by pc 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I would like to know why you never had an ounce of spirituality until now?
Was it because it was expected of you? Because you were raised in the truth(tm)? and now you have it because it is not expected of you?
I would like to know because, I was raised in the truth(tm) and have always had spirituality...and a relationship with God....I have always been keen to hypocrisy....just shoved it back cause ya know, we were in the truth(tm).
CodeBlue
What I sometimes find so amazing here, is the degree of putting somone down for thier views or questions.
I'd like to discuss this, because I feel that many new ones coming from a JW-ish background may get that impression. I personally felt no hostilities anywhere in the thread, so the statement above shocked me.
If I may be allowed to speculate about why others feel a tension on this matter, I believe it is because as Witnesses we were trained to wrap our identities up so tightly with our beliefs system, that having a person expound any other opinion felt like a personal attack.
But once we are able to divorce our identity from our belief system, we are able to step back and consider other concepts without it harming us personally. We can listen to various concepts, and if necessary, adjust our own. Different ideas do not mean hostilities. Different ideas are just different ideas.
Just wanted to put that out there.
SNG
there are a lot of folks with built up conceptions about God, that they have rejected and don't want to be tricked again - so they close themselves off and that's it. They seem happy enough; so why would God go where He isn't wanted or needed? they are content to drift into oblivion - in fact the only time they get upset is when a believer states unequivocally that they are going to have a future life. Then the nonbelievers get a bit "why not me?" about it. And they try to assault the faith from a materialist perspective. Which is a bit like hitting fog with a hammer, if you ask me...
As for whether God picks His children. Probably. If you need Him, I have never seen, in my own life, anyone seek Him and be disappointed. I've heard stories on the forum; but you really can't always go by that... you tend to get emotions rather than actual facts or evidence when on this board.
As for bad things - the real genius is that God can make bad things turn into good things; which is a better test of his real power and concern than actually preventing every bad thing. And if he DID prevent a bad thing, how the hell would anyone know? It wouldn't have happened. How many meteors have been tossed aside from hitting earth? How would you know? and how could anyone PROVE that it was God who did it? How many times have you just missed being murdered because of his intervention? How many times have you been prevented from becoming a murderer?
I pray for peace and I get it. I pray for self-control, and I learn how to do it. I prayed to learn to love and to get rid of my anger at the world and over time, I learned how.
As for the bible... It's no better than it should be. God hates idols, especially books. I'd rather find God in a good bowl of spaghetti and some kind friends to share it with.
CZAR
czar,
How many meteors have been tossed aside from hitting earth?
with people like you its no wonder democracy doesn't work too well.
Czar
As for bad things - the real genius is that God can make bad things turn into good things; which is a better test of his real power and concern than actually preventing every bad thing. And if he DID prevent a bad thing, how the hell would anyone know? It wouldn't have happened. How many meteors have been tossed aside from hitting earth? How would you know? and how could anyone PROVE that it was God who did it? How many times have you just missed being murdered because of his intervention? How many times have you been prevented from becoming a murderer?
Well then, i suppose your genious god can handle the sudan problem where muslims are killing christians. Relax folks, god's got it covered. After all, he hasn't missed an asteroid.
S
Belief is not an absolute, it a perceived theory one has settled on and then accepted. Faith solidifies belief in an attempt to make it a quasi absolute in only one place, your mind. If a belief or faith makes you happy, balanced, and a better person in relation to your existence and interaction with other people then that belief is a good thing whether it is based on proven fact or myth. It only becomes a bad thing if you convince yourself it is an absolute and then feel you need to manipulate others to accept your personal belief and it's many, and various qualifying aspects.
When it comes to religion, the problems arises when the many aspects of various religious belief are scrutinized, interpreted, reinterpreted, and then acted on in specific ways in the name of that religion, that harm others who do not share those specific aspects of that religious theory.
Personally, because of my own research, and things that I have found to be proven fact by science, history and archeology, I don't believe the main consensus of quasi absolutes that developed the overall theme written in the bible or any other religion's holy writings. It took me a long time to do that research and even a longer time to eventually slow down in trying to shove it down peoples throats.
In any belief, faith, theory or particular level of understanding of god or anti-god aspects, it is self aware based balance in how you perceive it, then put it into perspective and eventually act on it, that keeps you from becoming an evangelistically pain in the ass. God stuff or anti-god stuff shoved down people throats is going to make anybody choke. It's taken me 21 years to finally be able to say that.
Dave
Gumby
Gumby:
It's a secret club when it appears god only deals spiritually with believers and not the informed.
Well... given that He deals with folks who didn't believe, to make believers out of 'em...
...and that quite a number of "informed" folks claim He deals with therm...
How much special attention from god did the cannanites get from god......and please don't say he gave them rain and sunshine?
Darn, you stole my answer
God supposedly only answers those who put faith in his son.....so I guess I and a few billion others are screwed.
We're kinda drifting off-topic, huh? Additionally, you know fine well that's not my opinion...
As far as god choosing ones...
My point was simply that it's not based on one being "deserving". It's that darned Grace thang again - so leave Mouthy alone, ya hear?
