Continue using the word "prove"; Continue showing your ignorance of science.
It isn't ignorance to reject supposition. It isn't ignorance to refuse to be persuaded by suggestion. This is all science has for evidence of macro-evolution. There are no "facts" so there can be no proof. Is that difficult to understand?
The "everyone else believes it except you ignorant idiots" catchphrase doesn't work on me. I like to evaluate things for myself. I ask all the hard questions and if I see a "might have" or a "could have" mentioned in an article on evolution, I know that they are speculating, not presenting real evidence. Most people don't even notice.
By your writings it is clear that you don't.
Oh but I do....I just don't buy it. It is sold to gullible people who want God to go away. For them, he did. For me, he didn't.
Was that before you became a JW?
Yes. From High School to my twenties I tried to study evolution and understand how incredible complexities in living organisms that demonstrate intelligent planning, could possibly be the result of random chance. Red flags went up everywhere, but going back to a YEC scenario was just as ridiculous. So I ditched both and just studied the Bible. I went into deep study for two years before I decided that what JW's teach is the most reasonable middle ground. I didn't have to give up science as far as it can provide proof for its conclusions, and I didn't have to lose God or the Bible to accept that there was a grand Creator with a grand purpose to it all.
It's sad you don't understand common English.
Common English, like any other language requires definitions....you didn't provide one. What "accumulated knowledge" did you mean? Did you mean actual knowledge that has substantiation?....or did you mean a current popular 'belief' that seems to be accepted by a lot of people, even though real substantive evidence is not available? Is implied substantiation a good substitute?
Knowledge is power, as they say, but knowledge based on supposition is not knowledge at all. It masquerades as knowledge. Just because it is well marketed, doesn't mean that a product is not defective. I expect that a recall is in order.
In the past most people did not die of heart disease. They didn't live long enough to get heart disease. Ditto cancer, diabetes, etc.
Which is better, dying of cancer at 50 or dying from a flea bite at 10?
That would depend upon which country a person was born into. I would rather die at 10 from a flea bite rather than live a miserable existence in poverty and squalor for 50 years and then die an agonizing death with no pain relief. This is the reality of the world's poor. Western society wants to overlook the fact that medicine is a commodity designed to make its producers rich. Even in wealthy nations, the poor do not receive health care because they can't pay for it.
Money drives everything. Gotta love capitalism.
I see you did not comment on the number of people who died "in the name of god".
You didn't comment on the greater number killed in the name of political agendas. At least the numbers killed in Bible times were in hand to hand combat...led by their own kings. Bit of a different story today eh? You can just fly a plane over a city and drop a few bombs and kill thousands in one go. The 'King' is nowhere to be seen....he just signs the death warrants for all the misguided souls who join his military forces. What have they sacrificed their lives or their health for exactly?
The death rate from AIDS has dropped dramatically due to research and medicines.
Very few die or get disabled by Polio.
People who get cancer have longer life expectancies than 50 years ago. Immunotherapies are just beginning to be shown to be effective.
Heart implants and pacemakers and angioplasty and stents save people's lives.
To be sure there have been some advances in many areas of medicine, but then we would expect that as science grew in knowledge, would we not? What we don't expect in this day and age is to see people suffer needlessly until they take their dying breath. Tens of thousands every year are robbed of their final months by chemical poisoning they call chemotherapy. It has something like a 2% success rate, and yet it makes drug companies billions of dollars and costs people their quality of life in what little time they had left.
Cures for cancer are known, but they aren't allowed into the hands of people who need them. No money in cures.
Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'
There are many ways to prevent suffering for a terminally ill patient. They can put people in a coma for weeks in certain circumstances, but not for the dying.....would it not be more humane to put them to sleep so that they can pass peacefully without pain?
Re: prevent suffering for the terminally ill
It is religious people who prevent people from choosing painless death over prolonged suffering.
https://www.
jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/euthanasia/
The Bible does not condone taking someone’s life even when the person is facing an imminent and unavoidable death. The example of King Saul of Israel supports this. When he was mortally wounded in battle, he asked his attendant to help end his life. (
1 Samuel 31:3, 4) Saul’s attendant refused. However, another man later falsely claimed to have fulfilled Saul’s wish. This man was condemned as bloodguilty by David—a person who reflected God’s thinking on the matter.—
2 Samuel 1:6-16.
I wasn't talking about active euthanasia. Murder in any setting is wrong and active euthanasia is open to exploitation.
I was talking about medically available means to alleviate unnecessary suffering. We have no qualms about passive euthanasia however. That is the withdrawal of all life support or artificial means to keep a patient living if the patient wishes to end their suffering. There is no law of God or man that prevents a person from doing that.
If god turned off his omniscience when creating A&E, he chose to be willfully ignorant.
He did not turn off anything, but left the humans to make their own choices, then he responded to those choices. He did not interfere with their choices and he does not interfere with ours. He merely states consequences for our actions that are in opposition to his will. We decide to obey....or not.
Free will meant making even the wrong choices, but there was never a time when their choices were not dealt with according to God's purpose. Everything humans do is leading somewhere. Everything is a life lesson. We often learn more from our mistakes than by people telling us not to do something. The Creator knows this.
When God created intelligent beings who could reflect his moral qualities, he chose to give them the ability to plan their actions like he does. Man alone has a concept of past present and future and he has the unique faculty of conscience. He also has something that no animals has...the ability to plan the future according to perceived outcomes. We have 'imagination' and can visualize potential outcomes and can avoid what could be harmful, or go ahead with what may be beneficial. Our moral capacity helps with those decisions.
ETA: Remember, he had almost all of eternity to ponder his creation before he created A&E.
Yes indeed. But assuming that God made mistakes is to sell him short. He knew exactly from the beginning, how it will end. (Isaiah 46:10) You see, at the end of the 7th "day", everything that God purposed in the beginning will be brought to its successful completion. He will have a race of perfect humans living forever on this planet, obediently and responsibly using their free will to the benefit of others, not just themselves. Having eliminated those who chose an opposite course, there will be no dissenters....no rebels...no one to spoil what he started all those millions of years ago. He will be able to declare it "very good", just as he did with the other days. He cannot fail....but humans can by individually misusing their free will. Our lives and choices are not pre-determined, but God's purpose is.
The last book in the Bible is the culmination of all human history...the finale of this object lesson and time of testing for one's suitability as a citizen of God's Kingdom, (which will become the only ruling authority on earth) will see its completion.
A mass eviction is going to take place because bad tenants do not get to enjoy the renovations that God will have to make to this earth due to their bad tenancy. He appeals to all to come and enjoy what he is offering, but ultimately the majority will have chosen the "broad and spacious road" that leads to death. The "few" who have chosen the more difficult path to life, will reap the everlasting rewards. (Matthew 7:13-14)
I believe that this is the Bible's message. Believe it or not...take it or leave it.
God's purpose will go ahead with us or without us. We all have the same choices.
