Pole

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Posts by Pole

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  17

  JWD "clusters" - name one ;-)

  by Pole in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  this is fluff stuff.

  you must have noticed posters on many threads tend to come in clusters.

  whenever one of the members of the "cluster" starts a thread, another few are very likely to post on his/her thread.

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  Pole

  Off topic, but you now can pm me too re WT2004 CD .
  
  Pole
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  81

  The King James Version is Perfect

  by blabbermouth in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i don't know about anybody else,but i love the beautiful king james version.it contains no error and is perfect.there are no mistranslations in it,and none can be proven.i don't read or study anything else for spirituality.im like a tree that is planted by the water,i shall not be moved,amen,amen,hallelujah,praise jesus!!!!

  !

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  Pole

  No version is perfect. All are a product of imperfect men.

  
  
  Actually, I blame God for it :-).
  
  If it hadn't been for the solution he chose to deal with the Babel thing, there would be a single "perfect" version.
  
  The truth about any translation is that the number of different possibilities of rendering a paragraph of text is huge. And if we are talking about a text of the length of the Bible there are trillions of different reasonably correct translations.
  
  If you take the world top 20 English-Spanish translators (there's no such ranking, btw) and tell them to translate this thread, they'll come up with 21 different translations (one of them will have an alternative version) and all of them will be just fine. It will also be possible to pick tiny little holes in each and everyone of them.
  
  And we haven't even started talking about translating from ancient languages.
  
  Cheers,
  
  Pole
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  24

  IS the GB and other Higher UP Squirreling away money from the IRS?

  by frankiespeakin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  well what do you think will the all go to prision??

  ?

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  Pole

  I don't think anyone on the GB is. But I wouldn't be surprised if one or a few individuals in the Legal/Accounting Department were.
  
  A lot of those folks have access to information which exposes the WTS for what it is.
  
  Working as an advocate of the devil makes you cynical and with all this money flowing from different countries the temptation may be strong.
  
  Pole
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  28

  New Software Program Purports to Prove Evolution

  by Room 215 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  researchers at the university of michigan hae developed a software program that purports to replicate the process of random selection and that incontrovertibly proves evolution.

  it's named avida, and is freely available via internet download.

  it's all explained in the february issue of discover magazine.

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  Pole

  "And as you can see, Gentleman, the program behaves precisely as we predicted it would."

  
  
  
  
  
  That doesn't have to be as stupid as it sounds. Sometimes overcoming a quantitative barrier makes a qualitative difference. Actually that's what computing is all about.
  
  Pole
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  85

  Both the Watchtower and "You Know" are wrong, wrong, WRONG!

  by Schizm in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  will people who die at armageddon really be finished forever?

  yes, the scripture says that they will be "killed" but not thrown into the lake of fire.

  but what about the scripture at revelation 17:8?

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  Pole

  Gawd man, you're as blind as a bat! There's no sense in anyone trying to reason with you, as it's easy to see what your agenda is: You're dead set against the WTS and anyone that holds to anything it teaches. Someone with a state of mind like you have cannot be reasoned with.

  
  
  LOL. Great reply Schmizm. Ironically, I hope this thread gets many views, dude.
  
  No sense in anyone arguing with me, since I'm dead set against the WTS and anyone that holds to anything it teaches.
  
  LOL.
  
  Cheers,
  
  Pole
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  28

  New Software Program Purports to Prove Evolution

  by Room 215 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  researchers at the university of michigan hae developed a software program that purports to replicate the process of random selection and that incontrovertibly proves evolution.

  it's named avida, and is freely available via internet download.

  it's all explained in the february issue of discover magazine.

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  Pole

  Thanks for this remark Euphemism. As I said - I haven't looked at the site yet, but what you've quoted confirms the misgivings expressed in my post. That is to say, the authors of the program are aware of the fact taht they've only come up with one possible model.
  
  Pole
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  28

  New Software Program Purports to Prove Evolution

  by Room 215 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  researchers at the university of michigan hae developed a software program that purports to replicate the process of random selection and that incontrovertibly proves evolution.

  it's named avida, and is freely available via internet download.

  it's all explained in the february issue of discover magazine.

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  Pole

  I havent't looked at this software yet, but as OldSoul has pointed out the problem with such software is that (as all software) it consists of a number of rules and conditions (at the logical level).
  
  Those rules and instructions may have been hardcoded. In this case an interpretation of what the real laws of nature are was necessary. That's the soft spot.
  
  The other possibility is that those rules and instructions were "acquired" by the program according to some very generic algorithm. The researchers made very few assumptions about how exactly those rules worked, but they had to collect data, translate it into a machine-readable form and feed it in the computer. Then a neural network or a set of statistical methods would be used to see if the program can learn the "underlying" rules and come up with some interesting output. Here the possible biass lies in the selection and represantation of the data.
  
  So either way someone must have constructed some model based on an interpretation of "biological reality". The output of the program may be amazing, but this may be due to flawed assumptions.
  
  I generally believe in evolution now, but I'm very skeptical about proving anythig conclusively with a computational model.
  
  Thanks for the link though. I'll try to look into it.
  
  Pole
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  11

  Book study books

  by Heatmiser in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when i was "in" the books where hard back.

  now with them being paperback i would imagine them being very flimsy.

  i was visiting my grandparents a few months ago and my jw parents also happened to be visiting at the same time.

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  Pole

  Have you noticed the WTS seems be putting out fewer and fewer books? When was the last time they published an entire book? What is the next publication to be studied?
  
  Pole
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  5

  Watchtower & accepting money from government

  by observer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  was there ever any printed statement about that?

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  some goverments give money to organized religions according theirs memberships.

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  Pole

  In Poland, the Bethelites benefit from special government-funded social security arrangements.
  It's official.
  
  Pole
• 
  37

  What is the next flash of New Light?

  by Pole in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i personally feel they will have to "adjust" the fds doctrine.

  the tricky thing is that the fds (whoever they are) won't approve this change while they're still alive.

  they don't care, they subconsciously feel it's their end anyway and they won't undermine their doctrinal position having lost all corporate power.. so who will send this beam of new light?

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  Pole

  one,

  you are probably thinking about daily operations but LEGALLY i think they are still on top, not that i have read the "bylaws", just going by what they have been saying all along.

  Yes, I think we agree. I meant they were figure heads in terms of official corporate power, though they must have the final say on the key matters. However with so much going on in this huge corporation, a lot of their decisions depend on how things are presented to them.

  I would have agreed with you a few months ago, but they have changed who the "flesh" in Matthew 24 is (as in "no flesh will be saved"). They used to apply it to the remnant only, as part of the body of Christ. Now they apply it to all living servants of Jehovah. The stage is set for sweeping changed understanding. This new flesh will probably become who Gog of Magog attacks, the references that tie the two together are many.

  We have yet to see whether this understanding gets extended to the Gog of Magog thing, but it's an interesting doctrinal "development".

  Ever notice how those who are awake know more about what they are up to than most Witnesses?

  Definitely, and herein may lie a fallacy in our excitment over those doctrinal dillemmas. The majority of witnesses will probably shrug their sholders and accept any new crap. I still think though this doctinal change would not be accepted so smoothly, as it would question the core of the WTS authority.

  No Apologies,

  So the publications and study articles continue to be watered down, with no real content, no deep doctrinal material. Eventually of course, this will lead to declines as young people leave and no new members are brought in, but for now, the money still comes in... And although the boys at Patterson can see the problem, apparently they have no clue what to do about it, to turn things around. Or they are just to old to care....

  Going mainstream is another possibility of course. I definitely think the old-timers are to old to care. They sense their end anyway, and it's easy to extend your individual end to a global end. After all how can the entire Universe continue to exist after these luminaries turn to dust?

  At this stage all we can do is just speculate. But it will be interesting how many witnesses can swallow the new explanations which will render all they have believed so far completely useless (1914, Christ ruling invisibly, God's channel of communication).

  Cheers,

  Pole