Anyone religious on here?

[Citizen Koba]

If I can’t do something immediately I tend to think it’s not with the effort. It’s a terrible mentality.

Been that way myself most of my life, got a low boredom threshold too, but I kinda been trying to work on being more persistent and sticking at stuff the last few years.

[-Kev-]

You’ve obviously not heard of the praying mantis

Calling that living thing a "Praying Mantis" is an example of humans bullying other living things. Calling it names like that, like it has no feelings. They probably named us "Earth Destroyers". Which is a more accurate name than what we named it.

[-Kev-]

No, but I respect people who are and have learned not to argue with people about their beliefs.

Infact most religious people shove their ideals and beliefs down your throat farrrrrrrrr less than your average militant atheist type.

I find that hard to believe. Atheists don't go around knocking on doors giving atheism pamphlets and asking to come in to your home to convert you. 2.5% of people in the US believe in Atheism. Although atheists are about as crazy as god-believing people.

[YoungManRumble]

I find that hard to believe. Atheists don't go around knocking on doors giving atheism pamphlets and asking to come in to your home to convert you. 2.5% of people in the US believe in Atheism. Although atheists are about as crazy as god-believing people.

Ah right. I forgot about them. Don't see many door to door missionaries around here, especially these days (rona etc). You can always just tell them politely you're not interested and they immediately leave 99% of the time though.

[TJ highway]

Jesus is god to catholic’s isn’t he. At least that’s what I remember from being at Catholic school.

Man I hated mass

Actually Jesus was a *** (maybe still is if you believe in the Holy Trinity).

I liked Mass. I got to sit behind the girls who were knelling in front of me (checking out the bootie and legs).

Damn I am a heathen.

[Dakuwaqa]

Actually Jesus was a *** (maybe still is if you believe in the Holy Trinity).

I liked Mass. I got to sit behind the girls who were knelling in front of me (checking out the bootie and legs).

Damn I am a heathen.

He’s referred to as King of the ***s in the New Testament. I don’t think this point is even contested. He’s still considered to be God though right?

Glad you enjoyed mass!

[TJ highway]

He’s referred to as King of the ***s in the New Testament. I don’t think this point is even contested. He’s still considered to be God though right?

Glad you enjoyed mass!

Of course he's God.

You don't think Moses parted the Red Sea all by his lonesome?

No no, no! That was the big dog. Triple GGG (God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit!)

[HewJohnson]

I am not. I made that decision when I was 10.

But I respect everybody’s choice of religion or their devotion to religion due to upbringing and environment.
Nothing but the utmost respect, because I can’t prove any more than the next guy. I just have my own beliefs.

[NachoMan]

Oh I've paid attention to them, and I admit we sometimes get caught up with the semantics of it too (on both sides). For example, sometimes they think I believe the Father and the Son are the same person. I do not, I believe they're part of the same (one) Divinity, but they are most definitely different persons within the Divinity. If we say that Jesus Christ is a lesser Divinity and not part of the One Divinity we're turning Christianity into a politheistic religion.

I'm very well aware the JWs believe in Jesus Christ, and I actually think they're saved too, but they seem to have a need to downgrade Jesus Christ from full Divinity for reasons I don't really understand, other than it being what the elders teach, etc.

The JW's do not downgrade Jesus from "full Divinity" status. He is absolutely a god (lower-case g), and there certainly is a Christian pantheon if you consider the range of supernatural figures (angels, archangels, Nephilim, etc.) identified in the Bible. As I have noted, JWs regard Jesus as the second highest of all beings in the universe - beneath only his father and Creator. As the Bible and Jesus himself acknowledge, Jesus is most certainly distinct from and inferior to Jehovah God, so it is no slight of Jesus to regard him as such. The Son is not equal to the Father; not in any household on this earth nor in the heavens.

So it is not the Son who is being disregarded, but rather the Father. If you sincerely seek truth about the Judeo-Christian faith, do some research on why the Judeo-Christian Creator's name was replaced by titles such as "lord" in most modern translations of the Bible. In the original texts, the holy name (Tetragrammaton, latinized to Jehovah but also Yahweh) appeared many thousands of times. This is why the JWs make the argument that heretics changed the religion by erasing the real God's name - an action which had the predictable consequence of leaving Christian adherents to pray to anyone and everyone else (Jesus, the mortal "****** Mary", Saints, ***elry, etc). Why would modern Christians venerate Yahweh/Jehovah as the All-Powerful Creator if they've never even heard of him?

I am not a religious person, but I would argue that the JWs study the Bible more fervently than almost any other Christian group today. The commitment required to be a JW is measurably greater than pretty much any other Christian denomination that I am aware of. They are the only Christian sect (the Mormons stopped) that continues to follow Jesus' example to preach the good news house to house - something that requires extensive knowledge of scripture, humility and enormous courage of conviction in the modern day.

This is not to say that the JWs have a perfect understanding and interpretation of the Bible, but rather that they are committed to its close study more than any other Christian group that I have encountered in my lifetime. I do believe that the Bible is cryptic enough to be interpreted vastly different by equally intelligent and honest people, but some Christian groups just plainly ignore the most basic tenets of the religion. With all due respect to trinitarian Christians, there has never been one person born who arrived at the Trinity Godhead conclusion by reading the Bible. The Trinity doctrine was a fabrication of 4th century clergy. Anybody who accepts the Trinity doctrine today does so because they were instructed of this by their church clergy and obediently accepted it as truth. I challenge anyone to argue differently that it is anything but deference to the church that makes the Trinity doctrine logical or scriptural.

The JWs are not the only Christian group that rejects the Trinity doctrine. Pit a Trinitarian clergy man against a 10 year old Unitarian Christian on this issue and you will observe a complete disputative beat down. The Trinitarian stutters and struggles in vain to make sense of non-sense. He has nothing to lean on to cogently explain or support the Trinity doctrine position, while the Unitarian has 1200 pages of Old and New Testament to support his.

Christianity derived from ******* and ******* is strictly Unitarian.

[Zaryu]

The JW's do not downgrade Jesus from "full Divinity" status. He is absolutely a god (lower-case g), and there certainly is a Christian pantheon if you consider the range of supernatural figures (angels, archangels, etc.) identified in the Bible. As I have noted, JWs regard Jesus as the second highest of all beings in the universe - beneath only his father and Creator. As the Bible and Jesus himself acknowledge, Jesus is most certainly distinct from and inferior to Jehovah God, so it is no slight of Jesus to regard him as such. The Son is not equal to the Father; not in any household on this earth nor in the heavens.

So it is not the Son who is being disregarded, but rather the Father. Do some research on why the Christian Creator's name was replaced by titles such as lord in most modern translations of the Bible. In the original texts, the holy name (Tetragrammaton, latinized to Jehovah but also Yahweh) appeared many thousands of times. This is why the JWs make the argument that heretics changed the religion by taking the real God's name away and having their followers pray to literally anyone else (Jesus, ****** Mary, Saints, etc).

I am not a religious person, but I would argue that the JWs study the Bible more fervently than almost any other Christian group today. The commitment required to be a JW is measurably greater than pretty much any other Christian denomination that I am aware of. They are the only Christian sect (the Mormons stopped) that continues to follow Jesus' example to preach the good news house to house - something that requires extensive knowledge of scripture and enormous courage of conviction in the modern day.

This is not to say that the JWs have a perfect understanding and interpretation of the Bible, but rather that they are committed to its close study more than any other Christian group that I have encountered in my lifetime. I do believe that the Bible is cryptic enough to be interpreted vastly different by equally intelligent and honest people, but some Christian groups just plainly ignore the most basic tenets of the religion. With all due respect to trinitarian Christians, there has never been one person born who arrived at the Trinity Godhead conclusion by reading the Bible. The Trinity doctrine was a fabrication of 4th century clergy. Anybody who accepts the Trinity doctrine today does so because they were instructed of this by their church clergy and obediently accepted it as truth. I challenge anyone to argue differently that it is anything but deference to the church that makes the Trinity doctrine logical or scriptural.

The JWs are not the only Christian group that rejects the Trinity doctrine. Pit a Trinitarian clergy man against a 10 year old non-Trinitarian Christian on this issue and you will observe a complete disputative beat down. The Trinitarian stutters and struggles in vain to make sense of non-sense. He has nothing to support the Trinity doctrine position, while the non-Trinitarian has 1200 pages of Old and New Testament to support his.

If Jesus is a god (emphasis on the small g) than he is being downgraded from full Divinity. Or perhaps I should word it as being downgraded from the full Diety of Elohim. He is either one with the Father, as the Bible teaches, or he's a different and lesser God (which makes Christianity a politeistic religion) or he's not divine.

You can interpret the existence of multiple spiritual/celestial beings as making up a christian pantheon, but the Bible is clear that there is only one true God.

You say the Jesus is not equal to God the Father, but the Bible teaches He is. "Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7).

I'm aware of the many "less than ideal" interpretations used in the Bible, in particular when it comes to the name of God. I think the JW speak a lot of truth in this regard, but also feel they get too dogmatic about it. My understanding is that God the Father's name is Yehovah, which means that for our English and Spanish translations the JW's get A in my book in using God's true name and defending it.

I disagree with the notion that the JWs study the Bible more fervently than other Christians. It's true that a lot of Christians don't read or know their Bible, but there are JWs like that too. And the ones that study a lot tend to get spoonfed Watchtower literature that continously reinforces the JWs doctrines. This actually keeps them very defensive and close minded. When they lose a Biblical argument they need a break to reset and recondition themselves with the JWs doctrines. I also disagree with the statement that they follow Jesus' example to teach the Gospel. That's not exactly what Jesus did here on earth, he came to fulfill the old testament prophecies and die for the sins of the world. The true gospel of Jesus Christ was not revealed until he died and was resurrected.

I actually don't understand how people deny the Trinity with a straight face after reading the Bible objectively. I find it more reasonably to read the Bible objectively and simply not believe it than to read it through and not agree with the doctrine of the Trinity.

The trinity is just a way to capture the interpretation of the Christian Diety, which is made up of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It's a way to put a name on a Biblical principle. For example, the Bible doesn't have the word "millennium" in it, but the JWs believe in that because the Bible very explicitly speaks about a 1000 year reign under Christ. It's something similar with the Trinity doctrine. The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as a person, fully divine and fully God, just like with Jesus Christ.

Matthew 28:19 teaches us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a collective reference to one Triune God. There's a lot more that can be said, but this post is long enough already.

It seems that you have looked into Biblical matters more in depth than most people I run into. What keeps you from believing?