Which is worse, Islam or Christendom?
Statistically, theologically, or historically speaking?
Pole
Posts by Pole
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32Which is worse, Islam or Christendom?
by avengers inlmfho .
lets first start off with the islam.. supposedly, the great prophet mohammed married a 7 year ol girl, but agreed not to consumate the marriage until she was 9.. (must we conclude that the founder of the islam was a pedophile?
now christendom.. mary conceived a child while virgin.
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Pole
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11
All Those Disapponted Readers
by ezekiel3 inconsidering the impending change to a monthly awake!
with less fluff and more "focus on the bible," i was moved to reveal the incredible loss regular readers will soon feel:
hair i would like to express my heartfelt thanks for the article "do you worry about your hair?
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Pole
"Never stop" bringing up those gems, Zeke.
:)
Dear Awake!Do not stop publishing articles like this one!
Dear Reader,
Sorry we need to cut down on this fluff. It costs us millions and doesn't help to make new converts. For more fluff, please resort to some of the Bible books. Yeah, more emphasis on the Bible - KM March 2004.
H. Peloyan
Pole -
82
A Jehovah's Witness CANNOT Say These Words
by steve2 in.
in five words or less, please give examples of statements no jehovah's witness in good standing could ever say.
here are two examples:.
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Pole
The UN is doing a great job.
Oh, wait a minute... can they say that?
Pole -
11
When the March KM article is read
by IP_SEC inso when this article is read about the monthly awake, it's supose to be good news right, simplification, bla bla bla.
is anyone planning on clapping when it is announced?
i'm kinda half seriously contemplating it?
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Pole
Oh, so it's only "40 percent of the languages" that will be affected? Now that's a mitigating circumstance. A few years ago they'd boast as many as 40% of the languages have biweekly Awake, now they say it's only 40 %.
I wonder what percentage of the circulation thos 40 percent of the languages account for.
Pole -
234
Intelligent Design
by Delta20 inhey all,.
i am currently studying the topic of intelligent design (id).
basically the id theory is the revival of the teleological argument for the existance of a deity.
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Pole
3: Mathematical Arguments
The 2 arguments above are the most important I think, but William Dembski made another nice ID structure in his book The Design Inference. He made a mathematical procedure which allows you to calculate when something is necessity, chance, or design. He made a whole "machine" for it, and when you put something in it and you want to know wether it was produced by necessity, chance, or it was designed, then it will give you the correct outcome. And following his theory, the Universe must be designed. (If you like maths you should read that book).
Are you being serious?
Edited to add:
Dembski is a bit of a joke IMO:
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/science/creationism/dembski.html
Pole
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38
On the fading of 1914 ............
by TheOldHippie inforgetful as i am, i just forgot the title of the new brochure issued at this summer's conventions, but it is something like "keep on the watch", and it deals with the imminent return of christ, the signs of our times, and the need for being on the watch, being prepared for the "any day now" return.. the signs of our times are mentioned, but not earthquakes, so they are "out" again, it seems.
but, the first pages make out the basis for the belief in our days being the last ones, the final ones, and 607 is mentioned, 539 and 537 - but not 1914, not the "seven times" or "2520 years".. do you remember 1995, when the "generation change" came?
in summer, the "knowledge" book was issued, and it also dealt with the signs etc., but for the first time, there was no mention of the then "present truth" that some alive in 1914 would still be alive and witness the return.
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Pole
Neo's analysis is interesting if we consider raw frequencies a telling statistic, which in a way it is. He used a simple quantitative approach. I'd like to use some qualitative stats.
Actually I do some research in computational linguistics. I am working on a variation of an algorithm which groups related concepts automatically for a given set of texts. I've recently applied it to WTS literature just for the thrill of it. (obsession).
It allows me to roughly test how a given concept is related to others in a set of texts and thus it defines the connotative meaning of the concept through its context. The interpretation is that in different doctrines words gain meaning when they cooccur with other words. Thus you can see how the use of certain word is biased by doctrinal change.
Anyway some results for 1914 are given below. I have tested how the word/concept of 1914 was used in relation to other words/concepts in the WT magazine in 1970, 1984 and 2003-2004. There are three tables below which illustrate this.
The first column contains a general label for the group of words which tend to cooccur with 1914. The second one shows all the words belonging to this group. The last column shows how closely related these words are to the concept of 1914.
Here we go:
Watchtower 1970
Stem
Words
Relation
c.e
c.e
0,28263
gentil
gentiles, gentile
0,22976
sinc
since
0,207
end
end, ending, ends, ended
0,13555
period
period, periodically, periods,
0,12756
1918
1918
0,12638
messian
messianic
0,10814
time
timing, time, times, timely
0,09309
year
year, years
0,08937
event
events, eventful, event
0,07675
antityp
antitype, antitypical, antitypically
0,07438
appoint
appointing, appointment,
0,06903
propheci
prophecies, prophecy
0,06811
jerusalem
jerusalem
0,06186
war
war, warring, wars
0,06087
Ok, so we have some "old-school" lingo here (end of "gentile times" seems to crop up). The year 1914 seems to have some antitypical, prophetic meaning. It has to do with Jerusalem (second fullfilment perhaps). It marks the end of the gentile times and the beginning of the period of the messianic kingdom which has ruled since then. This is confirmed by events such as wars.
Watchtower 1984
Stem
Words
Relation
gener
generations, generation
0,16332
sinc
since
0,14111
1880
1880
0,13835
year
year, years
0,13677
gentil
gentiles, gentile
0,12973
rule
rule, ruling, rules, ruled
0,12364
mark
marking, mark, marked, marks
0,11713
event
events, eventful, event
0,10859
date
dated, dating, date, dates
0,10764
end
end, ending, ends, ended
0,10039
began
began
0,09704
point
pointed, point, points, pointing
0,09524
chronologi
chronology
0,09431
heavenli
heavenly
0,09249
As you can see in the 1980s, the big change in the ranking is the number one among the concepts related to 1914 - generation. Plus, the WTS boasts a lot about the fact that they had attached much importance to that date as early as 1880.
Watchtower October 2003 - 2004
Stem
Words
Relation
enthron
enthronement, enthroned
0.23794
sinc
since
0.12409
establish
establish, established, establishment
0.10145
appoint
appoint, appointment
0.08755
heaven
heavens, heaven
0.08386
world
world
0.07201
condit
conditional, condition, conditions
0.07187
kingdom
kingdom, kingdoms
0.06861
end
end, ending, ends, ended
0.06842
king
king, kings
0.06538
fulfil
fulfillments, fulfiller, fulfilled, fulfills, fulfill
0.0629
jesu
jesus
0.06158
slave
slaves, slave, slaved, slaving
0.05686
anoint
anoints, anointing, anointed
0.05657
christ
christ
0.0512
Hello, whatever happened to the number one from the middle 1980s? The concept of generation gets completely disassociated form the concept of 1914. Otherwise, same old crap: enthronement of Jesus as king, and the establishment of his heavenly kindom. Perhaps more emphasis is placed on the deteriorating conditions of the world rather than to the concept of gentile times from the 1970.
My conclusions:
The common features for the 1970s, 198s and 2000s (?) interpretations of the year 1914 are:
a) The enthronement of Christ and his happy rule ever since.
b) The fulfillment of follow-up prophecies
The distinctive features for the three:
a) In the 1970s more emphasis was placed on the ancient chronology (antitypes/gentile times).
b) In the 1980s the WT stresses the relationship between 1914 and the generation.
c) When 1914 is mentioned n 2003-2004 WTs, few if any details of the ancient chronology are mentioned. Also the relationship between 1914 and the generation was cancelled.
Statistical figures, but they seem to correlate with what most of us know don't they?
Pole
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90
im curious where is everyone from?
by brokenfairy in.
i am originally from the fort worth/grand prairie area....just curious as to where others have come from?
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Pole
Poland
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4
Memorial 2005
by Haelcer inwhen memorial is?
it the watchtower claims, that 24 march.
but jewish calendars pass date 24 april.. one month of error.
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Pole
Hey dude. Nice to see a compatriot here.
I don't give a rat's ass about the date exact of the memorial anymore, but I'm sure someone here can answer this question.
I hope you stick around.
Pole of the Generał Jaruzelski class -
81
Do you think of yourself as an apostate
by barbar inmany of the people on this site say that they are apostates.
but that is not the way i feel about myself.. i am not angry with the "witnesses" or the organisation, i don't feel that i wasted my life.
i just think that i was stupid to believe it for 30 years (well sort of believe it, i did have severe doubts on and off).
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Pole
Apostates, Demons and Jehovah. These are the three most powerful words in the JW world. Not sure about the order.
They've lost their connotative meaning to me. When I use them, take it with a pinch of salt.
Pole -
20
Anyone know the date of this years memorial ?
by londoner in.
no i dont wan't to go, been there, read the book, seen the film an got the t-shirt.
just curious.
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Pole
No I dont wan't to go, been there, read the book, seen the film an got the T-shirt. Just curious.
You've got a memorial t-shirt? I want one! Does it have an inscription?
;-)
Pole