Mephis

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Posts by Mephis

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  39

  Has NASA discoverd flowing water on Mars?

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  nasa is holding a press conference today entiltled " mars mystery solved".

  speculation is they will announce the discovery of flowing water on mars?.

  the significance of this is that it raises the possibility of possible past life or future existence on the planet.. the rebel..

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  Mephis

  Have a friend who works at JPL (he does testing and problem solving stuff for the last rover and has recently been working on a proposal to get another mission to Mars running). But we've argued between us for years over the potential for life elsewhere in the solar system. He's far more optimistic about it than me, but he's looking to some of the places where oceans are pretty darned likely to exist now rather than Mars. Europa and Enceladus may be the ones where things get very interesting. The more we've explored the solar system, the more assumptions about life, and what we thought allowed for it, get challenged.

  Do wonder if anything has managed to survive Mars losing its atmosphere and oceans. Or even if there's evidence to be found of something which was once there.
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  39

  Has NASA discoverd flowing water on Mars?

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  nasa is holding a press conference today entiltled " mars mystery solved".

  speculation is they will announce the discovery of flowing water on mars?.

  the significance of this is that it raises the possibility of possible past life or future existence on the planet.. the rebel..

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  Mephis

  Spiders would be fine too I think punkofnice. Ziggy will be happy.
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  20

  Question: What would it take to get the BORG'S tax exempt status REVOKED?

  by Black Man in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've always wondered about this.

  i've always felt the main reason the borg made publishers do time slips/field service reports was to show that they are doing a community service to justify their tax exempt status.

  we all know about their money grabs with the kh build scams, their selling off millions of dollars in real estate, etc.

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  Mephis

  UK theoretically has a public interest test, but there's little appetite to fight religions over it really. Exclusive Brethren had to make changes (cosmetic ones at least) before they got it, but they still received it. Think they'd have to be very, very stupid with refusing to introduce child protection policies to force the authorities here to remove tax exempt status from them. And they've shown that they're stupid in all sorts of ways, but not in their ability to tell half-truths to avoid that.
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  17

  Revolt Brewing At Headquarter and Different Branches and The Governing Body Is Losing Credibility Among It's Staff

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  in my mind i see this as a very real situation developing rapidly world wide as these child molestation pay out become public knowledge and can no longer be denied or kept secret from the r&f.

  pretty soon the governing body will be the but of many jokes at headquarters and abroad.

  they are being caught red handed while robbing the cookie jar.

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  Mephis

  There can't really be a revolt at branch level. All of those for which I've seen documents, require one to be a JW elder in good standing to have a voice on what happens. That's the control mechanism they have over it from Brooklyn. They can just clear everyone out that way if they should ever need to.

  Personally, I think there will be people who'll leave, because they've been treated like crap, but the rest will buy into the idea that the GB is always right etc etc etc.
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  33

  A simple explanation for the financial changes

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i've mentioned from time to time, i'm a retired accountant.

  i have tried many times to come up with some logical, sound business reason why the wtbs has made the big changes in its financial arrangements: taking the congregations savings, the monthly donations per congregation etc.

  i finally came up with the answer.. the leadership of the watchtower society is batshit crazy.

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  Mephis

  Jehovah jireh gone horribly wrong as growth and per publisher donations flatline in affluent countries?

  Do wonder where the money has gone all the same. Must be talking hundreds of millions in USD from the accounts and nominal 'deposits' held at Bethels in the affluent countries, on top of the steady inflow of money from the faithful. Have they just hit the wall after years of overspending?
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  12

  Just 10 more days. How are they going to spin the news on Oct 3 annual meeting?

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so they asked all the kingdom halls for all the money in their savings account and then make them give a monthly payment for the rest of their life.

  the reason for this was because the in-gathering is so great, that they need to build, build, build!.

  now the massive building will stop..

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  Mephis

  The end is nigh. And not even in so many words. Just hint and nod and wink. Instant dub excitement. Until the comedown.
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  74

  That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

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  Mephis

  However, just by studying the early church fathers and their writings (and they wrote A LOT) in just the first 3 centuries, it is easy to determine exactly what sound doctrine is, where and when heretical doctrine came in; and who was the culprit.

  
  So the bible is infallible because you decided it is infallible by deciding which writings passed around the first few centuries of Christianity you want to believe represent some form of orthodoxy - in spite of evidence to the contrary over such an orthodoxy existing (date for Easter, when Christ was scheduled to return, the lack of even factual agreement in the gospels, extent of Judaism acceptable being huge issue etc etc). That much of those writings didn't get included in the canon, that some of them seem to be very blatant forgeries well.. If it works for you, great, but you can't call out those who point out the circular logic going on there.
  Would suggest fact checking the claim that you make about re-creating the NT from quotations. It just ain't so. And the half (?) which can be re-created doesn't really help too much if the counter-argument is early C2nd forgeries seem to be present and included in the canon.
  Will have a read of your evangelical doctor by correspondence's book if it's about in my university library. The conclusion given to it on the Amazon view doesn't really fill me with great expectations of it disagreeing with the religion he joined aged 12. So fortuitous when that happens for theology students.
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  26

  Major events that Bible did not foretell!

  by iconoclastic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jws feel that their strength lies in the power of bible to foretell.

  however, an impartial analysis would show that bibles prophecies are too general, and yet some of the major developments in the world scene were not figured in its propheciesespecially those that are very much needed for what it calls last days.

  to mention a few:.

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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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  119

  Latest rumor - all WT construction "suspended", except for Warwick

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  heard 4th-hand, but from a full-on believer, so not likely to be an "apostate lie":.

  apparently, at bethel's morning worship this morning, it was announced that all worldwide wts construction is "suspended" for an indefinite time, except for the new world headquarters at warwick.. also, the "relocation" of remote translating teams is also suspended.. finally, there will be a "worldwide" reduction in bethel personnel.. all this came to me in a non-english language, and,as noted, 4th-hand.

  so it is possible something may have been lost in translation and/or in the multiple steps between bethel morning worship & me.. but if true, it would be quite stunning.

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  Mephis

  Maybe they've discovered that their insurance policy for the court cases and compensation claims isn't going to cover them. Depends on how much of what is being said is true and the timeframes involved. A sudden juddering halt to everything plus cutbacks would obviously mean they need a lot of money in a hurry rather than stupidly over-reaching themselves and needing to reassess. There's been letters about consolidating congregations and sharing halls too, hasn't there? Curious, curious.
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  74

  That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

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  Mephis

  Perry, you've chosen to answer the most minor of points raised in objection to your previous post. In fact one which really doesn't need answering as you say you're in agreement with everything but Ehrman's ability to use his knowledge to get tenure. The very fact that you and millions of Christians need to make the choice over which version to accept should really demonstrate the silliness of trying to argue for the infallibility of the bible. Which bible? How did you choose? Who chose the things which went into the bible you're saying is infallible? How did they choose? Why should anyone trust their choice? What if the Gnostics were right? What if Arian was? How do you know your own texts haven't been written or edited to support a belief which wasn't what Christ taught? And so on, and so on.

  The idea of biblical infallibility seems tied up with the notion of 'one truth' waiting there to be found. One true understanding of what Jesus really said. And I'm not sure that was even true for the generation or two after Jesus was meant to have lived. The gospel writers can't even agree amongst themselves about basic facts related to his life, and there's sufficient evidence of multiple understandings happening very early on - some of those even being alluded to in what is currently in the canon.