>> Of course there is also the possiblity that god and satan belong to the same country club and are simply a good cop bad cop sort of couple. There is a novel out there, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, that has a friendship with two angels (albeit not their masters) along those same lines.
Certainly, if indeed this concept was true, I think we could expect that the real author of the Bible would be different from either the God or Satan depicted in it. Basically, the Bible would have just been one of many books meant to trick people into obeying him.
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seattleniceguy
JoinedPosts by seattleniceguy
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How do you know Satan didn't write the Bible?
by seattleniceguy inthe standard christian story on the bible is that god wrote it to let us humans know what's going on, lay down some rules, and tell us how to get saved from our pitiful state.
as everyone knows, i don't buy any portion of this.
but i have a question for the believers.
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seattleniceguy
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How do you know Satan didn't write the Bible?
by seattleniceguy inthe standard christian story on the bible is that god wrote it to let us humans know what's going on, lay down some rules, and tell us how to get saved from our pitiful state.
as everyone knows, i don't buy any portion of this.
but i have a question for the believers.
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seattleniceguy
The standard Christian story on the Bible is that God wrote it to let us humans know what's going on, lay down some rules, and tell us how to get saved from our pitiful state. As everyone knows, I don't buy any portion of this. But I have a question for the believers.
If Satan is out to deceive people, what makes you sure that he didn't write that Bible itself as part of his master plan? I mean, maybe he wrote it, along with all the other holy books, knowing that humans would require a multiplicity of religions - kind of a "flood the marketplace" strategy. Maybe his plan is enjoying amazing success right now, and the only ones that *aren't* being misled are the totally non-religious ones (although, sadly, they aren't aware of Satan's existence).
I'm curious as to how you would respond to this possibility.
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Do any of us really want the truth?
by Qcmbr ini've been reading some essays concerning disagreement online that got me thinking - i won't even attempt to do them justice but to share some ideas that struck home to me.
we spend most of the time here sharing ideas and thoughts often in response to other posts and as arguements to invalidate or re-colour what someone else said.
there is an implicit drive behind each thread to somehow approximate a 'truth' from the many different viewpoints - almost like a collective conscience ('the forum') weighing and then selecting or rejecting the mood of the thread and as we share in the posts we add just a little weight and influence to its direction.
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seattleniceguy
>> miss peach, I didnt mean that in they way of I want cause I dont have it. I meant I have got it because I want it.
I think a person's desire for truth is tightly linked with that person's willingness to change their views. A person who cannot conceive of changing their views - even in the most fundamental ways - does not have a real interest in the truth, because they are not ready to consider the possibility that they are wrong. When someone says to me, "No matter what you say, I will never change my views," I know they have no interest in anything besides maintaining their status quo.
On the other hand, I tend trust the honesty of people who have already changed their views in extraordinary ways, because they have already demonstrated that they are able to divorce their views from their sense of self and make changes if need be.
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seattleniceguy
I think a world without religion would be great too!
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National Geographic "The Search For Adam"
by SWALKER inanyone see the special on national geographic, "the search for adam"?
i found it interesting that he is able to trace so many people by using the y chromosone.
here is the link:.
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seattleniceguy
Nate,
You're referring to Mitochondrial Eve, and the show is (it sounds like) referring to Y-chromosome Adam. These names are unfortunate, because they mislead about the significance of these two individuals.
Mitochondrial Eve is simply a title for our most recent common female ancestor by matrilineal descent. She was definitely not married to Y-chromosome Adam. Also, depending on where you are in the stream of time, M.E. is a title carried by a different person. For example, when the current M.E. was alive, someone else was M.E.
A good way to understand Mitochondrial Eve is to consider the most recent common female ancestor between you and a cousin on your mother's side. If you think about the family tree, you should see that your most recent common female ancestor by matrilineal descent would be your mother's mother. Further, if you tried to find the most recent MALE ancestor by patrilineal descent, you would most definitely *not* wind up at your grandfather. It would be some other (probably unknown) man way, way back, who was no relation whatsoever to your Mitochondrial Eve. Also,
The concept that all humans alive today have a common female ancestor is an inescapable *logical* conclusion. The discovery of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed only from the mother, and which undergoes very little change from generation to generation, simply allowed us to estimate when the most recent common female ancestor of all humans alive today lived. However, it should be noted that the concept has nothing to do with the Biblical concept of Eve, and it does not imply that she was the "first" human or any such thing. The concept is not at odds in any way with evolution - in fact, it aids us substantially in quantifying branching events. It has also been used to determine the degree of relatedness between humans and Neandertals. (See my article on this topic: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/88271/1.ashx)
A similar discovery allowed us to trace patrilineal descent and thus calculate when our most recent common male ancestor lived. He lived much more recently, and, of course, had nothing to do with Mito Eve.
Here's a good link about Mito Eve:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/mitoeve.html
Hope that helps!
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AWAKE! JANUARY 2006, To Our Readers.
by Blueblades infor those who have not yet seen this issue.
called "the golden age" in 1919, the name was changed to "consolation" in1937, and to "awake!
" in 1946. beginning with this issue, the format of awake!
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seattleniceguy
>> While the answers to the section "From This Issue" will be found throughout the magazine, the answers to most of the other questions will appear on a designated page in the same issue, where they will be printed upside down.
Awake! has finally attained the lofty educational level of the cereal box.
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What has "Unintelligent Design" been observed to make?
by hooberus inmillions of complex objects (cameras, adjustable wrenches, etc.
) have been seen to come into existence under the direction/workmanship of intelligent designers.
however, despite the often even greater complexity of biologiocal systems* we are often told that only unintelligent processes can be considered as "scientific explanations" for the origin of these structures.
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seattleniceguy
I should agree with Narkissos that the opposite of Intelligent Design is not necessarily "unintelligent design," but I think there is a simple and common example that should satisfy the original question.
Viruses are commonly observed to develop resistance to drugs. You could legitimately see the drug resistance as a new feature in the virus. No one sat down and devised a new version of the virus that would be drug resistance. The new feature arose as a natural result of evolutionary principles.
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Why God Cannot Have Used Evolution....
by Shining One inhere is an article from the 'stand to reason' ministry.
this is why i evolution and creation are incompatible.
designed by chance .
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seattleniceguy
Hi all,
Looks like I've been missing a lively debate. I'm out the door right now, but I just wanted to post the link to my thread on randomness:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/87711/1.ashx
The long and short of it is: Randomness is NOT necessary for evolution to function. In the actual universe, true randomness probably exists, and that's okay too. But evolution would work just fine even in a totally mechanistic, non-random universe.
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Once life is discovered outside outside the realm of earth...
by undercover inhow will it affect you?.
aa's thread on scientist's "creating" life got me to thinking about how people would react if life was discovered on other planets or solar systems.
the movie "contact" explored that some along with how faith and science combat but yet complement each other.. would life on other planets pretty much destroy much of earth's religious myths?
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seattleniceguy
LOL @ AuldSoul!
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Once life is discovered outside outside the realm of earth...
by undercover inhow will it affect you?.
aa's thread on scientist's "creating" life got me to thinking about how people would react if life was discovered on other planets or solar systems.
the movie "contact" explored that some along with how faith and science combat but yet complement each other.. would life on other planets pretty much destroy much of earth's religious myths?
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seattleniceguy
defd,
This is my take on it. Might sound crazy, but I do believe that life is elsewhere in the universe. I believe that "aliens" are demons. Crazy?
I myself used to have the exact same view. Seems reasonable, right? Those crazy-ass gray guys with huge heads and egg-shaped eyes? Demons, if ever I saw a demon!
As a JW, you try to make sense of the world from a JW viewpoint. JWs have a predisposition to believe "alternative" explanations, but what to do about these alien reports? Ah, the natural way to fit them is to see them as demons. Right? They mess with humans, doing weird experiments, probably deriving some kind of demonic, sadistic pleasure from it all. It's a WT article waiting to be written.
The reality is that the UFO crowd is just another cult, as crazy as the Witnesses. It's ironic in a way that they happen to dovetail at this place, as the two groups would probably have absolutely nothing in common otherwise. But such is the nature of fringe worldviews.
Peace,
SNGEdited to correct retarded formatting caused by posting in Opera.