bemused

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Posts by bemused

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  55

  A medieval question for you, if you believe in god....

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many ancient believers of god used cognition to 'think' their way from belief to atheism.

  what initially seems a silly question to reason over, can actually destroy a whole theology.. here is a question made famous by 'saint' thomas aquinas, believers in a almighty god with unlimited ability, please have a think about this..... the omnipotence paradox:.

  "could an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?

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  bemused

  Island Man - completely agree. My Catholic schoolteachers fully accepted that omnipotence did not mean that God was totally unbounded, it was more that God could do anything he chose to do. I recall one example they used was that God could not make something that was both entirely white and entirely black, but he would have no reason or desire to do so, having himself created the laws of the universe which made such a thing impossible.

  I'm an atheist too but I don't think arguments of this nature are going to dissuade believers.
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  32

  Can god see into the future?

  by DuvanMuvan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is something that's been bothering me for a while.. if god could see into the future, why has he allowed so many bad things to happen?

  for example in the garden of eden.

  he should have known from the beginning what would happen.if there was even the tiniest chance that they'd eat the fruit then god obviously didn't think it would be benefical to, idk, prevent it from happening?

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  bemused

  End of Mysteries - genuine question (not being rude), where do you get all that stuff from? Did you arrive at it through your own deliberations?
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  175

  Where Do You Think That Plane Is?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what do you think happened?

  ?.

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  bemused

  Skeeter1 - it's an interesting theory but I really can't see it. This is a 777 we're talking about. You can't land that in a jungle clearing, you need a major airfield and you're only going to be able to land there incognito with the backing of a national government, in which case why bother hijacking? - just help yourself to a government plane. Anyway, which government would support this? - as you say, you'd be at major risk of a visit from a few hundred thousand heavily armed Chinese guys.

  Do you think the pilot had back-up? If not, why wouldn't the crew break the door down? Why wouldn't the passengers make phone calls?

  I suspect it's just a terrible accident.
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  44

  Has anyone found comfort/encouragement from "worldly songs"?

  by awakening in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember reading a thread when my exit was starting, about inspirational songs.

  someone posted a link to the "shins" for a fool.

  this was a surprising help to me.

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  bemused

  Not sure it's inspirational but I always smile when I hear the line 'Why don't you all fade away?' in The Who's 'My Generation'. Great advice and also no overlapping nonsense in the title.
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  16

  Wake up and smell the cult! please I'm begging you.

  by sparrowdown in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at times i yearn for those i love that are still "in" to just wake up and smell the cult.. i end up feeling sorry for them yet angry at them at the same time.. i know each person is on their own journey and its a process,.

  but i just wish the process would hurry up already!.

  when will this nightmare end.

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  bemused

  Sparrowdown - for a never-in like me, it was really hard to understand how my relative (a convert many years ago) could ever have been taken in by the WT gibberish. My relative now has born-in children (teenagers) and I was furious when I was told that these bright outgoing youngsters will not be going to college because of the 'worldly dangers'.

  However I've come to the conclusion that, like Clarity says, many Witnesses just don't care about problems with, and changes to, doctrine. They can't countenance the idea that they (and for born-ins, their parents) have been wrong for so long and that they have potentially wasted so much time on falsehoods.

  It seems to me that sites like this do a great job in encouraging those with doubts to leave and supporting those who do. I also hope that it deters some from joining the WT. However it can't do much about the great many Witnesses who are happy to carry on regardless.

  Best wishes.

  Bemused
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  18

  How do Bible believers get around this question.... ??

  by Phizzy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  bible believers of the literalist persuasion like the wt and other weird fundies actually believe the bible stories and chronology and therefore believe that adam and eve were the first humans.. those of us of european ancestry all contain within our dna a percentage of neanderthal dna.

  the neanderthals died out 30,000 years ago.. how will the wt and other bible literalists (an untenable position by the way) get around the facts ?.

  i suppose by simply ignoring the facts, as with the flood of noah and a myriad other things ?.

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  bemused

  Phizzy - It baffles me. I guess they must just ignore anything that conflicts with their myths.

  DD - How do you KNOW that 30,000 years is inaccurate?
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  26

  What is the purpose of Field Service??

  by quellycatface in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the so used to say it was life saving work.i wasn't convinced.it was soul destroying in the area i lived.i didn't want to be so cynical as to think, it was just to gain converts, therefore more money but it certainly looks that way now..

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  bemused

  Training for the world slow walking championship?
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  16

  New Light - Good for goose... gander SOL

  by Zoos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when jws accept new light they must, by default, accept that what they were teaching was false.

  they allow themselves the luxury of error so long as it is in the pursuit of better understanding.. .

  you would think this scenario demands that allowance be made for other religions with false teachings, but alas, no.

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  bemused

  Also, if you accept new light, don't you also have to accept that there may well be more new light in future, ie accept that some of the current doctrines are probably wrong?
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  35

  Progess!

  by Jon Preston in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well my wife asked me loint blank..."do you wanna be a witness anymore?

  " and i told her no.. .

  we then went into 1914 and shunning and 1975 and she said sheswondered many times about it.. anyways she said "so what do we do now?

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  bemused

  Wow, that's great news!

  It does make me wonder though how many more couples are out there, both with doubts but worried about sharing them.
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  64

  I'm not trying to brag, but being an EXJW is awesome!!! Status Update-

  by Coffee House Girl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello jwn!

  i don't get to check in here or comment as often as i would like because i have been working so hard at school...but i just have to share my news in hopes that newbees can see that taking the leap to enroll in higher education is worth it-.

  i am graduating this spring with a bachelor degree in art history, minor anthropology...many people (including nonjw's have given me flack for choosing a "dead end" career path) but since leaving the watchtower organization's group-think mentality and "leaning on my own understanding" instead... i decided to say fuck everyone else's opinion...i am going to pursue my passion to work in a museum as a curator or archivist-.

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  bemused

  Well done! I've always been convinced that you have to study what you enjoy and not what might be most 'useful'.