inkling

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Posts by inkling

• 
  25

  JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

  exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

  quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

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  inkling

  "The foundation for superstitious fear.... thus crumbles."
  
  "On learning the good news she realized that she could be opening herself up to demon influence by the presence of these false religious objects"

  Yeah... words fail me.

  [inkling]
• 
  25

  JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

  exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

  quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

  1. 
  2. 
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  inkling

  It's a common misconception amongst Christians that Jews believe in demonic entities the same way Christians do. For the most part, Jews do not believe in a literal 'Satan the Devil' in the same way Christians do. While conceding that there could be dark forces out there, they do not take the figure that was introduced in the Garden of Eden or in the story of Job as being literal.

  Yeah, I guess this is somewhat new to me, and I am glad it came up.
  
  But didn't the Jews of the Bible take those things literally? Jesus sure did!
  (and I seem to recall him being somewhat Jewish...) And, he cast demons out
  of Jews of his time, who clearly had no problem believing epilepsy was caused
  by demonic possession...
  
  So why did the Jews "grow out" of this foolishness, but most Christians have yet to?

  [inkling]
• 
  150

  Article: The Atheist's Dilemma

  by BurnTheShips in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  campos: the atheist's dilemmaby paul camposwhy is stanley fish so much smarter than richard dawkins?

  that question occurred to me last week, while attending a lecture at which fish, the well-known literary and legal theorist, did the thing he always does, which is to make the following point over and over again:.

  "no believer will find his faith shaken by evidence that is evidence only in the light of assumptions he does not share and considers flatly wrong.".

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  inkling

  That's when God would become god. He would get transferred from the religious to the secular (scientific) realm and lose his sacral character.

  This may be true... however, it has happened many times before. The sun used to be god.
  Its warmth was a miracle, explainable only via supernatural means, becuase something
  that bright "naturally" was inconceivable.
  
  Now, has the sun lost its "sacral character"? Yeah, I suppose in a way. That dosn't stop
  it from feeling just as profound (to me) when it breaks through the clouds after a vicious
  rainstorm, or any less meaningful when it warms the life on the forest floor.
  
  My point is that just because we "figure something out" doesn't change its intrinsic value,
  if it has any.

  (when we "figured out" why crops grow, growing crops kept their value, while "human sacrifice"
  was thankfully revealed to HAVE no intrinsic value. How many people are sad that human
  sacrifice has "lost its sacral nature"?)

  If there IS a god, and he becomes known scientifically, then god ceases to supernatural.

  Or at very least, no more "outside of nature" than whatever was "outside" the universe
  before the big bang, or on the "other side" of a black hole. This would not make god any
  less profound. Or any less valuable.

  Or even any less mysterious... I mean, even as we study them, things like black holes
  and quantum machanics simply refuse to allow us to truly wrap our heads around
  their meaning. And yet, they clearly "exist" scientifically. Nature seems to have an
  endless supply of the weird and mysterious, but even though it baffles us, the
  weirdness can still be measured or at least demonstrated in some way.
  
  That is god's problem. He is wierd and ineffable and ALSO cannot be measured or
  experienced in any objective way, unlike black holes.
  
  On the contrary, having settled the issue of his existence, humans could get down to
  the business of "developing a relationship" with their creator without the nagging feeling
  that maybe they are just talking to themselves.

  [inkling]
• 
  150

  Article: The Atheist's Dilemma

  by BurnTheShips in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  campos: the atheist's dilemmaby paul camposwhy is stanley fish so much smarter than richard dawkins?

  that question occurred to me last week, while attending a lecture at which fish, the well-known literary and legal theorist, did the thing he always does, which is to make the following point over and over again:.

  "no believer will find his faith shaken by evidence that is evidence only in the light of assumptions he does not share and considers flatly wrong.".

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  2. 
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  inkling

  It is the same situation with the possibility of extraterrestial life.

  This strikes me as an important point, because it seems like the majority of scientists have
  no pre-existing prejudice against the idea, like it is claimed they do against the idea of god
  or angels.
  
  And yet, the majority of scientists also do not believe UFO/abduction stories, and for the
  very same reason they do not believe angel stories: no good evidence.
  
  What scientist wouldn't want to prove alien contact? Sadly, they have to play by the rules,
  and the rules say that a guy claiming to see something in a corn field is one of the weakest
  types of evidence there is.
  
  And as Sagan pointed out, the evidence for god and angels tends to be of exactly the same
  quality.

  [inkling]
• 
  25

  JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

  exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

  quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

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  inkling

  There's still a lot of superstition among JWs.

  "Isn't is nice that we aren't superstitious like all those other poor religious folks?
  We know that rituals and charms and magic words don't protect us from demons!
  That's just silly and childish. No, we know the only thing that works is throwing
  away all items tainted by garage sales, having a Bible with Jehovah's Name in
  it, and praying out loud. The demons hate that."

  [inkling]
• 
  25

  JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

  exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

  quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

  1. 
  2. 
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  inkling

  I'm also a bit weirded out by the fact there are fewer Jews who believe in demons than Buddists...

  What, are there no demons in the Old Testament?

  [inkling]
• 
  25

  JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

  exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

  quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

  1. 
  2. 
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  inkling

  I can't believe 3 said that they didn't agree lol Must be rebels

  Yeah no kidding... my guess is that they are posters here at JWD

  [inkling]
• 
  25

  JW top a "Belief in demon activity" poll

  by inkling in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a recent article in the new york times on bobby jindal's amateur .

  exorcist experience.... http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/ .

  quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  inkling

  A recent article in the New York Times on Bobby Jindal's amateur
  exorcist experience...
  http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/bobby-jindal-the-exorcist-pro-or-con/

  Quotes a survey that asked people of various religious groups
  if they agree with the statement "Angels and demons are active
  in the world"

  Check this out:

  

  JWs win.
  By a lot.
  
  Woohoo! Isn't is great being number 1 at stuff?

  [inkling]
• 
  12

  Neither atheists nor theists but still moral

  by hamilcarr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all.

  scandanavian nonbelievers, which is not to say atheists

  by peter steinfels .

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  inkling

  Fortunately, I quit atheism

  Did the AA meetings help?

  "Hi. I'm Hamilcarr, and I'm.... an atheist"

  "Hi Hamilcar...."

  ---------------

  One more hit, just ONE MORE! and then I swear, i'm never going to read PZ Myers blog again!
  Really!
  I can quit whenever I want...
• 
  12

  Neither atheists nor theists but still moral

  by hamilcarr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/28beliefs.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all.

  scandanavian nonbelievers, which is not to say atheists

  by peter steinfels .

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  inkling

  Ha, this reminds me of something the Danish exjw author Poul Bregninge (Barbera Anderson's friend)
  said in a recent email:

  (talking about the worldly boyfriend's parents in the movie "To Verdeneer")

  "That the parents is perceived as atheists surprice me a little, because here in Denmark we are
  generally both christians and atheists at the same time, some more or less!!
  
  We have a relaxed relations to this idea."

  [inkling]