Narkissos

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Topics Started by Narkissos

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  15

  Isn't God missing the devil?

  by Narkissos in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  some time ago i started a (short) thread entitled ?how important is the devil to god?

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/63454/1.ashx

  i?d like to address the same question from a slightly different angle.

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  16

  "Son of God" -- some background

  by Narkissos in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  if we just forget about the capitals for one moment, the expression son of (a) god is almost as old as writing (> 5000 y.).

  to understand it we have to get back, not only upstream of christianity, but also upstream of the constitution of monotheism in the last 6 centuries before the birth of christianity.

  we can then discern at least three related meanings, which we will have to replace in their original context and in the context of their possible reception at the beginning of the christian era.

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  7

  Building on WT sand?

  by Narkissos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a number of posts by recent and old members of jwd (i won't mention names) struck me as being only variants of the typical wt-stuff involving prophecies or chronology, based on mystical revelation and/or intensive personal study of the bible.

  generally those posters did not adhere to any other church, nor went through the academic cursus of theological and biblical studies.

  they seem to be quite lonely with their "truth", still persevere in it with remarkable consistency.

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  12

  Religious discrimination / judicial precedents?

  by Narkissos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the context of a current european court trial, i?m trying to collect some international jurisprudential information.

  apparently the wt instructions about df?d or da?d people (involving shunning by relatives and personal friends) can be legally questioned on the basis of the existing laws against religious discrimination.

  on the other side, the wt might plead that, since its discipline rules are based on an interpretation of bible texts, they are protected by the principle of liberty of conscience.

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  22

  Atheists and prayer

  by Narkissos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have read some years ago that, according to the results of a survey in a western country (i think it was germany), the number of people who admitted praying occasionally was far superior to the number of believers in any kind of god.. when i read ancient prayers to the gods or goddesses in a polytheistic context, i notice they are not very different, in form and in content, from the prayers to the monotheistic "god".

  many of the bible prayers (e.g.

  psalms) have probably originated in a polytheistic context, even though we now read them as prayers to the one and only god.

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  14

  Amor mortis

  by Narkissos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one thing i am now pretty convinced of about religion or mystics is that it is often related to what freud called todestrieb (death drive, or drive to death?

  ): it is apparent in christianity from paul's "theology of the cross", which implies "dying to one's desire" (an exemplary expression of it could be galatians 5:24, "those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires").

  but it certainly has correspondence elsewhere (such as the "non-being" goal in taoism or buddhism).. in the jws' doctrine, despite all claims to the contrary, death is omnipresent from the penalty of sin in eden down to armaggedon (as "tipyfied" by the flood, the destruction of sodom and gomorrah, etc.

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  5

  Anarchism and Christianity

  by Narkissos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  .

  nietzsche wrote anarchists and christians were of the same kind, because of their rejection of reality (as he saw it).

  he hated both and was at the same time fascinated by both.. french author andre malraux wrote that jesus was the only successful anarchist.. french essayist jacques ellul, who was a protestant and is still very influential in the "alternative movement", wrote an essay entitled "anarchy and christianity", where he tried to show the convergence and difference between the two ideologies.. what do you think?

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  37

  How important is the Devil to God?

  by Narkissos in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a few days ago, on the thread about ?a new view of the trinity?, rubadub voiced his disappointment as to the lack of any really new view, such as a fourth member who could turn it into a quadrinity or replace any of the members of the trinity in case of emergency.

  at the moment i just laughed, but later on i thought the devil could be a very good candidate.

  just think: under the influence of persian dualism, shortly after yhwh, the god of ancient israel, became god in the absolute sense (say in the 6th century bc, with second isaiah), satan (from a common hebrew noun meaning ?opposer?

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  6

  WTBTS of New York "revenue"

  by Narkissos in

  1. social
  2. current

  i recently read (secondhand) the following report (from newsday.com/business, september 22, 2003)

  ?watchtower bible & tract society.

  of new york.

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  13

  Faith beyond beliefs

  by Narkissos in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  to make a long story short, i'm an xjw from france: born and baptized as a catholic, i became a jw in 1972 at the age of 13 with part of my family; then a pioneer and a bethel member, before being disfellowshipped for "apostasy" in 1986. afterwards, involved in theology and bible edition with the mainstream protestant churches, slowly drifting from the evangelical to the liberal wing and finally out of all religious groups and beliefs.

  the "atheologist" label, i guess, would suit fairly enough by now.. the question i'd like to ask my fellow xjw "brothers and sisters" (and there seems to be plenty of them around .

  the question is especially directed to those of you who would not easily term themselves "christians", and who have not sticked to any recognized "creed".

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