Pole

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Posts by Pole

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  57

  How Does the Governing Body Extend its Control Over the Many Organizations?

  by frankiespeakin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how does the governing body extend its control over the many organizations that they made back in the year 2000 ?.

  i think they have some type of by-laws in these corparations where they are to be in subjection to the wishes of the gb.. also thier may be some stipulations that the controlling members of each seperate corperation must be in good standing and can not function in any capacity if they are disfellowshipped.

  thus the gb can alway use thier unlimited power to df to bring members in line or remove them if the gb feel threated.. i would think that the by-laws of these seperate entities are somewhat similar to the by-laws that form the congregation corperations in order for the congregation to be a legal corperation that can own property, where the by-laws state that they must remain in subjection to the gb.

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  Pole

  fs wrote:
  
  sincere ass kissers.
  
  Haha. I love the phrase. Sincere ass kissers.
  
  
  Pole
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  4

  Biblical geology / global flood resources

  by hooberus in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  .

  http://www.biblicalgeology.net/resources/resources.html

  .

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  Pole

  Advertize, advertize, advertize!
  
  And do not post the 'arguments' you advertize lest someone might refute them.
  
  LOL
  
  Pole
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  42

  Source of Flood Waters

  by VM44 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i do not have access right now to the watchtower cd library, could someone check and tell me what the watchotwer now says is the source for the great flood waters?.

  do they still believe the theory of isaac vail that the waters came from above and that there was a water canopy in orbit about the earth?

  or does the watchtower now say that the canopy was a vapor layer, not in orbit, but a simply above the atmosphere?.

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  Pole

  Danny wrote:

  An Almighty God who could do the astronomical big bang ground zero of everything could also do the flood just like the Bible says."

  
  AlanF wrote:

  It's the same with Noah's Flood. A flood big enough to destroy the entire world of man and animals would have left massive and unmistakeable geological traces. There are no such traces. Therefore there was no massive, global Flood.

  
  
  But couldn't an Almighty God also remove all the traces of the global flood, so that all the self-conceited smarties couldn't know him 'cause the kingdom of God belongs to the lowely ones.
  ;-)
  Pole of the "using the Flood apologist's final argument" class
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  11

  360 things you MUST BELIEVE in to be a Jehovah's Witness...

  by inquirer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if you don't believe in the 360 points mentioned in the "bible topics for discussion," {at the back of the nwt} you aren't a jw?

  [if there is just one point, just one little, etty bitty point... goodness me you can't be a jw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  ] yeah, i don't think it's on the watchtower program... just in the printed nwt only.

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  Pole

  ::360 things you MUST BELIEVE in to be a Jehovah's Witness...
  
  Now, isn't that the case with all ideologies/religions?
  
  Once you declare yourself as a JW or Mormon or Catholic... you buy a whole package of beliefs. There's no way you can say 'Ok, I want Jehovah, but only if coupled with the Virgin Mary'. (OOOPS - blasphemy - mods, please delete that :-).) No way - it's whole sale, no retail.
  
  Of course most mainstream religions are much more liberal about what their members believe and unlike the dubs they have no problems even with members publically disagreeing with the core doctrine.
  
  Same goes for thoughtlessly declaring yourslef left-wing or right-wing. If you are right-wing you are for life-protection, because you oppose abortion, right? But wait, aren't you more for death penalty?
  
  This is exactly the opposite of what many lefties believe: no problem with killing embrios, big problems with killing people who have been found guilty of murder, etc. (for they might be innocent or rehabilitable (or what's the word?)).
  
  Go figure. Again - this is mostly true of people who buy the whole '360'-item belief package.
  
  It's nice when people conscioussly decide what they really believe. Unfortunately not everybody has time for it. LOL.
  
  Pole
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  7

  Theocratic Ministry School Review for Week of June 27, 2005

  by TheListener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this is the new written review process.

  now there are fewer questions and it is handled as an oral review.. _________________.

  the following questions will be considered orally at the theocratic ministry school during the week beginning june 27, 2005. the school overseer will conduct a 30-minute review based on material covered in assignments for the weeks of may 2 through june 27, 2005.

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  Pole

  LOL at Zeke!
  
  

  1. Why are similes and metaphors powerful teaching tools (gen. 22:17; ps. 1:3; Jas. 3:6) [be p. 240 pars. 2-4, box]

  
  
  This is exactly why the "Theocratic Ministry School" meetings should be renamed to the "Theocratic Brainwashing Techniques School" meetings. I just love the way they teach brainwashing without explicitly admitting it. LOL.
  Metaphors and similies as used by the WTS are powerful 'teaching tools' in the hands of WTS agents because they allow them to divert the newbie's attention from the factual fallacy of what they teach. All that helps to justify why you should devote your life to the WTS without a single factual reason. Just a whole lot of metaphorical ones.
  For instance: "Jehovah's organization today is like a high-speed train which is just about to leave to take us all through Armageddon. There's still time to get on it, but once Jehovah sounds the horn, there will be no way to save your life. That's why you should get baptized as soon as possible."
  
  Powerful metaphor. Zero factual reasons.
  
  Pole
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  24

  The Morman's and Joseph Smiths hat!!! OMG!

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  okay, it has been years since i cared about what a mormon does or says.

  so to even question their beliefs and wonder what they mean, has been no interest to me.

  yet when i am watching something that should not even be about religion and they mention something that makes me wonder, i have to ask.

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  Pole

  q,
  
  

  The problem with some christian attitudes is that they are willing to read the OT with Ark of Covenant / Temple rituals / Urim and Thummim / Fire from Heaven / Flood / Creation / Prophets etc... but are only actually willing to confess a Jesus who healed and preached sermons and died / rose again. A modern day prophet with the experiences of the OT and the testimony of the NT is treated as a source of ridicule. This is the time when aethiests and agnostics have a better arguement because at least they reject / doubt the whole kit and kaboodle rather than being selective in what fits comfortably about the god we've made in our image. Modern day christianity doesn't really like Moses they much prefer Paul.

  
  
  I have to partly agree here in that there are just as many reasons to believe in JS's tophat miracles as there are arguments for Noah saving all animals using his Ark.
  
  You are also right in saying that this only applies to some christians as most take a much more relaxed attitude to the factual value of some of the stuff the Bible contains.
  
  I guess the reason Mormon beliefs across as so ridiculous is because just like dubs they use 'naive realism' to prove utterly crackpot stories. They spend years making up pseudo-scientific justifications and giving the detailed "measurements" for ideas that some ancient story-teller pulled out of his a&*. The "all continents used to be one" argument for locating the garden of Eden in the US is not very different in this respect. This is exactly what we get in all sorts of myths recorded in the history of mankind. Make up a story and then try to match it with reality.
  
  One thing that helped me get away from the smokescreen of religious belief (not as a philosophical stance, but as a way to explain the world) was understanding some basic notions in anthropology. There are so many mutually exclusive myths and archetypes in different cultures that, when trying to understand them, one invariably arrives at the conclusion that the only glue that sticks them all together is human psychology. Think of how the Greeks named the constellations and how they thought up stories explaining the origin of the Milky Way (Hera's breast milk, etc.). They were just as factual and scientific by the ancient standards as Smith's tophat was for some simple folks in the 19th century America.
  
  Why do we feel compelled to accept silly premises at all. With all the trouble and mental gymnastics that inevitably follows... Or is it all part of the game?
  
  Cheers,
  
  Pole
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  16

  Name a few posters that you would recognize if you saw them in person.

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many post their picture as avatar and many posted their picture in picture threads.

  name a few posters that you would recognize if you saw them in person because of their avatar or because they posted their picture on a picture thread.

  don't name those that you already saw in person...

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  Pole

  the_classicist,
  Forget about recognizing me by my accent. I can do the Received Pronounciation (BBC English) and General American if I want to. And you can only recongnize me by the very occasional misuse of the articles and when I'm too tired. (Or should I say 'the very occasional occasional misuse of articles'? LOL). Usually I sound like an oldfashioned English guy who's spent years in the States. Funny, because my first visit to the US is next week. Talking about globalization.
  EF, Stop stalking me or I'll call the cops! ;-)
  Pole
• 
  16

  Name a few posters that you would recognize if you saw them in person.

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many post their picture as avatar and many posted their picture in picture threads.

  name a few posters that you would recognize if you saw them in person because of their avatar or because they posted their picture on a picture thread.

  don't name those that you already saw in person...

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  Pole

  How about me now?
  
  
  ;-)
  
  
  Pole - of the 'shamelessly fishing for complements on his new avatar" class
• 
  20

  [Inglish speli? riform]

  by dorayakii in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought i'd open up a new thread to discuss the benefits and downfalls of spelling reform.

  "aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas.

  the rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

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  Pole

  Hi dorayakii,
  Sorry if I sound too serious about this issue, but I just couldn't resist posting my enlightened views on this thread. LOL.
  Until recently such a reform would have made life easier for the average English user. But now I actually think if English spelling (or any other natural language spelling system) was to be changed, it shouldn't just be changed to achieve a greater correspondence between sound and spelling. Rather, it should be adjusted for greater grammatical/semantic consistency and disambiguation. This would make spelling slightly more difficult for poor spellers but infinitely more understandable for machines, which is what really counts in today's world.
  Trying to simplify things for poor spellers could actually cause more harm than good.
  1) First of all you can't forget that the order of the letters doesn't matter as long as you have enough context to figure out the meaning of the word.
  2) The order of the letters isn't the biggest problem for poor spellers. Usually they have problems with homographs/homophones/homonyms such as 'bear - bare', 'bow - bow', their - there - they're, it's - its, etc.
  3) If you 'simplify' things by merging homophones into single spelling forms, for instance, if you merge 'bear' and 'bare' to 'ber', then you'll seriously cripple the efficiency of all sorts of search engines and data storage systems which will be unable to recognize these differences anymore. Imagine googling for 'bare bear' as 'ber ber'. (Now who could ever do that in the first place.) LOL.
  4) Spellcheckers help you in most situation already so spelling is not that much of a problem, except on discussion boards where we don't bother that much to spellcheck before posting.
  5) Spellcheckers are becoming increasingly 'intelligent' in allowing for the grammar and semantics surrounding the misspelled word. In the nearest future they will not only tell you if the word exists or doesn't exist in the dictionary, but also whether you should spell the word 'bear' or 'bare' in a given context (with both forms attested in the dictionary).
  6) Any normative attempts to reform the spelling of an internationally used language such as English are out of touch with reality. It's simply impossible to snap your fingers and say: "Ok, Brits, Yanks, Ozzies, Zealanders, Nigerians, Hindus, Pakistanis, Canadians, and all the non-native speakers. From now one we spell 'bare' as 'ber'." Especially if you consider the fact that there are differences between accents of English and that some changes would make sense in American English but not in British English, and vice versa.
  So, in a nutshell, we're deep in sh**t and any attempts to change the situation globally and radically would only sink us deeper in it.
  Pole
  EDITED TO CORRECT A SILLY SPELLING MISTAKE. LOL
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  23

  Time To Say Goodbye!

  by Voyager in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  simon, we wish to express our thanks for your allowing my wife and i, to have been part of this wonderful group for the past few years.. due to some circumstances, we must say goodbye!

  we have enjoyed (everyone) on the forum, and their many lighlights and information.. we hope and pray that everybody will find the truth and path they seek for a happy life and much success.

  all of you shall be dearly missed!

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  Pole

  Vaya con Dios, Voyager!
  
  
  Pole