Scholar: The fact of the matter is that not one of these lines of evidence is based on the Bible so this corpus of so-called lines of evidence belongs in the trash can.
Pure cognitive bias.
nicolaou
JoinedPosts by nicolaou
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40
A Modest proposal to solve the 1914 problem
by r51785 inthroughout watchtower history dates have been a problem.
the usual solution for failed prophetic dates has been to kick the can down the road.
this needs to be done with 1914. the generation that will never pass away is now 110 years old and therefore is past its useful life span.
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nicolaou
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God cannot lie
by psyco inthe bible does not say that god does not want to lie, but that he cannot lie or it is impossible for god to lie.
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so, if god cannot lie, for what purpose and why did he create creatures (satan, demons, humans) who can lie?.
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nicolaou
How long does it take to eat a piece of fruit?
Adam and Eve had no expectation of living forever so where's the punishment if the death sentence is imposed at the very end of their lives when they would have died anyway?
Please answer for yourselves, don't hide behind links to someone else's apologetics.
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Where’s the 2023 Service Report?
by slimboyfat inwhat’s keeping them?
this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.
maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….
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nicolaou
Slim', what would you say is the difference between JW's and the other faiths you mentioned as regards growth?
To my mind there is one big fat difference that accounts for the JW's continued growth where other religions are struggling.
Shunning.
If that control mechanism was absent as it is in those other religions (I stand to be corrected) then the exit rate would be so much higher. They'd still be baptising kids of course, I doubt the baptism rate would go down, but the churn rate would shoot even higher than it is already.
The JW's have nothing to be proud of in their continued growth, the price of it is simply too high.
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God cannot lie
by psyco inthe bible does not say that god does not want to lie, but that he cannot lie or it is impossible for god to lie.
.
so, if god cannot lie, for what purpose and why did he create creatures (satan, demons, humans) who can lie?.
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nicolaou
Your pretend conversation is contrived to support the point that you want to make
Well of course it is so why not choose to address my point Jan instead of wasting effort attacking my analogy? The 'pretend conversation' I used may have been clunky but the obvious point I was making is that Adam and Eve did not die as God has said they would but rather they lived on (for centuries if the Bible is to be believed).
God lied.
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Did Jesus have a pre-existence or was he fully human, begotten at his human birth.
by gavindlt inso when was jesus begotten.
was he truly and wholly fully human.
did he exist in two states, part human part god.
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nicolaou
C'mon Slim', I'm perfectly aware of Christian belief as you know full well. I responded to an opening post (which is becoming a bit more common around here) where the supernatural is taken as a viable and sensible proposition, indeed reality has not even been offered as an option in this topic.
Well if reason and rationality can be ignored so blithely I can equally discount the religious nonsense on offer and state the simple facts as they are.
Happy New Year
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Did Jesus have a pre-existence or was he fully human, begotten at his human birth.
by gavindlt inso when was jesus begotten.
was he truly and wholly fully human.
did he exist in two states, part human part god.
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nicolaou
Do you really need to be told how babies are made? Mary had sex with someone and 9 months later Jesus was born. He was a man like any other.
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God cannot lie
by psyco inthe bible does not say that god does not want to lie, but that he cannot lie or it is impossible for god to lie.
.
so, if god cannot lie, for what purpose and why did he create creatures (satan, demons, humans) who can lie?.
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nicolaou
Ah, that old chestnut. You'll be claiming I'm taking things out of context next.
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41
God cannot lie
by psyco inthe bible does not say that god does not want to lie, but that he cannot lie or it is impossible for god to lie.
.
so, if god cannot lie, for what purpose and why did he create creatures (satan, demons, humans) who can lie?.
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nicolaou
It actually gets worse for believers. Not only is God responsible for the first lie recorded in the Bible - which I guess makes him the 'father of the lie' - but the devil, Satan himself, consistently told the truth.
Don't believe me? Reread Genesis.
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God cannot lie
by psyco inthe bible does not say that god does not want to lie, but that he cannot lie or it is impossible for god to lie.
.
so, if god cannot lie, for what purpose and why did he create creatures (satan, demons, humans) who can lie?.
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nicolaou
tenyearsafter: the argument could be made that Adam did die within a creative day. Another view is he died the moment he sinned, because prior to that he had everlasting life. Once he sinned, he was dying. All very metaphorical!
I've heard all these justifications and excuses offered for sure but ultimately they are simply attempts to get around the plain fact that Adam and Eve did not die on the day they ate from the tree as God had said they would.
Think of it this way. You are a teenager whose mother is suffering from a particularly virulent form of cancer, all treatments have failed and you have been told she has less than a month to live. However, there is hope! A pioneering oncologist promises you, that if your mother agrees to an experimental new treatment she positively “will not die.”
You convince your still young but dying mother that this is her best hope. With nothing to lose she agrees to the treatment and lives on for another forty years! She’s with you at your graduation and on your wedding day. She’s a grandmother to your children and is even with you to enjoy a few years of your retirement. Finally, at a fair age in her mid eighties, your mother passes away. Would it be reasonable of you to label as a liar the oncologist who promised you four decades earlier that your mother would “not die”? After all, your aged mother is indeed now dead.
Preposterous isn’t it
At this point the you may be jumping up and down in protest and claiming that my analogy doesn’t fit. ‘But Adam and Eve were perfect’ you say. ‘They would have lived forever if they’d only been obedient.’ Oh really? Look again at the timeline of Genesis, when is everlasting life ever promised to that innocent couple in the Garden of Eden? It isn’t. There is nothing to indicate that Adam and Eve had any hope or knowledge that they might live forever. In fact, it appears to have been something deliberately denied to and kept hidden from them.
God lied.
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41
God cannot lie
by psyco inthe bible does not say that god does not want to lie, but that he cannot lie or it is impossible for god to lie.
.
so, if god cannot lie, for what purpose and why did he create creatures (satan, demons, humans) who can lie?.
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nicolaou
And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 2:16,17 - American Standard Version