Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

22

Are "Apostates" Running The Watchtower??

by minimus in

jw
friends

for example.....no more parking fees at conventions (due to the "apostates") , resigning as an ngo from the un, etc.....do you think "we" are running the watchtower??

?

Midget-Sasquatch

I'm with Sirona. I think we can be an external pressure that can slowly shape their evolution....or maybe (preferably??) even drive it to extinction.

Midget of the 'Apostate-who-loves-those-life-simulation-games Class'

13

if you could go back intime and change just one thing...what would it be...can be something in your life or in history that would have changed your life but something more original than being contacted by jw.

mine is i wouldnt have kissed her

Midget-Sasquatch

I'd like to think that I'd be noble enough to travel back to first century Palestine about 25-26 A.D, giving me enough time to learn very basic aramaic, and decent enough latin. Then I'd be better equipped to see for myself what happened a few years later around Galilee and Jerusalem. But there's also the lazy side of me that would go for scooping up a massive lotto jackpot from the recent past and live on from there. If there were Powerball Lottos in Ancient Rome, I'd have it made.

32

What Happened to the Body?

by hmike in

i'm fairly new here, so please excuse me if this has been discussed before.

it seemed like an appropriate time to bring this up.. suppose we accept that there really was a man jesus, rabbi, teacher, etc., but just a mortal man.

so if he didn't resurrect, what happened to the body, and how was the "myth" of the resurrection perpetuated, especially in light of the numerous "witnesses" (some of whom were still alive when the accounts were written, if we can believe that part of the accounts) and the effect this had on their lives?

Midget-Sasquatch

Cf. the essential narrative role of the influential Joseph of Arimathea, who was neither a parent nor a notorious disciple, in the Passion plot (Mark 15:43//).

Excellent point to include Narkissos. Just the needed status to do the job.

HMike: The question there is was he purely a handy invention?

32

What Happened to the Body?

by hmike in

i'm fairly new here, so please excuse me if this has been discussed before.

it seemed like an appropriate time to bring this up.. suppose we accept that there really was a man jesus, rabbi, teacher, etc., but just a mortal man.

so if he didn't resurrect, what happened to the body, and how was the "myth" of the resurrection perpetuated, especially in light of the numerous "witnesses" (some of whom were still alive when the accounts were written, if we can believe that part of the accounts) and the effect this had on their lives?

Midget-Sasquatch

Still, it presumes that nobody would have taken possession of the body immediately after the crucifixion. Are you saying that maybe later, when someone went to take possession of the body, it couldn't be found because it had decayed beyond recognition, and so the disciples claimed, "He must have raised from the dead?"

Well it is all just speculating on plausibilities. But assuming the crucifixion really did happen to this man Jesus, and the gospels give an accurate portrayal of his socioeconomic status , its not too much of a stretch to presume that his fellow low class jews, or even his family had no real influence to get permission from the Romans to take possession of the body right away. Kinda hard then to pick it out of a common grave without modern day DNA forensics. I don't want to make his followers out to be opportunists or cynical in that scenario. Its only one possibility. Again, if real, I like to think that someone did get possession of the body so that it was given a decent burial.

48

Evidence for evolution, Installment 3a: Mitochondrial DNA and Neandertals

by seattleniceguy in

jw
friends

okay, everyone, buckle your seatbelts and put on your thinking caps.

in this week's installment in my continuing series, we'll be examining two (count 'em!

) pieces of the evidence and how they relate to each other.. you can check out my previous articles here:.

Midget-Sasquatch

Hooberus,

Chimpanzees don't factor into this at all. The time-point for human chimpanzee divergence is a separate matter....that uses a different method....a popular one is the difference in cytochrome c sequences and its changes are dependant on nuclear DNA mutation rates - not mitochondrial DNA.

LIke SNG wrote you only need to know how much change has happened to the sequence over time and how much time it takes for that change to happen (i.e. rates for human mitochondrial DNA - In the late eighties when the first paper came out, the rate was pegged at about ten times higher than that of nuclear DNA, but since then its been found to be higher...so thats why the age for mtEve was reduced somewhat if you're wondering).

They only had to look at the mitochondrial DNA of the individual people they sampled and find the amount of changes/differences among the sample.

They then fit the samples into a geneological tree (one which fits in all the samples but that requires the least amount of changes overall - you see they're not trying to inflate the age)....that gives a relative outline of which sequences were ancestral or descended from which. The rate can then be used to figure the age.

88

Am I right about the WT being wrong?

by FreedomFrog in

jw
friends

hi everyone.... i was "raised" as a dub and got baptised in '86...so in total i had been a jw for over 20 years.

i came to realize that the "way of life" i was living was in fact made up of mostly lies.

i started "questioning" the borg about 6 years ago and finally came out with almostatheist last sept. i know in my heart that they are mostly wrong and very legalist.

Midget-Sasquatch

Hi FreedomFrog,

I personally think that the hardest thing about leaving jws is how to live with alot of the uncertainty. Consider: Just a couple of things they "do have right" is enough to trigger those feelings, even though you realize alot of their errors.

I'd ask myself : Are my second thoughts, this impulse to maybe turn back, really just a desire to regain some of the certainty? If so then by addressing that the "deprogramming" as you put it should go a bit more smoothly.

Like you I grew up in the JWs. What really will help quell any of those feelings is to learn just how little the higher ups care about the rank and file. Their motives speak volumes.

32

What Happened to the Body?

by hmike in

i'm fairly new here, so please excuse me if this has been discussed before.

it seemed like an appropriate time to bring this up.. suppose we accept that there really was a man jesus, rabbi, teacher, etc., but just a mortal man.

so if he didn't resurrect, what happened to the body, and how was the "myth" of the resurrection perpetuated, especially in light of the numerous "witnesses" (some of whom were still alive when the accounts were written, if we can believe that part of the accounts) and the effect this had on their lives?

Midget-Sasquatch

What if he wasn't resurrected? .... Well, many of those crucified as criminals by the Romans would be thrown into common graves (usually lime ones which did a quick job of decomposing the flesh). There'd be no way to easily point to a body to refute the claims. I don't find that a very inspiring ending to a life that meant alot to so many - but its one possible (and also a likely) scenario.

Much more interesting to think about what happened to the body with a resurrection:

The Gospel of Peter suggests a docetic view in one part of it:

[19] And the Lord screamed out, saying: 'My power, O power, you have forsaken me.' And having said this, he was taken up.

But then it describes the resurrection of Jesus like this:

[36] and they saw that the heavens were opened and that two males who had much radiance had come down from there and come near the sepulcher. [37] But that stone which had been thrust against the door, having rolled by itself, went a distance off the side; and the sepulcher opened, and both the young men entered. [38] And so those soldiers, having seen, awakened the centurion and the elders (for they too were present, safeguarding). [39] And while they were relating what they had seen, again they see three males who have come out from they sepulcher, with the two supporting the other one, and a cross following them, [40] and the head of the two reaching unto heaven, but that of the one being led out by a hand by them going beyond the heavens.

Maybe the christians who liked this gospel were no taller than me....I can go for that sorta resurrection.

46

Favorite TV show

by Pwned in

seinfeld, simpsons, sopranos and the wire (i cant wait for season 3 on dvd)

Midget-Sasquatch

My pickings were and are limited with my never having had steady cable service (my dad was cheap ... and I'm just poor. )

Current: The Simpsons, 24, any CSI variant (no preference, I catch them sporadically), Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and Bernie Mac (the earlier episodes more).

Recent Past: Star Trek:TNG, The X Files (not so much the last few seasons though), Nowhere Man (it spoke to my paranoia ), Highway to Heaven and alot of the eps of Nikita.

Showing my age: V, MacGyver, Buck Rogers, Little House on the Prairie , and I've never seen it ever again:The Phoenix.

24

Jesus' Resurrection, shouldn't that also be celebrated?

by JH in

jw
friends

jesus was the first one to resurrect for eternal life.

every christian religion celebrates jesus' resurrection.

why don't the witnesses also celebrate this important event?

Midget-Sasquatch

Why do we celebrate his death, and not his birth? He couldnt have died for us, if he was never born! So that day seems like it should be more important than any of them.

He could have deviated, he could have rebelled or decided not to go through with the sacrifice. So a sinless death was important to the idea of ransom atonement.

24

Jesus' Resurrection, shouldn't that also be celebrated?

by JH in

jw
friends

jesus was the first one to resurrect for eternal life.

every christian religion celebrates jesus' resurrection.

why don't the witnesses also celebrate this important event?

Midget-Sasquatch

I think the_classicist has hit on a major underlying reason the WTS doesn't celebrate it.

Celebrating it would be too close to paralleling the Easter celebrations of other christian faiths and they have a fanatical need to keep their cult separate and distinct from the others. Much like their ignorance and deception on Jesus being impaled instead of actually having been crucified.