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The bible also encourages us to protect the environment. Despite the belief that god will make "all things new" again, it clearly warns they will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”

I don't think the bible specifically mentions anything about tobacco

You are correct. However, The Bible has plenty of warnings against intentionally harming your body and others' with addictive substances.

As of now, you can search HIBP from directly within 1Password via the Watchtower feature in the web version of the product. This helps Watchtower become "mission control" for accounts

Has the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society taken over 1Password? I wouldn't trust that organization with my online accounts for several reasons.

I don't have strong enough words to endorse their Watchtower service

I'd hope it doesn't have quite as much confused theology as that other Watchtower service.

Tell her you love her. Tell her that there is a hope for her to see you again. Tell her that no matter what, nothing was her fault. Kids blame themselves for bad things because they don't understand how things work- so the only explanation in their mind is that it is *their* fault.

Whether you are religious or not, talking about death with her NOW is important. This can help:
http://www.jw.org/en/publicati...

If you don't go to that link, then adapt these practical points from it:

IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONVEY
If a loved one has died, you can help your child overcome inordinate fears about death by making sure he understands the following:

She is not going to die. (this is geared toward very young ones who may fear death is contagious)
If something happens to you, she will not be abandoned; relatives will look after her.
Once dead, a person is no longer suffering.
The deceased person will not be forgotten. You might say, “You cannot see Grandma anymore, but you can keep memories of her in your heart.”
Remember, saying nothing to your child will not reduce his anxiety. On the contrary, it may only serve to give his imagination free rein.

Please put geekdom aside. She will always remember how awesome of a geek you were, but she'll especially appreciate that you were an amazing father *first* and that you loved her.

What Christians believe ... well it is mostly not bases in the Bible anyway.

You're right that some denominations cling to traditions that flat-out contradict the Bible. Others are diligent in citing scripture for their beliefs. I've found that Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, fall in the latter category. I don't agree with all of their interpretations, but I admire their diligence.

Sex only in the missionary position?

Not in the Bible. A husband and wife can use any position they agree on. Just make sure to use safer sex precautions with your spouse because you wouldn't want sexually transmitted infections to defile your "temples of holy spirit."--1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

No sex before marriage?

That's in the Bible. "God will judge fornicators."--Hebrews 13:4.

No contraception?

I think some denominations' ban on contraception comes from confusion between conception methods that prevent fertilization (such as rhythm, barriers, and antiovulants) and abortifacient methods that prevent a fertilized egg from developing. Christians who follow the Bible are free to use nonabortive birth control and should refrain from judging one another in this respect.--Romans 14:10-13.

And if God were so great and awesome then he wouldn't have cut the man's spinal cord in the first place, now would he?

FLAME ON BITCHES! Remember, YOU had to bring religion into this.

King James Bible
"Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed onto all men, for all have sinned"
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%205:12 (Romans 5:12)

New International Version
"We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."
http://biblehub.com/1_john/5-19.htm (1 John 5:19)

New World Translation
"At that time the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. At that time the lame will leap like the deer, And the tongue of the speechless will shout for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert plain."
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/b/r1/lp-e/nwt/E/2013/23/35#h=949:0-952:0 (Isaiah 35:5,6)

New International Version
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance"
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+peter+3%3A9&version=NIV (2 Peter 3:9)

King James Bible
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Revelation-21-3_21-4/ (Revelation 21:3 - 21:4)

Do you believe in Zeus? How about Jupiter? They were gods too after all

To the extent that "Jupiter" is a corruption of "YHWH Pater", or Jehovah the Father, I do believe in Jupiter. All the rest of the Roman gods are made up.

have you read the bible lately? He does really love the commanding people to maim and slaughter other people for what I can only assume is for his personal entertainment

As I understand the Christian position as described in the Bible, the suffering that humankind experiences under this system of things exists to teach Satan a lesson. Satan has been using the lie "God doesn't want what's best for you and for this reason is holding back good things from you" since the days of Adam and Eve. And God has let Satan have it Satan's way for a few thousand years in order to show that many people will realize how self-destructive Satan's system is and follow God nevertheless. I'm not one of Jehovah's Witnesses, but I found their article on why God continues to allow suffering interesting.

A health insurance plan tuned for the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses would still pay for blood substitutes, iron supplements, and other expenses associated with bloodless surgery.

A better and more sweeping example would be working for a "closely-held business" run by Christian Scientists, who could contend that they should be excused from having to cover any care except from a practitioner.

Do your 'sincerely held religious beliefs' outlaw blood transfusions? Looks like your exployees are going to be paying for that themselves.

A health insurance plan tuned for the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses would still pay for blood substitutes, iron supplements, and other expenses associated with bloodless surgery. Some insurers might prefer bloodless surgery anyway because it keeps the insurer from having to pay for units of blood and pay to treat blood-borne diseases.

Jehovah's Witnesses readily accept expanders not made from human blood. I used to associate with Jehovah's Witnesses but stopped about a year ago after discovering contradictions in the denomination's other doctrines. My own personal interpretation of "the life is in the blood" (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11, 17:14, Acts 15:29) means I'd reject red and white blood cells, but platelets and plasma are acceptable in a pinch because those aren't living cells.

This is really exciting but it really depends on if the artificial blood contains any whole blood fractions and the Christian's individual conscience.
If the artificial blood is merely a blood-like substance that contains just water, salt and some random protein then yeah we might be able to accept it.
I can't really tell you definitively without more information though but I can tell you that we do not accept whole blood or its primary components; plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, but it is up to the individual Christian's conscience if they want to accept certain fractions.

I can't speak for other groups that may hold a similar belief in the prohibition of blood though and their basis may be completely different then the scriptural basis of ours (Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 15:23 and Acts 15:20 to name a couple).

If you'd like a more detailed explanation you can look here and here.

Thanks for asking.

This is really exciting but it really depends on if the artificial blood contains any whole blood fractions and the Christian's individual conscience.
If the artificial blood is merely a blood-like substance that contains just water, salt and some random protein then yeah we might be able to accept it.
I can't really tell you definitively without more information though but I can tell you that we do not accept whole blood or its primary components; plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, but it is up to the individual Christian's conscience if they want to accept certain fractions.

I can't speak for other groups that may hold a similar belief in the prohibition of blood though and their basis may be completely different then the scriptural basis of ours (Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 15:23 and Acts 15:20 to name a couple).

If you'd like a more detailed explanation you can look here and here.

Thanks for asking.

This is really exciting but it really depends on if the artificial blood contains any whole blood fractions and the Christian's individual conscience.
If the artificial blood is merely a blood-like substance that contains just water, salt and some random protein then yeah we might be able to accept it.
I can't really tell you definitively without more information though but I can tell you that we do not accept whole blood or its primary components; plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, but it is up to the individual Christian's conscience if they want to accept certain fractions.

I can't speak for other groups that may hold a similar belief in the prohibition of blood though and their basis may be completely different then the scriptural basis of ours (Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 15:23 and Acts 15:20 to name a couple).

If you'd like a more detailed explanation you can look here and here.

Thanks for asking.

This is really exciting but it really depends on if the artificial blood contains any whole blood fractions and the Christian's individual conscience.
If the artificial blood is merely a blood-like substance that contains just water, salt and some random protein then yeah we might be able to accept it.
I can't really tell you definitively without more information though but I can tell you that we do not accept whole blood or its primary components; plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, but it is up to the individual Christian's conscience if they want to accept certain fractions.

I can't speak for other groups that may hold a similar belief in the prohibition of blood though and their basis may be completely different then the scriptural basis of ours (Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 15:23 and Acts 15:20 to name a couple).

If you'd like a more detailed explanation you can look here and here.

Thanks for asking.

This is really exciting but it really depends on if the artificial blood contains any whole blood fractions and the Christian's individual conscience.
If the artificial blood is merely a blood-like substance that contains just water, salt and some random protein then yeah we might be able to accept it.
I can't really tell you definitively without more information though but I can tell you that we do not accept whole blood or its primary components; plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, but it is up to the individual Christian's conscience if they want to accept certain fractions.

I can't speak for other groups that may hold a similar belief in the prohibition of blood though and their basis may be completely different then the scriptural basis of ours (Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 15:23 and Acts 15:20 to name a couple).

If you'd like a more detailed explanation you can look here and here.

Thanks for asking.

I think this begs the question who the hell was supposed to be watching the watchers?

The Watchtower, of course. But who watches the Watchtower?

the entire book of Job, where God is the one responsible for inflicting all manner of bad acts upon Job's family.

God isn't responsible for inflicting ills. Satan is responsible for it; God allows it to happen. See chapter 11 of "What Does the Bible Really Teach?" for one denomination's view of the problem of evil.

Why would an all-powerful, all-knowing, and presumably all-good God choose to create beings that MIGHT do evil?

If God wanted robots, he would have made robots. Instead, he wanted creatures who sincerely love him back, so he made creatures capable of acting on free will.

Christmas [has been] virally compromised with malware that is beginning to affect many other holidays.

So Jehovah's Witnesses were right about something for once?

by AdmiralAl (1136661)

Your user ID brings to mind something that we could exploit to get the right-leaning fundies riled up about this. John of Patmos wrote in Revelation 13:16-17:

And [the Beast] puts under compulsion all persons, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, that they should give these a mark in their right hand or upon their forehead, and that nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person having the mark.

I can see how fingerprints could be spun as "a mark in their right hand."

the content of the christmas festival celebrated by bible believing christians has nothing to do with the "yule".

Then what's with the Christmas trees? (Jeremiah 10:1-5) And what's with the "do not open until Xmas" spirit of holding back of gift-giving in the months leading up to the date? Learn why one Christian denomination believes origins matter:

Maybe you feel that the origins of holidays have little to do with how they are celebrated today. Do origins really matter? Yes! To illustrate: Suppose you saw a piece of candy lying in the gutter. Would you pick up that candy and eat it? Of course not! That candy is unclean. Like that candy, holidays may seem sweet, but they have been picked up from unclean places. To take a stand for true worship, we need to have a viewpoint like that of the prophet Isaiah, who told true worshipers: "Touch nothing unclean."--Isaiah 52:11.

You wrote:

The only thing you could argue is that name "Easter" may have been co-opted by the church and some of the secular trappings resemble elements from pagan traditions that the church tried to stamp out but the festival within the church bares no relation to the old pagan celebration.

In what way are rabbits and eggs resurrection of the Christ? They're fertility symbols associated with Ishtar/Astarte/Eostre.

It is a celebration of the birth of christ.

For one thing, Jesus was probably born in the early fall; the Church chose the winter solstice out of a superstitious belief that he was conceived on the same day he died, and Yule was the closest holiday to nine months after Nisan 14. For another, did Jesus ever ask for his birth to be celebrated? Jesus was raised a Jew, and Jews were far more likely to celebrate a death anniversary: "A name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one’s being born." (Ecclesiastes 7:1) That's why Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, celebrate Good Friday on the eve of Nisan 14 but don't celebrate Christmas. Only two birthdays are ever mentioned in the Bible, and in both cases, the birthday boy had someone put to death as his gift.--Genesis 40:16-23; Mark 6:14-29.

I've written more about birthdays and the commercialized holiday posing as Christmas.

One of the nice things about being a Catholic is there is a nice clear rule book. It's called the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Catholics aren't the only Christian denomination to have a rule-book-style aid to studying the Bible. Jehovah's Witnesses have one too: Reasoning from the Scriptures .

You could start with "When to Withdraw Fellowship" and "How to Treat a Disfellowshipped Person" from the Watchtower publication Keep Yourselves in God's Love, which is the second study book that new JWs are led through. JWs are supposed to "quit mixing in company" and "never [...] say a greeting" to anyone who 1. has been baptized into the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, 2. has been disfellowshipped or has disassociated himself from the Congregation, and 3. does not live in the same household.--1 Corinthians 5:11-13; 2 John 9-11.

You could start with "When to Withdraw Fellowship" and "How to Treat a Disfellowshipped Person" from the Watchtower publication Keep Yourselves in God's Love, which is the second study book that new JWs are led through. JWs are supposed to "quit mixing in company" and "never [...] say a greeting" to anyone who 1. has been baptized into the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, 2. has been disfellowshipped or has disassociated himself from the Congregation, and 3. does not live in the same household.--1 Corinthians 5:11-13; 2 John 9-11.

an insignificant desert tribe, who he then proceeded to decimate and torture for a few more millennia

God doesn't torture his people, even if he does permit wicked people to torture people for a short while to prove a point to Satan. The clearest explanation I've read of how the Bible treats the problem of evil is in chapter 11 of What Does the Bible Really Teach? , published by Jehovah's Witnesses.

And this god's biggest concerns are chopping of parts of someone's wiener

That was chosen as the symbol of the covenant with Abraham leading up to the Mosaic era, just as the rainbow is the symbol of the covenant with Noah, the Passover was the symbol of the covenant with Moses, and the annual reenactment of the Last Supper ("do this in remembrance of me") is the symbol of the new covenant in Christ.

and who you go to bed with

Two things: First, the concept of God creating man "male and female" is a recurring theme throughout the first dozen chapters of Genesis. Second, monogamy helps slow the spread of STDs.

while occasionally ordering his people to commit genocides

If there are even a dozen righteous people in a city, God doesn't destroy it.--Genesis 18:16-33.

who the heck are we to play God

I'll assume for a moment that by God you mean the Judeo-Christian God: God warned Noah of a worldwide natural disaster to come in A.M. 1656 and gave him plans and several decades to build a 3-story barge to carry specimens of each kind of animal safely through this disaster. After the barge landed, God told Noah who was in charge of the animals: "Into your hand they are now given." (Genesis 9:2) So becoming good stewards of wildlife by no means contravenes what God expects of His followers.