Witness..?

[ShagginJet]

Is anyone here a jehovah's witness? Just looking for a brief rundown of the religion, beliefes, etc...

[ebpda9]

nah, i avoid that regiously

[pdiggitydogg]

and I just avoid religion

[VR4_Craver]

aetheist here

[GT40FIED]

I'm not one (I'm not anything really), but I have a brief understanding of their religion. They believe that "the word" should be spread as it was according to the bible...mostly by word of mouth. This is why they knock on your door to ry and snag you. They think that's how it was done in biblical times. They also believe that there is only a certain amount of space in a special section of heaven that is closer to god and that being a jehovahs witness will give them a better shot of getting there. Also, they don't celebrate holidays the same way most other people do since they tend to see it as taking away from go'ds importance (by making yourself or somone else that important).

Originally posted by pdiggitydogg
and I just avoid religion

You are non-religion right?

[pdiggitydogg]

basically
I used to just think it was boring
but now its something else
(I'll leave it at that, I dont want to start something)

[drdingo21]

Im not completly aetheist, but i also belive i don't have to go a building and pray for forgivness, and give money to child molseting preachers (sorry couldn't help it), to belive in god.

Im sure theres something, just dunno what.

[ChrisCantSkate]

i beleive if you beleive in god and do what you feel is right your ok. trying to push your belifes on someone else isnt the right thing to do IMO. just because you think your religion is right dosnt mean everyones is wrong.

[pdiggitydogg]

^which is exactly what my dad does
He's the kind of guy to carry around "god pamphlets" and hands them out at restaurants and other places.
That kind of pushiness is one of the things that I cant stand about religion.
Christianity is notorious for it, along with the threats of eternal burning and pain.

Did you guys know that japan kicked out the christians?

[mylittlecivic]

Originally posted by GT40FIED
I'm not one (I'm not anything really), but I have a brief understanding of their religion. They believe that "the word" should be spread as it was according to the bible...mostly by word of mouth. This is why they knock on your door to ry and snag you. They think that's how it was done in biblical times. They also believe that there is only a certain amount of space in a special section of heaven that is closer to god and that being a jehovahs witness will give them a better shot of getting there. Also, they don't celebrate holidays the same way most other people do since they tend to see it as taking away from go'ds importance (by making yourself or somone else that important).

you've got that a little screwed up

[ShagginJet]

^^ Clear you PM's lil civ.... let me know when you're done.

[mylittlecivic]

k sorry it should work now

[AzCivic]

Originally posted by pdiggitydogg
^which is exactly what my dad does
He's the kind of guy to carry around "god pamphlets" and hands them out at restaurants and other places.
That kind of pushiness is one of the things that I cant stand about religion.
Christianity is notorious for it, along with the threats of eternal burning and pain.

Did you guys know that japan kicked out the christians?

you dont have to be pushy to be a christian

[AzCivic]

my thought on religion is this: take a look around, a GOOD look around, learn how stuff in nature works I mean really learn how it works and ask yourself "could all this be a mere coincidence? what are the chances that all this stuff came together just right in order for me to be here right now?"
i think some mathmatician or physicist said that the chances of things coming together just right to form life are the same as having a tornado rip through a pile of bricks and forming a house.


so i think there's definitly a god, I like the REAL christian teachings(you know the ones actually in the bible) so thats what I am.

[GT40FIED]

My apologies Anna...that's what I've been told by a Witness preacher (or whatever the pastors go by in that sect). I find it hard to listen to those who I find to be insane.

AZ...I can agree with that to a certain extent. I just don't think the modern ideas of what christianity (especially catholosism) is are in any way up to date. I think the reason people are turning away from organized religion is it's fundamental inability to change with the times. Take the whole recent scandal with priests and sexual molestation...they all but brushed it off in a general sense. Sure, they made statements that sound like they want to effect change, but their doctorines are all but meaningless. My own father left the catholic priesthood and married my mother after he found the church to be sorely lacking in modern ideas. As the saying goes, spirituality is when I believe what I want to believe...religion is when I try to push those beliefs on you. As for everything coming together the way it has...I don't know that 4 billion years is too little time to have gotten where we are. But hey...that's me.

[pdiggitydogg]

I know that the chances of life forming on a desolate rock by mere chance is ultra small...but think about how long it took.
All it needed was 1 tiny asteroid w/ some frozen bacteria to crash in a warm puddle to start life.

[ShagginJet]

I wonder if someone can pick up religion later in life and still have it have the meaning that it's supose to. I mean if you have two people, one a raised witness and one who's adopted it later in life, isn't the religion itself going to have a different meaning. The person who adopts it later in life can't have the same feelings/meaning/thoughts about that religion as the person who's been raised on it.....

right?

[mylittlecivic]

Thats not nessicarly true, one raised in it has to have seen other objectives before deciding to become one,it's a choice you have to make yourself.

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by ShagginJet
I wonder if someone can pick up religion later in life and still have it have the meaning that it's supose to. I mean if you have two people, one a raised witness and one who's adopted it later in life, isn't the religion itself going to have a different meaning. The person who adopts it later in life can't have the same feelings/meaning/thoughts about that religion as the person who's been raised on it.....

right?

Problem with that is that people who find it later in life usually find it for the wrong reasons and go way overboard. I have an aunt who used to be an alcoholic...and I mean HARDCORE alcoholic for like 10 or 15 years. When I was about 10 or so she cleaned up and "found god". Now she's waaaay too into it. By that I mean she's lost sight of the teachings that religion is supposed to inspire and has gone off into this totally right wing frenzy. Can't even have a family get together withouther quoting something from the bible and it usually has to do with some sort of sin. I think there should be an age limit on this kind of thing.

[mylittlecivic]

i know what you mean. theres alot of religions who try to pull people in to get their money, or other things its sick

[pdiggitydogg]

Thats exactly what happened to my father.
All his life he never went to church, never read the bible, never did anything that could even remotely be called religious. Then one day he did a complete 180 and started going to church and proclaiming god, etc.
It was pretty wierd when it happened.

[ChrisCantSkate]

Originally posted by pdiggitydogg
Thats exactly what happened to my father.
All his life he never went to church, never read the bible, never did anything that could even remotely be called religious. Then one day he did a complete 180 and started going to church and proclaiming god, etc.
It was pretty wierd when it happened.

see i dont wana be like that. i dont think going super religous is the answer to happiness. its all about leading a good life from the start, and when you do fuck up, cause you know you will sooner or later, you deal with that, not put it behind you and try to cover it up with pushing beliefs on people.

[AzCivic]

Originally posted by GT40FIED

AZ...I can agree with that to a certain extent. I just don't think the modern ideas of what christianity (especially catholosism) is are in any way up to date. I think the reason people are turning away from organized religion is it's fundamental inability to change with the times. Take the whole recent scandal with priests and sexual molestation...they all but brushed it off in a general sense. Sure, they made statements that sound like they want to effect change, but their doctorines are all but meaningless. My own father left the catholic priesthood and married my mother after he found the church to be sorely lacking in modern ideas. As the saying goes, spirituality is when I believe what I want to believe...religion is when I try to push those beliefs on you. As for everything coming together the way it has...I don't know that 4 billion years is too little time to have gotten where we are. But hey...that's me.

I dont even wanna talk about catholosism, to me that portion of christianity has been corupt since damn near the beginning.

[AzCivic]

Originally posted by pdiggitydogg
I know that the chances of life forming on a desolate rock by mere chance is ultra small...but think about how long it took.
All it needed was 1 tiny asteroid w/ some frozen bacteria to crash in a warm puddle to start life.

but what about the chances of that bacteria coming about in the first place? i mean you've probably studied cells in biology, now how could all that little crap come together just right, each piece knowing what to do to stay alive and replicate. and thats just a tiny little cell.

[pdiggitydogg]

with all the tiny meteorites and asteroids that would hit earth w/o an atmosphere, it could be very easy.
LONG ago, earth didnt have one, so things did land on the surface. All it would take is one out of billions of hits to have one take hold and start to survive.
It wouldve had to have been bacteria that were photosynthetic as well, but even if it wasnt, over a long enough period of time (not long in the terms of duplicating bacteria) it could change and adapt.

The fact that long enough ago there wasnt an atmosphere, leaves anything open to chance.

On a basic level, all cells duplicate the same way...that isnt a coincidence.
And essentially, all animals are the same (vertabrates i mean)
Look at organ systems and even the layout of the skeleton...its all very similar.

[AzCivic]

yeah i know the earth supposedly didnt have an atmosphere(can you really say thats a fact??)...but where did that bacteria you talk of come from??? from another planet that was bombarded with asteroids that contained bacteria, and those asteroids came from another planet whose life came from some asteroids.....my point is that it had to start somewhere.

[pdiggitydogg]

Id really say that earth not having an atmosphere is a fact, yes.
It had to be created...not like it just was there and the atmosphere attracted the earth to form.
Earth's gravity attracted objects which eventually, formed the gasses that surround the planet (granted, this is a short explanation, but you get the idea.

Oh, I agree that life had to start somewhere. I was just saying on earth.

All it takes is a bunch of atoms in the right combination to make something alive. Cell's are systems within themseves...each having groups of organelles...kinda like a city or planet. Go down far enough and you'll see the atom structures. Everything living is just a pump. Water and nutrients in...shit out.

Separate side note (kinda):
Most people believe that our own mitochondria were once a separate organism from cells. I forget the reasoning now... Anyways, the 2 cells merged and thus a symbiant pair. Eventually it just became standard.

Life on earth could have formed that way as well. No alien bacteria, I mean.

But you know...me saying all this doenst mean Im trying to disprove the existance of (a) god(s).

[AzCivic]

i guess we'll never know.

now do me a favor and make the rain here go away!

[pdiggitydogg]

HocusPocus!
There

In less than 24hrs the rain will disappear.
It takes some time for my magic to work its way across the country, ya know

[AzCivic]

aaahahahahahhaah

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by AzCivic
yeah i know the earth supposedly didnt have an atmosphere(can you really say thats a fact??)...but where did that bacteria you talk of come from??? from another planet that was bombarded with asteroids that contained bacteria, and those asteroids came from another planet whose life came from some asteroids.....my point is that it had to start somewhere.

This is the very essence of what makes virtually all organized religions so wonderfully exploitative...nobody knows nor will they ever know where we came from. Creationists will argue that something can't come from nothing. I'll go along with that, but if that's the case then where did "god" come from? He couldn't have always been and he couldn't have emerged from nothing. What a total bitch, huh? It's a total catch 22. Both of the arguements are fairly self contradictory. But for those who are religious you can't question these things or you don't have faith. Almost by definition, faith is believing without proof and not questioning that belief. If you question it, you don't really have faith. This is why I exclude myself from all organized religions...I like to question everything that I don't have direct and irrefutable proof of. I also love how people absolutely refuse to make a compromise. No one will ever say that, while god may have created the Earth and maybe even life on it, evolution is still possible. No offense to those with faith, but in my opinion organized religion is a complete joke. Believe what you believe and know that it's right...don't have someone read to you from a book that's thousands of years old and tell you THAT'S what's right. Think for yourselves and organized religion will cease to exist.