nowwhat? wrote: boy am i pissing off alot of people, sorry do'nt want to make enemies,
Wow! Where did that come from? I think the key to the problem lies in that comment, though. I didn't see *any* pissed-off posters leading up to that comment in this thread. Noone was pissed off. And noone was calling you an enemy. The strongest comments were to encourage you to speak your mind, post your comments, but if they are 100% pro-religion and 100% pro-diety, be prepared to back up your comments with clear thoughts.
I think you mistook the concept of 'discussion' for antagonism. Or may you even consider a discussion/expression of different opinions to be verbal assault. But that does not mean that the people particpating in the discussion are pissed off. Nor are they your enemies. They may be your best friends as they help you prove your own faith to yourself.
Atheists are not necessarily evil. Devoutly religious people are not necessarily good. People are people.
My non-/never-a-JW aunt secretly works for an Atheist group in NJ. She travels to conventions with them. She is strongly Christian but does not want family to know that she works for an Atheist agency. (I don't know the name of the group.) But she is SHOCKED at how kind, decent, generous, thoughtful these people are. I thought it was funny that she expected something completely different from them.
For what it's worth, I am not an Atheist. I want to be. But too many things have happened to me personally to believe that there is *nothing* intervening. I don't believe in God, per se. I consider myself Agnostic and I believe that is a bit of a cop-out, a sort of setting it all on the side while I live my life the best I can. Whether I believe in God or not, my life and my actions will not change that drastically.
If there *is* a God, I believe he should have explained himself better and provided clearer instructions to humankind on what he wants of his creatures.
If there *is* a God and if my life is a gift from said God, he will understand that I sacrificed far to much of my life earnestly doing what I thought was pleasing him. But all along I was serving a few old geysers in Brooklyn who run book publishing company and act like a cult.
If there *is* a God and if my life is a gift from said God, then I need to not squander any more of my time or my life trying to figure out what God wants.
I should respect the life I have by doing something with it.
If there is no God, I will still have lived a good life.
Either way, I will confidently go to my grave knowing that I made conscious decision to do the right thing because it was the right thing, not because someone somewhere wrote a book telling me what to believe.
I would also like to say that I usually skip over the doctrinal threads here simply because I do not care about them. In keeping with my philosophy of Agnosticism, I choose to not waste my time with the back-and-forth discussions on the subject.
I hope nowwhat? stays. This board has so many things to offer besides 'feel-good' christian stroking.
It's certainly a better educator than the Awake! magazine. It teaches critical-thinking, which is never a bad thing.
-Aude Sapere (meaning: Dare to Know; Dare to Have Wisdom/Understanding; Dare to Think for Yourself)