slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  slimboyfat

  It's atheists who are making the positive claim, if they say that, because God's goodness and almightiness seem irreconcilable to us humans, therefore they are reconcilable in reality, and therefore there must be no Chrustian God.

  What is the basis for making the human mind the measure for what can exist in the universe in this way? Since there are certainly things about reality that humans can't understand, on what basis do atheists claim that a solution to the problem of evil cannot be one of the things we don't understand?

  Notice I am not saying that God necessarily does exist or that there is a solution to the problem of evil. Cofty has claimed that the problem of evil proves that the God of the Bible does not exist. But in order for that "proof" to stand you would need to exclude the possibility that a solution to the problem of evil exists that humans don't or can't understand it.

  I know of no logical way to exclude this possibility, therefore I do not think the God of the Bible has been disproved.
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  10

  Revealing the wt "translators" now that gb are all over the place?

  by carla in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  back when me & my jw were still discussing anything jw related we had numerous discussions about just who the translators of the wt's bible were.

  (i knew, thanks to this site and others like it) the answer was usually something to the effect that they (the wt) didn't want to give 'honor' to mere men by revealing who they were and what their education was.

  now that the gb are all over the place, youtube, etc... why not reveal the 'translators' and their educational background?

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  slimboyfat

  Because they are dead and can't give permission now.
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  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  slimboyfat

  I have read the three posts quoted. I can't find a response to my question. If there is one a simple statement of it would suffice rather than sending to read lots of old posts looking for an answer that isn't there.

  The question is:

  What is the logical basis for ruling out the possibility that there may be a solution to the problem of evil that humans either don't or are not able to understand?

  There are various aspects of reality that the human mind is not able to grasp. We are not equipped to conceptualise more than three dimensions for example, although we theorise that many more exist. This is surely only the tip of the ice berg in terms of what exists in the universe that we are not able to grasp.

  So why should the inability of the human mind to conceive a solution to the problem of evil be proof that no solution exists?

  I am interested to know what an atheist response to this is, beyond mere sneering.
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  4

  Using Pokemon Go to spread apostasy!

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i tried to post this yesterday but the picture must have been too big.

  i don't know how to choose a smaller option.,.

  anyway, for any pokemon go players here: i noticed there is a pokemon go gym in the city right next to the where jws have their trolleys.

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  slimboyfat

  Ach, my wee brother pointed out, renamed Pokemon are only viewed as renamed by yourself in gyms, so it does t work. Doh!
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  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  slimboyfat

  Lots of problems of definition there John.

  When you say "no animal" can conceive infinity you are assuming that humans are not animals, and you are drawing a distinction that needs to be proved rather than simply asserted.
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  2. 
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• 

  slimboyfat

  Like I said above, given suffering in the world, and our inability to reconcile that with a loving God, it seems to me there are two possibilities with respect to an almighty, loving God.

  1. Suffering shows there is no amighty, loving God.

  2. God is both almighty and loving but the human mind is not equipped to understand how this is possible in a world with suffering.

  Can anyone tell me any logical reason why the first must be true and the second cannot be true? I am really interested to know if there is a good atheist reply to this, involving more than simply name calling and rhetoric.
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Then the god of Jesus is a delusion and theism retreats into esoteric bullshit masquerading as sophisticated theology.

  How does that follow? The New Testament describes God as beyond human understanding.

  I suggested there may be a solution to the problem of evil that humans either don't know yet or are not able to understand. Is this really the best reply you've got? "Esoteric bullshit masquerading as sophisticated theology"? That's just rhetoric, not an argument.

  
  

  couldn't this have been a great thread with people discussing what they think reality is and then offering what gives life purpose for them personally

  Yes it could but SBF failed to deliver on his OP. He ended up waffling something vague about some Scottish poet. Then he spent a couple of pages criticising a book he has never read.

  What a strange comment. The poetry was precisely about finding meaning: "larks for no reason but themselves". And I have read some of the book, watched the talk, and read his other books, and given reasons for my objections. When are you going to read a book on pragmatism or postructuralism before dismissing them?

  
  
  
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  John Mann would it have been impossible for God to create a world with free will, but without suffering? If you say that would be impossible it does seem to set a limit on God. As if the universe consists of laws which have priority and constrain God's action. That's one reason I don't like the free will argument.

  For me an answer to problem of evil is that there may be an answer we don't know yet or that we can't understand. There is far too little humility in discussion of these issues. Some atheists seem to have such supreme confidence in the human mind, or their own minds in particular, that if they can't see an answer to the problem of evil that therefore means there is no answer. How arrogant is that?

  We can readily accept that a dog can't do calculus, most of us don't understand quantum mechanics, and our brains are not designed to think in more than three dimensions. Yet when it comes to whether a supreme being might know something about reality and the nature of evil that we don't understand, the idea is dismissed out of hand. Why?
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  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Catholics wrote the Bible?

  Maybe Catholics re-wrote the Bible (St Jerome and others) but without a time machine I don't know how you could credit any Catholic with writing any of the Bible.
• 
  583

  What is the purpose of life?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

  because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

  i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  I agree that it seems impossible for us to reconcile God's almightiness and his goodness in our mind amid a world with so much suffering.

  There are two different logical conclusions we can draw from this:

  1. There is no amighty, loving God.

  2. God is both almighty and loving but the human mind is not equipped to understand how this is possible in a world with suffering.

  There may be an emotional attachment to option 1 for many atheists, but I can think of no logical reason for ruling out option 2.