Indeed.
The Devil was also mentioned.
I think they brought him into the conversation and I jumped on that and asked them who created the devil? I wanted their take on that because it tied in with my understanding (
which this post OP explains a little bit about) and how such a character would 'fit' into that particular cosmology.
They replied that the Devil "Satan" had created himself.
That threw me slightly so I asked them to explain and they said that Jehovah and created a perfect
Angel being and that the being then chose to ... well....basically recreate itself as Satan.
(Now its not that I had never heard the story, but that was a new angle so I figured the question had been asked before (how about that!) and then argued that if Jehovah created the devil, then Jehovah must be evil, and this was a way to cover that factor and get on with the argument.)
So anyway, I then told them that if the Angel had been created perfect and then recreated himself, he must have had the power/ability/intelligence etc on how to do so beforehand, and since beforehand the creature was created perfect then Jehovah must have designed him/her that way to be able to make that choice, at least potentially.
They didn't disagree but stated that we are created with free will and thus we choose to be whoever and act however we want to, even if it is against Jehovah and Jehovah's plans.
But when I took that aspect and used it to explain that Jehovah needed this to happen in order for (his) plans to unfold, they didn't agree...or seemed to disagree that this is the way one should interpret the concept.
The subject then turned to Adam and his free will choices...
The theme of course runs throughout the bible and I was just getting to the point of explaining the connections in relation to prophesy and how easily enough humans could manipulate events if they had enough power and money and influence to do so and how this could explain why such prophecy as the Jews returning to their homeland came true in relation to the end time events they (the JW women) were focused upon and they replied that The Jews were enemies of Jehovah and what they did had nothing to do with prophecy...
That surprised me and I said so...adding that millions of Christians believed that that was indeed part of end-time prophecy but my point was still that such events can be manipulated without the need a sky-daddy god.
But I could tell that they were somewhat antsy-Israel and they plainly didn't think much of that subject...That raised my eyebrows because back in the day they shared the same camps and gas chambers and ovens and Jehovah didn't discriminate Jew/JW - so what was with that?
Their eyebrows raised now, I figured it probably wasn't the best time to explain that the Jews think of Jehovah as both the bringer of good and evil and didn't require a devil character to take the place of Jehovah's abilities in that department...The Jews understood that Hitler and the Nazi were part of the plan ...but I did say that Christianity - the invention of Roman and Jewish ruling class - had invented the devil in order to polarize the idea of GOD. Now god had an enemy rather than an adversary...slightly different in connotation, but the difference is significant nonetheless...
Anyway, like I said, Gaia can play whatever role you want her to...but in that, she also has a true role which is closer to home. Organised religion rewrites the role to further its political agenda as adversary to Hers. Whatever words are put in Her mouth, better make sure they are words She would actually speak
.
Which is why I told the women that they follow after and represent the
Bible, invention of Christendom, NOT Jehovah.
The theme runs through the book anyway, so's not to say some of it isn't inspired by Gaia through visions and OOBs and NDEs and other such means the atheists claim is just the brain tricking and scientist develop drugs to counter.
