Major events that Bible did not foretell!

by iconoclastic 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Mephis

  Not sure how much history you've read iconoclastic, but may I suggest that the idea of not targeting civilians during a war is actually the exception rather than the rule for human history. In the Roman world, as in many other time periods, targeting civilians was precisely how war worked. Genocide was a common tool of imperial control. Where genocide wasn't wholesale, it was typically because some elements of the population would have a future of slavery ahead of them.The idea that we're now in some sort of curious epoch of human history because civilians are targeted for violence really doesn't stand up.

  More generally, I agree with your point that the bible is very general with those prophesies which have no trace of back-editing. But the bible isn't alone in that. Most 'holy' books share the same approach. And those which don't are those without prophesy.
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  iconoclastic

  Dear Mephis

  Civilians are also targeted--but that is not the norm. See how much uproar is created even today when civilians are also targeted in a war. People, nations, media ... call for trying the ruler for war-crime, and it is even termed as crime against humanity. But a war that is fought between the soldiers are treated as normal.

  
  

  But the difference between terrorism and war is that terrorist's primary target is civilians, and all the rest are secondary.
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  Mephis

  That's not a distinction which works across history iconoclastic. Terrorism typically has an aim, a goal, and the targets are chosen in order to progress that goal. War typically has an aim, a goal, and the targets are chosen in order to progress that goal. Sometimes that includes killing civilians deliberately. Sometimes that doesn't. The definition of terrorism is the use of terror/fear in order to progress a political aim. It's not a tool of just jihadis cutting people's heads off or flying planes into buildings. Fear as a tool for repression and control has a much longer history than that. And one which very much includes the time period when the new testament was being written.

  The concept of a 'crime against humanity' dates from when iconoclastic? Even the Lex Innocentium is late C7th AD, and that in no way is representative of any point of history before or since. Warfare is brutal and uncivilised, much as we sanitise or mythologise how we treat it.
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  SecretSlaveClass

  Mephis:

  It's pointless trying to get him to see his errors. It's like trying to argue with an uber JW.
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  iconoclastic

  Dear Mephis

  My perception of terrorism was formed after my personal encounter with it. I have been a hostage for eight days. I have seen how they enjoy killing even children with AK-47 standing a few meters away and how they derive a sadistic pleasure out of it. I was fortunate that I have been released because of my meditation habit. I take advantage of every sort of situation--negative or positive. When I was among the hostages, I did not share the feelings of them who were trying to find ways to escape, argue with the captors … etc. I thought: ‘anyway I do fasting every Sundays, let me do fasting till my death or release and do meditation.’ One of the terrorists knew English and was assigned to find out what I was really doing as they suspected me of staging a hunger-strike. When I explained about my habit, the miracle happened—they released me. All others lost their lives for a cause they don’t know what it is. Terrorism is different!
  

  
  
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  Mephis

  I'm sorry you went through that iconoclastic. Was nice of them to make sure that you were eating enough and not starving to death to allow your miracle to happen. Not sure how it demonstrates terrorism is different in anyway, but a useful tip for any English speaker held hostage by terrorists for sure.
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  OUTLAW

  Major events that Bible did not foretell!

  ............Like The Invention Of The Yo-Yo!..
  ........

  The yo-yo is considered, after dolls, the second-oldest toy in history. The first yo-yos were made of wood or terra cotta about 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece and some of them are on display at the Greek Archaeological Museum in Athens.

  ..............