Posts by slimboyfat

47

The First Holocaust

by nicolaou in

please, please ignore all the scientific impossibilities here, that's not what this topic is about.. let's make the assumption as many christians do that the bible is historically accurate.

the noachian flood actually happened a little less than 4,500 years ago after which eight adults stepped off the ark to repopulate the planet.. that means that approximately 60 million lives had been snuffed out, a holocaust by anyone's estimation.

as if that isn't horrific enough just think about the babies, toddlers and young children god killed.. he drowned all of them, every single one.

slimboyfat

KalebOutWest It’s possible that Genesis and Gilgamesh are both based on the same events. Just because they have features in common doesn’t mean they are not independent accounts. Plus an older account is not necessarily a better account. If we want to know what happened in World War One the latest academic monographs on the subject would be a reasonable and arguably preferable place to look, even though many older accounts are available.

Plus even if the author of Genesis was aware of an older Gilgamesh account of events his narrative can be read as a reaction against that tradition and an attempt to correct some errors that it spread. When people act as if dependence on Gilgamesh somehow settles the issue it seems to me they have not thought about the possibilities deeply enough. If you’re inclined to discount the Bible then I suppose the mere existence of Gilgamesh is enough to hastily conclude: derivative therefore nonsense. It’s a bit lazy and too convenient.

47

The First Holocaust

by nicolaou in

please, please ignore all the scientific impossibilities here, that's not what this topic is about.. let's make the assumption as many christians do that the bible is historically accurate.

the noachian flood actually happened a little less than 4,500 years ago after which eight adults stepped off the ark to repopulate the planet.. that means that approximately 60 million lives had been snuffed out, a holocaust by anyone's estimation.

as if that isn't horrific enough just think about the babies, toddlers and young children god killed.. he drowned all of them, every single one.

slimboyfat

Something like 70% of all birds are chickens.

That’s a poultry amount, if you ask me.

47

The First Holocaust

by nicolaou in

please, please ignore all the scientific impossibilities here, that's not what this topic is about.. let's make the assumption as many christians do that the bible is historically accurate.

the noachian flood actually happened a little less than 4,500 years ago after which eight adults stepped off the ark to repopulate the planet.. that means that approximately 60 million lives had been snuffed out, a holocaust by anyone's estimation.

as if that isn't horrific enough just think about the babies, toddlers and young children god killed.. he drowned all of them, every single one.

slimboyfat

The estimated population probably doesn’t take into account a literalist interpretation of Genesis, so perhaps not relevant to an evaluation of Genesis in its own terms. I’m not saying the figures make the difference but your specifying the numbers does make one wonder why you introduced the specific number as well as on what basis.

I am questioning the ethics of theoretical discussion about God’s culpability for mass killing in a context that we can’t fully understand if it did happen, rather than focussing on our own complicity here and now in a mass killing we have no excuse for remaining ignorant or indifferent about.

12

Watchtower May 2024 Who is being referred to as 'we'?

by Listener in

this is the magazine that presents some of the 'new light' from the oct. 2023 annual meeting.

it discusses some of the things they have now decided they don't know and revised some of the things they do know, or think they know.

when they start discussing some of the things they do know, most of them are still guesses and they use qualifiers.

slimboyfat

Yeah they always do that too. Same with 1975, it was just some brothers got carried away.

If they ever come out with, “in the past some brothers maintained 1914 was the end of the Gentile times”, they might just have a riot on their hands. Possibly.

47

The First Holocaust

by nicolaou in

please, please ignore all the scientific impossibilities here, that's not what this topic is about.. let's make the assumption as many christians do that the bible is historically accurate.

the noachian flood actually happened a little less than 4,500 years ago after which eight adults stepped off the ark to repopulate the planet.. that means that approximately 60 million lives had been snuffed out, a holocaust by anyone's estimation.

as if that isn't horrific enough just think about the babies, toddlers and young children god killed.. he drowned all of them, every single one.

slimboyfat

Where do you get the figure of 60 million?

The situation as described is intolerable. But we are humans, there may be things we don’t know or understand about what happened or why.

Plus what about the killing that is going on right now and that us humans could stop if we wanted to. That’s not God’s fault, that’s our fault. Is it easier to speculate on what might have happened thousands of years ago and plug it into a philosophical debate about God rather than face the real life situation that is going on right now and the culpability of humanity.

2

What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?

by Vanderhoven7 in

thought this summary from helge kare fauskanger was well written and worth sharing.. "for starters, imagine a distinctly insular form of protestant fundamentalism minus the trinity (god and jesus are held to be separate beings, and the holy spirit is god's active power rather than a person).

note: since the witnesses want to think of their faith as something absolutely unique, they themselves will not agree that they are either protestant or fundamentalist.. * very important to call god by his proper name of jehovah, and as noted, you must not get him mixed up with jesus.

jesus is not part of the godhead but "actually" the first created being, through whom jehovah created the rest of the universe.

slimboyfat

A few suggestions:

1. JWs say the holy spirit is a force not a power and maintain there’s a distinction.

2. It’s not just JWs who claim they aren’t Protestant, most Protestants would say they aren’t Protestants too.

3. JWs don’t have a “standard” view on sacrificial death and resurrection. They believe that Jesus was resurrected as a spirit being, not with a physical body. They also emphasise the Ransom as the mechanism for salvation rather than substitutionary atonement.

4. As I understand, it current JW teaching is that Jehovah is the judge and they can’t say for sure that others won’t survive Armageddon besides JWs. At various times it’s been suggested that uncontacted tribes in the Amazon and “people in China” might survive because they didn’t “get a witness”. With the very recent change in teaching the conception of who might survive is now possibly broader still.

5. Sparlock isn’t a recent cartoon. It’s about 15 years old now. People who remember it are probably adults by now.

It misses out some important stuff. Such as JWs refuse to fight in wars and have been the most imprisoned and persecuted religious group of the past century as a result.

7

Appreciation post for Pam Grier

by LoveUniHateExams in

yeah, i love pam grier.. she was great in jackie brown (1997).. and she can sing very well, too.. .

enjoy .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwmyb6nii48.

slimboyfat

Appreciating someone still alive? How quaint. It’ll never catch on. 🙂

12

Watchtower May 2024 Who is being referred to as 'we'?

by Listener in

this is the magazine that presents some of the 'new light' from the oct. 2023 annual meeting.

it discusses some of the things they have now decided they don't know and revised some of the things they do know, or think they know.

when they start discussing some of the things they do know, most of them are still guesses and they use qualifiers.

slimboyfat

I can’t give examples but I think they’ve always done that. Sometimes in the third person too, such as when they say that JWs recognised the identity of the great crowd in the 1930s. What they mean is that Rutherford/Franz formulated this new idea in the 1930s and JWs accepted it. Since JWs always accept what the Society, and now the Governing Body tell them to think, it is intelligible, even if presumptuous from our perspective, to speak interchangeably about the Governing Body and JWs in general “realising”, “coming to understand”, “recognising” and so on, new ideas.

281

Where is Tony?

by Athanasius in

jw
friends

on february 22, 2023, anthony morris iii was officially removed from the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

a few months later it was revealed that the watchtower bought him a house in lumberton, north carolina.. however, and correct me if i am wrong, since leaving the gb nobody has reported seeing tony attending jw meetings or participating in field service.

in fact nobody has reported seeing him anywhere, not even at a local liquor store.

slimboyfat

I can believe he was friendly with bethelites. In the leaked video where he was giving an informal talk at a desk he talked as if he liked the people he was talking to and they liked him. He’s said some pretty callous things (like appearing to relish deaths at Armageddon, blowing out a match, human hot-dogs, and so on) but he’s a troubled complicated person that made him relatable, or at least a more sympathetic character than the the other GB members.

https://youtu.be/07LN7SQ9YOs?si=WfHW074x3pHUULUp

7

Appreciation post for Pam Grier

by LoveUniHateExams in

yeah, i love pam grier.. she was great in jackie brown (1997).. and she can sing very well, too.. .

enjoy .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwmyb6nii48.

slimboyfat

According to Wikipedia she’s still alive?