gaiagirl

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Posts by gaiagirl

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  11

  Jesus - was he just an exceptional teacher?

  by SM62 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have been doing a lot of soul-searching lately.. i have never considered questioning the bible before.

  as a child, i was taught that to question the bible was blasphemous.

  but lately, since coming to this forum and reading all the various posts and links to other sites, i have started thinking really seriously about things.

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  gaiagirl

  I've come to think that Jesus was a man who saw a lot of problems in the religion of his people, and tried to bring about some reform. The Israelites were at that time a subject people, ruled by officers and magistrates appointed by Rome. They longed to be free of Roman rule, and many hoped for a Messiah to lead them in revolt against Rome.

  When Jesus began his preaching work, pointing out the injustices in manner in which his own people worshipped, many saw him as this Messiah, and came to be disappointed when he did not lead them in revolt against Rome.

  However, Jesus was not the only person in history viewed as a Messiah by the nation of Israel, there were others before and after him, who drew a number of followers after themselves, and then came to be forgotten. We remember Jesus primarily because a Roman emperor, Constantine, eventually made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, and other religions came to be outlawed.

  Regarding the gospel writers, I'm not sure if they believed what they wrote or not, but none of them wrote at the time of the events they describe. The earliest gospel was written around 70 C.E. more than 35 years after Jesus died, the last was written around 100 C.E., more than 65 years after his death. Taken as a whole, the Bible didn't exist in its present form until hundreds of years after the last gospel was written. There were many other gospels used by Christians in the first century, such as the gospel of Thomas. These other documents were excluded when the present selection of books was decided upon in the fourth century.

  Miracles are attributed to many people of the ancient world. Most of the miracles attributed to Jesus appear first in the writings of Greeks, Babylonians, and Egyptians hundreds if not thousand of years before the gospels were written. If one chooses to believe those said to be performed by Jesus, then why not (for example) those said to be performed by Isis? She is said to have healed many and even raised the dead. Does a cultural bias cause us to accept one set of legends and reject another? Or do we see these legends as a reflection of the ideals of their authors?

  Gaiagirl
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  99

  What resurrects, the person or a perfect copy?

  by JH in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember my boss asking me once this question, since he knew i was a witness.

  he asked, "what resurrects, the body, the soul, what?.

  he knew that witnesses believe in the resurrection of the dead on earth, in a different physical body during the millennium.. i told him that it won't be the same physical body, and maybe won't be identical, but it's the same person.

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  gaiagirl

  In the recent movie 'Solaris', many of the issues discussed in this thread are portrayed. George Clooney visits a space station orbiting a distant planet. There is some property of this planet which causes dead loved ones in the memories of those in the space station to come back again.

  So, one crew member sees his dead son again, another his dead brother. George Clooney's character is faced with his dead wife. The story deals with whether or not these beings are actually the original returned from some other place, or simply an imitation constructed from the memories. And once this is determined, how does this affect how the crew treats these beings.

  As it turns out, the beings are pretty much based soley on the memories of the crew, so their own memories are not complete. For example, if Georges real wife had a secret which she never shared with George, the replica would not remember this secret, because George never knew of it, and thus had no memory of it. To the extent that George doesn't know something about the childhood of his wife, the replica will lack memories of her own childhood. There is no actual part of the replica which was also part of the original. They are two separate and distinct beings, existing at different times, one a near perfect duplicate of the other.

  One might argue that God would have perfect knowledge of the original, so there would be no memory gaps in the replica. However, even if two twins spent every moment together from birth, and later one died, the surviving twin is still not identical to the one who died.

  Anyway, the film is not your average science fiction film. Instead of lots of spacecraft zooming around and aliens, it is a slow-moving, atmospheric and moody piece with a thoughtful plot. Not for everyone, but it does seem germane to this discussion.

  Gaiagirl
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  25

  What are your favorite TV shows?

  by gaiagirl in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

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  mine, in no particular order, are coupling, seinfeld, sex and the city, ed, friends, saturday night live, frasier, and various episodes of nova.. gaiagirl

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  gaiagirl

  Mine, in no particular order, are Coupling, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Ed, Friends, Saturday Night Live, Frasier, and various episodes of Nova.

  Gaiagirl
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  23

  How crazy and daring were you?

  by Guest 77 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  viv's post, 'giggling in dark hallways' prompted me to ask this ?, 'what are some of the craziest and and daring actions you pulled off as a jw?'.

  guest 77

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  gaiagirl

  I once spent the night at the beach with some friends, after everyone else went to sleep, another girl and myself went skinny dipping. It was extremely dark, as there were no lights anywhere near, all the lanterns had been turned off, we could barely see each other by the moonlight. After swimming for a while, we came back to shore, but couldn't find our own camp. As it happened, the current had moved us down the beach a few hundred yards while we swam. We found our way back eventually before anyone saw us (at least, I don't think anyone saw us).

  Gaiagirl
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  8

  Giggling in dark hallways

  by Vivamus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did you ever notice that when you are not allowed to laugh, the intensity of your laughter is doubled by a factor of gazilion?

  the other day i was with friends, altogether it was a very fun evening.

  but the incident that made me choke with laughter was when we were saying our goodbye's.

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  gaiagirl

  Yes, sometimes when you feel that perhaps you 'shouldn't' laugh, the urge to laugh is multiplied manyfold.

  A few years ago, I was at a small gathering of JW's, all of us about the same age. We were sitting around sipping some mixed drinks and watching an old rerun of 'Saturday Night Live' from the '70s. The show was just getting ready to do 'Weekend Update' and Don Pardo's did a voice-over: 'Weekend Update is brought to you by Pussy Whip-the delicious whipped topping for cats!'.

  I gasped and laughed out loud, and couldn't stop for 15 or 20 minutes. Tears were running down my face as I staggered out of the room to lie down, and continued giggling uncontrollably. It was embarrassing, but every time I would think about that line, I would burst out laughing again.

  People kept coming in so make sure I was alright, and I just kept laughing and laughing. I'm sure they thought I had completely lost it, and perhaps for a few minutes, I had.

  Gaiagirl
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  53

  What JW Teaching Did You Never Quite Totally Accept???

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since i was raised a witness, it was only as i got older that i started to "think" about what i was teaching and believing.

  but even as a young teen, i never accepted the thought that 1975 was going to be the end of the "system of things" and the beginning of the "new system".

  i just didn't quite believe that.........what belief or teaching did you have a "hard time swallowing"?

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  gaiagirl

  I couldn't accept the idea that humans had only existed for 6000 years, and that they had been directly created at that time, with no genetic relationship to any other life form. I was quite put off by the refusal to acknowledge the staggering amount of evidence available even then that not just humans, but ALL life forms are genetically related to one another.

  Gaiagirl
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  19

  Did Satan lie or was it the truth?

  by shotgun in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  satan the biblical originator of the lie...was he?.

  god told adam:.

  16 the lord god (56) commanded the man, saying, "from any tree of the garden you may eat freely; .

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  gaiagirl

  Funkyderek made a good point. Claiming the serpent to be Satan took place hundreds of years after the Genesis account was written.

  And, according to the account, God told Adam "on the day you eat from it you will positively die"

  It didn't turn out that way, (the scriptural verse claiming 'a day is as a thousand years' wasn't written until long after the Gensis account, so the writer of the account would have had in mind a literal day). If you believe the account, Adam lived 930 years. Even if you don't, he didn't die 'in that day', but lived long enough to have children.

  Also according to the account, the eyes of the man and woman WERE opened.

  In the Middle East, the tree of life was a common theme, and serpents were viewed by most cultures as representatives of wisdom. The writers of Genesis took earlier Sumerian accounts and modified them to suit their own culture and religious beliefs.

  Gaiagirl
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  36

  Circle of the earth

  by donkey in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  bible believers are so proud of the fact that the bible talks of the "circle of the earth" and try to use this to say that the bible is inspired because it obviously was ahead of it's time in establishing that the earth is not flat.. congratulations.

  umm...umm...ok now then why does daniel 4:11 say the tree grew all the way into heaven?

  and when satan decided to tempt jesus he took him to a high place and he could see all the kingdoms of the earth...... now unless jesus and satan could see around corners...how do you explain this?

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  gaiagirl

  qua wrote:

  "1. There is one single land mass connecting Europe, Africa and Asia."

  Wrong, there are several separate landmasses adjacent. They exist on totally separate continental plates, and the plates move in different directions, at different speeds. This is why mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, the Alps, the Atlas, and others have pushed up, i.e. separate plates pushing against one another. To call this 'one single land mass' is just ignorant.

  "2. There is one single land mass connecting North America and South America."

  Wrong again. North and South America are on totally separate plates, which move in different directions. They only approached one another within the past few million years. Also, Central America is composed of several plates, with very high tectonic activity.

  "3. There is one Australia".

  "4. There is one Antartica."

  Both of these were once part of other land masses, which split apart eons ago.

  "So there indeed is four land masses or corners of the earth."

  If Australia counts as a corner, does Greenland?

  To equate 'land mass' with 'corner' is a gross misrepresentation of what the author of the verse had in mind.

  And how many 'corners' did Earth have when all 'landmasses' were adjacent 250 million years ago, forming the supercontinent, Pangaea?

  Gaiagirl
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  5

  misquoting creationists? ofcourse not!

  by greven in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  original text ommitted in the post is in bold; additions/substitutions are in italics:.

  geneva, n.y. -- for apple maggots, the dating scene is simple flies only mate on a specific host fruit.

  using new technology developed at the new york state agricultural experiment station, cornell university researchers have demonstrated that this fact of fly life has resulted in the emergence of two distinct races of the pest in just 150 years.

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  gaiagirl

  The term 'Creation Science' which some fundamentalists promote is an oxymoron. The scientific method is to:

  Examine the physical evidence first, then form a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, and draw conclusions based on results of tests.

  The creationist method is to:

  Decide what you believe, then select those scriptural verses which support your position. Ignore all physical evidence which doesn't support your position. Falsify evidence as needed to discredit those who don't agree with you. Repeat as often as possible.

  Gaiagirl
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  29

  Saw a great bumbersticker today

  by Eyebrow2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  i believe in life before death.

  makes you think, doesn't it?.

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  gaiagirl

  One of my favorite sources for bumperstickers is: http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/stickers.html
  They both of those mentioned, and lots of others. A great site for those who, like many here, have expanded their minds.

  Gaiagirl