General. Then this, from an Esquire article:

    On June 27, 2007, Alexander performed surgery on a man's disk.

    Instead of fusing the farmer's fifth and sixth vertebrae, he fused his fourth and fifth. He did not realize his mistake at first. When he dictated the operative report, he recorded that the "MRI scan showed significant disk bulge and disk osteophyte complex compression at C5-6 mainly the left side," and then described an operation on those vertebrae, instead of the vertebrae he had actually operated on.

    On July 12, he had his first follow-up appointment with the farmer. He reviewed the postoperative X-rays. He noticed his mistake. He didn't tell his patient. Instead, after his patient went home, he pulled the operative report up on his computer and edited it. Now the report read that the MRI scan had showed disk bulge at both C4-5 and C5-6, and that "we had discussed possible C5-6 as well as C4-5 decompression, finally deciding on C4-5 decompression." Then he simply found every subsequent reference in the report to C5-6 and changed it to C4-5. After he finished editing the report, it read as though he hadn't done anything wrong at all.

    During a third follow-up meeting, in October, Alexander finally confessed. By the end of October he no longer had surgical privileges at the hospital. Soon after his deposition, Alexander's lawyers urge him to settle, and he does. They also urge him to settle another case, stemming from an operation he performed only two weeks after the farmer's, when he again operated on the wrong vertebra of a patient. He settles that case, too. The Virginia Board of Medicine allows him to keep his license, but levies a modest fine and orders him to take continuing education classes in ethics and professionalism. By the time all his pending cases are resolved, Alexander will have settled five malpractice cases in the last ten years. Only one other Virginia-licensed neurosurgeon has settled as many cases in that time period, and none have settled more.

    As regards his coma, he fails to mention that it was a medically induced coma and not due to the infection as he claims. Dr. Laura Potter, the primary and only attending dr. that has commented on Alexander's story makes this statement regarding the day after inducing Alexander's coma:

    "And of course he was still in an induced coma," she says. "On ventilator support. They tried to let him wake up and see what he would do, but he was in exactly the same agitated state. Even if they tried to ease up, a little bit even, on the sedation. In fact, for days, every time they would try to wean his sedation—just thrashing, trying to scream, and grabbing at his tube."

    Fox and Friends (of Jesus) called Alexander an acclaimed neurosurgeon. An infamous one perhaps. An incompetent one for a certain.

  • Greybeard
    Greybeard

    It is not uncommon for neurosurgeon's to be sued for malpractice. They perform the highest risk operations. Maybe "Fox and friends" (of Jesus) have reason to believe he is a acclaimed neurosurgeon. Maybe he saved peoples lives, I don't know so I am not going to talk trash about him. Maybe he made it all up to write a book. If so he is a good actor. For a man who is as educated as he is, that would be a foolish thing to do and a hard act to keep up. Thats just my opinion and you know what they say...



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