Posts by greatteacher

150

The dubs at "Witness World" are discussing UN involvement!!!!!

by somebodylovesme in

i am a lurker on the "witness world" witnesses-only website.

they are having a discussion because someone during door-to-door service confronted them with the un letter.

they are all saying that it is "obviously made up"... but the person is planning on writing to the society to ask.

greatteacher

Excellent information; very Interesting to see JWs defend themselves so blindly.

I will try to infiltrate that Witness World. My first thread will read something like "My first trip to Bethel, the greatest experience of my life! Let's share our experiences, shall we?"

207

How did all the animals fit on Noah's Ark?

by hooberus in

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many skeptics assert that the bible must be wrong, because they claim that the ark could not possibly have carried all the different types of animals.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/magazines/docs/cen_v19n2_animals_ark.asp

greatteacher

U.2.K. Tha Greate$t,

God needs to help you with your spelling and grammar. I suggest you pray for it.

gt

30

Maybe the Beatles were right......

by Sentinel in

i just came upon a very interesting article, appearing in the atlantic monthly, may 2003, titled let it be, by jonathan rauch, correspondent.

the first introductory statement reads: the greatest development in modern religion is not a religion at allits an attitude best described as apatheism.

this immediately caught my attention.

greatteacher

My favorite beatles songs are from when they were eating acid!

Also, I feel that the beatles took a big stand in the 1960's. I mean, they were the most popular band in the world and everyone knew they could influence millions of people, yet they admited to using and enjoying marijuana and lsd.
It seems that a band from today with that much popularity remains neutral on everything, so as not to cause any backlash. For example, would Britney Spears promote esctasy?

(sorry for kind of changing the topic)

5

Anarchism and Christianity

by Narkissos in

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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?

greatteacher

Undoubtedly the Russian Leo Tolstoy is the most famous writer associated with religious anarchism and has had the greatest impact in spreading the spiritual and pacifistic ideas associated with that tendency. Influencing such notable people as Gandhi and the Catholic Worker Group around Dorothy Day, Tolstoy presented a radical interpretation of Christianity which stressed individual responsibility and freedom above the mindless authoritarianism and hierarchy which marks so much of mainstream Christianity. Tolstoy's works, like those of that other radical libertarian Christian William Blake, have inspired many Christians towards a libertarian vision of Jesus' message which has been hidden by the mainstream churches. Thus Christian Anarchism maintains, along with Tolstoy, that "Christianity in its true sense puts an end to government" (see, for example, Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is within you and Peter Marshall's William Blake: Visionary Anarchist).

Also, The Anti-Christ, a book where Nietzsche explains how Jesus was the natural offspring of Jewish society. He states that Jesus ended all forms of art, culture, literature, history, government, etc. to express a form of individual idealism with an absolute rejection of reality.

By the way, many anarchists do not like the term anarchism because it implies a theoretical "ism" to be studied and discussed, rather than a radical form of political activism and action. So, the terms Anarchy and Anarchist are used.

37

How important is the Devil to God?

by Narkissos in

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?

greatteacher

Whether he was "right" or "wrong" Marx contributed much to socio-economic theory. It's very hard deny that fact.

With that aside, it seems as though the devil is necessary to the bible story. I mean, if anything goes wrong, blame it on the devil. One example is when jesus took the demon (ruled by the devil) out of the man and put it in the pig who ran off the cliff. I love that story. Praise JEEEESSSSSSSSUS!

Yerusalyim,

That can't really be a picture of you. If it is, do you remember Sgt. Slaughter from the AWA?

13

What is heaven like?

by greatteacher in

when i was a jehovah's witness i believed only 144,000 people were going to heaven, so i am curious about what others feel about heaven.

this question is for those who believe in heaven.

greatteacher

Can somebody please tell me about heaven? I know a lot of you believe in it!

60

Your Ideas On The Bible?

by shamus in

so, what do you think about the bible?

is it really ispired of god?.

i am strongly believing that the bible is nothing more than folk-tales, half-truths, and suggestions by man.

greatteacher

Some excerpts from the book, ABSURDITIES OF THE BIBLE by Clarence Darrow:

They took a simple way to take one of Adam's ribs and cut it out and make it into a woman, Now, is that story a fact or a myth? How many preachers would say it was a myth? None! There are some people who still occupy Christian pulpits who say it is, but they used to send them to the stake for that.

If it isn't true then, what is? How much did they know about science in those days, how much did they know about the heavens and the earth? The earth was flat, or did God write that down, or did the old Hebrew write it down because he didn't know any better and nobody else then knew any better?

What was the heavens? The sun was made to light the day and the moon to light the night. The sun was pulled out in the day time and taken in at night and the moon was pulled across after the sun was taken out. I don't know what they did in the dark of the moon. They must have done something.

The stars, all there is about the stars, "the stars he made also." They were just "also." Did the person who wrote that know anything whatever about astronomy? Not a thing. They believed they were just little things up in the heavens, in the firmament, just a little way above the earth, about the size of a diamond in an alderman's shirt stud. They always believed it until astronomers came along and told them something different.

Adam and Eve were put in a garden where everything was lovely and there were no weeds to hoe down. They were allowed to stay there on one condition, and that is that they didn't eat of the tree of knowledge. That has been the condition of the Christian church from then until now. They haven't eaten as yet, as a rule they do not.

They were expelled from the garden, Eve was tempted by the snake who presumably spoke to her in Hebrew. And she fell for it and of course Adam fell for it, and then they were driven out. How many believe that story today?

If the Christian church doesn't believe it why doesn't it say so? You do not find them saying that. If they do not believe it here and there, someone says it. That is, he says it at great danger to his immortal soul, to say nothing of his good standing in his church.

And Eve and all of her daughters to the end of time were condemned to bring forth children in pain and agony. Lovely God,isn't it? Lovely?

If that story was necessary to keep me out of hell and put me in heaven -- necessary for my life -- I wouldn't believe it because I couldn't believe it.

I do not think any God could have done it and I wouldn't worship a God who would. It is contrary to every sense of justice that we know anything about.

God had a great deal of trouble with the earth after he made it. People were building a tower -- the Tower of Babylon -- so that they could go up and peek over.

God didn't want them to do that and so confounded their tongues. A man would call up for a pall of mortar and they would send him up a tub of suds, or something like that. They couldn't understand each other.

Is that true? How did they happen to right it? They found there were various languages; and that is the origin of the languages. Everybody knows better today.

Is that story true? Did God write it? He must have known; he must have been all-knowing then as he is all-knowing now.

I do not need to mention them. You remember that joyride that Balaam was taking on the ass. That was the only means of locomotion they had besides walking. It is the only one pretty near that they have now. Balaam wanted to get along too fast and he was beating the ass and the ass turned around and asked him what he was doing it for. In Hebrew, of course. It must have been in Hebrew for Balaam was a Jew.

And Joshua Said to the Sun, "Stand Still."

Is that true or is it a story?

And Joshua; you remember about Joshua.

He was a great general. Very righteous and he was killing a lot of people and he hadn't quite finished the job and so he turned to the mountain top and said to the sun, "Stand still till I finish this job," and it stood still.

Is that one of the true ones or one of the foolish ones?

There are several things that that does. It shows how little they knew about the earth and day and night. Of course, they thought that if the sun stood still it wouldn't be pulled along any further and the night wouldn't come on. We know that if it had stood still from that day to this it wouldn't have affected the day or night; that is affected by the revolution of the earth on its axis.

Is it true? Am I wicked because I know it cannot possibly be true? Have you got to get rid of all your knowledge and all your common sense to save your soul?

Child, born of a virgin! There were at least four miraculous births recorded in the Testament. There was Sarah's child, therewas Samson, there was John the Baptist, and there was Jesus. Miraculous births were rather a fashionable thing in those days, especially in Rome, where most of the theology was laid out.

Caesar had a miraculous birth, Cicero, Alexander from Macedonia -- nobody was in style or great unless he had a miraculous birth. It was a land of miracles.

What evidence is there of it? How much evidence would it require for intelligent people to believe such a story? It wouldn't be possible to bring evidence anywhere in this civilized land today, right under your own noses. Nobody would believe it anyway, and yet some people say that you must believe that without a scintilla of evidence of any sort.

Jesus had brothers and sisters older than Himself. His genealogy by Matthew is traced to his father, Joseph, in the first chapter of Matthew. Read that. What did he do?

Well, now, probably some of his teachings were good. We have heard about the Sermon on the Mount. There isn't a single word contained in the Sermon on the Mount that isn't contained in what is called the Sacred Book of the Jews, long before He lived -- not one single thing.

Jesus was an excellent student of Jewish theology, as anybody can tell by reading the Gospels; every bit of it was taken from their books of authority, and He simply said what He had heard of for years and years.

But let's look at some things charged to Him. He walked on the water. Now how does that sound? Do you suppose Jesus walked on the water? Joe Smith tried it when he established the Mormon religion. What evidence have you of that?

He found some of His disciples fishing and they hadn't gotten a bite all day. Jesus said, "Cast your nets down there," and they drew them in full of fish. The East Indians couldn't do better than that. What evidence is there of it?

He was at a performance where there were 5,000 people and they were out of food, and He asked them how much they had; five loaves and three fishes, or three fishes and five loaves, or something like that, and He made the five loaves and three fishes feed all the multitude and they picked up I don't know how many barrels afterward. Think of that.

How does that commend itself to intelligent people, coming from a land of myth and fable as all Asia was, a land of myth and fable and ignorance in the main, and before anybody knew anything about science? And yet that must be believed -- and is -- to save us from our sins.

What are these sins? What has the human race done that was so bad, except to eat of the tree of knowledge? Does anybody need to save man from his sins in a miraculous way? It is an absurd piece of theology which they themselves say that you must accept on faith because your reason won't lead you to it. You can't do it that way.

Jesus practiced medicine without medicine. Now think of this one. He was traveling along the road and somebody came and told Him there was a sick man in the house and he wanted Him to cure him. How did He do it? Well, there were a lot of hogs out in the front yard and He drove the devils out of a man and cured him, but He drove them into the hogs and they jumped into the sea. Is that a myth or is it true?

If that is true, if you have got to believe that story in order to have your soul saved, you are bound to get rid of your intelligence to save the soul that perhaps doesn't exist at all. You can't believe a thing just because you want to believe it and you can't believe it on very poor evidence, You may believe it because your grandfather told you it was true, but you have got to have some such details.

Did He raise a dead man to life? Why, tens of thousands of dead men and women have been raised to life according to all the stories and all the traditions. Was this the only case? All Europe is filled with miracles of that sort, the Catholic church performing miracles almost to the present time. Does anybody believe it if they use their senses? I say, No. It is impossible to believe it if you use your senses.

Now take the soul. People in this world instinctively like to keep on living. They want to meet their friends again, and all of that. They cling to life. Schopenhauer called it the will to live. I call it the momentum of a going machine. Anything that is going keeps on going for a certain length of time. It is all momentum. What evidence is there that we are alive after we are dead?

How many believe it? And yet that is the only idea of immortality that there is, and it is in every creed today, I believe.

13

What is heaven like?

by greatteacher in

when i was a jehovah's witness i believed only 144,000 people were going to heaven, so i am curious about what others feel about heaven.

this question is for those who believe in heaven.

greatteacher

When I was a Jehovah's Witness I believed only 144,000 people were going to heaven, so I am curious about what others feel about heaven. This question is for those who believe in heaven.

245

Are most people just plain stupid?

by logansrun in

what an audacious question!

" wow, bradley -- how could you stoop to such levels?

do you consider most people as simple sleepwalkers through life not paying much attention to reason, logic, science, history and a desire to understand?

greatteacher

Stacy,

Why do you catagorize "what Yeru practices" as an example of militant nationalism?
You may be confusing militant nationalism with national liberation movements. The connotation of "militant nationalism" is that of a power using "pride in ones nation" to gain support of its citizens for oppressive imperialist pursuits.
A national liberation movement is when an oppressed people or nation organize and use militant tactics to pursue freedom from the oppressors.

By the way, isn't your email and yahoo IM stacy_rebornvirgin? How could you possibly even joke about being Brad's mama with a name like rebornvirgin?

31

The Happiest place on earth...Kingdom Hall

by integ in

i was invited to attend the latest visit from the circuit overseer last week.

what timely admonishment.

he brought out how we should not tire out in the race for life.

greatteacher

I can't resist:

Would you rather place a tract or smoke crack?
Would you rather plant a kingdom seed or smoke weed?
Would you rather hand in your time or drink a corona with lime?
Would you rather at book study sit or spoil a useful habit?

Sorry, I had to!