Midget-Sasquatch

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Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

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  26

  What does it take to be an MS these days?

  by Pwned in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  having a pulse and not missing meetings?

  my grandfather is an ms and i know for a fact that he is not the picture perfect jw.

  he doesnt do anything wrong but he is no bastion of spirituality either.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  OK. Alot of the MS wannabes are kiss-ups. They're the preferred candidates, but in some unique situations where the pickings are very slim (and the elders are very lazy and want to offload alot of parts and paper work) then you just have to have a passable reputation in the congregation. Its all about appearances.

  Nearly all the guys who were my age in this one hall either left the jws, or got busted for using drugs or getting drunk often. It was easy to have a good rep compared to them, despite my never commenting at the WT and my slightly below average field service hours. So they made me an MS and stuck me with alot of paper work.

  They didn't ask me whether I believed everything though dammit. They just asked whether I thought there was anything I was lapsing in, any secret sin I was committing, that would disqualify me as a MS (Yeah, right...Like I'd admit to the porn ). See people. Lying doesn't pay. I covered that "sin" up and had to be a MS for it.
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  23

  Mark a stage play?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  over the past 70 years a number of scholars have speculated that the gospel mark was witten as liturgical drama meant to be acted out.

  this has gained greater acceptance in recent years for good reasons.

  (the book of matt likewise has elements that seem to lend to this use.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Sorry for the delay Narkissos. I didn't check posts until early this morning, then I had to read some of the info from that link you kindly provided.

  Interesting parallels that are hard to deny. A repeated scenario.....just that Jesus is the one resurrected this time instead of the youth. And Mark describing a mortal youth, instead of supernatural figures, reinforces the link for me. That character would make for an interesting subplot in the drama. But then again it would just generate more questions in the audience than providing them answers.
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  23

  Mark a stage play?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  over the past 70 years a number of scholars have speculated that the gospel mark was witten as liturgical drama meant to be acted out.

  this has gained greater acceptance in recent years for good reasons.

  (the book of matt likewise has elements that seem to lend to this use.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  A book by Bishop Spong touched a bit on this possibility. His take was that at first just the passion narrative was a liturgical drama enacted during the festival of booths. It was a simply written book for the general public, like yours truly, so it didn't really focus much on intercalations to make its case.

  A detail he pointed to (which may just be reading too much into it - but its plausible), is how Mark has a young man announcing the empty tomb rather than specifically saying an angel. Maybe thats a "fossil" from the drama's script - with a young male making that announcement as its climactic end. Thanx for the link there Pete.
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  46

  Latest "talk" by GB member being emailed around

  by catchthis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  not sure if this is a "made up" email or not -- sounds like any other talk you've ever heard..... .

  >a talk recently given by brother guy pierce ... .

  >safeguard your spirituality by training your perceptive powers .

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  SNG

  That was hilarious! I'd love to see a campy video of this circulating the web. LMAO!
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  22

  Evolution & Creation... can they co-exist as theories?

  by diamondblue1974 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am not a scientist so i do bow to others superior knowledge on this site regarding these subjects (and welcome their input) but what is to stop these two theories both being proven so that they both apply to our origins.. what is to stop a creator creating evolution as a process just as a creator would create the laws of physics etc?

  it would be akin to starting the ball rolling in creation terms and letting it carry on until the highest lifeform is present.

  could scientific theory support this view perhaps?.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I suppose they could co-exist in the minds of believers. The current understanding of physics hasn't been able to enlighten cosmologists on what happened at the very instant of the Big Bang or before it. (But a mindbogglingly close fraction after it). If they want to posit a supernatural cause, I don't think there'd be an objective way for science to disprove that , it being in the dark beyond that point.

  Darwin thought that evolution was an inherently progressive process, but the current understanding says there aren't any guarantees. The two key components: mutations and selection, are not inherently going in any one direction. The mutations that provide variation are random. The environment that provides the selective pressures on the organism, may drive adaptations in one direction for a while, but when it changes then other adaptions may be more favoured. Sure the given body plan limits the possible changes, but its not impossible to have some kind of "retrograde" if its favoured.

  An interesting spin is sexual selection and how our ancestors contributed to their own selection process by favouring certain traits, temperaments etc. in mates. I guess thats where the process is more genuinely intelligent.

  But one does wonder why an "Intelligent creator" would rig things such that life would come about by struggle and be essentially amoral, with alot of natural pain etc. Whats the message in that?
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  38

  Evidence for evolution, Installment 1: Endogenous retroviral sequences

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  because i need to continue doing research on this topic, and it always helps me assimilate things if i write them up or otherwise explain them to others, and because i thought others here might be interested, i've decided to start a series.

  in each installment, i'll present one small piece of evidence for evolution.

  hopefully, some of the more knowledgeable people here will chime in with related evidence.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  SNG

  Just finished reading the entire thread....Perfect point to start off with IMHO.

  Your explanation was one of the clearest versions I read, and your followup illustration with the brochure within the text (to the_classicist) was brilliant.

  Looking forward to all the installments in your series.
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  56

  The Trinity!

  by ((Omega)) in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have done some research on the truth regarding the godhead and who the god of the bible truly is.

  i have studied all the denominations of christianity, those who deny the deity of christ, and those who don't, those who believe in a trinity and those who do not.

  after years upon years of diligent studies i have concluded:.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  If one concentrates on Mark and to some extent Matthew and Luke then one can make a good argument for an adoptionist Christology (subordinationism too). If one concentrates on the Johannine writings and some of Paul's then one can strongly argue for the full deity of Christ. There were different views of who Christ was by different communities of christians. The trinity was a decent attempt of the fourth century church to resolve this, but entirely ignored some other views like those of some docetic gnostics. People reading the different works can still perceive bits of those different views even though there were attempts to make the works "orthodox". I say the differences make for interesting discussion.

  As it was in the beginning (apparently), is now, and (maybe) ever shall be.
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  25

  Rrrrrrrrroll up the Rrrrrrrrrrim and win!!!! Tally of JWD winners.

  by kwintestal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  to date, 2 donuts here (yuck, i hate donuts)!.

  kwin

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Nothing yet but, but so far I've only bought a total of 7 medium coffees.

  I know two people who won bikes two separate years. Both of them JWs.
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  18

  Just learning the lingo here......

  by doubtless in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sorry for the crazy question, but what's a dub?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Dub is short for dubya... as in JW (a Witness)
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  10

  Dave Allen has died :(

  by Angharad in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  so sad, he was one of my all time favourite comedians .

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4340115.stm

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Thats too bad. But alot of people will remember him fondly, as will I. Believe it or not my JW Dad loved to watch Dave Allen at Large reruns and would even let me and my sister watch because he wa always poking fun at the churches. There was only a handful of jokes and skits he was a bit upset with but I think it was more for my "instruction".