Religion: pros & cons (Religion)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Friday, October 24, 2014, 21:44 (3682 days ago) @ dhw

DHW:.... if different people find different meanings, the words themselves do not seem to me to carry any authority.-Examine this statement for a moment. If there is a fundamental rule, principle, or set of principles in physics, and three or four people disagree, does that mean the principles are wrong or the people? I've often seen you give latitude or benefit of the doubt to scientist that you do not give to religion, and I wonder why that is.-
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> You rightly say that blood transfusions are not 100% safe. No medical treatment is 100% safe, but that is a different reason from the belief that transfusions are against God's will. You are obviously telescoping arguments here, perhaps to say that God has warned you against using such a process. We have had very different experiences. My wife was given 20 more years of life by massive blood transfusions following post-operative negligence. I don't know of any Jews, or Christians other than Jehovah's Witnesses, who would claim that God will condemn her for that, but they all have the same bible and believe in the same God. Once again, my aim is not to establish what is right and wrong, but to show the ambiguity of these biblical instructions.
>-Actually, even Jehovah's Witnesses would not say that she was condemned for life. They simply would not do anything to jeopardize their relationship with God. There are a lot of misconceptions about the way that the Witnesses believe, and admittedly, some of those misconceptions are because we tend to talk about things without remembering that other people do not have the same background, so the context for them is lost. -For example, we don't just view Jehovah as God, but also as a Father, and a friend. He is our protector, our provider, and our loyal companion. In short, we love him, not as some abstract creature, but as a dear, personal friend. Just like you wouldn't do anything to hurt your friends feelings, or even risk hurting your friends feelings, we don't want to risk hurting his, even inadvertently. Where most people get lost is that they think that we are saying or doing things out of fear of being condemned or that we are afraid of not being part of the resurrection. While I am sure that is true in the case of some individuals, the entire point of showing you those challenges from Job is to say that we don't do it for what we can get out of it, and we don't do it just to save our own skin. -
 
> But what IS the commandment of God?-"Love Jehovah your god with your whole heart, whole soul, and whole body, and Love your neighbor as you love yourself." All of the laws in the Bible break down into these two laws, and only by examining the laws from this perspective will they ever make sense. Not only does this set the standard for behavior, it also sets the precedence for whether you put your God, your fellow man, or yourself first. (Clue: It is in that order: God, your fellow man, or yourself.) If you follow the rule of 'Do unto others as you would have done to you", then you are already following half of God's law.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.