Midget-Sasquatch

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Posts by Midget-Sasquatch

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  36

  I have this really crazy idea, please help ( nope not fluff)

  by lola28 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for a really long time i have believed that there is no such thing as god.

  last night i had a talk with someone and this one idea came to me, what if there is a god, but he is not perfect, and where did this idea of god=perfect come from?

  is there any scipture that says god is perfect?

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  SickofLies

  Even I'm curious in seeing how religion has positively influenced our technological advancement.

  However, AuldSoul had a number of valid points, as I understand them. Mainly how our understanding of objective reality has its limitations, even when using the scientific method. Even though there are several scenarios offered up for the abiotic origins of life (each plausible in their own limited ways), we really can't be sure of just how life actually developed. Now you first wrote:

  I think (an educated opinion) that bacteria can arise from amino acids in a variety of conditions.

  You wisely dropped that angle.

  You then brought up the RNA world hypothesis. I think that the "molecular fossils" present within cells is definitely evidence that there's something to that hypothesis. But AuldSoul raised a very valid point about just how much more info we lack. How do we get from just autocatalytic strands of RNA to forming the crucial dynamic between information encoded nucleic acid strands and the generation of proteins? What was the first ribosome like and how did it come about?

  Now like you said: we're here, and I agree that to harp on all the things we don't know has limited mileage when it comes to yielding practical benefits. But I personally think acknowledging them can help us be more open to paradigm shifts.
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  64

  Your frst ever computer

  by greendawn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what was the first ever computer that you owned?

  no doubt some here had some of the earliest home computers that came out such as the commodore 64. .

  i bought my first one relatively late in 1997, it had cpu 200 mhz mmx, 2.3gb hard disk, 64mb ram, 2mb graphics card, modem 36k.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Chalk up one more for the C64.
  

  I had the 1541 floppy drive with it and not the datassettes. Was it ever noisy. Some demo disks I had, would kinda mess with the head so that the noises would sound more like a tune. I used to call into some local BBSs with a 300 BAUD modem. Unfortunately, we weren't hooked up to Quantum Link. I don't miss typing in all those bloody "POKE"s though.
  

  The first computer I ever bought entirely with my own money was the Amiga 1000 with the expansion to 512K....and I switched over to other Amiga models through the years.
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  16

  What did you dream of last night? Do you remember?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  i dreamt that there was a hurricane, and the house was falling apart because of the strong winds.. i was afraid of losing my cat through the holes in the house, because the house was falling apart .

  sounds more like a nightmare than a dream....

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Its a dream I've had from time to time over the last two years. Although its changed a bit over time. I'm back in highschool again. But at my current age. I couldn't for the life of me find my class. I missed nearly all of them and was going to fail. For the longest time it was an OAC mathematics class (as far as I remember it was always the one I actually didn't take). Then it was OAC english and finally all my classes and it threatened my even graduating.
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  16

  WT FEB. 15 Barf quote on "Increasing Light"

  by stillAwitness in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  "accepting a change when it comes and adapting to it can be difficult," admits one longtime elder.

  what has helped him accept the many refinements he has witnessed in the 48 years that he has been a kingdom proclaimer?

  he ansewrs: "having the right attitude is the key.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  The article skims through the WTS' history and itemizes a number of doctrinal changes: like the great crowd staying on earth, who are the superior authorities in Romans (they fail to mention this was a flip-flop) and about the future separation of the sheep and goats.

  They are curiously silent on the identity of "this generation". I don't think this particular beam of light should be hidden do you? Maybe I should attend and give that as an example in answer to question 19: "How has Jehovah provided more spiritual light for his people in recent years?"
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  30

  Bart Erhman, transformation complete?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  bart began as a fundamentalist like ourselves but in time his studious nature led him to critical bible scholarship.

  his books are viewed as authoritative.

  in an interesting interview he recounts this transformation and hints that he has finally left the conviction that there ever was a historical jesus, or that personage/s whose lives are reflected in certain episodes in the legend served merely as sources for the jesus character.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Thank you all for the fresh material to read over (the well attested and the legendary). --- And I'm not just writing that to push myself closer to 1,000 posts ---- cross my heart---- Errrrr, but now, if I've been persuaded to conclude its all myth, that gesture should mean squat to me. So how do you know I'm not fibbing?

  Joking aside, I have a deep respect for all of you who've fundamentally changed your core beliefs. I can't say I've undergone the process to the same extent, but I've had the mixed emotions that come from realizing the uncertainty of it all. Now a small part of me still wishes that there be at least some grain of truth to the Jesus figure. But in interests of truth, like one JWd poster once wrote "I'd rather have questions I can't answer, than answers I can't question." I love learning how these different beliefs developed and trying to fit it all together. Good night all.
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  30

  Bart Erhman, transformation complete?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  bart began as a fundamentalist like ourselves but in time his studious nature led him to critical bible scholarship.

  his books are viewed as authoritative.

  in an interesting interview he recounts this transformation and hints that he has finally left the conviction that there ever was a historical jesus, or that personage/s whose lives are reflected in certain episodes in the legend served merely as sources for the jesus character.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Sabeans...mandeans...yeah, I can see John the Baptiser had a fairly good franchise of his own. That, along with Josephus, and the matter that the gospels are made to address a rivalry of sorts (perceived by the christian side at least) shows John was very likely real. But zippo on the other side. sigh.

  Eiseman's book on James the Just, mentions that there was once a version of Josephus that attributed the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD to the death of James. From that, he figures James was favoured by zealots and similar movements. That he may have been viewed by them as their legitimate (high)priest in opposition to the establishment (in line with the Herodians and Romans....puh-too-ee). What do experts on Josephus say about the likelihood of such a passage?
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  71

  Quick survey for apostates - please everyone just yes or no answer

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do the other witnesses with whom you associate/once associated in general know that you are an apostate or have apostate inclinations?

  the reason for the phrase "in general" is that it may be the case that one or two close friends know how you feel, but others in general do not.

  in my own case, one other witness knows, but no one else, so i would answer the survey question with a "no".

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  No ( in general )

  Yes ( sibling )
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  30

  Bart Erhman, transformation complete?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  bart began as a fundamentalist like ourselves but in time his studious nature led him to critical bible scholarship.

  his books are viewed as authoritative.

  in an interesting interview he recounts this transformation and hints that he has finally left the conviction that there ever was a historical jesus, or that personage/s whose lives are reflected in certain episodes in the legend served merely as sources for the jesus character.

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Rex

  Alot of the non-NT material you're putting forward as "evidence" (Seutonius etc.) only demonstrates what christians believed and taught at the time of writing. The Gospels are contradictory in several places so aren't reliable history.

  PP

  I agree with you that the expression "brother of the Lord" could also have a religious meaning (that perhaps added to his legitimacy as head of the Jerusalem community?). I'm not won over by Eisenmann's idea of Jesus and James having set up a succession of sorts like the Maccabeans. I am fascinated though by the question of who exactly was this James, since he apparently had the popular support of the Jews. He was supposedly killed for his opposition to the religious powers that be...a revolutionary of sorts? Political revolutionaries were crucified. I think its an interesting parallel.
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  20

  Systematic Watchtower Revision in 2005 WTCD

  by VM44 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  unclebruce made a posting in this thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/7/109480/1.ashx in which he made the following quotes from the reasoning book and the watchtower concerning the obsolete teaching of the separation of the sheep and goats.

  "the judgement and separation work by jesus was proof of his presence since 1914.

  " reasoning from the scriptures 1989 p. 344. .

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  That particular quote is still found on the 2005 WT Library. I love to call them on their Orwellian tactics, but there's nothing here.

  ***

  w92 6/15 p. 20 What Do the Dragnet and Fish Mean for You? ***

  Our

  Time Is Special

  16

  Let us now consider the time element. For centuries the dragnet instrument gathered fine fish as well as many unsuitable, or wicked, ones. Then the time came when the angels got involved in doing a crucial separating work. When? Well, verse 49 clearly says that it is during "the conclusion of the system of things." This matches what Jesus said in the illustration of the sheep and the goats: "When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."—Matthew 25:31, 32.
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  5

  WT literature revision.

  by IP_SEC in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  could you guys help with some research.

  i'm looking for past threads on revisions in printed material.

  differences between magazines and bound volumes.. differences between books and revisions.. .

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  Quote's stuff was mentioned. Here's a link to some of that:

  http://www.reexamine.org/quotes/mini_tru.htm