h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In drama-class I learned that God (and angels, heroes and other supposedly good guys) always entered stage from the left, since Bethlehem was that way. To the right was Gehenna so the Devil, the deamons and generel bad-guys would enter from the right. In the middle of the stage (or more precicely, the stage itself) was somewhere in the Middle-East whose name I have forgotten, but it remained a symbol of where humans lived, and thus where the action of all plays was set.
Other stages used hell (Gehenna) as a lower stage set BENEATH the actuall stage, and heaven (Bethlehem) as the roof of the stage. Many peculiar technical innovations were used to demonstrate how sinners were banished to hell while the Christians were raised up to heaven.
If you pay close attention, you'll notice in older movies that the badguys remarkably often enter the screen from right, while the goodguys do vice-versa.

Just thought I'd mention it God. I guess you still want to be a good guy, allthough I've heard rumors that you've lost a bit of faith in yourself.

Cheer up! You still have the JW's!

JAR, Gods Own Cheerleader

JW's might be doing their best to live up to the Christian values, but the sad thing is that those values are based on a document that hs very little moral value. Jesus says you have to hate your mother and father, brothers and sisters, to follow him. A couple gets struck dead for not giving all their money to Peter's new cult. Jesus kills a fig tree out of sheer petulance. When the foundation of your morality is decayed and outdated, no proper modern life can be built upon it.

I'd have to say that I was deeply disturbed by what I have read and heard recently about the way some JWs (at least in the UK) who transgress rules are treated by their local group of JWs, such as having to attend meetings for years on end, whilst being completely isolated and ignored until they are finally forgiven and accepted as full members again. In one case, I believe a family was treated in this way for not publically disowning their child who had decided to abandon the religion.
The emphasis that was placed on avoiding any friendships with outsiders, would obviously make people highly vulnerable if faced with years of exclusion as a punishment for whatever behaviour the ruling council of the religion decided was the current dogma, and in some ways would seem to be verging on the cult-ish.

Making a parent choose betwen their faith and friends on the one hand, and their child on the other seems to me to be both deeply unpleasant and entirely unnecessary.

SHE is alive. Praise be!

If God can do everything could he create a rock so heavy that she couldn't move it, except that God can do everything so he would be able to move it, except that it was made by God to be so heavy that he couldn't move it etc.

Tell you what God, personally I don't believe in you, but if you frequent H2G2 regularly, could you give it a go because I'd be REALLY impressed.

Hey.
I know that JWs minimise contact with the 'world'...
"Bad associations spoil useful habits"
JWs think that association with other JWs will help them to grow spiritaully and become stronger in their faith. That's why they bond so much within their congregations. But people get the wrong idea because they don't cut themselves off from the rest of the world...they just prefer the company of those like minded...
I have JWs friends as you've probably guessed and I am defending them from all the bad, negative stuff that is said against them...well I trying my hardest...
I don't think parents are forced to split up their families...family life is very important to a Christian...but thier faith is also very important to them...as you probably have seen from the blood issue.
If JWs who have fallen away in the past want to come back to the congregation then they have to prove to themselves and the congregation that this is a serious attempt at coming back.
If they decide they don't want to stay they have every oppotunity to go...but people do come back and go through this process of sitting at the back of the meeetings...the meetings are public and anyone can go and listen if they want...so it is not a cult as the JWs are very public and that's what makes them open to criticism...
JWs are a unique group of people and the religion is quite diiferent from the mainstream Churches...but people are free to leave whenever they want and some choose to go back on their own accord...so I totally disagree that JWs are a cult. That is the wrong view to have and if you got to know these people you would realise that too.
I've waffled on again but in this world it is rare for people to listen to you.
I'll be back tomorrow.
Ta-ra for now.

Im sorry about god, it was ok while it lasted but this is the 21st century. When arguing a point, isnt it best to start on a sound premise. if you start on a premise that god exists it will immediately collapse. Therefore to quote something in the bible to support an argument of the existence of god (re; the guy who mentioned something about loaves and fishes) is an excersize in futility. Wouldnt you agree?

Thanx niz for explanation number 4 of while people believe in god...I couldnt have put it better myself. The Romans after all were geniuses in propaganda and had to exert some form of social control on the masses of their empire. They transformed a small cult Christianity into a large religion that unified an empire that was beginning to spin out of control.

The one thing I have never been able to understand with Christians is their ability to change or ignore the rules of their religion to suit themselves.
For example, the bible prohibits the lending of money to make a profit (not allowed a bank account), Women should not go to holy ground within 2 days (I think it's 2) of menstruation for they are unclean, and many are now accepting homosexuality.
Since when can a human change the laws of God. A bit presumptious don't you think. Plus I know lots of christians who have joined the army, a clash of interests perhaps, remember thou shalt not kill?

Goes to my hypothesis that they are hypocritical _________. Fill in the blank.

...Been lurking a while now....
Remember that the Bible and Christianity are two seperate things. Christianity is a widespread religion with as many variations as there are belivers. The Bible is a loose congregation of ancient scriptures, revised and translated a million (slight exaggeration...) times. CXhristianity is based on the Bible AND priests (or laymens in some instances) interpretaion of it. The Bible is NOT Christianity. Just because it is in the Bible does not mean it is something a Christian belives in. That would demand an incredible devotion and a complete lack of interest in the philosophical and ethical debate that has been going on the last 2000 years or so. To some, religion is a blanket that keeps them warm from the cold, harsh world. You put the blanket where it is cold. In the same way, you use religion where you can't or won't explain the going ons in the world with other means.
The bible claims homosexuality is a sin, and that gay are very naughty persons. It says about the same thing about people who eat pork. At the same time, the book claims that all people are equally wonderfull and valuable and are cildren of God. As a Christian you simply have to choos what part to belive in, and what part to belive is some sort of mistranslation. By that power, every Christian is an interpreter of the Holy Scriptures. No wonder why the religion has survived so long; If your church preaches something that strikes you as odd, start your own church! Simple as that

I meant to have a point somewhere. Oh, well. The rant.

Somewhere in the Bible (Romans, I think...), Jesus says something about the Old Law no longer is apliccable, onle the New Law should be followed. I don't know what that means, but it seems the Old Testament should be discarded. If only it was, many Christian crimes could be avoided....

Oh, well. I lost my point long since.

One of the Bibles at my High School had an addendum stiched to the page where Moses got the 10 commandements. It said something like "Thou shalt not kill*. * Except in the name of the Father, or for money, land or power."

Yeah that is the old law. Jesus said that Christians weren't under that law anymore but under the new covenent...'love thy brother'

Some religious people didn't fight in the world wars and were put in prision for it and persecuted by the civilians as cowards but I think it takes more guts to stand up against the masses and for something you believe in than to what everyone thinks you should do.

And Jesus is also meant to have said that nothing which you you take in, or give out, can make you unclean - only what's already within... or something like that...
One of his more sensible comments...

I agree. I have myself refused armed service, allthough I'm afraid that I wouldn't have had the guts to do that in case of a world war, or if the consequences were as grave as they are in for example Greece... I didn't refuse on religious grounds though, as I have no religion (at least not in the common sense ), but on grounds of pacifism.

Yeah different countries deal with consentious (I know I've spelt that wrong) objectors in different ways. In Africa for example I have heard that if people refused to be involved in the civil wars that wreck that continent...they have been tortured by the authorities...
Scary thought isn't it?
We could all be forced to do something so abhorent to us if we had no free will.

Ah. Free will. An abomination, if there ever was one. Ranked among the top ten of God's mistakes. I wonder how the world would look like if there was no free will. I'm guessing no wars, no murders, no robberies. Why should there be any?

What are the top ten of "Gods" mistakes? Do not take into account that he / she is infallible.

Number one in the list has to be my ex-girlfriend. Why is she such a...

Sweetie?

I'll give you some clues.

Fresian
Jersey
Guernsey
BSE

Hmm. Top ten mistakes. Okay, we've got free will. That's a good one.

I think another of the top 10 mistakes would be God asking to be worshipped. I think he perhaps had no concept of the forms this worship might take, and might be horrified at the results of what probably seemed (to him) like a fairly simple request. He probably just wanted somebody to say thanks now and again.

What he got instead was needless sacrifice of animals, bloody crusades, ritual burnings of those considered unholy, bizarre services marking everything from the births and deaths to the day of the week, and a whole "us" and "them" mentality that leaves whole subsections of humanity stranded from the otherwise good theory of "do unto others." Definitely a top ten mistake.

He should have let people remain ignorant of his presence. We're probably better off that way, in the long term.